23.1.10

26th January....

No political campaign in history has ever succeeded without symbolism. India’s freedom movement was no exception. Its careful adoption of many potent symbols helped unite a large, diverse land to fight for freedom in singular fashion. January 26 was one such symbolic choice, a selection made to recall a distinct moment in the long march to Indian independence. That choice of date was made at the 1930 Lahore session of the Indian National Congress, where the Tricolour as we know it was raised for the first time. It was decided there that January 26 would from then on be marked by all freedom fighters as ‘Purna Swaraj Day’, a call for complete selfrule. This was an Independence Day before the actual event. August 15 was not a matter of choice given to the Congress, as events hurtled to make the British transfer power to Nehru’s provisional government on that day in 1947. India gained freedom to become a dominion then, still formally owing some allegiance to the British Crown — it’s why coinage and stamps of that period still retain a bust of George VI. A constituent assembly was formed soon after to rectify that, and a drafting committee was given the responsibility of coming up with a Constitution. It did that job admirably by the middle of 1949, and the assembly approved a new constitution on November 25. It was signed by all members on January 24, 1950 and came into effect two days later, as Rajendra Prasad took office as President of the new ‘Republic of India’. Almost by design, it appeared, January 26 had returned to the national consciousness, always to be celebrated as Republic Day.

No comments: