Then he promised: “To the nations and peoples of the world, we send greetings and pledge ourselves to co-operate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.” “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,” Nehru famously spoke, words that were heard over live radio by millions of Indians. The partition of colonial India into two states, mainly Hindu India and mostly Muslim Pakistan, at the end of British rule triggered one of the biggest mass migrations in history.Ībout 15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs swapped countries in the political upheaval, marred by violence and bloodshed that cost more than one million lives.Īt midnight on August 15, 1947, the red sandstone parliamentary building in the heart of India’s capital echoed with the high-pitched voice of Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister. Why is August 15 India's Independence Day?Ī school pupil stands in front of the Indian flag during a full dress rehearsal for celebrations, ahead of the 75th Independence Day in Bengaluru. Under the terms of the Indian Independence Act, the subcontinent was formally divided into two new dominions at midnight of Aug75 years ago on Sunday. The UK chose to partition the region and withdraw. Within the Indian subcontinent, the UK faced two powerful, seemingly irreconcilable nationalist movements: one calling for the creation of Pakistan, a homeland for the Muslims of South Asia the other for India, a pluralist democracy. The Second World War had ravaged its military and economy, and anti-colonial movements had begun to challenge empires.
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