As we approach the 15th August we have to brace ourselves for the onslaught of forwards we are bound to receive on Whatsapp. From the simple short greetings to long patriotic speeches you’re inclined not to read, to informative messages which probably aren’t fact checked but your elder relatives will treat like scientific fact, to those Hindi essays you wonder who originally typed out, to those gifs that hurt your eyes early in the morning.
All these messages: wishes, quotes and long ram-kathas, are a good sign though, they show that despite all the negative things we hear about our country many people still have some feeling for the fact that many people fought hard to make us an independent nation built on beliefs by people who managed to think far ahead of their time. So instead of forwarding an opinion, a tricolour emoji, or a gif that that eats up precious space on someone’s phone, how about you send out something timelessly relevant to our country?
You could send out the preamble to the constitution, that reminds us what principles the laws of our country were built on.
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a
SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and
to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual
and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT,
ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.
All these messages: wishes, quotes and long ram-kathas, are a good sign though, they show that despite all the negative things we hear about our country many people still have some feeling for the fact that many people fought hard to make us an independent nation built on beliefs by people who managed to think far ahead of their time. So instead of forwarding an opinion, a tricolour emoji, or a gif that that eats up precious space on someone’s phone, how about you send out something timelessly relevant to our country?
You could send out the preamble to the constitution, that reminds us what principles the laws of our country were built on.
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a
SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and
to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual
and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT,
ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.
Or words from our founding fathers on their hopes for the future of the country. While we all know the start of Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous speech on the eve of our independence, we often forget what he thought our future should be like:
“That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over. And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and people are too closely knit together today for anyone of them to imagine that it can live apart.”
“That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over. And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and people are too closely knit together today for anyone of them to imagine that it can live apart.”
Subhash Chandra Bose is known for rousing military speeches those same words can be applied to building a nation.
“Gird up your loins for the task that now lies ahead. I had asked you for men, money and materials. I have got them in generous measure. Now I demand more of you. Men, money and materials cannot by themselves bring victory or freedom. We must have the motive-power that will inspire us to brave deeds and heroic exploits.”
While none can doubt Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose had a way with words, nothing can compare with Rabindranath Tagore’s phasing of his dream for the country in his poem, 'Where The Mind Is Without Fear'
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
So, this year don’t just forward something for the sake of expressing a brief feeling of patriotism, forward something that lasts a little longer, something that inspires people to make the country what they and their forward thinking founding fathers wanted it to be. (And is fact checked)
Independence Day Quotes
How 15th August became India’s Independence Day
The British parliament commanded Lord Mountbatten to transfer the governing powers to Indian leaders by June 30, 1948. According to C Rajagopalachari, an Indian politician and independence activist, if Lord Mountbatten had waited till June 1948, there would have been no power left to transfer. This was the reason that Mountbatten preponed the date to August 1947 and transferred all the governing powers.
Mountbatten also claimed that by preponing the date, there will be no bloodshed or riot. His theory went wrong and later he justified by saying “wherever colonial rule has ended, there has been bloodshed. That is the price you pay.”
Based on Mountbatten’s inputs, the British government presented the Indian Independence Bill in the British House of Commons. It was on July 4, 1947 that the bill got approved within a fortnight.
This was the end of the British rule in India and on August 15, 1947, India got its independence but by establishing two Dominions, India and Pakistan.
Mountbatten later also claimed that, “the date I chose came out of the blue. I chose it in reply to a question. I was determined to show I was master of the whole event. When they asked had we set a date, I knew it had to be soon. I hadn’t worked it out exactly then — I thought it had to be about August or September and I then went out to the 15th August. Why? Because it was the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender.”
This year India will be celebrating its 72nd Independence Day. Indeed, every Independence Day reminds us the hard-fought freedom won by the freedom fighters and patriotics.
“Gird up your loins for the task that now lies ahead. I had asked you for men, money and materials. I have got them in generous measure. Now I demand more of you. Men, money and materials cannot by themselves bring victory or freedom. We must have the motive-power that will inspire us to brave deeds and heroic exploits.”
While none can doubt Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose had a way with words, nothing can compare with Rabindranath Tagore’s phasing of his dream for the country in his poem, 'Where The Mind Is Without Fear'
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
So, this year don’t just forward something for the sake of expressing a brief feeling of patriotism, forward something that lasts a little longer, something that inspires people to make the country what they and their forward thinking founding fathers wanted it to be. (And is fact checked)
Independence Day Quotes
How 15th August became India’s Independence Day
The British parliament commanded Lord Mountbatten to transfer the governing powers to Indian leaders by June 30, 1948. According to C Rajagopalachari, an Indian politician and independence activist, if Lord Mountbatten had waited till June 1948, there would have been no power left to transfer. This was the reason that Mountbatten preponed the date to August 1947 and transferred all the governing powers.
Mountbatten also claimed that by preponing the date, there will be no bloodshed or riot. His theory went wrong and later he justified by saying “wherever colonial rule has ended, there has been bloodshed. That is the price you pay.”
Based on Mountbatten’s inputs, the British government presented the Indian Independence Bill in the British House of Commons. It was on July 4, 1947 that the bill got approved within a fortnight.
This was the end of the British rule in India and on August 15, 1947, India got its independence but by establishing two Dominions, India and Pakistan.
Mountbatten later also claimed that, “the date I chose came out of the blue. I chose it in reply to a question. I was determined to show I was master of the whole event. When they asked had we set a date, I knew it had to be soon. I hadn’t worked it out exactly then — I thought it had to be about August or September and I then went out to the 15th August. Why? Because it was the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender.”
This year India will be celebrating its 72nd Independence Day. Indeed, every Independence Day reminds us the hard-fought freedom won by the freedom fighters and patriotics.