India’s Independence Day – Wishes, Messages, History

Independence Day in India is celebrated annually on 15th August in respect and remembrance to the independence of India when after more than 200 years of British rule, India finally won back its freedom on 15th August, 1947. This day is observed as a national holyday in India to show respect for all the freedom fighters who gave their lives by shedding their blood to make India independent by fighting with the British. The main ceremony in this day in India is carried out by hoisting the flag of India followed by parades and cultural program in celebrate to the independence of India and showing respect to the country. The main flagship event on this day takes place in Delhi where the prime minister of India hoists the national flag and then the national anthem is sung. India’s Independence Day in the upcoming years will make no difference and the tradition will continue. On this day a patriotic feeling envelops all Indians and they send wishes, greetings and messages all their near and dear ones based on this special occasion. Not only Indians but people who are not Indian but have respect for India also convey such wishes. If you are planning to wish your near and dear ones on Independence Day of India, then here are some wishes, greetings and messages which can provide you some unique ideas in wishing for this ceremony. Make this year special by sending India’s Independence Day wishes to all your near and dear ones. A list of some wishes is as follows:

• Wish you a very happy Independence Day and let’s show respect for mother India.
• Let all of us raise our hand together to celebrate happy Independence Day.
• This is the day to raise India’s flag high and wave it with respect as it’s our Independence Day.
• Liberty bells have starting to ring as this it’s time to celebrate happy Independence Day.
• Let’s stand up high to show respect for the ones who died for the independence of India.
• Sing the national anthem with Indian flags in hand to celebrate happy Independence Day.
• Being a proud Indian, wish you a very happy Independence Day.

• Let us celebrate the moment of India’s independence with joy and happiness.
• Sending you loads of wishes full of respect for mother India on this Independence Day.
• I hereby wish you happy Independence Day 2013 and the biggest slice of prosperity, happiness and good fortune.
• I hereby wish you happy Independence Day 2013 and shout and say that we are proud to be an Indian.
• Let all Indians come together on this day to raise the flag of India and celebrate happy Independence Day.
• Let us overload this Independence Day by all the respect, love and care that we have for our mother India.
• Let all the brothers and sisters of India pour their zeal on the celebration of happy Independence Day.
• This is a message to make your feel proud to be an Indian on the Independence Day of India.

• “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new…India discovers herself again.” – Jawaharlal Nehru

Take ideas from these wishes and send greeting to your near and dear ones to celebrate India’s Independence Day in 2013 and also in the upcoming years.

History

In 1947, after the World War II, Britain could see that it no longer could hold its power over India. It was becoming increasingly difficult and Indian freedom fighters were in no mood to give up. With the international support also coming to an end, Britain decided to relive India from their power but not before June 1948. However, the impending independence more so enhanced the violence between Hindus and Muslims in the provinces of Punjab and Bengal. The communal violence grew so large that it became impossible for new viceroy Lord Mountbatten to control it and as such, he advanced the date for the transfer of power, allowing less than six months for a mutually agreed plan for independence. Thus, India gained its independence on August 15, 1947 but not without paying a heavy price. Partition was done and a separate state for the Muslims was formed, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah being sworn in as Pakistan’s first Governor General in Karachi. On the midnight of August 15, 1947 India was sworn in as an independent country with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as the prime minister and viceroy then as Lord Mountbatten. The official ceremony took place in Delhi. Great leaders and freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Abul Kalam Azad Jinnah, B. R. Ambedkar and Master Tara Singh are few of the many to whom India owes its freedom.

Independence Day Speech

The exact speech that was delivered by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is as follows: “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity. At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now. That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil 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 as 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 peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments. To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell. The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about. It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed! We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people. On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation [Gandhi], who, embodying the old spirit of India held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest. Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death. We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good [or] ill fortune alike. The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman. We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action. To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy. And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service. Jai Hind.”