What historical event fascinates you the most?

Some occasions become imprints in our psyche never to fade again. Incidents of historical importance are turning points in the life of a country and its people. The occasions of utmost importance which give immense pleasure acquire the stature of a religious festival. People and the network of a country get involved in celebrations. This is the reason why people celebrate the day like a festival. It becomes a pious day for a vibrant nation. History is full of such incidents which became a festival or festival-like celebration.

Liberation from Concentration Camps

Can we imagine the ecstasy of people caged in the confines of the dungeon, respiring in the heavy atmosphere where death is always on the prowl? They were liberated from years of persecution, torture and the holocaust ordered by Hitler, a lunatic ruler who killed millions of people, especially Jews, in cold blood. The reigns of terror and the cold clutches of death in gas chambers, followed by incineration in crematoriums, ended after the fall of Germany in WWII. The living Hells of concentration camps were liberated. Many inmates of the erstwhile concentration camps were dumb and stunned. They did not have the words to express their feelings. Those who survived the ordeal lived to tell the world about the trauma of the horrors they passed through. Even when revisited the concentration camps of Auschwitch-Birkenow seven decades after their liberation, they did not express well about their sufferings.

Tryst With Destiny

Coming back to the home front, a similar feeling of euphoria was palpable among the people of India when after long, arduous and painful slavery, the country was liberated from the yoke of foreign rule. They were happy, felt no boundaries and elevated. They were pouring in from every direction, happily raising the slogan “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, swelling like a balloon of humanity, ready to go up and up.

Long 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 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 getting 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.

-Jawaharlal Nehru (15 August 1947)

Vivisection of The Country

It was a momentous occasion. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India, spoke before the luminaries assembled in the Central Hall of Parliament. The jubilant people were happy, they sang and shouted. The country was freed after a long spell of oppression and suppression. Though the country was free, it paid a heavy price. The country was amputated, bleeding and lacerated by conflagrations, loot and riots. A large influx of humanity was transmigrating from across the newly drawn border lines dividing a united country into two separate countries – India and Pakistan.

The Exodus

Individuals were compelled to abandon their lands, homes, shops, and businesses, bewildered by the necessity to vacate the birthplace of their ancestors. Durga Das vividly captures the psychological turmoil of those uprooted from their native soil in his renowned work “India from Curzon to Nehru and After.” Men, women and children in groups were moving amidst the fear for their lives, for safety. People were being mowed down; a whole lot of people crammed in a train were ruthlessly killed. There was a chaotic situation in the refugee camps. Wealthy people who were displaced had come to take shelter in India and were vying for a morsel or two to survive. India had to survive. The country had to come out of the difficult times and stand on its feet. It was the time of resurrection. People needed a healing touch, not the mere consolation nor the threatening call to vacate the places of religious importance by some who just wanted to make a permanent mark on the psyche of people as an indelible mark of sanity.

Rise of the Nation

The nation rose, faltered but regained its footing and proceeded ahead. It faced many challenges and adversities. Its people bore witness to the largest migration in recent history. They survived, yet became a testament to autocracies, communal hysteria, arson, and plunder. They endured the violation of their women, the deterioration of relationships, a…and the transformation of acquaintances into adversaries, those with whom they have lived amicably for so long and trusted.

Time rolled. The euphoria started settling down. The country observed yet another gore. Gandi was assassinated ending an era. The country started settling down with a wish to grow and prosper. The scars of the deep wound had started healing. 15 August became the day of celebrations. It was the day when the country was declared Independent. There were gargantuan problems. They needed to be prioritized and sorted out. The country started working on making a constitution for the country. The Constituent Assembly took up the task and completed it in two years, eleven months and seven days to consign it to “We the People of India”. It was adopted on 26 November 1949 and became effective on 26 January 1950 turning India into a Sovereign Republic. It became yet another national festival.

Lord Mountbatten has vividly remembered the occasion to Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre who reproduced his sentiments of that time.

The band’s swamped, the This unbelievable thing happened— as I went out of there, there’d been this sort of rainbow— suddenly, this bright, brilliant^ rainbow came out, which was only seen by people facing it – the people with their backs to it never saw it at the time; and Pamela was one of those who had a chance to see it.

But this rainbow that suddenly sprang up, of course, it was a marvellous omen… in fact, though it’s rather far-fetched, the Indian colours, which are a horizontal tricolour of white, orange and green … so, when one had a certain rainbow—it was framed in this great circle, a complete arc. Then, of couse, people went absolutely mad.

Festivities

The festivities and happiness of the people were palpable. It was a moment everyone wanted to live. The moment. The days have been observed as a festival since then. Every year on 15 August, children used to congregate in their respective schools, recite the national anthem and get sweetmeats. In the olden days, the children would take a “Prabhat Feri” with the flag in their hand and take a round.

Historical events bring color and vibrancy to people’s lives. They are moments to reminisce about times of hardship and triumph, to overcome past struggles, and to reaffirm our commitment to creating a habitable, dynamic, and spirited nation.

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