As the country waves flags and celebrates the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, it is also time to take stock. What did India’s founders and citizens dream of, how has India fared, what have been our challenges and successes?
The Wire’s reporters and contributors bring stories of the period, of the traumas but also the hopes of Indians, as seen in personal accounts, in culture, in the economy and in the sciences. How did the modern state of India come about, what does the flag represent? How did literature and cinema tackle the trauma of Partition?
Follow us for the next few days to get a rounded view of India@75.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Newspapers on August 15, 1947, celebrated the birth of a new country. From The New York Times to The Hindu, frontpage headlines were works of brevity, belying the epochal meaning of the news they were bringing.
The Times of India ran a large banner noting the ‘birth of India’s freedom.’ The several blurbs, excerpts and sub-headings on the page quote from Jawaharlal Nehru’s iconic ‘Tryst With Destiny’ speech, Lord Mountbatten’s visit to the then one-day-old Pakistan, the enthusiasm in Mumbai, the formation of a new cabinet under Nehru, Gandhi’s fast and the rolling down of the Union Jack.
The Hindustan Times observed simply that India was ‘independent’ and that British rule had ended. Like TOI, HT too quoted extensively from Nehru’s speech. Headlines of some key coverage in the days before and after can be seen here.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Hindu offers on its website the digital experience of flipping through the pages of its August 15, 1947 edition. On page one – in tradition that can be appreciated by today’s papers too – are celebratory ads by brands seeking to heavily cash in on the day’s promises.
The real ‘page one’ proclaims in no uncertain terms that ‘free India is born’. It also records an ‘assurance to minorities by ‘Rajen Babu’ – president of the Constituent Assembly and later, of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad.
Screenshot from www.thehindu.com.
The Statesman, in addition to the banner headline ‘Two dominions are born’ also interestingly noted that this meant that “one-fifth of the human race” got political freedom.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Indian Express‘s headline on the day said, ‘India Celebrates Freedom’. Blurbs noted that the midnight session of the Constituent Assembly was “historic” and that Mountbatten had asked to be relieved by April 1948.
Photo: Facebook/Indian Express
In England, The Guardian – then known as the Manchester Guardian – announced the ‘End of the Indian Empire’ and the ‘Birth of Two Dominions.’ A slug at the top read ‘farewell and hail,’ ostensibly for the returning colonial masters.
The Manchester Guardian on August 15, 1947. Photo: Public domain
Across the ocean, The New York Times, in addition to noting that ‘India and Pakistan (have) become nations,’ observed that clashes were continuing amidst celebrations. “Death Toll in Communal Fighting Reaches 153,” the paper notes in one of three blurbs.
Photo: Twitter/@OnThisDayNYT
Nestled between news of rising temperatures and Soviet threats on the Washington Post, was the news that India has “achieved sovereignty” and that there had been “wild” rejoicing.
Photo: Public domain
