Hundreds gather for Independence Day celebrations in London

Hundreds of people of Indian origin gathered at the High Commission of India here on Tuesday to celebrate the 77th Independence Day, with patriotic renditions and chants of "Vande Mataram" and "Bharat Mata Ki Jai".

Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami arrived at the event riding a Ducati motorbike alongside a group of riders as a curtain raiser to the MOTO GP Bharat race, to be hosted in India for the first time next month.

The celebrations opened with the unfurling of the Indian national flag and singing the national anthem, followed by the High Commissioner delivering the customary extracts from the speech of President Droupadi Murmu broadcast overnight.

"Essentially, the idea was to give people more of a space to celebrate Independence Day and I believe today we had 400 people come, which is much larger than anticipated," Doraiswami told PTI.

"It was also nice to have some people to showcase, we wanted to showcase the visually impaired cricket team that's touring the UK. And then there's the first formal NCC [National Cadet Corps] tour of the UK. And, of course, India this year will host for the first time the Moto Grand Prix – the Motorcycle Grand Prix – in the Buddh circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. So, we got the organisers to have a small bike entrance also to showcase that,” he said.

Spread out across a large courtyard towards the back of India House at Aldwych in central London, the aim was to make Independence Day even more of a celebration, particularly for young pravasi Indians to recognise that exciting things are happening in India, according to the envoy.

"So that was a ‘Ducati Scrambler’, it's one of the five fastest bikes on the planet. It's a terrific bike to ride on, it's light, it's got great acceleration. My only regret is that it wasn't my own because I think my wife would never let me buy one. But as anybody who likes motorcycles knows, the idea of being out in the open, generally the joy of being out in the countryside, the motorcycle is one of the nicest ways to do it,” he shared, with reference to his own entry to the festivities riding a motorbike.

Referencing the "Meri Maati Mera Desh" and "Har Ghar Tiranga" campaigns, Doraiswami noted that the intention behind the initiatives was to connect people of Indian origin to the idea of home.

'It’s (Meri Maati Mera Desh) a powerful theme, particularly for the diaspora. And the "Har Ghar Tiranga", young Indians want to be able to showcase who they are as a statement of pride and the flag is a really important part of that. So, it's intended to celebrate the fact that every Indian has the freedom and the right to feel their sense of identity by flying the flag,” he added.

The High Commissioner felicitated members of the visiting National Blind Cricket Team and was also presented with a special beeping cricket ball by them.

The visiting NCC cadets were also felicitated on the dais before the Bharatiya Vrund Gaan choir, led by British Indian musician Rakesh Joshi, performed a series of patriotic renditions.