End of the long night of foreign rule

At the stroke of midnight, August 14-15, 1947, a cry of freedom such as the world had never heard rose up from the teeming millions of India. The Indian empire was no more. Gone forever were the pomp and magnificence of Kipling’s British Raj. “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/But to be young was heaven!”

How did it all happen? Long before that historic midnight, Mohamed Iqbal had filled every patriotic Indian with a sense of pride and glory with “Sare jahan se acha, Hindusthan hamara”. Of India and its people he sang: “It is our rose garden, we are its nightingales.” That was how we rang in the 20th century.

Down south, Subramanya Bharti recited his ode to freedom, equality and brotherhood: “There is no fear, there is no fear, even when the sky falls, there is no fear”, he sang.

The sweet melody of Rabindra sangeet did not lull us to sleep but awakened us to our duties and responsibilities. Gurudev filled us with lofty ideals through Gitanjali: minds without fear, free knowledge, undivided by narrow domestic wall, clear stream of reason; that was how we were exhorted to enter the haven of freedom.

How elated Indians used to feel those days when young revolutionary heroes mounted the gallows singing Rabindranath Tagore’s memorable lines – “Blessed is my life that I am born in this land”. It was the same spirit, which could neither be suppressed by the bullet and the bullying of the Raj nor by the incessant ideological refrain of the White man’s superiority.

We joined the struggle for independence. An idealist led us - a “half-naked fakir”, staff in hand, clad in loincloth, bespectacled, a cleft in the row of front teeth when he laughed or smiled (which he always did). He led us from behind, for he said, “I follow the people, because I am their leader”. He showed that empires were made of salt. With a spinning wheel, he worked magic.

He spoke of his dreams: swadeshi, swaraj, panchayati raj, Harijan, Raghupathi-Eshwar-Allah, Ramrajya. He said: “The swaraj of my dreams is the poor man’s swaraj. The necessities of life should be enjoyed by you in common with those enjoyed by the princes and moneyed men…I have not the slightest doubt that swaraj is not purna swaraj until these amenities are guaranteed to you under it.”

When independence was ushered in, Jawaharlal Nehru summed up the purpose of the “incessant striving” and “service of India” that lay ahead: “The service of India 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”.

Historic midnight

What was promised was the ensuring of “justice and fullness of life to every man and woman”. A social structure that denied the common man the opportunity to rise to a decent standard of living “stands self-condemned and must be changed”.

Minutes before that historic midnight S Radhakrishnan remarked that men like Washington and Lenin, Napoleon and Cromwell, Hitler and Mussolini, had used blood and steel to secure power. “We have opposed patience to fury, quietness of spirit to bureaucratic tyranny…History and legend will grow around this day. It marks a milestone in the march of our democracy. A significant date it is in the drama of the Indian people who are trying to rebuild and transform themselves…”

No nation was born in a more civilised way than India. But barbarity reigned on its borders. The civilised air in the Central Hall of Parliament against the barbarity on the bleeding borders reflected the state of the new nation – a backward country led by civilised men.

August 15 continues to be a sacred day in the minds and hearts of the people of this great country. To celebrate the end of the long night of foreign rule and to breathe the air of freedom cannot but be a proud occasion even after 69 years.