Remembering August 15th, 1947

Close to midnight on August 14th, 1947, nearly an hour after the proceedings had begun at the constituent assembly in Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, the charismatic fifty-seven-year-old leader of the Congress party, walked up to the podium to make the inaugural address that would usher in free India. Nehru was the distinctive face of the Indian Freedom movement along with Sardar Vallabhai Patel and others. Nehru also represented all that was meaningful in Indian culture and heritage filtered through the charm, sophistication, scientific temperament, and erudition of the Western world. As the clock chimed 12, It was 8.30 PM in London, with two more hours of warm summer evening remaining before the sun literally set on the British empire. Inside the chamber of the assembly, nearly two thousand princes and politicians from across the country were present to witness the making of history, except two men – whose absence was glaring, poignant, conspicuous, and prescient of the times to come. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, skipped the proceedings because he was looking forward to the formation of Pakistan the next day, and the other man – whose absence was more ominous than Jinnah’s – was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi, the seventy-seven-year-old political phenomenon, or Mahatma ( as Rabindranath Tagore christened him) was fasting and resting in a riot-torn suburb of Calcutta. The freedom that Gandhi so ardently wished for had not come on his own terms. He was against the partition of India, but there was nothing he could do to prevent it from happening. His voice, which held sway over millions in their struggle for freedom and dignity, was ignored in this case. Violence continued to erupt between communities and Gandhi’s brand of politics wasn’t working as well as before. He was greatly respected across the nation, but the time had come to make some harsh political decisions and Gandhi believed his value systems stood comprised in the new deal. Nehru hailed Gandhi for what he is to the newborn nation, not once, but twice, during his historic speech. He referred to Gandhi as the architect of this moment of freedom and the father of the nation – an epithet that has stuck with Gandhi ever since. Towards the end of Nehru’s speech, he subtly hinted at the impossibility of Gandhi’s dream. It is a sentence worth quoting. He said: “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.” This is a masterpiece of oratory, acknowledging at go that given the present circumstances and state of the deep division between Hindus and Muslims, tears are bound to be shed on both sides; but at the same time, it will remain the work of the new nation to wipe out those tears. At precisely 12 AM, a member of the assembly blew the conch, an age-old tradition in India to signify the beginning of something new. In the Mahabharata, Krishna blew the conch to start the Kurukshetra war. A foreign journalist reporting from the assembly noticed the reaction of the first prime minister to this gesture. Nehru turned his face closed his mouth, and chuckled. One would never know what the chuckle meant.

Why should the freedom of a country be announced at midnight? why not during the day on August 14th, or for that matter why this specific date of 15th August in the first place? There is a short answer to the second question. Mountbatten thought of this date at the spur of the moment. During a press conference in early June that year, a reporter asked Mountbatten if he had a date in mind for the British to hand over power. The viceroy did not. He had thought through everything else and got the nod from Nehru, Jinnah, and Baldev Singh; even the mercurial Gandhi had indicated in his own way that the viceroy had his consent, but with deep reservations. But the one detail he hadn’t thought about was the date until the reporter asked him the question. Mountbatten has always been a quick thinker, and as soon as the question took shape in his mind several dates passed through his mind in rapid succession, and the one on which the dial stopped was 15th August, a date that was immensely dear to Mountbatten. The reason was not far to seek. On August 15th, 1945, Mountbatten’s forces command won a resounding victory over the Japanese forces in the jungles of Burma, a defeat that ended the Samurai empire and heralded a new chapter in Asian history. What better date – Mountbatten decided – to declare India’s independence than on the second anniversary of that resounding victory over Japan? In a way, it would immortalize him. With the decision made on the spot and without batting an eyelid, he looked at the reporter in the eye and told him “The final transfer of power to Indian hands will take place on August 15th, 1947”. That brings us to the first question. Why was the ceremony scheduled between 11 PM and 12 AM at midnight? The answer to this is to be found in the riddles and hypotheses of astrology, whose eminent practitioners across the country advised that August 15th was not an auspicious day for this great occasion, and if there was no chance of altering that date, it should be ensured that the transfer of power happened before the sunrise of August 15th, which according to the Hindu calendar is considered the start of the day and not the midnight cut-off followed by the gregorian calendar. President Rajendra Prasad consulted with prominent astrologers Pandit Hardeo Sharma Trivedi of Solan and Suryanarain Vyas of Ujjain and facilitated this solution to a tricky problem. Mountbatten didn’t realize that there could be such an angle to the matter when he spontaneously responded to the reporter with the date. Lucky for him, a compromise was arrived at, and he could still have his Aug 15th date. Astrologers also mandated that the entire ceremony including Nehru’s speech should be done within the 11 PM- 12 AM time frame. The millennial generation may dismiss the act of consulting the stars as an oddity that we should be embarrassed about, but they should know that this is a practice that has been followed since the dawn of history in every known civilization. While its validity as a science may be questioned, there can be no doubt there is an intuitive connection between our lives and the rhythms of nature that cannot be disregarded. Even today, there are many among us who surreptitiously look to numerology, astrology for guidance. There is comfort in knowing that the universe is aligned with our actions. In his book, “The Alchemist”, Paul Coelho, the modern age guru, writes “And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”. If this is to be considered an inspirational quote, then astrology is very much alive.

As darkness fell on August 15th, 1947, India was a day old. The Mughal gardens in Delhi were glittering with lights and festivities. There was a sense of bonhomie all around. All around the country, there was joy on one hand, and grave indications of the violence to come. Two separate countries were born out of people who were for centuries living together. But now, there were irrevocably separated, each to forge its own destiny and build itself a nation. The British had always known that such a day would arrive when they have to pack their bags and leave. They were postponing this day for 150 years. They were always hoping that there would be a peaceful transfer of power, but that’s not how it turned out to be. The civil war that followed the independence and the partition will forever remain a blot against this historic moment for both sides. Mountbatten had done well. He had an agenda when he set foot in Delhi, and he fulfilled it. On August 15th, from the last Viceroy of India, he became the first governor-general of Free India. India had negotiated for dominion status if it meant a quicker transfer of power, and it would take three more years for the country to become a republic. On January 26th, 1950, India became a republic with its own constitution. The British era was truly over. But how did it all begin?

It is staggering to contemplate that a trivial matter of an increase of five shillings for a pound of pepper by the Dutch, galvanized the merchants of Great Britain to sail to India in the year 1600. The Dutch had a monopoly on the spices trade at that time. It will remain forever one of the most intriguing “what ifs” of history to wonder what would have happened had the Dutch accommodated the request of the English to maintain parity in the price of spices. Would the geographical and cultural counters of nations be different? Maybe. Furious over the five-shilling price increase, twenty-four English merchants belonging to the city of London immediately decided to take matters into their hands and meet at a dilapidated building, barely a mile from the most famous door number in the world: 10, downing street. The agenda for the meeting was urgent but simple, to form a company named East India Trading Company with an initial capital of 72,000 pounds subscribed by 125 shareholders. The sole mission of this venture, they drafted in the proposal, was to find independent sources of spices and make enough profits, and nothing else. No territorial ambitions, no colonizing motives, nothing at all. Queen Elizabeth liked the idea and did not hesitate to sign the charter into existence on December 31st, 1599, granting the East India Company three years’ trading rights with all countries beyond the Cape of good hope ( a journey that Christopher Columbus also undertook, but accidentally ended up finding the Americas.).

The 500-ton ship, Hector, set sail immediately soon after the charter was signed under the stewardship of William Hawkins, whose background was more of a wild pirater that an explorer or merchant. On August 31st, 1600, the ship docked in Surat, a small port, north of Bombay. The fabled land of India was nothing like what Hawkins had imagined. In fact, he was seriously disappointed with what he encountered, until Hawkins and his entourage of fifty Pathan mercenaries managed to wind their way to Agra – the home of the Mughal emperor, Jahangir. The court and city of Jahangir were beyond Hawkin’s wildest dreams. Wealth, arts, and color blossomed everywhere he turned. Looking at Jahangir’s stature and reign, Elizabethan power would have seemed petty and provincial. Here was grandeur, pomp, and wealth such as the Englishman had never seen. Jahangir welcomed the English and before any business could be transacted, offered Captain Hawkins the most beautiful girl in his harem, an Armenian Christian as a gift, and also graciously inducted him into his Royal household. If this wasn’t enough, the emperor signed a firman ( from the Persian word “Farman” to grant) granting the English company rights to open up trading posts around Bombay. The shareholders back in England were exultant at these developments. The return on investments was hitting the roof and records state that dividends as high as 200% were doled out to the lucky shareholders. With the necessary permissions in place, the East India trading company was soon plying two ships each month, bringing back spices, sugar, silk, and whatnot from India in exchange for whatever the English were manufacturing. This was the kind of start the English merchants needed, and they got it. Shortly, ships began appearing in Madras and Bengal as well. Indian rulers welcomed the English traders wherever they docked, and they believed the English, who never failed to reiterate to local authorities that they were there purely for business matters – “Trade/not territory”, they assured people wherever they landed.

Thus began the nearly 300 years of British presence in India. What began as a trading arrangement eventually became a quest for control of resources and the self-aggrandizing power that comes along with it. This is the nature and essence of pure capitalism. Children are taught about the Battle of Plassey at school as an important English victory that established the English firmly in India, but what the books don’t effectively teach is the fact that Robert Clive’s victory on June 23rd, 1757 on a rain-drenched day in the outskirts of Bengal against a rebellious nawab, was just a standard fight to ensure business continuity. But what was significant about Clive’s victory was its decisiveness. The English army had minimal casualties, but the Nawab’s force was routed. This emphatic victory opened the floodgates to more such conquests in Northern India and pretty soon, the East Indian Company transformed itself into a builder of an empire. The mantle of British power spread across Mysore, Travancore, Baroda, Hyderabad, and the Marathas. Though the British always had the intent to relinquish its possessions someday, it wasn’t sure when and how that should or would happen. It is never easy to give away what one has so painstakingly acquired. But the rumblings among the Indian population were steadily increasing. By the mid-eighteenth century, India was completely English in all its aspects. The tentacles of English power emanating 6000 miles from London had the Indian subcontinent firmly under its legal, administrative, and economic stranglehold. The sepoy mutiny of 1857, was the first major uprising by the Indians, which the British crushed with all that it had. The mutiny had an important consequence. After nearly 260 years of business, the East India Company was dismantled by a Royal decree, and all the powers and business interests flowed into the hands of the thirty-nine-year-old Queen Victoria, who became the face and the incarnation of the British Empire for millions of people. The proclamation was passed on August 12th, 1858, a momentous day in Indian history because this was the day, that the British officially made their intentions clear – that they were not here only for business, but as rulers of India. The weight of English bureaucracy had descended on Indian soil. It would take the next 100 years for Indians to awaken themselves to Freedom. It was clear after the second world war and the progressive strength the Indian freedom movement was gathering under Gandhi and the Congress, that it was time for the British to leave Indian soil. Lord Mountbatten, was expressly sent by prime minister Clement Atlee to hand over the reins of power to India. Mountbatten’s task was not easy at all. One, he had limited time to do his job, and two, India was deeply polarized between Hindus and Muslims, and the latter was seeking a separate country; and three, Gandhi had to be contended with. Before Mountbatten’s departure to India, King George VI had instructed Mountbatten to negotiate “dominion status” for India, so that India could still be a part of the Commonwealth of Nations. This meant that the umbilical cord between England and India wouldn’t be completely severed for some more time, at least. Mountbatten’s charter as the last viceroy was a difficult one indeed, but if there was anyone capable of achieving it, it was him. That he succeded in his monumental task is a tribute to his acumen and the way he had with people.

India celebrates its 76th independence anniversary this year. We have come a long way and made great strides in all areas of social, economic, and civil empowerment. As one of the largest democracies in the world, we are the litmus test for all the values and systems that democracy entails. So far, we have done Ok. It is worrying that the deep polarization that characterized our struggle for independence and tainted the image of two newly-born democracies immediately after gaining independence still remains an important factor in our lives. Political parties have used religious differences to fill up their vote banks, and core issues that have to be squarely faced and resolved are pushed under the carpet, or drowned in empty rhetoric of a specific point of view. But there is no doubt we have done well considering our population size and the challenges we inherited. India has lifted approximately 415 million individuals out of poverty in the last twenty years, and the literacy rate is 77.70% as of 2022. We were at a dismal 18% in 1947. These are good numbers to be proud of, but literacy doesn’t mean just the ability to read and write, it is the ability to participate in society as knowledgeable and thinking individuals. Democracy is a fragile experiment. especially in countries where it is imposed from above, and not nurtured from below. Critical thinking and weighing facts and opinions in light of what we observe, read, and think is the cornerstone of a democratic country. There is great respect for Indians all over the world, and Indians abroad have mostly done well for themselves without giving up their pride and affection for their homeland. There were many who believed that India wouldn’t survive as a democracy for long. But we have proved our detractors wrong. We inherited, improved, discarded, redefined, and adapted well to the demands of an independent nation. The name India may be new, just 76 years old; but Bharat as a civilization is old, wise, and lived through millennia and absorbed everything thrown into it. However, the colonizing effect of centuries of foreign rule still lingers on us – in our outlook and institutions. The newer generation of Indians is less bothered by our colonial heritage than those of us who are caught in between two eras. Political freedom is a sacred flame. Thanks to a generation of brave Indians who gave up everything they had to win this freedom for us, we are today in a position to enjoy the brightness of the flame that was lit on August 15th, 1947. That is why it is important that we celebrate our independence day each year without fail, even if we don’t celebrate anything else. Because without this primary blessing, nothing else is possible.

Happy 76th independence day to all.