1. The British East India Company came to India in 1600 to trade items including cotton, silk and tea. From a trade company, it gradually became a political ruler in the country.
2. India’s first independence movement against the British started in 1857 and is widely regarded to have been instigated by Mangal Pandey, an Indian soldier in the British East India Company. After quashing the rebellion, the British government took over the rule of India from the British East India Company.
3. During British rule, India had more than 560 princely states. A princely state was autonomous but had to give allegiance to the British authorities. Some of the largest princely states were Hyderabad, Gwalior, Baroda, Mysore, Cochin, Jammu and Kashmir.
4. Kolkata, which was then known as Calcutta, was the capital of India until 1911 when the administration moved to Delhi.
5. Khudiram Bose, one of the youngest freedom fighters, was hanged by the British in 1908 when he was 19.
6. Mahatma Gandhi started his strategy of non-cooperation against British rule in 1920 in a bid to win freedom through non-violent resistance.
7. In March 1930, Gandhi, who later became known as the father of the nation, marched in protest against the British rule from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat across the state to Dandi, covering a distance of around 250 miles.
8. India’s national song “Vande Mataram,” which means “I bow to thee mother," was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1882 in his novel “Anandamath.”
9. In 1943, Subhash Chandra Bose formed the Indian National Army to attempt to drive the British out of India.
10.The British agreed to a peaceful transfer of power, which came into effect in 1947.
11. The border between India and the newly-formed Pakistan was established by the Boundary Commission, a body appointed by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India. The commission was headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer. Pakistan was created to provide a homeland for Muslims, but the partition led to an estimated one million deaths in communal violence after the two nations became independent.
12. On Aug. 15, 1947, the first day of India’s independence, crowds reportedly a million-strong thronged central Delhi. There were many sightings of a rainbow forming in the sky as a salute was fired to the newly-hoisted Indian tricolor. “I had never noticed how closely a rainbow could resemble the new Dominion flag of saffron, white and green,” Lord Mountbatten wrote in his official report of the event to the British government.
India became independent of the United Kingdom on August 15, 1947. India did not have a permanent constitution at this time. The drafting committee presented the constitution's first draft to the national assembly on November 4, 1947. The national assembly signed the final English and Hindi language versions of the constitution on January 24, 1950.
India's constitution came into effect on Republic Day, January 26, 1950. This date was chosen as it was the anniversary of Purna Swaraj Day, which was held on January 26, 1930.The constitution gave India's citizens the power to govern themselves by choosing their own government. Dr Rajendra Prasad took oath as India's first president at the Durbar Hall in the Government House, followed by a residential drive along a route to the Irwin Stadium, where he unfurled India's national flag. Ever since the historic day, January 26 is celebrated with festivities and patriotic fervor across India.
JAI HIND.
