Pakistan is celebrating its Independence Day today (August 14), while India will celebrate the historic moment on Thursday (August15), despite the fact that both countries got their freedom from the British empire on the same day. The moment calls for a sad remembrance of the Partition that split India into two independent nations - India and Pakistan.
India’s struggle for independence resulted in a hard-fought victory that ousted British rule after over 200 years. However, the victory came with a painful partition that split the nation into India and Pakistan. The British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe was tasked with drawing the line that would separate the two nations.
As India gears up for its 78th Independence Day to remind its citizens of its hard-won freedom, it is worth exploring why the two neighbouring countries celebrate their respective independence days on separate occasions.
India's Independence Act, 1947
1947 was a tumultuous time for India with growing communal tensions and a rapidly deteriorating law and order situation. It was upto Lord Louis Mountbatten to transfer power into the hands of Indians before the English became embroiled in the conflict. Thus came the Indian Independence Day, 1947 passed by the British House of Commons. The new borders were not to be made public before August 17.
"As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be respectively known as India and Pakistan," read the Act. It bifurcated the two nations and granted the provinces of East Bengal and West Punjab to Pakistan. In a historic radio address, Pakistan's founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah also announced that August 15 "is the birthday of the independent and sovereign state of Pakistan".
Jinnah said August 15 marked the "fulfillment of the destiny of the Muslim nation which made great sacrifices in the past few years to have its homeland." Pakistan’s first commemorative postage stamps also had August 15 as its official Independence Day. Then why does Pakistan celebrate its Independence Day on August 14?
Here's why Pakistan celebrates Independence Day on Aug 14
One possible theory emerged that Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan had proposed during a Cabinet meeting in 1948 that his country should celebrate its Independence Day before India, which was accepted by Jinnah. The actual reason for the change of date seems to have more to do as much as with religion as it does with politics.
It is important to mention here that Mountbatten had a very busy schedule as he was supposed to hold the ceremony for the transfer of power on August 14. However, the last Viceroy of India could not be in two places at once. So, he held a ceremony during the day on August 14 in Karachi to formally announce the transfer of power. He then quickly hopped onto an airplane and arrived at New Delhi, where the ceremony began on the night of the same day and celebrations of India's new independence began at midnight.
Most importantly, August 14, 1947, took place on the 27th day of Ramzan, considered to be a very auspicious occasion on the Islamic calendar. Therefore, August 14 was chosen as the day of independence since 1948. Also, Pakistan has a difference of 30 minutes with India. So when Jawaharlal Nehru made his Tryst with Destiny speech at the stroke of midnight on August 15, it was 11:30 pm on August 14 in Pakistan.
While India celebrated the historic moment of independence, the day comes with the painful memories of the bloody history of the Partition, with widespread violence between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and sowing the seeds of hostility and distrust between the two countries.
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