India's 71st Republic Day 2020: The Constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949 and the day chosen to become a sovereign republic was January 26, 1950 — 894 days after the British left the country, India formally had total independence.
The date of India’s independence from the British came on August 15, but it was not a date of India’s choosing — it was thrust upon them by Lord Louis Mountbatten as “it was the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender” in World War II to him. In contrast, January 26 was chosen as the Republic Day by Indians themselves, for it had held immense significance for the country for two decades.
At its annual session in Lahore in December 1929, after Nehru was elected the party president, the Congresd passed a resolution for “purna swaraj” or complete independence from the British. “The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually. We believe, therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence,” said the 750-word resolution.
This was a clean break from Congress’s past demands of a dominion status for India, nine years after Communist leader and poet Hasrat Mohani first asked for complete independence from the British in 1921 at an All-India Congress Forum. In India Under the Shadows of Empire (2009), scholar Mithi Mukherjee has argued that the Purna Swaraj resolution was a critical component of Congress’s changing strategy of engaging with the British: the demand for freedom was now made in the language of justice and not in terms of charity
At midnight of December 1930, Nehru hoisted the first swaraj flag — the Tricolour was to later form the basis of India’s national flag — on the banks of the Ravi river in Lahore. The Congress party passed another resolution fixing the last Sunday of January 1930, which fell on January 26, as Independence Day. The celebration, it decided, would begin with the hoisting of the flag all over India and the remaining day would be spent on constructive work as per Gandhi agenda, such as spinning charkha, “service to the untouchables” and “reunion” of Hindus and Muslims.
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