Freedom at Midnight: Why August 15 was chosen as Indias Independence Day

When India
became independent on August 15, 1947, the whole world was watching. A country
of 340 million was being broken into two political and three geographical parts;
and India, at the center of the churn was about to undertake a political experiment
never done in the history of the world at such a scale — democracy. But how did
August 15 come to be India’s Independence Day and why was this date special?
Here’s why.

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The first informal
declaration India’s independence from British rule was made in 1929. Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru, the erstwhile Congress president who would later go on to
become the first prime minister of India, gave the call for “Poorna Swaraj” —
complete independence. It was at that declaration that January 26, 1930 was
declared as India’s Independence Day. The Indian National Congress continued to
observe the day through years even though the British remained in control of
India till 1947.

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In the
1940s, Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India, was given a mandate
to ensure transfer of power from the British Parliament to Indian hands by June
30, 1948. However, the conditions in India were such that C Rajagopalachari,
the Indian freedom fighter who would succeed Lord Mountbatten as Governor
General of India, said that if one were to wait till 1948 for the transfer of
power, there would be no power left to transfer.

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Therefore, it
was decided that India would become independent on August 15, 1947. While
making this declaration, Lord Mountbatten claimed that he was doing this to
ensure that there was no bloodshed or rioting during independence. That goal,
however, remained unrealised as India broke into fierce rioting and violence on
the eve of independence.

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But that
wasn’t the only reason why August 15 was chosen as India’s Independence Day. In
Freedom At Midnight, one of the canonical texts on Indian independence written
by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, Mountbatten is quoted to have said, “The
date I chose came out of the blue. I chose it in reply to a question. I was determined
to show I was master of the whole event.”

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“When they
asked had we set a date, I knew it had to be soon. I hadn’t worked it out
exactly then — I thought it had to be August or September and I then went out
to the 15th August. Why? Because it was the second anniversary of Japan’s
surrender (in World War II).”

The Indian
Independence Bill was introduced in the British Parliament on July 4, 1947 and
passed within a fortnight. The bill provided for the establishment of two
dominions, India and Pakistan, on August 15, 1947.