India Independence Day
On 15th of August India will celebrate its Independence Day

At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, read the famous speech proclaiming India's independence.

At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again

- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's famous speech on the eve of India’s Independence August 14, 1947

Rare footage of 15th August India independence

India was freed on August 15,1947. It was free to govern its destiny. The Indian history had written yet another chapter in its book. Soon the pages will be turned and another chapter would be written. Time has the quality to put a blanket over the past.

At the time of independence, India was just recovering from the effects of second world war and the post-war reconstruction schemes had to be completed without delay.

Since independence, India has made enormous strides & faced enormous problems. The mere fact that India has not like so many other Third World countries, succumbed to dictatorships, military rule or wholesale foreign invasion is a testament to the basic strength of the country's government and institutions. Economy has made major steps forward in improving agricultural Output and Industries have expanded to the stage where India is one of the World's top ten Industrial powers.

Today, the Indian economy is a dynamic one & a vibrant one. The true measure of India's success is that India has transformed itself from a Third world country into one of the World's fastest growing economies – a potential future super power….

Vande Mataram – Salute to our Motherland India

Saluting the Mumbai 26/11 Martyrs

India Pays Tribute to Its Brave Heros - Saluting the Mumbai 26/11 Martyrs .These brave souls gave their lives in order to save many innocent lives on that black day of 26/11 Mumbai Siege. This moving video is dedicated to those who gave their lives to protect others Hindustanis

Click Massacre in Mumbai – India’s 9/11

NATIONAL ANTHEM OF INDIA
" Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka Jaya He
Bharat Bhagya Vidhata
Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maratha
Dravida Utkala Banga
Vindhya Himachal Yamuna Ganga
Ucchala Jaladhi Taranga
Tubh Shubha Name Jage
Tubh Shubha Ashisha Mange
Gahe Tubh Jaya Gata
Jan Gan Mangaldayak Jay He
Bharat Bhagya Vidhata
Jaye He ! Jaye He ! Jaye He !
Jaye,Jaye,Jaye,Jaye He "

Translation of The national anthem- Jana Gana Mana In English
Thou are the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India's destiny.

The name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujurat and Maratha. Of the Dravid and Orissa and Bengal.

It Echoes in the hills of Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.

They pray for your blessing and sing thy praise. The salvation of all people is thy hand, thou dispenser of India's destiny.

Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.

The Jana Gana Mana was composed by Shri Rabindranath Tagore and first sung at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress on December 27th, 1911. It was adopted as the National Anthem of India on 24th January, 1950 by the Constituent Assembly. The first stanza( out of five stanzas) of the song forms the National Anthem.

Watch and listen to JAN GAN MAN by leading singers

Life in true perspective, below is a short poem by a world renowned Indian philosopher and poet, Asia's first Nobel laureate -
Fwd: Mahendrabhai Lalji Jadavji, London

Poem by : Shri Rabindranath Tagore

Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God
First fill your own house with the fragrance of love...

Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God,
First remove the darkness of sin from your heart...

Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer,
First learn to bow in humility before your fellowmen...

Go not to temple to pray on bended knees,
First bend down to lift someone who is down trodden...

Go not to temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins,
First forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you...

Mahatma Gandhi

1869 - 1948

The Assassination of Gandhi - 30th January 1948

On January 30, 1948, on his way to a prayer meeting, Gandhi was shot and killed in Birla House, New Delhi, by Nathuram Godse. Godse was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted, and on 15 November 1949, were executed. Gandhi's memorial at Râj Ghât, New Delhi, bears the epigraph, He Ram. These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot.

"Just an old man in a loincloth in distant India: Yet when he died, humanity wept." This was the observation of a newspaper correspondent at the death of Mahatma Gandhi. The tragedy occurred in New Delhi as the gaunt old man walked to a prayer-meeting and was engulfed by one of history's great ironies - a life-long pacifist and promoter of non-violence struck down by an assassin's bullet.

A Tribute to Gandhi

by Dr S. Radhakrishnan

“The greatest fact in the story of man on earth is not his material achievements, the empires he has built and broken, but the growth of his soul from age to age in its search for truth and goodness. Those who take part in the adventure of the soul secure an enduring place in the history of human culture. Time has discredited heroes as easily as it has forgotten everyone else; but the saints remain. The greatness of Gandhi is more in his holy living than in his heroic struggles, in his insistence on the creative power of the soul and its life-giving quality at a time when the destructive forces seem to be in the ascendant.”

-- S. Radhakrishnan, honoring the Mahatma on his 70th birthday - October 2, 1939

Dr S.Radhakrishnan, a great visionary, educator, scholar and leader in his own right, went on to become the President of India.

India Republic Day on 26th January

Although independence from British rule was actually gained on 15 August 1947, India became a Republic and the constitution came into force on January 26, 1950.

The Constituent Assembly was convened and appointed a committee with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as Chairman to draft the Constitution. India declared herself to be a Sovereign Democratic Republic. The Indian Constitution, the longest in the world, consist 397 articles and 12 schedules which provides for a single citizenship for the whole of India.

To mark the importance of the occasion the Republic Day is celebrated with a lot of enthusiasm all over the country and especially in the capital New Delhi, where the celebrations are initiated with the Presidential to the nation. But this is also followed by the solemn reminder of the role and sacrifice of the martyrs who died for the sake of the country in the freedom movement and also in the succeeding wars for the defence of sovereignty of India. Raise your hand in salute to the brave men on the border.