The Republic day is always more important to me than Independence day ever will be. Of course I celebrate I-day more colourfully, but Republic day is the day we defined what India will be. Independence day is only when we got our Independence from the British, who just happened to the last in line of a large group of conquerors both indigenous and foreign. Only on 26 January 1950, we gave our self a constitution. The definition of nationhood was made. This one was unique. There are nations defined by religion (Israel, Pakistan), language (Bangladesh), common culture (Bhutan) and so on. This one had four major language families itself, numerous religions, and different cultures, yet it stood as one country. There is no nation like us. A continent packed in a country. Saare Jahaan se Achchha.
The following is a speech I wrote for my friend Rakesh who was to give it at the Institute of Maritime Studies, Goa where he is studying.
My Dear friends, Fellow countrymen, Proud Indians,
Today we celebrate the 60th Republic day of India.
Many of us do not know the importance of this day.
We got our independence in 1947, but the head of the state was George VI, the King of England
India did not have a president. She did not have a constitution
It was only on 26th January 1950 that the Union of India, became the Sovereign Democratic Republic of India.
My dear brothers,
When this country was born, when this nation was in her youth,
the world wrote her obituary.
They proclaimed, the experts of the west and east shouted out loud..
that this nation will not last... that India will disintegrate into a hundred pieces
that she will become a military dictatorship.. or that she will become a religious state...
they could not imagine how India a country of a million gods, a thousand languages, a hundred religions, exist as one nation..
But in spite of their predictions, India survived
Not only did she survive, she thrived,
she blossomed into the greatest nation in the world.
When she was young and when the world was divided into blocs of the cold war
she found non alignment.
We have the third largest army in the world, but we are the most non-violent.
Four world religions were born here, but India did not become a Hindu Pakistan, she remained a secular nation
Today she is a economic power... tomorrow she will be the next superpower
J B S Haldane the biologist called this country 'the closest approximation of the free world'
(and he became a Indian citizen also)
The reason she stands like a goddess before you,
is that when in need, her sons have stood up in her honour
Men like Bhagat Singh who when martyred was younger than most of us here now,
Men like Gandhi who soft in words, was hard in resolve
Men like Azad and Tagore and Bose stood up for her freedom
Men like Nehru and Ambedkar and Patel stood up for a modern republic
Men like Sam Manekshaw, J F R Jacob, and Jagjit Singh Aurora stood up in times of war
Men like Abdul Kalam and Satyajit Ray made her proud
If India remains more than a geographical entity or an economy,
it was only because her sons and daughters stood up for her.. shed tears, sweat, and blood
Our ancestors, our political leaders, our soldiers, our peasants
all lived and died for this nation, the idea of India...
Today my friends we are about to inherit this legacy..
But can we make her proud.. Can be we worthy of being her children
Will there be another Bhagat Singh, Gandhi, or Nehru among us..
My fellow Indians, when India was young and vulnerable
there were men and women to see their dream of a great nation come true
Today we have a responsibility, a duty and right, our dharma
of keeping alive the flame and spirit of a 59 year old republic and a 5000 year old civilization
I have a humble request to all of you, to take a silent sacred pledge
to keep the dream and idea of a free India pure, without falling to the ills of communalism and corruption and cowardice.
Jai Hind
