August 15 is the greatest day in Indian history, and it will be celebrated with the usual pomp this time around as well. After almost 200 years of the Colonial rule, India achieved its independence from  the British Raj on August 15, 1947.

Every year on August 15, flag hoisting ceremonies and cultural programmes take place in every Indian city. The Red Fort in New Delhi is the centre of attraction with the Prime Minister addressing the nation.

Every office, public or private, remains closed in India on August 15.  Many government offices are lit up and on television, Independence Day related programmes are run through the day. In schools and colleges throughout the country, students and teaching staff organise the flag hoisting ceremonies and sing India's national anthem.
 
According to Pratibha Patil, President of India, the significance of the Independence Day in the life of a country is of an immense value much more than mere commemorating of the anniversary of a nation's
 assumption of independent statehood.
 
 
She said, "However, the pride of independence and sovereignty has been held in high esteem in the following years. There have been the onslaughts of China and the two wars with Pakistan that paralyzed the national economy badly, yet we have been able to carry forward without a single hesitation.

Jawaharlal Nahru In his "tryst with destiny" speech at midnight on August 14/15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru used the phrase "not wholly or in full measure" to describe India's attainment of freedom.
 
Even a year earlier, virtually none of them and a vast majority in what is today three nations - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - could have imagined that the Indian subcontinent will not remain united. Nor could the British if only because they felt that the main achievement of their imperial mission was to unite India as never before since the time of the Mauryan empire in the pre-Christian era.

As these unrequited hopes and fervent expectations show, the independence of India was not quite the joyous event because of the end of colonial rule as the later generations have come to believe,  but one marked by uncertainty and sadness. The reason is that partition negated the very concept of India, as described in the Vishnu Purana of the Vedic Age: *"Uttaram yat samudrasya/Himadreschaiva daskshinam,/Varsham tad Bharatam
nama/Bharati yatra santatih."* (The country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bharata; for there dwell the descendants of Bharata.)
 
Rajendra Prasad, who was to be India's first president, reflected this idea of India when he said: "India, which was made by god and nature to be one, which culture and tradition and history of millenniums have made one, is divided today ... Let us hope and pray that the day will come when even those who have insisted upon and brought about this division will realise India's essential oneness and we shall be united once again."
 
India can be proud, therefore, that it acted as an agent of monumental historical change in the last century. Now, its multicultural democracy can act as a similar source of inspiration to all as a model of governance.