india republic day today 26 january 2008 , i am proud , i am an indian.....

The independent republic of India is officially born today, after nearly 100 years of British rule.

A public holiday has been declared throughout the country, and millions of people have been celebrating with processions and ceremonies to hoist the new flag of India for the first time.

India has been running her own affairs since the actual transfer of power from British to Indian hands on 15 August 1947.

But today's ceremonies mark the cutting of her last ties to Britain. India's first president has been sworn in, replacing the King as the country's head of state, and the new constitution ratified.

ORIGIN OF REPUBLIC DAY IN INDIA

When India gained independence, the country was lost in a world preoccupied with the destruction brought about by the Second World War. All of a sudden, we were responsible for everything we did. Piggy-backing on another country's mistakes would no longer work. The Indian National Congress in those days could effectively speak for the people of India, but it was not an elected body. There was not even a constitution to guide us.

The Indian Constituent Assembly met on December 9, 1946. The Assembly appointed a number of committees to report on the various aspects of the proposed constitution. The Indian Constitution was finalised with 395 Articles and eight Schedules, and was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949. The Indian Republic officially came into being on January 26, 1950.

January 26 was not some random date picked out of the calendar. It was on this date in 1927, that the Indian National Congress, then fighting its non-violent war for freedom, voted for complete independence as against 'dominion status'. It was the date when members of the INC took the pledge to work towards a 'sovereign democratic republic' of India.

After the Constitution was written and adopted on November 1949, January 26 the following year was chosen as the day when India would finally arrive as a nation, complete with the lengthiest and the most detailed constitution in the world. With this, Republic Day became the most important day in the history of India. Indeed, India had become a geographical entity on August 15, 1947, but it was on January 26, 1950 that it became a nation in the true sense, with a constitution and elected representatives of the people.

REPUBLIC DAY OF INDIA 26 january

Republic Day is India's great national festival. It is celebrated every year on January 26, in New Delhi with great pomp and pageant and in capitals of the States, as well as at other headquarters and important places with patriotic fervour.

It was the Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress at midnight of December 31, 1929 - January 1, 1930, that the Tri-Colour Flag was unfurled by the nationalists and a pledge taken that every year on January 26, the "Independence Day" would be celebrated and that the people would unceasingly strive for the establishment of a Sovereign Democratic Republic of India. The professed pledge was successfully redeemed on 26 January, 1950, when the Constitution of India framed by the Constituent Assembly of India came into force, although the Independence from the British rule was achieved on August 15, 1947.