January 26th, Republic Day! What’s that ???

January 26th, 2009, sometime between 2pm and 4pm was considered an in auspicious time due to solar eclipse. My mom's advice was not to venture out anywhere between 2pm and 4pm; with no intention to hurt her sentiments I decided to kill the time by watching TV.

One of the leading TV channels was conducting a survey figuring out what new India thinks of January 26th. It was not only surprising but also sheer apathy as hardly anyone could correctly answer what was January 26th. The same India even had some interesting guesses like Independence day, festival, some government holiday etc etc. This is the same India which jams the cellular network with tons of smses wishing family and friends on every occasion from festivals to birthday to Valentine day to Friendship Day to New Year’s Eve. Indian’s across the world celebrate Independence and Republic day with great joy but here in India most don’t know what January 26th, is and why is it celebrated.

India gained its independence on August 15th, 1947 but we still followed completely or some modified laws of the British constitution. On August 29th, 1947, a drafting committee was formed under the chairmanship of Dr. B.R Ambedkar to prepare a permanent constitution. The committee met in public for 166 days before adopting the constitution and was passed by the majority of the members on January 24th, 1950 and two days later the constitution of India became the law of all the Indian land.

Critics world over thought that India as a Republic would fail as it would not be possible to apply the law of the land for such a vast country with so much diversity among culture, religion, caste, sub caste & language. In the same breadth there were also few great men who considered that India venturing into parliamentary democracy itself is the most exciting thing to happen since the beginning of time. India has not only proved the critics wrong but also demonstrated to the world that a country with so much diversification could successfully implement a free democracy.

Hence its necessary that we as Indians openly demonstrate to others what Republic day means to all of us and why it’s an important part of our life. The peace and prosperity of the country depends on the effort and sincerity of its citizens. There are many beautiful countries across the world but India is the most beautiful as you are born here. Lets work towards a brighter India.

Jai Hind