India will celebrate its 75th Independence Day on August 15, 2021. And while we all are adjusting to live in the new normal due to the Covid pandemic, it wouldn't dampen our spirit of honouring our great freedom fighters and love for our country. It was at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947 when India finally attained freedom from the British Raj and became an independent nation.
It is noted that while the Indian Independence Act was passed in the UK's Parliament in 1947 and the Indian Constituent Assembly received the legislative sovereignty from the-then Britisher rulers in our country, King George VI of the United Kingdom continued to be the head of the state in India. He continued to be the head till India became a complete republican constitution. Also, unfortunately, along with freedom from the British rule, Hindustan underwent partition and was divided into two countries- India and Pakistan. The partition led to riots and a displacement of over 15 million people who suffered in the year 1947.
After attaining independence on August 15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the first Prime Minister of India, hoisted the national flag at Red Fort in Delhi. Nehru then addressed the nation and since then, this has become an annual tradition which is followed by the presiding Indian Prime Minister every year. On this day, we remember all the freedom fighters who fought for India's independence for years and honour their struggles and persistence.
On the occasion of India's 75th Independence Day this year, here we share 10 quotes by famous personalities on the Indian Independence Day.
1. “Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence.” - BR Ambedkar
2. "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
- Rabindranath Tagore
3. "Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?"- Mahatma Gandhi
4. “If yet your blood does not rage, then it is water that flows in your veins. For what is the flush of youth, if it is not of service to the motherland.” - Chandra Shekhar Azad
5. “Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil me hai, dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qaatil me hai”- Ramprasad Bismil
6. “Tum Muje Khoon Do, Mai Tumhe Azadi Dunga”- Subhash Chandra Bose
7. "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it"- Bal Gangadhar Tilak
8. “It is easy to kill individuals, but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled, while the ideas survived.” — Bhagat Singh
9. "Let new India arise out of peasants' cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, cobbler and sweeper." — Swami Vivekananda
10. "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom." - Jawaharlal Nehru, Tryst with Destiny
