India @75: Revisiting history with some interesting facts about India's Independence Day

At the time of independence, India did not have an official national anthem. The song 'Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata' composed in 1911 by Rabindranath Tagore was renamed as 'Jan Gan Man' and adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India as the National Anthem on January 24, 1950.

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The Indian national flag with 3 horizontal stripes of red, yellow, and green was hoisted on August 7, 1906, at Parsee Bagan Square, Kolkata. The first variant of our current national flag was designed by Pingali Venkayya in 1921.

The current flag with saffron, white and green stripes with the 24-spoke Ashok Chakra was officially adopted on July 22, 1947, and hoisted on August 15, 1947.  

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Although the Indian Independence Act was approved on July 18, 1947, Lord Mountbatten chose August 15 as the date of India's independence as it coincided with the date of Japan's surrendering to the Allied Forces after World War II on August 15, 1945.  

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The national song 'Vande Mataram' composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was indeed part of his novel Anandamath written in the 1880s. This song was first sung by Rabindranath Tagore in 1896. Vande Mataram was adopted as the national song on January 24, 1950.

It was translated in prose by Shri Aurobindo in Karmayogin on 20 November 1909.

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The demarcation line drawn by Sir Cyril Radcliffe to depict the Pakistani and Indian portions of Punjab and Bengal, also known as the Radcliffe Line was completed on August 3, 1947. But it was officially published only on August 17, 1947, two days after India got its independence from the British.     

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Rabindranath Tagore not just penned the National Anthem of India but also our neighbouring country Bangladesh. 'Amar Sonar Bangla' was written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1905. The first 10 lines of this song were adopted as the national anthem of Bangladesh in 1971, during its liberation war. 

Sri Lankan national anthem - 'Sri Lanka Matha' words and music was deeply influenced by Tagore. The most widely held view is that Sri Lankan composer Ananda Samarakoon wrote the music and lyrics to the song inspired or influenced by Gurudev.

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