Date: 11/11/2000
Significance of 14/15 August (India's Day of Independence/Partition).
The more I think about it, the more I learn about India's Independence and Partition.
Here is something quite interesting. That is, the significance (read 'total, complete lack of any significance) of the day of India's independence: August 15, 1947.
Questions come to mind... How was this date decided. I've read many articles on this and the best reason I could come across was that "somehow" the British decided that India would be granted Independence on August 15, 1947.
I do not know of any of the then leaders having any significance attached to Aug 15, 1947. This date was not any dead freedom fighter's, an ancient hero's or a divine "avatar's" birth or death anniversary. One astrologer has even mentioned that Aug 15, 1947 was a day on which total solar eclipse took place. But I haven't found any references to this.
As per the vedic lunar calendar, this day was Krishna Trayodhashi. I am not very sure of this, but it seems to be ShraavaNa Krishna Trayodhashi. And we all know that ShraavaNa Krishna Ashtami was when Srikrishna was born. So how Aug 15, 1947 was chosen when the biginning of "Janmaashtami" was only 5 days earlier. Or why not Bhaadrapad Shukla Paksha Chathurthi which is "GanEsha Chathurthi"? Things don't seem to add up.
On the other hand, is there any significance of Aug 14th, 1947?
Sure, that is the day Pakistan was granted independence.
What was the significance of Aug 14th, 1947? Well, two events: Firstly, it was the date two years earlier, in 1945, when Japan agreed to sign unconditional surrender after Second World War. And secondly, it was the first anniversary of August 14th, 1946, the day when the leader of Indian Muslims, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, gave the call for "Direct Action" to lend force, through violence, bloodhsed and savage terror, to his demand for the Partition of India.
What was "Direct Action Day"? It was the day on which Mohd. Ali Jinnah appealed to his fellow Muslims to show the British Government that the Muslims of India could not live together with Hindus. And this was to done by slitting the throats of innocent Hindus in Noakhali District of Bengal, by looting, and setting fire to their homes and shops, burning their crops, destroying their temples, and raping and mutilating their girls and women.
Maulvis and Mullahs immediately started preaching to their followers to go on the rampage, kill the Kafirs, and also taught them the procedure of gang-raping Kafir women... (all in the name of attaining 70 hauris in heaven.) Thus creating a scene of total devastation, lawlessness and political unrest, they then blamed the Hindus for every crime that they themselves had committed.
One year from then the Indian Muslims would get a separate nation called Pakistan. So, Pakistan was to be first to gain independence. The British must have thought, "Job well done. Now what?"
They had already looted 3 ship-loads full of gold from Kolar goldfields, diamonds from Red Fort, and the all the gold and precious stones from Taj Mahal. Koh-i-Noor was already long gone to Britain. So nothing else was there for the British to loot. They might as well declare India independent, too, the following day.
That makes a few things clear, doesn't it? So, it was Aug 14, 1947, that got fixed first. Aug 15, 1947 simply followed Aug 14 without any significance whatsoever. Nevertheless we Indians are mighty proud of this insignificant date.
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