Republic Day!

Republic Day!

Today is 26th Jan 2010, the date during which the constitution of India came into force, the date which is celeberated as

Republic Day, ever since 26 Jan, 1950. During this day, parades will be held in many parts of the country. The parade in New

Delhi will be visited by the leaders of the country, since it is the capital of the country, having the National Head Office there.

This year's parade was indeed a grand one. I watched the live parade on Doordarshan. I really loved it. They performed many

events, which were really enjoyable and informative. There were many 'Republic Day Special' programmes going on on the TV,

though not many when compared to last year. I found the Parade eye-catching. Republic Day is always a day that brings out

the patriotism hidden in people who live in even the remotest places of the country.

Schools generally celeberate Republic Day, by organising functions, where the students would perform a march-past, some

music, and sometimes spell-binding speaches given by students or celebereties. It was really nice watching the parade, and

thinking about our country. There are indeed innumerable facts about the India, which enhance patriotism amongst people who

hear them. When we think about the various languages, the various religions, and the historical cultures and traditions that

have been followed in most of the places of the country from ancient times till date, we feel really proud to be Indians, don't we?

According to me, and Indians like me, today is more than any other festival. For me, today and Aug 15th are the best days of the

year.

26th Jan - the day when our constitution came into force

15th Aug - the day when we got our independence from the British

So far, I've been posting about what is to be done to India. In a way, it may look like critisism, though the actual motive behind

these posts is that we want to make our country a better place. Today, we need to discuss about the positive points of our mother

land, our country, our India.

It is very easy to say "India lacks this ...", "India does not have this ....", "India has too many negatives ..." etc., while it is also

easy to say "India is good in so many ways ...", "India's good points are ....", "India's specialities are ..." etc., but we hardly

praise our country. Why do we find this difficult?

Let's make it a point to praise our country, at least on these two days (Independence day and Republic Day) ...and we can

also add October 2nd, Gandhijayanthi in this list.

If we praise our country only on these three days, what do w e do during the rest of the days? We need to think of the negatives

of India, and try our best to rectify them. Certain things may not be in our hands ...but many of the problems can be rectified if

we join hands together, and work as a whole - as Indians, rather than working as people representing the state or caste, etc.

Having chosen this day to be a day to praise the country, let's discuss a bit about the freedom fighters.

Let's start with Mahatma Gandhi. He was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town in present-day Gujarat,

India. His father, Karamchand Gandhi was the diwan, i.e., the Prime Minister of Porbandar. Gandhi was a really great

soul. He believed in ahimsa, or non-violence. He started the Satyagrah movement. He lead the Dandi March, and he is known for his broad heart.

Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930. Gandhi was also the runner-up to Albert Einstein as "Person of
the Century" at the end of 1999. Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens. Nelson Mandela, the leader of
South Africa's struggle to eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, is a prominent non-Indian recipient.

Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948, including the first-
ever nomination by the American Friends Service Committee, though he made the short list only twice, in 1937 and
1947.Decades later, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided
nationalistic opinion denying the award. Gandhi was nominated in 1948 but was assassinated before nominations closed. That
year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living candidate" and later research
shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable
living candidate was to Gandhi.When the 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said
that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi."

Yes, he was indeed a great soul. He played a major role in our independence.

Motilal Nehru (Kashmiri/Hindi: मोतीलाल नेहरू) (May 6, 1861 – February 6, 1931) was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress. He was the founder patriarch of India's most powerful political family, the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Jawaharlal Nehru (Hindi: जवाहरलाल नेहरू, pronounced [dʒəʋaːɦərˈlaːl ˈneːɦruː]; 14 November 1889–27 May 1964^[1]) was an Indian statesman who was the first, and is to date the longest-serving, prime minister of India, having served from 1947 until 1964. A leading figure in the Indian independence movement, Nehru was elected by the Congress party to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, and later when the Congress won India's first general election in 1952. As one of the founders of the Non-aligned Movement, he was also an important figure in the international politics of the post-war era. He is frequently referred to as Pandit Nehru ("pandit" being a Sanskrit and Hindi honorific meaning "scholar" or "teacher") and, specifically in India, as Panditji (with "-ji" being a suffix to the honorific).

The son of a wealthy Indian barrister and politician, Motilal Nehru, Nehru became a leader of the left wing of the Indian National Congress when still fairly young. Rising to become Congress President, under the mentorship of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was a charismatic and radical leader, advocating complete independence from the British Empire. In the long struggle for Indian independence, in which he was a key player, Nehru was eventually recognized as Gandhi's political heir. Throughout his life, Nehru was also an advocate for Fabian socialism and the public sector as the means by which long-standing challenges of economic development could be addressed by poorer nations.

I was browsing for some more information about the freedom fighters, and I found http://www.whereincity.com/india/great-indians/freedom-fighters/ really informative and interesting. Please go through the website.

PS: source for words in italics: wikipedia

After reading the website (to which I've given a link), come back to this post, and read this:

I'm sure you now feel really proud to be an Indian ....after all, we belong to a nation whose history if filled with so much of great souls.

JAIHIND!