WHY FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT - 15.8.1947.

WHY FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT - 15.8.1947. SEVENTY YEARS NOW......

J.K. SIVAN

I was eight years old when India got freed from foreign yoke on 15.8.1947.

There are some interesting information connected with how and why we got freed on 15th August 1947 at mid night.

In 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru as Congress President. There was nationwide call for ‘Poorna Swaraj’( total independence). January 26 was chosen as the Independence Day. But we did not get. Congress Party continued to celebrate it 1930 on wards, till India attained independence and January 26, 1950 (Republic Day)

Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, was ordered by the British Parliament to transfer the power by June 30, 1948 but he advanced it to August 1947. News spread already all over the country that Freedom would be after partitioning the country into three parts East & West Pakistan and remaining India. There was blood shed and riot everywhere between Hindus and Muslims regarding partition. Mountbatten ensured that the Indian Independence Bill was introduced in the British House of Commons on July 4, 1947 and passed within a fortnight. ''I chose 15th August because it was the second anniversary of Japan's surrender'' said Mountbatten. Following the Atombomb attack at Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japanese emperor Hirohito surrendered to Britain on 15.8.45. The world war II ended.

Jinnah was the first to announce 15.8.1947 Pakistan would be free from British rule and issued a stamp. But 14.8.1947 was the 27th day of Ramadan, a sacred day for Muslims and chose freedom on 14.8.1947.

15th August 1947 according to calculations of many of our Astrologers were furious. Fridays were bad days in general, and this one was so bad, they warned, that under some calculations, August 15th lay under the Zodiac sign for Capricorn. That sign was known for its hostility to all centrifugal – pulling-apart – forces. Therefore, it was the worst possible day to do a partition. And on that day, India would be passing through the influence of Saturn, a very unlucky and unfriendly planet. So 15.8.1947 was an “unfortunate & unholy” date. Alternative dates were suggested but Lord Mountbatten refused to consider. It should be only on Aug 15 since it was his lucky date. As a workaround, the astrologers suggested the midnight hour between Aug 14 and 15 due to the simple reason that the day according to English starts at 12 AM, but according to Hindu calendar, starts at sunrise.

he astrologers had insisted that the speech of acknowledgement of transfer of power be done within the 48 minutes window (referred to as “Abhijeet Muhurta”) which lasted between 24 minutes before and after 12:15am i.e between 11:51pm & 12:39am.

So Jawaharlal Nehru delivered a speech only within that timeframe and an additional constraint was that the speech had to end by 12 AM, so that the holy conch (Shanka) be blown to herald the birth of a new nation at the stroke of midnight hour, and the rest is history.