Independence Day 2021: How India celebrated August 15, 1947

Independence Day is celebrated every year on August 15 as a national holiday to commemorate the day the nation got independence from British rule on August 15, 1947 – after almost 200 years. (Image: Shutterstock)

India celebrated the first unofficial Independence Day on January 26, 1930, after the Indian National Congress promulgated the ‘Purna Swaraj Declaration’ in its 1929 Lahore session. (Image: AFP)

Independent India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru delivering the famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech on August 15, 1947, after hoisting the Indian national flag on the Lahori Gate of Red Fort. It has since become a convention for all prime ministers to hoist the flag and address the country on every Independence Day. (Image: University of Cambridge)

A photograph of the crowd gathered at Red Fort on First Independence Day in 1947. The photo was taken by India's first female photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla. (Image & info: Twitter/ indianhistorypics)

This photo taken on August 15, 1947, shows Indian citizens waiting outside the Constitution Hall where the Constituent Assembly's Session was going on (Image & info: Twitter/ Indianhistorypics)

On the eve of Independence, Mahatma Gandhi had said: “From tomorrow [15th August] we shall be delivered from the bondage of the British rule. But from midnight today, India will be partitioned too. While, therefore, tomorrow will be a day of rejoicing, it will be a day of sorrow as well. It will throw a heavy burden of responsibility upon us. Let us pray to God that He may give us strength to bear it ....” (File image)

Mahatma Gandhi himself was not in Delhi during Independence Day 1947 celebrations. He was in Bengal -- engaged in peace-keeping efforts in the strife torn state that was left ravaged by a partition made on communal lines. (Image: AP)