Happy Independence Day India!

Okay, so I'm a few days late writing this, but Friday was India's Independence Day. At midnight on August 14, 1947 India and Pakistan gained their independence from Britain (interestingly the midnight hour allows India and Pakistan to celebrate their independence on different days - India on the 15th and Pakistan on the 14th). The country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, began to rule along with the presence of the British as a Governor General, until a constitution could be written and adopted in 1950 and the Republic of India officially came into existence as the world's largest democracy (and now I know why India celebrates both and Independence day and a Republic day). Independence day is celebrated with flag hoisting ceremonies, colorful decorations and a speech by the current prime minister. However, it is the words of Nehru, that truly celebrate what this day means to India:

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again."               -Jawaharlal Nehru