India, Pakistan Independence Day celebrations: As different as chalk and cheese
Declared a national holiday, Pakistan's Independence Day – or Yaum-i-Azadi - on August 14 takes place in capital Islamabad, where the national flag is hoisted at the Presidential and Parliament buildings. It is followed by the national anthem and live televised speeches by leaders.
The usual celebratory events and festivities for the day include flag-raising ceremonies, parades, cultural events, and the playing of patriotic songs, combined with several award-giving ceremonies.
As in India, Pakistanis hoist the national flag atop their homes or display it prominently on their vehicles and their attires, amid much joy and fanfare.
Might as well be India's own Swantantra Divas, in the eyes of a casual observer, except for the flavour.
"Things are pretty much the same, but unlike India, in Pakistan, it is a feeling of otherness. It is not so much about getting independence from colonial rule as it is about the victory of partition and the greatness of the Pakistan movement,' says Vijay Nambiar, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan.
India does not celebrate Independence Day under Pakistan's shadow. For us, it is freedom from colonial rule, he told this reporter.
The founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, said as much in his first broadcast to the nation: "August 15 is the birthday of the independent and sovereign state of Pakistan. It marks the fulfilment of the destiny of the Muslim nation, which made great sacrifices in the past few years to have its homeland."
The date of Pakistan's Independence Day was not always sacrosanct. The first commemorative postage stamps of the country, released in July 1948, give August 15, 1947, as Pakistan's Independence Day. However, in subsequent years August 14 was adopted as Independence Day.
Early in 1947, Britain's Labour government appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as the last Viceroy of India. He was charged with the responsibility of overseeing the transfer of power from British control to Indian hands.
This transfer was initially fixed for not later than June 1948. But increasing communal violence and worsening law and order compelled Mountbatten to advance the date to August 1947 with a view to hastening the British withdrawal.
According to Partition Studies, Mountbatten noted Jinnah's adamant refusal to accept anything less than a separate Pakistan, even with loose or firm ties to India, making the break inevitable.
Mountbatten administered the independence oath to Jinnah on August 14, before leaving for India where the oath was scheduled on the midnight of the 15th. In addition, the night of August 14–15, 1947, coincided with 27 Ramadan 1366 of the Islamic calendar, regarded as sacred by Muslims.
Mountbatten - or Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma - later revealed that he selected August 15 in part simply because it happened to be the second anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II, a date which represented the conclusion of imperial conflict and not nationalist jubilation.
Naturally, in the circumstances leading up to the Independence and vivisection, Pakistan could not have observed August 15 as the most important day in the country's life.
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