On the eve of Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his “Tryst with Destiny” speech. In what is considered among the greatest speeches of the 20th century, he said, “long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.”

In the run-up to independence, a handful of powerful princes devised a plan to remain independent, led by the chancellor of the chamber of princes. The Nawab of Bhopal was operating under the direct patronage of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Lord Archibald Percival Wavell and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to create a third dominion called Princesestan, along with India and Pakistan. It was planned that the 565 princely states would stay outside the ambit of the two free states and retain paramountcy under the aegis of the departing British. The success of such a plan would have made the newly independent nation unstable and vulnerable. But Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Lord Mountbatten battled the rulers of the princely states and foiled the British plan to balkanise India.

At the 1929 Lahore session of the Indian National Congress, the Purna Swaraj declaration, or “Declaration of the Independence of India” was promulgated, and January 26, 1930, was declared as Independence Day. The Congress called on people to pledge themselves to civil disobedience and “to carry out the Congress instructions issued from time to time” until India attained complete independence. Celebration of such an Independence Day was envisioned to stoke nationalistic fervour among Indian citizens, and to force the British government to consider granting independence.

Congress observed January 26 as the Independence Day between 1930 and 1946. The celebration was marked by meetings where the attendants took the “pledge of independence”. Nehru described in his autobiography that such meetings were peaceful, solemn, and “without any........

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