August 15 is Indian Independence Day.
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. 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, Independence Day, 1947
Listen to Nehru's speech
Listen to the National anthem (instrumental)
Read the words (with translation) -- by Rabindranath Tagore
Listen to patriotic songs by Tamil composers A. R. Rahman and Ilayaraja - maybe! I couldn't get the player to work, but the songs are good, so I threw this in anyway.
Send ecards on Indpendence Day
here and here and here.
(I copied the photograph above from a newspaper before I started blogging. Sorry I don't have an attribution for it. And BTW, they're cheering the Indian cricket team during the World Cup -- but I love the picture.)
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