Indian Independence Day

Very few countries can trace roots in time stretching back before history was even recorded. The Indian Sub-Continent shows traces of human activity as far back as 400,000BC according to this website. Archaeologists have found implements in several areas which reinforce this.

In it's relatively recent history (since the mid 1700s), India was "ruled" by many countries, most notably the British. In common with the United States and many other countries in the world which were formally part of "The Empire" they wanted to be independent. I have done some research on the subject and it would seem that in India this movement started in 1857, and eventually was officially successful on 15th August, 1947. This site does a good job of summarising the events, leading up to Independence, and this site gives a lot of detail around the initial 1857 mutiny.

I wont go into a lot of detail here, as there are many websites that can tell it much better than I, but the momentum really started to gather after the 1st World War, starting in 1918-1922 with civil disobedience, moving through the 20s, 30s and ultimately leading to an all out revolt in 1942. India was finally successful in 1947, but not before the country was divided into India and Pakistan, a situation to this day, which causes angst in that region of the world.

As I continue to work with people from Gurgaon, and I prepare for my visit there this fall, I find the Indian people to be an interesting mix of very traditional people, still believing in arranged marriages and other such ancient traditions and a newer breed of more cosmopolitan people with more "western" values and mindsets, I guess for a large part driven by the burgeoning IT and Outsourcing industry built by large, mostly American, corporate enterprises.

Wikipedia has, as always much more detail if you are interested, as does this site. Click here to learn the history of their flag, and check out the national anthem here.

Happy Independence Day India!