Innamburan Pages: 15 August 1947

Innamburan Pages: 15 August 1947

Indian Independence Act 1947

1947 CHAPTER 30 10 and 11 Geo 6

An Act to make provision for the setting up in India of two independent Dominions, to substitute other provisions for certain provisions of the Government of India Act 1935, which apply outside those Dominions, and to provide for other matters consequential on or connected with the setting up of those Dominions
[18th July 1947]

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/10-11/30

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Page last updated at 08:46 GMT, Friday, 15 August 2008 09:46 UK When  History turns her pages and finds herself, to her and our pleasant surprise, on an exciting new chapter, claimants rush to claim their hour of glory, as did the rhetoric of the Atlantic Charter, as we saw yesterday. President Roosevelt is attributed that honour. Actually way back, President Woodrow Wilson made a similar plea Great Britain, which was obsessed with her imperial ambitions. Wilson's conscience was troubled by a letter from Sir S.Subramania Iyer, surreptitiously delivered to him by a theosophist. That letter bemoaned the arrest of Annie Besant by the colonial government for her vigorous Home Rule movement and sought the good will interceding by USA with Great britain for early liberation of India. Actually, the Indian National Congress, which spearheaded the Independence Movement, was born in  a meeting in Madras, with Sir S.Subramania Iyer in the chair with Sir Alan Octavian Hiume in tow. This was followed by a meeting in Bombay, with Hume in the chair, when the template were drawn. We had friends like Kingsley Martin, Fenner Brockway in Great Britain. Kingsley Martin's New Statesman Lunch is a monthly event looked forward to. In one meeting, Jawaharlal Nehru, the freedom fighter was the chief guest and a gentleman quietly attending the meeting from an obscure corner was  Clement Attlee, who was to pilot the Bill which got enacted as the Indian Independence Act 1947. It is strange, but, true, the mind of the Indian Public in distant shores was reflected by the British Parliament. Not surprisingly, India and Great Britain had come closer at this historic moment to such an extent that our first Governor General was a Britisher and India chose to remain in the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the Indian Nation was partitioned; the accompanying violence and trauma is still a blot on all of us. This is the time for us to introspect on our failings with humility and on our patriot-forefathers like Lokmanya Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal ( known as the Bal-Lal-Pal Trinity and a host of others ranging from Gokale, Mahatma Gandhi, Rajaji, Sardar Patel, Chittaranjan Das, Nethaji Subhas Chandra Bose and countless many. We pay a humble tribute to them and vow to tell our children about them. Personal reminisces are in order at this stage. I was a High School student that day at Pudukkottai; none of our houses had the luxury of a radio, those days. We gathered in the street corner junction of East Main Road and North Main Road, opposite Brindavan Cafe, who had mounted a loud speaker and a large crowd of us heard with reverence laced with affection, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru about our tryst with Destiny. the Cafe plied us with coffee and sweets. We all returned home in a spell of euphoria, which lasted till the morning; we did not sleep, but went on dreaming about India and her future.