Independence Day 2022: how and why August 15 was chosen as D-day for India

August 15, a day we Indians celebrate our independence from the shackles of colonial rule. Have you ever wondered why this particular date was chosen as D-day for India? You must be thinking that there’s some grand story behind it, probably something to do with the decades-long freedom struggle of India.

Sorry to disappoint you, but our date of independence is deeply rooted in colonialism, related to World War II, and was left at the discretion of one man – Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India.

In fact, many astrologers at the time had flagged August 15 as an inauspicious date for India which is why the country’s Constituent Assembly met at 11 pm on August 14, 1947, to celebrate independence. Hence, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous “Tryst with destiny” speech wherein he says, “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”

But all hail Lord Mountbatten!

He was appointed by the British parliament to oversee the transfer of power to India by June 30, 1948. But communal disturbances in the country prompted him to pre-pone the year of independence to 1947. At that time, Mountbatten claimed that by advancing the date, he was ensuring that there would be no bloodshed. But he was to be proven wrong.

Based on Mountbatten’s inputs, the Indian Independence Bill was introduced in the British House of Commons on July 4, 1947, and passed on July 18 paving the way for the end of the British rule in India, on August 15, 1947. This date was chosen as Lord Mountbatten considered it to be a ‘lucky day’ for him. Why, because it was on this date in 1945 that the Japanese Army surrendered to the Allies during World War II.

Mountbatten was quoted as saying in the non-fiction book Freedom at Midnight, “The date I chose came out of the blue. I chose it in reply to a question (in the British parliament). I was determined to show I was master of the whole event. When they asked had we set a date, I knew it had to be soon. I hadn’t worked it out exactly then — I thought it had to be about August or September and I then went out to the 15th August. Why? Because it was the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender.”