How many knows why and how this and date and midnight was chosen? When struggle of Independence was so intensified in 1940, When Subhash Chander ji’s aggression was at peak, why it took so long. Let us look into each of the above and find out the answers.
Why 1947?
The awakening of masses by Gandhi ji and the activities of Bose behind the scenes, which had intensified during 1940s, were cause of concern for the British. Just after World War II in 1945 the financial position of England was very weak; it was almost on the verge of bankruptcy. They were struggling to rule their own country, let alone their colonies. So, they made up their mind to free colonies like India. Lord Wavell initiated talks with Indian leaders for Indian Independence. Despite several disagreements and disruptions, momentum was gaining. In Feb 1947, Lord Mountbatten was appointed as the last viceroy of India to take charge of the transfer of power. Initially June 1948 was decided for transferring of power from England to India
Immediately after taking over charge in Feb 1947, Lord Mountbatten had begun series of talks with Indian leaders for a consensus, due to conflicts between Jinnah & Nehru on the matter of partition. Jinnah’s demand for a separate nation had instigated large scale communal disturbances across India. (This was certainly expected by Mountbatten as his policy was to weaken India.) In such circumstances he decided to pre-pone the date of independence by almost a year, from 1948 to 1947.
Why 15th Aug?
It was Lord Mountbatten who had personally decided the date of Aug 15 because he had considered that date to be very lucky for him. During the World War II, it was on Aug 15, 1945 the Japanese Army had surrendered before him (Lord Mountbatten was the commander of the allied forces).
Why midnight?
When the date of independence was decided and announced to public, there was an outrage among astrologers across the country because 15-Aug-1947 was an “unfortunate & unholy” date according to astrological calculations. Alternative dates were suggested but Lord Mountbatten was adamant on his lucky date, Aug 15. The compromised formula, astrologers suggested was the midnight between Aug 14 and 15 due to the simple reason that the day according to English starts at 12 AM, but according to Hindu calendar, starts at sunrise. Astrologers had insisted that the speech of acknowledgement of transfer of power be done within the 48 minutes in “Abhijeet Muhurta” between 11:51pm & 12:39am. Nehru had to deliver a speech only within that timeframe and an additional constraint was that the speech had to end by 12 AM, so that the holy conch (Shanka) is blown to herald the birth of a new nation at the stroke of midnight hour, and the rest is history. Nehru chose to give his famous 'Tryst with destiny' speech (first after independence in Parliament) in English and not Hindi or Hindustani. The number of English speakers and its influence has only increased after the British left.
-Adarsh Mehandru
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