Security personnel check arrangements ahead of the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort. (Photo: PTI)India Independence Day 2021 Live Updates: President Ram Nath Kovind will deliver his Address to the Nation on Saturday, on the eve of India’s 75th Independence Day. The address will begin at 7 pm, and will be broadcast on All India Radio (AIR) and telecast on Doordarshan.
On the morning of August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unfurl the Tricolour and address the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi. This will be his eighth Independence Day address after taking the office. The speech is likely to begin at 7.30 am.
PM Modi will host this year’s Olympics contingent at the ceremony, who gave the country its record medal tally at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s ceremony will be attended by few people and will follow strict safety protocols and social distancing measures.
In his 2020 Independence Day speech, PM Modi had applauded frontline workers fighting Covid-19. He had said India was going through a unique phase owing to the pandemic, but would come out victorious, thanks to the resolve of the people. He had also highlighted the importance of a self-reliant India.
Among the list of medal awardees on the occasion of Independence Day 2021 were eight personnel of ITBP, of Galwan Valley.
On the occasion of India’s 75th Independence day, ITBP personnel, Delhi Police officers among others received a Gallantry medal for their work in their respective fields. In the list of medal awardees were- 23 ITBP personnel, 20 awarded PMG for bravery in skirmishes in eastern ladakh in May-June, 6 cops of Delhi Police.
The 75th year of India’s independence is, of course, a moment of celebration but it should not pass on with mere sloganeering, stereotyped publications, festive programmes and the exaggerated glorification of the icons and incidents from the freedom struggle. This would be a missed opportunity to reread our own history.
The occasion should be used to not only critically understand the anti-imperialist struggle, but also to know the many socio-cultural and political processes which expanded its social base. The magnitude of the history of India’s freedom movement is bigger than we know.
Rigorous and consistent efforts to unravel and interpret historical events and the forces behind them strengthen their power to deliver a message to posterity. Hegemonic writings deplete the capacity to ferret out critical ideas and make icons out of a few actors. Similarly, the institutionalisation of ideas, the only source of success in achieving India’s freedom, makes the present a prisoner of the past while obstructing the progressive evolution of thought processes.
The Indian freedom movement was a battle of ideas that gave it a sense of modernity and also the quest for its own civilisational strength, which was demonstrated by its resilience against the efforts of the European mind to culturally subjugate the people.