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Republic Day and Purna Swaraj
By Willy | January 26, 2010
Today is Republic Day in India, which celebrates the official adoption of the constitution on this day 60 years ago, which officially made the country a secular democratic republic. The date was planned to fall on the 20th anniversary of India’s first “Independence Day” in 1930, when Indians loyal to the Indian National Congress took the oath of Purna Swaraj. The oath, written mainly by Gandhi, declared the goal of the Congress to be Purna Swaraj (complete independence) from the British Raj. It was voted on just before midnight on New Year’s Eve 1929 by the Congress session in Lahore. Taking the Purna Swaraj oath was an exciting and memorable experience for many Indians, but it would be more than 17 years before India actually became independent.
(Read the full text of the Purna Swaraj declaration.)
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