New Delhi:
Huge tri-colour-themed banners have been put up along the Kartavya Path while the theme for this year’s tableaux that would roll down the boulevard where the annual Republic Day celebrations take place is ‘Swarnim Bharat: Virasat aur Vikas’, focusing on 75 years of the enactment of the Constitution.
However, the maiden celebrations marking the birth of the Republic of India were not held on Rajpath (now Kartavya Path), the historical avenue that has over time become synonymous with the ceremony. It was held in the 1930s-era Irwin Amphitheatre after the country got its first president.
Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, was the chief guest at India’s first Republic Day celebrations in 1950. And 75 years later, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will be the chief guest at this year’s ceremonial parade which will also see the participation of a marching contingent and a band contingent from that country.
Iconic public buildings, parks and railway stations dazzled with lights on the night of January 26, 1950, turning the capital city into a “fairyland”.
Fauji Akhbar (now Sainik Samachar), in its February 4 article ‘Birth of a Republic’, said, “At the most solemn ceremony, held in the brilliantly lit and high domes of Durbar Hall at Government House, India was declared a Sovereign Democratic Republic exactly at 18 minutes past 10 on the morning of Thursday, January 26, 1950. Six minutes later, Dr Rajendra Prasad was sworn in as president.” “The birth of the Indian Republic and the installation of its first president were announced by a salute of 31 guns shortly after 10:30 am,” it reported.
In an impressive swearing-in ceremony, retiring Governor-General C Rajagopalachari read out the proclamation of the Republic of “India, that is, Bharat”.
“And whereas it has been declared by the said Constitution that India, that is, Bharat, shall be a Union of States comprising within the Union the territories which were hitherto the Governor’s provinces, the Indian states and the Chief Commissioners’ provinces,” the military journal had quoted the last Governor-General’s speech.
The president then took the oath and made a brief speech, first in Hindi and then in English.
“Today, for the first time in our long and chequered history we find the whole of this vast land from Kashmir in the north to Cape Comorin in the South, from Kathiawad and Kutch in the west to Coconada and Kamrup in the east, brought together under the jurisdiction of one Constitution and one Union, which takes over the responsibility for the welfare of more than 320 million men and women that inhabit it,” President Prasad said in his historic speech.
The country erupted in celebration soon after Prasad was sworn in as India’s first President.
The elegant exposed-brick structure of the Irwin Amphitheatre, topped with cupolas above its main facade, was later redeveloped into the National Stadium. Its front lawns served as the venue of a National School Band Competition held ahead of the 76th Republic Day celebrations on January 24-25. PTI visited this historic landmark ahead of this year’s celebrations.
According to a marble plaque installed on its wall, the Irwin amphitheatre was built in 1933 as a gift from the then Maharaja of Bhavnagar who donated Rs 5 lakh for its construction and was opened by the then viceroy Lord Willingdon.
The amphitheatre was named after the former Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, who had inaugurated the new British capital New Delhi in February 1931 during his viceroyalty.
Designed by Robert Torr Russell, also the architect of the iconic Connaught Place in central Delhi, the amphitheatre was renamed the National Stadium in 1951 just before the Asian Games was hosted.
According to another plaque installed in another portion of the building, the foundation stone of the National Sports Stadium was laid by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Prime Minister of India on January 19, 1950, just a week before the first Republic Day celebrations were held at the venue.
About the first Republic Day celebrations, the over 100-year-old Fauji Akhbar had said, “The president drove out of the Government House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) in state exactly at 2:30 pm in a 35-year-old coach specially renovated for the occasion bearing the new emblem of Asoka’s capital and drawn by six sturdy Australian horses, at a slow trot, escorted by the president’s bodyguard.” As the procession made its way through the Irwin Amphitheatre, chants of “jai” echoed through the streets with cheers of people perched on trees, building roofs and every possible vantage point. The people’s president, as he would come to be known later in his office, responded to the joyous greetings of the gathered masses with warmth and folded hands.
“The drive ended exactly at 3:45 pm at the Irwin Amphitheatre where 3,000 officers and men of the three Armed Services of India and the police with massed bands had taken positions for the ceremonial parade,” reported the article.
The amphitheatre, housing 15,000 people, witnessed one of the most magnificent military parades in India’s recent history.
The venue was beautifully decked up and the stands were filled with people in their sartorial best. Seven massed bands, representing the three armed forces and the police regaled the spectators, while units of the forces and native contingents and regiments added colour and precision to the solemn occasion.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)