The Red Fort –The Site For India’s Independence Day Celebrations

-- Freya Sara Vino, 6-E, United Indian School

Sunday, August 2, 2020

The Red Fort remains one of the most iconic representations of anti-colonial resistance and India’s Independence Day celebrations. The Red Fort was constructed by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1638-1649, derives its name from its massive red sandstone walls, represented the political and cultural grandeur of the Mughal empire.

In January 1944 the Azad Hind Fauj or the Indian National Army (INA) shifted their headquarters to Rangoon in Burma. Subhash Chandra Bose, the ‘Netaji’ of the Indian National Army (INA) created a sensation with the war cry march Chalo Dilli (March to Delhi) also invoked both the emperor and the Red Fort and was linked to the idea of the recapture of the fort. The INA trials, also known as the Red Fort Trials, refer to the courts-martial of a number of officers of the Indian National Army. The first was held between November and December in 1945 in Red Fort.

According to historian Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, there were many factors behind the mass upsurge, including the fact that the trial took place at the Red Fort, which appeared to be the “most authentic symbol of British imperial domination”- it was the place where the last Mughal emperor and the acclaimed leader of the 1857 revolt was tried and exiled.

Finally, in August 1947, the first prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru raised the Indian national flag above Lahori gate. Nehru’s speech made a special mention of Netaji, regretting his absence on the occasion.

It is a site where the past and present coalesced to mark newly independent nation’s step towards the future. Since 1947, on every Independence Day, successive prime ministers hoist the national flag here and addressed the nation from the rampart adjacent to the Lahori Gate.

Freya Sara Vino, 6-E, United Indian School