Independence Day
Pakistan’s birthday is on the same day as that of India. On Friday, 15th August 1947, The Daily Telegraph reported this momentous occasion in its London issue with the headline, “India is Now Two Dominions. Power Transferred at Midnight”. The column opens with, “The Dominions of India (Hindustan) and Pakistan came into being at midnight Delhi time (7.30 B.S.T last night) and British rule in the whole of India came to an end after 163 years.”.
Quaid-e Azam’s Public Speech
In his address to the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-e Azam) confirms this date, “It is with feelings of greatest happiness and emotion that I send you my greetings. August the fifteenth is the birthday of the independent and sovereign state of Pakistan”.
Legally a State
The date for independence,15th August 1947 is recorded in the Indian Independence Act, 1947, which states “As from the fifteenth of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan.
My interest in getting Pakistan’s accurate birth date is for astrological purposes. Although I’m curious about the change in our Independence day to 14th August, much more intriguing is how the actual date 15th August was chosen. Another statement that struck me as very odd in the Daily Telegraph news item, is that “every member of the Constituent Assembly in New Delhi took a pledge after the last stroke of midnight.” That at midnight the partition became legally effective is understandable but for the entire Indian official cohort to have gathered in the parliament for this event at midnight obviously means that the time factor was critical for the inaugural. At least, that is, for the Indians. In Pakistan’s capital, Karachi, no such official ceremony took place at midnight of fifteenth August 1947.
The Choice of the Date
Left to right: Nehru, Hastings, Mountbatten & Jinnah (3rd June 1947)
It was Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of British India who spontaneously came up with 15th August when asked about the date for the partition at a press conference on 4th June 1947. His response surprised both Nehru and Jinnah and especially since it gave them less than73 days to the countdown for distribution of assets, division of defence forces, and so much more for the transfer of power between the two new states. Apparently, even the House of Commons, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace were shocked by Mountbatten’s whimsical abrupt announcement. How did he come up with this date? Simply because 15th August was his ‘lucky date’. Two years ago in 1945, exactly on this date 15th August, Mountbatten as the Commander of the Allied Forces accepted the Japanese surrender bringing an end to the second world war. After blurting out 15th August, Mountbatten refused to change it. Churchill later accused him for ‘killing two million Indian’ because of this reckless decision to partition India sooner than the promised date which was tentatively to be sometime closer to mid-1948.
The Hindu astrologers were very upset with Mountbatten’s dateline for the partition. Fifteenth August 1947 was a Friday which was an unfavourable day for the creation of a country. The Hindu astrologers pressed Nehru to get the date changed. But Mountbatten would not budge. So the Hindus knowing that this wasn’t going anywhere then tried negotiating with Mountbatten to let them decide the hour of the partition.
Midnight, Fifteenth of August Nineteen Forty-seven
The Hindu astrologers proposed 12 am on 15th August 1947 which Nehru got approved from the British authorities. When the clock struck twelve harkening 15th August, while the whole of the subcontinent had been sent into turmoil, the Indian Parliamentarians gathered in New Delhi to listen to Nehru’s speech on the ‘Tryst with Destiny’. At the last stroke of midnight, the conch shell was blown and a chant invoking Hindu deities resounded in the hall. India was officially born at midnight on 15th August 1947 with its capital New Delhi. One by one, the Indian officials made their solemn pledges to dedicate themselves to their country.
At midnight, thousand kilometres south-west of Delhi, in Karachi, Pakistan’s new capital there were no formal celebrations but this first day of Pakistan’s existence was nonetheless, supremely auspicious for the Muslims. It had a divine imprint. Midnight, 15th August was the ‘Night of Power’ (Shab-e Qadar)the holiest of the holy nights — 27th Ramadan in the year 1366 Hijra. And when the clock struck twelve, it ushered in the last Friday (jumat ul-wida) of this sacred month which for Muslims held special blessings. Even Jinnah in his inaugural speech highlighted that Pakistan’s birthday coincided with Jumat ul-wida.
The point of this post is to remind ourselves of the original date of Pakistan’s foundation. From astrological and numerological perspectives, the actual date and day hold special significance. These are keys to understanding the fate and destiny of a nation. It is true that on 15th August 1947, planetary alignments were tense and predicted grave turbulence, to say the least. The two countries were off to a challenging start. The Hindu astrologers, knowing the nature of the storms ahead, set to find the eye of hurricane – the window which could mitigate the affilictions portended by the current celestial configurations. This window opened at midnight on Friday, 15th August 1947.
Coming next … Pakistan’s Horoscope for 15th August 1947, Karachi, 00:00.