Republic Day

Origins

Republic Day marks the date on which the Constitution of India came into force, 26 January 1950, replacing the Government of India Act, 1935 as the country's governing instrument and formally converting India from a dominion under the British Crown, as it had been since independence on 15 August 1947, into a sovereign republic. The Constituent Assembly that drafted the document was formed under the 1946 Cabinet Mission Plan and first met on 9 December 1946, with Rajendra Prasad as its president; a seven-member Drafting Committee chaired by B. R. Ambedkar prepared the text over nearly three years of debate across eleven sessions. The Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949 — a date now separately observed as Constitution Day (Samvidhan Divas) — before it took legal effect two months later.

The date of 26 January was chosen deliberately: it was the anniversary of the Purna Swaraj ("complete independence") resolution passed at the Indian National Congress's Lahore session in December 1929, under which 26 January 1930 was proclaimed and observed nationwide as a symbolic Independence Day in the years before actual independence was achieved in 1947.

The Constitution

The document that took effect that day was, at adoption, the longest written constitution of any sovereign country, running to 395 articles and eight schedules in its original form (it has been amended and reorganized many times since). It drew deliberately on multiple precedents: the parliamentary system of government from Britain, a set of justiciable fundamental rights modeled partly on the United States Bill of Rights, non-justiciable Directive Principles of State Policy adapted from the Irish constitution, and the federal administrative structure inherited largely from the Government of India Act, 1935. It declared India a "sovereign democratic republic" (later amended in 1976 to add "socialist" and "secular") and, unusually for the period, granted universal adult suffrage from the outset rather than phasing it in.

First observance

On 26 January 1950, Rajendra Prasad was sworn in as independent India's first President, and the first Republic Day parade was held at the Irwin Amphitheatre in Delhi, a ground now known as the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. Indonesian President Sukarno attended as the first chief guest, establishing a tradition — continued in most years since — of inviting a foreign head of state or government to the ceremony as a marker of India's diplomatic relationships. The parade moved to its now-familiar route along Rajpath (renamed Kartavya Path in 2022) in 1955.

The parade and observances

The annual parade features the President's arrival, the unfurling of the national flag, a march-past by regiments of the army, navy, air force, and paramilitary forces, cultural tableaux representing India's states, union territories, and central ministries, and bravery awards presented to citizens, including children, for acts of courage. Successive governments have used the occasion to display current military hardware, from tanks and missile systems to fighter aircraft, which close the parade with a ceremonial flypast.

The full round of celebrations concludes three days later, on 29 January, with the Beating Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk. The ceremony derives from a centuries-old military tradition, adopted by the Indian armed forces from British practice, in which troops were recalled from the battlefield at sunset; India has staged it as the formal close of Republic Day observances since the 1950s, with massed military bands performing, traditionally including the hymn "Abide with Me," reported to have been a favorite of Mahatma Gandhi's, briefly dropped from the program in 2020 amid public feedback and reinstated in 2022, before the flag is lowered.

Notable chief guests over the decades have included Queen Elizabeth II (1961), President Barack Obama of the United States (2015, the first sitting US president to attend), and, in 2018, the heads of state or government of all ten ASEAN nations together, marking a departure from the usual single-guest format. No chief guest attended in some years for political or public-health reasons, including 2021, when the invited British prime minister withdrew amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Notable firsts

Women have taken on increasingly prominent roles in the parade's military contingents: Captain Tania Shergill became the first woman to lead an all-male marching contingent, the Corps of Signals, at the 2020 parade, and Lieutenant Bhavana Kasturi led an Army Service Corps contingent in 2019.