Seventy three years ago, on August 15, 1947, India gained independence and became, with 650 million voters, the largest democracy in the world. But that did not happen without suffering.

An idea of ​​independence born with the century

In 1885 an Indian National Congress was established in Bombay. Its goal ? To help the viceroy of India to "determine the real desires of the people" and to maintain the pax britannica , the English hegemony seeming to represent the best for the country.

Autonomy of local powers, freedom of the press, everything seemed to orient the continent towards important reforms. From the 1900s and, no doubt, because of the clumsiness of the new Viceroy Lord Curzon, the Congress slipped from the idea of ​​reforms to that of autonomy of the country.

Between two wars

The First World War did not extinguish nationalist claims, quite the contrary, especially for Muslims who perceive themselves in the camp of the Turks, therefore Germans and enemies of England.

An India Act in 1919 gave India a Constitution, provincial governments and local representative assemblies (still distinguishing between Muslims and Hindus). It's still not enough.

In 1920, the Congress defined a "program of independence inside the Empire if possible, outside if necessary". Hindu lawyer Gandhi became at that time the undisputed leader of the independence movement. Advocating non-violence and the return to traditional Indian craftsmanship, he is arrested, but his word makes its way beyond the walls of English prisons.

The hopes fly away

Nehru became president of the Congress in 1929. Gandhi, released, had more and more audience. A compromise seemed possible with the British at the beginning of the 1930s, but the refusal of the Muslims of any democratic solution put it in check.

The talks only led to the awarding of a new constitution and status, making India a "federation of states". Protest of the Muslim League, which claimed in 1940 the creation of a purely Muslim state, Pakistan, in the north of the country.

The Second World War

The Congress was trying to use World War II as one more tool to achieve independence: support for the war against access to autonomy.

After incessant talks, England promised in 1942, in exchange for cooperation with the British war effort, a dominion status (like Australia or Canada) ... given after the war. This was a proposal rejected by both the Muslim League and the Congress, which blocks all deliveries to England.

Immediate postponement: all the leaders of the Congress were arrested the next day, 60 000 opponents in the six months which follow.

Towards a shared ... freedom

In 1945, the viceroy was responsible for achieving access to Indian autonomy. A provisional government is set up at the end of 1946, but the Muslim League, which claimed the participation of the country, refused to participate in it and triggers the Direct Action Day, a day that ends in Calcutta with horrible massacres of Hindus by the Muslims: 5,000 dead, 15,000 wounded. And the scene was reproduced in other cities, whole regions were found in a state close to the civil war.

Arrived in March 1947 in India, the new Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, considered it urgent to realize the autonomy of India in less than five months when he would come to build it in five years.

He would convince Gandhi and Nehru to accept the partition of the country and the creation of Pakistan. It was an English geographer and lawyer, Sir Radcliff, isolated in an office away from pressure, who would draw the boundaries separating the two new states, from the reports of the administrators on the composition (Muslim majority or not) of each village.

Birth of Independence in pain

August 15, 1947, independence was proclaimed, but not in peace. It started indeed an incredible cross-country of populations, the Hinduists of the north leaving Pakistan for India for fear of the Moslem massacres, the Muslims of India going up north for fear of the Hindu reprisals: ten to fifteen million people will seek refuge, one way or the other, on the other side of the new border, and the clashes en route will make more than 250 000 dead.

This bloody week was masterfully described in the book by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, "This night freedom". A hard-won freedom. The movie "1947, Earth, by Deepa Mehta, (which is part of the trilogy of the elements), also tells very well all that.

Today we celebrate this painful journey into freedom as well as those great men and patriots across the country who has sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country.