Downloading Independence

Cut to New Delhi. The following day as 8220;thousands of Hindus swarm the streets awaiting their hour of liberation8221;, Pt Nehru addresses the Constituent Assembly. A near riot 8220;throws the carefully planned celebration overboard8221;. The commentary concludes: 8220;Indian now has two flags flying.8221;

Tryst with destiny

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru8217;s first address to an Independent India is immortalised on the Net, though in part in a 1.05-minute clip.

India takes over

First Independence Day in London. 8220;Flags of a new Indian Union flutter over the headquarters of India and Pakistan. An era has ended and new epoch begins.8221; The commentator goes on to narrate how Queen Victoria8217;s great grandson completed the transfer of power within five months of taking over as the Viceroy in New Delhi. 8220;During the past two hundred years the British gave India law and order, railways, irrigation,8221; the narrator ensures the Raj still lives on, adding that everything still hinges on the promise of communal harmony. 8220;Can Hindus and Muslims live peacefully together? Can India get over its famines?8230; Britain has fulfilled her mission, it is for India herself now to make her destiny.8221;

The fight for Kashmir

Though there is hardly any authentic footage of the violence that followed Partition, the fight for Kashmir, another important event of 1947, is well-recorded. 8220;To oust raiding tribesmen from the Northwest the Indian Government is flying troops to Kashmir, stopping first as Jammu.8221; The fanfare reaches a crescendo as the Indian troops march out of their planes at the Srinagar airfield. 8220;Both India and Pakistan are eager to stamp out a fire that set the whole subcontinent ablaze,8221; the narrator concludes to the backdrop of burning villages along what is now the LoC.

8212;Compiled by Nandagopal Rajan

Incredible India

The award-winning Incredible India campaign has just found space on the world8217;s most visited online video website YouTube. The Tourism Ministry has placed 18 small videos and films showcasing Incredible India on a specially created India page youtube.com/India. These videos will also be accessible through the website incredibleindia.org. The India page was launched on Tuesday by Tourism Secretary S Banerjee. Most of these films have been made by the BBC and the CNN and are already running on those channels. On this India page on YouTube, the Ministry has also included short films celebrating 60 years of India8217;s Independence. On the 60th anniversary of Independence, the Ministry has also come out with a one-minute film to be telecast on various television channels in the country. 8212;Amitabh Sinha