Happy 75th Independence Day: History, significance, and rare facts
Rare facts about India’s Independence Day
1. The song ‘Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata’ composed in 1911 by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was renamed as ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India as the national anthem on January 24, 1950.
2. The Indian national flag with three horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green was hoisted on August 7, 1906, at Parsee Bagan Square in Kolkata. The first variant of India’s current national flag was designed by freedom fighter Pingali Venkayya in 1921. The current flag with saffron, white and green colours and the Ashok Chakra in the middle was officially adopted on July 22, 1947, and hoisted on August 15, 1947.
3. Five other countries celebrate their independence on August 15 along with India. They are Bahrain, North Korea, South Korea and Liechtenstein.
4. The Indian flag is manufactured and supplied from only one place in the nation. The Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha (KKGSS), located in Dharwad in Karnataka, has the authority to manufacture and supply the Indian national flag. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the flag is manufactured only with hand-spun and handwoven cotton khadi wafting.
5. Even after India’s independence, Goa was still a Portuguese colony. It was annexed to India by the Indian Army only in 1961. Thus, Goa was the last state to join the Indian territory.
Amazing Facts About India:
6. Hinduism is regarded as the world’s oldest religion, with records going as far back as 5,500 BCE. Hinduism has no recognised creator, and since it is a way of life, nobody is interested in finding out.
7. With more than 1 billion adherents, Hinduism is currently the third most widespread religion worldwide. Hinduism is not a monotheistic religion in terms of the gods. Hindus believe in Brahma, a single god who appears as countless other gods. The Trimurti is composed of three gods, Brahma being the primary one. Brahma is the universe’s creator, Vishnu is its preserver, and Shiva destroys the world to create a new one.
8. Which god a Hindu chooses to worship is entirely up to them. For Hindus, 108 is the most revered number. It is the ratio of the diameter of the Sun to the distance from Earth, as well as the ratio of the diameter of the Moon to the distance from Earth.
9. India is home to 22 official languages. Santali, Kashmiri, Bengali, Tamil, and Urdu are just a few of the many languages that are spoken in India. However, Hindi and English are the official languages.
Unknown Facts About India:
22. The Kumbh Mela, the biggest gathering on Earth, is a significant festival and pilgrimage site. While there is a celebration every year, there are festivals with higher significance every four and every twelve years. The festival attracts such a large audience that it can be seen in satellite images shot from space.
23. One of the lowest divorce rates in the world is in India. Statistics show that India has a divorce rate that is significantly lower than that of most other nations, at roughly 1 out of every 100 marriages.
24. The six seasons on the Hindu calendar are. India uses a six-season calendar, recognizing spring, summer, monsoon, autumn, prewinter, and winter instead of the normal four-season cycle other nations observe.
25. The oldest continuously inhabited city in the world is Varanasi. India is one of those nations that assert to have the world’s oldest metropolis still in existence.
26. One of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world is thought to be the holy city of Varanasi, sometimes referred to as Banaras or Kashi. In fact, it’s thought that Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati formerly called this site home.