HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY 2023: Republic Day 2023: 2022 marked the first year when the celebrations began on January 23 instead of 24. This was done to bring Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary into the fold of the R-Day celebrations. The Republic Day celebrations in India began on January 23, commemorating 74 years of the Constitution of India coming into effect throughout the country.
The week-long celebrations this year are set to be a grand affair with India’s largest drone show, a military tattoo and tribal dance festival, the parade on Rajpath (Kartavya Path), and the Beating Retreat ceremony. Ahead of the commencement of Republic Day festivities, here are ten interesting facts about the celebrated day.
Top 10 Lesser-known and Interesting Facts About Republic Day
- Contrary to popular belief, Republic Day is not the day the Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly. As the Preamble of the document states, that happened on November 26, 1949. Republic Day marks the occasion when the Constitution came into effect throughout the country on January 26, 1950.
- The first four Republic day parades did not take place at the Rajpath, as has been the tradition for decades now. The venues of these marches were Irwin Stadium, Red Fort, and Ramlila Grounds.
- The first edition of this iconic parade, in 1950, took place at the Irwin Amphitheater (now Major Dhyan Chand Stadium). Three thousand Indian military personnel and over 100 aircraft participated in the parade.
- The parade was held at Rajpath for the first time in 1955. Another notable aspect of the parade in that year was that Pakistan’s Governor General Malik Ghulam Muhammad attended the event as chief guest. It was the first of the only two times that a Pakistani leader was given the honour.
- The original handwritten 251-page bound manuscript of the Indian Constitution, which came into force on January 26, 1950, is stored within a vault-like room in helium-filled cases in the Library of the Parliament of India in New Delhi.
- The tableau-making and selection process is extremely rigorous. The centre announces a broad theme, based on which various states and union territories prepare designs months in advance. An expert committee directed by the Ministry of Defence is in charge of the tableaux selection process.
- All participants in the parade are notified of their involvement in the iconic march in July every year. They all practice parades at their respective places till August and come to perform at the actual event in Delhi in December.
- The Beating Retreat ceremony, which takes place at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi on January 29 every year, traces its origin to a tradition from the 1600s. This tradition to announce the return of the troops began when King James II ordered his troops to beat drums, lower flags and organise a parade to declare the end of a day of combat.
- The first time a foreign military contingent marched on the Rajpath was in 2018 when French Army soldiers took part in the parade.
- 2022 marked the first year when the celebrations began on January 23 instead of 24. This was done to bring Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary into the fold of the R-Day celebrations.
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