Pakistan’s Birth Anniversary:
14th or 15th of
August?
The independence day anniversary of Pakistan is now celebrated on 14th of August. However, the first independence day was celebrated on 15 August 1947. Indeed, the Quaid-i-Azam made his broadcast congratulating the citizens of the new country on 15 August 1947 in which he said ‘August 15 is the birthday of the independent and sovereign state of Pakistan’ (Jinnah Papers Vol. V, p. 1): As the day was the last Friday of Ramzan (Juma tul Wida), the Quaid referred to this fact asking Muslims to pray for the new country.
It was also on 15 August at 9.15 a.m that Mohammad Ali Jinnah was sworn in as the first Governor-General of Pakistan. At this ceremony messages came from different countries---notably China and France---congratulating him on the creation of Pakistan. The first Official Act of the Governor-General was to issue the Pakistan (Provisional Constitution) Order, 1947 which said ‘It shall come into force on the fifteenth day of August 1947’. What is intriguing is that this order was, indeed, issued on 14 August but published in The Gazette of Pakistan Extraordinary of 01 September 1947. And yet, in this order the specific date mentioned is 15th August. However, the ‘Resolution’ stating that ‘Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah has been appointed by His Majesty to be the Governor-General of Pakistan was published on 15 August 1947 and it clearly says that the day he assumed office was that day i.e. 15 August.
15 August was a day of several flag ceremonies in the two dominions of India and Pakistan. The evening flag ceremony was held at 5.45 p.m on 15 August in Karachi. Parallel ceremonies were also being held on the same day in Dhaka, Peshawar, Lahore etc. The Governor of East Bengal, Frederick Bourne, reported that on 15 August at forenoon oaths were taken and he became the governor. George Cunninghan, in the NWFP, also reported this from Peshawar. But, while the hoisting of the flag of the new country was taking place at 9 a.m in Peshawar, the ministers of Dr. Khan Sahib’s government did not attend the ceremony. The same kind of ceremony was going on in Lahore on the same day.
It seems that all foreign dignitaries too were given the date of 15 August as the day Pakistan was born. Harold Macmillan, for one, mentioned the date specifically as did some others. The consul for Iran, writing on 15 August, called it the occasion ‘when the new independent State of Pakistan is being declared to the people of the world’. Other foreign dignitaries too made it a point to send messages of congratulations bearing the date 15th and referring to this day as the ‘auspicious occasion’ of the birth of the new country.
Besides these messages and ceremonies held on the 15th August, one also comes across papers---such as assurances to tribesmen---in which the Quaid says that after 15 August their allowances etc will continue as before. The date of the beginning of the new order is always 15th and not 14th of August.
However, the first birth anniversary was celebrated on the 14th of August 1948. The issue of Dawn dated 14 August declares that this was the first birthday of the new nation. Congratulatory statements poured in though they continued till the next day too. But, the clearest evidence that this was the chosen official date comes from the fact that the parade was held at 9 a.m. on the 14th in the Clifton Maidan at Karachi. It was a Saturday but it was declared a public holiday and parades were held in other cities also. At 8.15 the Quaid gave his speech to the nation and he was followed by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan at 8.30. The next year, on 14 August 1949, the same happened. Liaquat Ali Khan’s independence day message, recorded on 13 August, was released on the 14th. Governor General of India, Rajgopalachariya sent his message of congratulations on the 14th referring to that date and not to the 15th. In short, despite the fact that the 14th of August was not mentioned in 1947, this was the date given from the first birth anniversary in 1948n and in all anniversaries after that. It seems to have been chosen as the official date for the birth of Pakistan sometimes after its birth.
So where does the date of 14th August come from? There is a story that Pakistan was declared independent one minute before India. Personally I have never seen evidence of this. The documents I have read all say state it was exactly the midnight of 14th August when British rule officially ended. Nehru began his famous ‘tryst with destiny’ speech exactly on the second after which is the 15th of August. There is no mention of a minute before when any separate independence was announced for Pakistan at that hour at least. However, there is an incident which can be construed as the creation of Pakistan on the 14th of August. It is given in several sources but I have followed the account given by Stanley Wolpert, the famous biographer of Jinnah as well as Nehru and Gandhi. It is as follows.
When Mountbatten sat at dinner between Fatima Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan on the evening of 13 August in Karachi they pulled his leg that the independence celebration would take place at midnight on 14-15 August in Delhi i.e. exactly when 15 August struck. Apparently the point of the joke was that they thought the Indian government, or perhaps some people in it, had been guided by astrologers to choose this inconvenient hour. According to Wolpert, the next morning (i.e. 15th ) Jinnah and Fatima Jinnah accompanied Mountbatten on the morning of the 14th from the government house to the legislative assembly hall. Here Mountbatten read out a message from King George welcoming Pakistan into the commonwealth. But, as we have seen, all the legal documents creating Pakistan came into force on the 15th of August. Indeed, it was on the 14th of August that the Constituent Assembly resolved that Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah ‘be addressed as Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Governor-General of Pakistan… in all official Acts, documents letters and correspondence from 15th August 1947’. Even in this resolution he is called Governor-General designate’ and it appears to be clear that the cutoff date would not be the 14th but the 15th of August.
As such, it was not in August 1947 that anyone to my knowledge said that the 14th of August was the date of birth of the new country. This date of birth came to be celebrated later probably in order to have a different birth anniversary from India. There is nothing wrong with this because countries do have the prerogative to interpret an ambiguity in the anniversary day to their advantage. In this case, with an important ceremony having taken place on the 14th, such an interpretation is possible. However, the point which is not well known is that such an interpretation was not made immediately… or, at least, not in the documents seen by the present author. If it was, indeed, made at that very time (i.e. 14 August 1947), somebody should publish the evidence for it. It will set the record straight and add to my knowledge.