Midnight Independence: A Complex Convergence of Factors Led to India's Historic Moment

Delhi did not sleep on the night of 14 August 1947. Crowds gathered on the streets were looking at Parliament House. The needles of the clock were approaching 12. The grip of an empire was loosening. Jawaharlal Nehru was standing inside the Constituent Assembly to deliver his historic speech. Thousands of people were waiting outside for the voice after which he could call himself a citizen of independent India for the first time. But why did India not get independence in broad daylight? Why was the transfer of power by hoisting the tricolor at the Red Fort not done? Why was that historic moment saved for midnight? It was not just the formality of Nehru's speech or British law. The story had the insistence of Lord Mountbatten, the concern of Indian astrologers and the search among the needles of the clock. It was the timing, which opened the way for the auspicious muhurta within a poorly considered date. In February 1947, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced that India would end British rule by June 1948. But the communal violence in Punjab was not felt by the British, and Mountbatten Mountbatten felt that the time was approaching.