India and Pakistan will celebrate their 77th Independence Day to mark their 76th year of freedom from British colonial rule. The Indian Independence Act of 1947 created two new independent dominions – India and Pakistan – by partitioning the Bengal and Punjab provinces.
The Act states; “As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan.”
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, in his historic radio address declared that “August 15 is the birthday of the independent and sovereign state of Pakistan. It marks the fulfilment of the destiny of the Muslim nation which made great sacrifices in the past few years to have its homeland.”
So there is ample evidence to establish that Pakistan came into existence the same night India got its independence. Then why does Pakistan celebrate its Independence Day a day earlier, on August 14?
Over the years, multiple theories have been floated to answer this question.
One theory ties it to the busy schedule of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India and the first Governor-General of the Dominion of India. The power transfer was initially planned before June 1948 but the Mountbatten’s plan to announce Independence Day for both countries as August 15 sped things up. He went to Karachi to transfer the power of governance of Pakistan to Muhammad Ali Jinnah on August 14, 1947.
Another theory attributes it to a cabinet decision. In June 1948, at a cabinet meeting chaired by the first Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan, it was proposed that the country celebrate its Independence Day before India. The proposal was approved by Jinnah and the date was advanced to August 14.
The religious month of Ramzan is also cited as one of the reasons. Some of its proponents say the intervening night of August 14 and 15, 1947, coincided with the 27th day of Ramzan, which is regarded as an auspicious day of the holy month. Hence, August 14 was taken as the day of independence.
Indian Standard Time (IST) being 30 minutes ahead of Pakistan Standard Time (PST) is also cited as one of the reasons. Since India became a free country at 00:00 hours on August 15, the local time in Pakistan was 11:30pm on August 14, hence the celebrations a day earlier.