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To keep the peace

India's first Republic Day parade began the tradition of showcasing arms

3 min read
Updated On: Jan 10 2026 | 6:15 AM IST
Veenu Sandhu
The Republic Day parade has been held every year on Rajpath (now Kartavya Path) since 1955 (Photo: Ministry of Defence)

The Republic Day parade has been held every year on Rajpath (now Kartavya Path) since 1955 (Photo: Ministry of Defence)

January 26, 1950, was a cold winter day. It was also a clear, sunny day, when India transitioned to a republic, adopting the Constitution and replacing British India’s governing document, the Government of India Act, 1935. 
  The country that prided itself in having secured independence through nonviolence, however, commemorated the day with a military parade, a British legacy. The show of might — a tradition since — signalled that while India was committed to remaining a peaceful country, it had the capability, competence, and capacity to defend itself. 
The parade today begins from the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Raisina Hill, marches down Kartavya Path (earlier called Rajpath and before that, Kingsway) to India Gate, and from there to the Red Fort. But this was not always the route it followed.
  The first Republic Day parade was held some 5 kilometres from the Rashtrapati Bhavan at the Irwin Amphitheatre, now called Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. The day, as the defence ministry’s fortnightly armed forces journal Sainik Samachar reported in its February 1950 issue, began with India being declared a sovereign democratic republic at 10.18 am at Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Durbar Hall, followed by Rajendra Prasad being sworn in as India’s first president — an event marked by a 31-gun salute. (Sainik Samachar, called Fauji Akhbar back then, had been started as a British publication in 1909. It would stop printing in 1950, to be reborn in 1954 in its current avatar.) 
From the Rashtrapati Bhavan, at 2:30 pm, a ceremonial coach drawn by six horses and escorted by the President’s bodyguard carried Prasad to Irwin Amphitheatre. It moved slowly, past thousands of cheering Indians, to reach the stadium at 3:45 pm. Over 3,000 soldiers from the three armed services participated in the parade that day. Among them, reported the Sainik Samachar, were “navy, infantry and cavalry regiments, services contingents, the air force, a boys’ unit of the Punjab regiment and the police”.

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  The flypast, by more than 100 aircraft, included the Dakota, which had earned its wings after a stellar performance in Leh in the 1948 war with Pakistan. There were also Spitfires (World War II heroes), Harvards (single-engine advanced trainers),  Consolidated B-24 Liberators (heavy bombers), Hawker Tempests (high-performance World War II fighters), and jets. 
In those days, it was the grandest parade India had witnessed. For today, it was a modest one. There were no tableaux. Those would be added later to showcase India’s cultural diversity. 
  The chief guest was Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, accompanied by his wife. Later, heads of countries belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement and the Soviet Bloc would be chief guests, and the parade would be held at the Red Fort and the Ramlila Ground, before moving to Rajpath (Kartavya Path since 2022) in 1955. 
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Written By :

Veenu Sandhu

Veenu Sandhu is Senior Associate Editor at Business Standard. Based in New Delhi, she has been a journalist since 1996, and has worked in some of India’s leading newsrooms across print, digital and television media, including NDTV 24x7, Hindustan Times and The Indian Express. At Business Standard, she writes, commissions, edits and gives direction to special, in-depth articles for the newspaper and the digital platform across beats and sectors. She also hosts video shows for Business Standard. Before this, she edited BS Weekend. She is a 2017-18 batch Chevening South Asia Journalism fellow.
First Published: Jan 10 2026 | 6:15 AM IST

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