Where did Nehru unfurl Tricolour on August 15, 1947? It wasn't the Red Fort

India will celebrate 76 years of independence on August 15, 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will mark the day by unfurling the national flag, the Tricolour, at the Red Fort. Modi has also changed the display picture of his social media accounts to the Tricolor to promote the "Har Ghar Tiranga" campaign.

He also called on people to take part in the campaign.

Following this, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched the campaign by hoisting the national flag on the Gorakhnath Temple premises. He urged the people of the state to enthusiastically participate in the Independence Day celebrations.

As we give due importance to the Tricolour this year, it is imperative to know that contrary to popular belief, our national flag was not unfurled for the first time, after India's independence, at the Red Fort.

It was unfurled by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at the Princess Park near India Gate in New Delhi on August 15, 1947.

On August 14, the midnight session of the Constituent Assembly decided to give the post of interim governor-general to Louis Mountbatten.

Mountbatten accepted the proposal. As leaders tried exiting the Assembly building, the crowd was so thick that they found it extremely difficult to leave the building.

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Pamela Mountbatten, daughter of Louis, wrote, "After the ceremony (in the Assembly Building) they could not get out of the doors for some time as the crowd was still so thick."

The next day, on August 15, 1947, after Lord Mountbatten took oath as the first governor-general of independent India, he and Nehru went to Roshanara Bagh to meet 5,000 children and their parents who had gathered there.

After that, the main event was planned at Princess Park. Nehru was to lower the Union Jack and hoist the Tricolour. This was to be followed by a small parade. However, the plan was changed.

"This programme had originally included a ceremonial lowering of the Union Jack but when I discussed this with Nehru he entirely agreed that this was a day they wanted everybody to be happy, and if the lowering of the Union Jack in any way offended British susceptibilities, he would certainly see that it did not take place," Mountbatten was quoted as saying in a report by The Print.

The park was filled with a 'sea of people'. After considerable difficulty, Nehru and Mountbatten reached the dais for the ceremony. Nehru then unfurled the national flag, followed by the national anthem and a 31-gun salute.

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It was only on August 16 that Nehru went to the Red Fort and unfurled the Tricolour there. He delivered his first Independence Day speech and called himself the 'Pratham sevak' of India.