MUMBAI: No curfews. No deadlines. No cops that turned the music down. On 26th January, 1950, Republic Day Balls and cabarets went on till 4am with bohemian bands like The Hawaiian Hot Shots and Johny Baptist piping in. The Church of North India held a special mass to celebrate the formation of the republic and the Great Eastern Circus advertised the “greatest feats never seen in India before”.

They weren’t, presumably, referring to the Constitution. The Three Musketeers was playing at Metro and a film called Deewar was on at Opera House, a couple of decades before Amitabh Bachchan arrived on the scene.

The Times of India, now in its 175th year, was around to chronicle the mood, 64 years to a day, when India gifted itself a Constitution, welcomed its first president Rajendra Prasad and bid adieu to its last governor-general, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari.

The men and women now largely confined to history textbooks were seen arguing , debating and shaking hands across the yellowing newsprint.

Given the “warmest good wishes” and “blessings of peace and prosperity” that His Majesty the King of England showered on the Republic of India across the front page of the newspaper , it’s hard to imagine that he was referring to a country just emerging from a bitter battle for independence from British rule.

Lord Mountbatten wrote a moving piece on how he was “so closely associated with the transfer of power from British to Indian hands andwiththeearly stages of Indian independence that my thoughts will be more than ever with India when the final stage is reached and she becomes an independent sovereign republic on Jan 26, 894 days after her independence”.

Lord Clydesmuir , once governor of Bombay , as it was then called , sent his greetings to the city “of which my wife and I retain such happy and affectionate memories.”

While Bombay’s iconic Victoria Terminus was aglow the night before Republic Day, all eyes were on Delhi that day. “Peasants, politicians, Princes and diplomats from far and wide are already pouring into the city to witness this epoch-making event, and the whole city wears a festive air with arches and bunting, flowers and flags, while at night it will be transformed into a fairyland by bushes and trees floodlit by multicoloured electric bulbs,” said the front page,which adding, “AllDelhi is agog today.”

The two forces that were absent on Republic Day were felt most acutely in the newspaper- Mahatma Gandhi and the British Raj.

Sardar Patel lamented the fact that Gandhi was not around to witness the day. “Unhappily he is not amongst us but he is watching us from above and I have no doubt his blessings and good wishes are with us on this supreme occasion in our national history,” said Patel of the Mahatma .

While those who confuse Republic Day with Independence Day may be metwith much annoyance today, they may not be entirely wrong. “Although we obtained independence on August 15, 1947, it was not complete in the sense of the pledge that we took. Today, by the Grace of God, that pledge has been completely fulfilled,”said Patel.

Greetings for the Republic poured in from across the world with many countries identifying withIndia. “Thewholeworld realises the deep significance of the independence of India, but I think there is no country which realises its significance more than Indonesia does,” said Dr Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia. “Because of our traditional sympathy with India, the people of the United States are particularly happy to send expressions of goodwill on this occasion,” said America’s Harry Truman .

Page 5 of the newspaper bore the handwritten musical notes for Jana Gana Mana , with Tagore’s name on one side and the words “fairly brisk” scrawled at the other , presumably referring to the pace at which the National Anthem ought to be played .

The constitution was discussed threadbare, with photos of the constituent assembly splashed across the paper. The sari-clad lady members of the constituent assembly had a photograph to themselves. A short piece spoke of socialist dissent ; two socialist members of the constituent assembly did not sign the final document.

A prophetic piece by British MP Sir Stanley Reed analyzing the constitution spoke of some apprehension expressed about “the over-riding power in the centre to declare a state of emergency … .” This was a good 25 years before a state of emergency was declared .

Not everything about the day’s newspaper had to do with the constitution. There was enough space for college hockey tournaments, weightlifting and the London stock exchange.

