India Becomes Republic: Constitution Takes Effect
Twelve hundred pages. Handwritten. A document born from the dreams of freedom fighters who'd spent decades resisting British colonial rule. When India's Constitution came to life, it transformed a colonized territory into the world's largest democracy. And Rajendra Prasad—scholar, nationalist, Gandhi's close ally—became its first president, wearing khadi and embodying the spirit of a newly independent nation. A radical experiment in self-governance had begun.
January 26, 1950
76 years ago
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