India, Aug. 17 -- India celebrated its 80th Independence Day on August 15, 2026. Thousands of Indians made innumerable sacrifices in the struggle for independence from British rule. The key term that resonated throughout the freedom struggle was FREEDOM (Swaraj). "Give me blood and I shall give you freedom," declared Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose during a historic rally of Indians in Burma on July 4, 1944.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in his famous "Tryst with Destiny" speech to the Indian Constituent Assembly shortly before midnight on August 14, 1947, said, "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom." He recalled Mahatma Gandhi's vision, stating that the nation's great goal was to "wipe e...