35 Fun Facts About Indian Republic Day

Which other country holds its national day on 26 January, there marking a British fleet's 1788 landing?

Australia shares the date by coincidence: it marks Arthur Phillip raising the Union Flag at Sydney Cove in 1788, and Aboriginal protesters held a Day of Mourning on it in 1938.

Who unfurls the flag at the Republic Day parade, while the prime minister hoists it at the Red Fort on 15 August?

The head of state, the President, unfurls it in New Delhi while governors and lieutenant governors do the same in every state and union territory; the Red Fort belongs to 15 August.

Which country's president was chief guest at the first Republic Day parade in 1950 and again at the 2025 parade?

Indonesia went on to host the 1955 Bandung Conference of Asian and African nations, which India co-sponsored.

Who was sworn in as India's first President on 26 January 1950, having presided over the Constituent Assembly?

Rajendra Prasad had given up his law practice in 1920 to join Gandhi's noncooperation movement.

Who chaired the seven-member Drafting Committee that the Constituent Assembly appointed on 29 August 1947?

B. R. Ambedkar later resigned as law minister in 1951 after his Hindu Code Bill failed to pass.

What distinction does India's Constitution, at about 145,000 words, hold among those of sovereign states?

The longest national constitution anywhere is beaten among all constitutions only by Alabama's, and it opened with 22 parts and 8 schedules.

Which venue flanked by the North and South Blocks hosts the Beating Retreat that ends Republic Day week?

Vijay Chowk's ceremony follows an old military custom in which drums beat retreat at sunset to call troops back for the night.

With 26 January and 15 August, which date completes India's list of only three national holidays?

2 October, Gandhi's birthday, is the third holiday binding nationwide on all states and union territories; every other day off is a central, optional or regional holiday.

Which city's December 1929 Congress session, with Nehru presiding, adopted the Purna Swaraj resolution?

Lahore's session came after talks with Britain over dominion status broke down, so Congress demanded complete independence instead.

Which name did Rajpath, the Republic Day parade avenue once called Kingsway, receive in September 2022?

Kartavya Path replaced Rajpath in a renaming the government said would remove any trace of a colonial mindset.

Which prime minister called off his visit as Republic Day chief guest in January 2021, citing a COVID-19 surge at home?

Boris Johnson stayed home to deal with the pandemic, so the 2021 parade went ahead without a foreign chief guest.

Which Delhi venue, now the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, hosted the first Republic Day parade in 1950?

Irwin Amphitheatre was one of four sites the parade moved between before settling on Rajpath, the others being Kingsway, the Red Fort and Ramlila Maidan.

Which civilian honours, instituted in 1954 and ranked just below the Bharat Ratna, are announced every Republic Day?

Padma awards come in three grades, Vibhushan, Bhushan and Shri, and bring no cash, no travel concessions and no right to use the honour as a title.

Which wartime gallantry medal, instituted on 26 January 1950, was first awarded to Major Somnath Sharma?

Param Vir Chakra medals were designed by Savitri Khanolkar, an officer's wife, whose daughter's brother-in-law Somnath Sharma became the first recipient.

Which force's camel-mounted contingent marches in the Republic Day parade?

Border Security Force camelry descends from Bikaner's princely camel troops and still patrols the desert frontier.

How many spokes has the navy-blue Ashoka Chakra on India's flag, modelled on an Ashokan lion capital?

24 spokes adorn a flag that private citizens could fly only on special occasions until an industrialist's court case led to the Flag Code of India, 2002.

Which emblem on the Congress's Swaraj flag did the Constituent Assembly swap for the Ashoka Chakra in 1947?

Spinning wheel was cut down to its wheel alone, Nehru told the Assembly, because the full charkha did not look the same on both sides of the flag.

Which Tagore song did the Constituent Assembly adopt as the national anthem on 24 January 1950?

Jana Gana Mana was declared the anthem by the Assembly president, who promised Vande Mataram equal honour for its part in the freedom struggle.

Which Indian Army branch fields the 'Dare Devils', the motorcycle stunt team that traditionally closes the parade?

Corps of Signals dispatch riders hold several Guinness records, and in 2020 the corps' marching contingent, led by Captain Tania Shergill, was judged the parade's best.

India's state emblem, adopted on 26 January 1950, copies a lion capital Ashoka raised at which site near Varanasi?

Sarnath's capital lay buried until the Archaeological Survey dug it up in 1904–05, and it sits in the Sarnath Museum rather than on its broken pillar.

Which two animals flank the wheel on the abacus of India's state emblem?

Horse and bull are part of an emblem that a 2005 law bars from use in any trade, business or trade mark except as the rules allow.

Who hand-lettered the English original of the Constitution in flowing italic script, asking no fee?

Prem Behari Raizada's one condition was to sign every page and add his grandfather's name on the last.

Which constitutional adviser, later an International Court of Justice judge, wrote the first draft of the Constitution?

B. N. Rau consulted jurists abroad, and US Justice Felix Frankfurter advised him against writing 'due process' into the text.

Who chaired the Constituent Assembly's first sitting on 9 December 1946 as its eldest member, following French practice?

Sachchidananda Sinha handed over to an elected president two days later and died in March 1950, weeks after the republic he helped open was born.

Which artist, with his students, decorated the pages of India's hand-written original Constitution?

Nandalal Bose was also asked by Jawaharlal Nehru to sketch the emblems for the government's awards, including the Bharat Ratna.

Which two words did the 42nd Amendment add to the Preamble's description of India in 1976?

Socialist and secular came decades after the Assembly turned down a member's call to name India the 'Union of Indian Socialistic Republics'.

Which office, held by C. Rajagopalachari as its only Indian occupant, lapsed when India became a republic in 1950?

The Governor-General's last holder, C. Rajagopalachari, later helped found the Swatantra Party in 1959 to oppose Congress.

Malik Ghulam Muhammad, chief guest at the first parade held on Rajpath, led which neighbouring country?

Pakistan was invited once more, in 1965, months before the two countries went to war, and has not been invited since.

Which president, months after his country's first all-race election, was chief guest at the 1995 Republic Day parade?

Nelson Mandela's visit was South Africa's first invitation; Cyril Ramaphosa took the country's second in 2019.

Which Brazilian president was chief guest in 2020, the last foreign leader to take the honour before 2023?

Jair Bolsonaro's was Brazil's third invitation, after Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 1996 and Lula in 2004; no chief guest came in 2021 or 2022.

The 1966 parade had no chief guest after which prime minister died in Tashkent on 11 January, fifteen days earlier?

Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent the day after signing the Tashkent Declaration, which formally ended the 1965 war.

Which bloc's leaders were joint chief guests at India's 2018 Republic Day parade?

ASEAN's ten leaders came as India and the bloc marked 25 years of dialogue partnership with a commemorative summit.

Which bloc sent its leaders as joint chief guests in 2026, the first parade with more than one guest since 2018?

European Union leaders were in Delhi as India and the EU concluded free trade agreement talks, a day after the parade.

Which country, chief guest a record six times, sent the first foreign troops to march in a Republic Day parade, in 2016?

France's six invitations run from 1976 to Emmanuel Macron in 2024, and its soldiers and army band marched down Rajpath at the 67th parade in 2016.

Which hymn, said to be a favourite of Gandhi, was later dropped from the Beating Retreat ceremony?

Abide with Me, a staple of the ceremony for decades, was restored in 2020 after plans to drop it, before being left out in 2022.