A day of celebrations begins

India Celebrates Fifty Years of Independence

But a bomb attack on a train in the north-east of the country was a stark reminder of the ethnic and class tensions that continue to divide the country.

India's celebrations began as Pakistan's independence festivities drew to a close. Relations between the two countries have been strained since the violence that surrounded Partition in 1947: they have since fought three wars.

Parliament remembers

Just before midnight (local time), members of parliament and other dignitaries gathered for a nationally televised re-enactment of the historic sitting of India's constituent assembly the night of Aug. 14, 1947.

Celebration and commemoration

India's national song performed by Pandit Joshi

To start the ceremony, a male vocalist performed India's national song.

The audience then heard recordings of famous speeches by the father of the country's independence Mahatma Gandhi and India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru's "tryst with destiny" speech delivered moments before midnight, called for an end to "poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity".

Nehru's speech

President and Prime Minister honour the memory of India's founding fathers

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom," Nehru told the nation on the night of Aug. 14, 1947. "As long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over."

Referring to Gandhi, Nehru added that "the ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye."

Gandhi: founding father

Gandhi's speech

In his Independence Day speech delivered in Calcutta, Gandhi said: "The real independence will come when we become economically liberated."

In a speech to the midnight meeting of parliament, President Narayanan appealed to citizens to mount a national movement to rid India of corruption and poverty, which he said had marred five decades of freedom. "Here, though we have registered significant successes, the fact of the matter is that we have not been able to abolish poverty, ignorance and disease from among our people," he said.

Ethnic Strife

Britain Salutes