Jai Hind! Stories of India’s First Independence Day at Woodstock School

Katie Jo Walter

Independence Day celebrations have been a favourite memory of our alumni ever since we started celebrating in 1947. We collected stories from alumni who were at Woodstock 75 years ago when India gained independence and our very first celebrations took place.

Independence Day Drama

Performance

Alumni who were there in 1947 remember the play they performed about the light of freedom and its travel through the ages to reach India and Her people. The play ended with a prayer for independent India followed by the Indian national flag being brought to Parker Hall's centre stage:

Long may Her freedom endure! God grant her peace to progress in freedom! God bless every Indian – man, woman, and child, with the priceless privilege of every sort of liberty in body, in mind, and in spirit.

(CURTAIN. Singing of “Sara Jahan se Achcha, Hindustan Hamara” as the flag is brought up the aisle to the front.) See the next page to learn who had the honour of ushering the Indian flag into Parker Hall for the first time. Today at Woodstock, the honuor of hoisting the Indian flag goes to the student of Indian citizenship who has been at the school the longest [see Sundial for images].

The Food and Festivities

Alumni who were there in 1947 also remember that the first Independence Day at Woodstock included a special feast for school employees and Indian cultural performances - two other traditions that we still carry on proudly.

Ashoke Chatterjee '51 shares:

“That first Independence Day took place in pouring rain. We assembled at the Gate and took off from there to the Mussoorie flag-raising at Library Bazaar. The Chief Guest was Govind Vallabh Pant, the first Chief Minister of UP in independent India. We were all soaked but exuberant.