August 15, 2026

On the morning of August 15, 1947, as the tricolour rose over a free India for the first time, it marked the end of nearly two centuries of struggle and the beginning of a promise; the promise of a nation governing itself, on its own terms. 80 years on, that morning still carries the same weight it always has, a reminder of what was sacrificed, and what was made possible, by an entire generation that chose to fight for something larger than themselves.

What Independence Actually Cost

Freedom did not arrive quietly. It was built through decades of protest, imprisonment, and sacrifice by people across every region, religion, and walk of life, from the great mass movements of the freedom struggle to the countless lesser-known freedom fighters whose names rarely made it into textbooks. It was built by families who gave up sons and daughters, by leaders who spent years behind bars, and by ordinary citizens who simply refused to accept that India could not govern itself. Independence Day exists to remember that this freedom was earned, not given.

Among those who answered that call was Jamnalal Bajaj, who shaped the early Bajaj Group. He was not a bystander to the freedom movement but one of its committed participants, giving his enterprise, his resources, and his years to the cause of a free India at a time when doing so carried real personal and professional risk. This year, as the Bajaj Group completes 100 years, that history is inseparable from the story being remembered today; the Group was not founded in independent India, it was founded in the India that was still fighting to become independent.

Beside him stood Jankidevi Bajaj, a freedom fighter in her own right and not merely by association. She gave up luxury, and the practice of purdah as personal acts of defiance, embraced khadi and hand-spinning as expressions of self-reliance, and travelled across rural India carrying the message of Swaraj to villagers and women who had never before been asked to see themselves as part of a national struggle. She was jailed for her role in the Civil Disobedience Movement of the early 1930s, and after independence continued that same life of service through the Bhoodan movement and decades of work for rural upliftment and women’s dignity. Her contribution is a reminder that the freedom movement was carried as much by women working in villages and homes as by the leaders whose names fill history books.

A Living Idea, Not Just a Date

August 15 marks one of the defining moments in India’s history, and what keeps it alive with meaning, year after year, is that the idea it represents, self-determination, unity across difference, and the right of a people to shape their own future, remains a living responsibility, not a finished chapter. Beyond the flag hoisting and the parades, it is a day to remember those who are no longer here to see the India they imagined, and to ask honestly whether the freedom they won is being used well.

That responsibility has run through the Bajaj Group’s own century too, from the freedom struggle itself, through the License Raj and liberalisation, into the age of artificial intelligence. A hundred years is long enough to watch a nation remake itself more than once, and institutions that last that long tend to carry a quiet sense of having grown up alongside the country they serve.

Entering its second century, the Bajaj Group carries forward the same underlying idea Jamnalal and Jankidevi Bajaj gave their years to that India’s progress is worth building toward, deliberately and honestly, one generation at a time. That is, in the end, what this day asks of everyone, not just to celebrate the freedom that was won, but to keep earning it.

Jai Hind. Happy Independence Day!