Although India became an independent country on August 15, 1947, there were some regions in India that could not hoist Tricolour. They had to wait longer to become part of independent India.
When India and Pakistan became two nations, the districts of Nadia, Malda and Murshidabad of West Bengal were wrongly marked as parts of then East Pakistan. Cyril Radcliffe, who demarcated regions of India and Pakistan had recommended regions of Malda and Nadia to be included in the map of Pakistan. People were shocked to listen to radio broacast that their regions with large Hindu populations were Pakistani territories. Their worst fears were confimed when they saw Pakistani flag atop the district collectorate.
As the rest of India celebrated, the people of Malda and Nadia were protesting. When the protests mounted, Louis Mountbatten ordered the Hindu-majority districts to be mapped in the Indian territory and Muslim-majority districts in East Pakistan. The error was corrected by the boundary commission on the night of August 17 and people broke into celebrations as the Indian flag was finally hoisted at Babupara in Malda’s Englishbazaar on 18 August. People of Malda and Nadia still remember this special day as Independence Day.
The villagers of Shibnibash in the Nadia district began to commemorate their independence on August 18 from 1991 with the permission of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. Following this in 2008, the Bongaon Bar Association hoisted the Tricolour on August 18 at the court premises in Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.
More towns like Krishnagar, Shantipur, Kalyani, Ranaghat, Shikarpur and Karimpur began to follow the trend. Villages like Ratua village in the district of Malda and Balurghat village in Dakshin Dinajpur district in the region also started to celebrate their real Independence Day which came after August 15.
Goa Liberation Day
When India attained independence from the British rule in 1947, Goa was still a Portuguese territory. The Portuguese who colonised Goa and other Indian territories refused to give up their hold. Therefore a 36-hour military operation was lauched by the Indian Navy, Indian Air Force and Indian Army to liberate Goa in 1961, which marked 450 years of Portuguese rule of India.
The Goa Liberation Day is observed on December 19 every year in Goa.