How India’s Republic Day began its tryst with tableaux

It’s January 26 and India celebrates with another Republic Day parade at Delhi’s Kartavya Path. This year’s parade, marking the country’s 76th Republic Day, will feature 18 marching contingents to display India’s military might. The parade also features 31 tableaux from various states, Union Territories, and central government ministries/departments showcasing the theme “Swarnim Bharat: Virasat aur Vikas.”

But have you ever thought of the history behind these floats that are meant to exhibit India’s cultural diversity? When were they introduced? How have they evolved? And what happens to them after the parade?

We get you all the facts that you always wanted to know.

History of the Republic Day parade and floats

India’s first Republic Day parade was starkly different from the ones held today. On the morning of the first Republic Day celebrations in 1950, India’s first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, took oath of office in the presidential palace and then headed to Irwin Amphitheatre (now Major Dhyan Chand Stadium) where he raised the national flag and bands played the national anthem. He then took a salute at a march past of the armed forces and a fly past of air force planes. Records show that 3,000 officers of the Armed Forces, and more than 100 aircraft participated. However, there’s no mention at all of cultural tableaux at this parade.

However, in the years to follow, the parade started changing with academic Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan stating that the next year’s parade was vastly different — the biggest change being that the location of the parade moved from the Irwin Amphitheatre to Rajpath, now renamed Kartavya Path.

In the book, Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization, Balasubrahmanyan writes that in 1952, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to the chief ministers of states explaining that the “concept of this procession and exhibition and everything else should be to demonstrate both the unity and great variety and diversity of India” and that this could happen if “states participate in these Delhi celebrations and take some responsibility for them”.

Each state was invited to send a tableau representing some distinctive feature of its people, performing arts, crafts and architecture, displaying India’s rich diversity of regional costumes, dance forms and music along with dioramas and models of famous monuments.

And that’s how the first floats rolled down the avenue at the Republic Day parade.

Tableaux at the R-Day parade: The many firsts

When tableaux were first introduced in the R-Day parade , they were simple. However, as the pageantry grew, so did the scale and grandeur of the floats. In 2004, Madhya Pradesh celebrated the Jungle Book with a large animatronic Baloo. The other highlight in the same year was the Supreme Court float, featuring a live three-judge bench. This was also the year in which the Indian Railways, for the first time featured a railway compartment with passengers getting in and out.

In 2017, the GST tableau put up by the Central Board of Excise and Customs rolled down Kartavya Path. The float featured a large bowling ball with ‘GST’ written on it, knocking over pins labelled ‘Excise’ and ‘Octroi’. It also had its own soundtrack. The Hindi song with the theme “one nation, one tax”, said in one of the lines – “Why have separate taxes…GST, GST, GST…”

Last year, the tableau of the Ministry of Culture secured the first place. The float, titled ‘Bharat: Mother of Democracy’, depicted the history of democracy from ancient India to current times using advanced 3-D electronic depiction technology.

This year too, one can expect some eye-catching tableaux at the R-Day parade. For the first time, a tri-service tableau will roll down Kartavya Path for the first time. With the theme ‘Shashakt aur Surakshit Bharat’ (a powerful and safe India), the tableau will showcase the conceptual outlook for integration in the Armed Forces, ensuring national security and operational excellence.

Besides this, Uttar Pradesh will have a tableau featuring the Maha Kumbh Mela , whereas Madhya Pradesh’s tableau will have the ambitious cheetah reintroduction project as its theme. The DRDO tableau will feature a ‘Laser-Based Directed Energy Weapon’, while the Pralay surface-to-surface tactical missile system will be displayed in its operational configuration. The showcase will also include cutting-edge defence solutions, including artillery, sensors, air defence systems, and missiles.

As per a Wall Street Journal report, today each float costs approximately $32,000 and goes up as high as $80,000.

What happens to Republic Day tableaux after parade

But have you ever wondered what happens to the floats that chug down Kartavya Path on Republic Day? Following the parade, the floats land up at a massive temporary township on a 12-acre site in Delhi’s army cantonment to be dismantled.

“They’re ruthlessly dismantled,” Bappa Chakraborty, who runs Adland Publicity Pvt Ltd, a Kolkata-based advertising agency, which has been involved in constructing floats for the Republic Day parade for almost two decades, told Wall Street Journal. “You feel bad that months of toil and effort are destroyed in such a short time.”

Once they are pulled apart, waste dealers arrive at the spot to haul away the parts, which they then sell as scrap. However, the tractors and trailers that carry the tableaux through Kartavya Path are returned to India’s Defence Ministry.

With inputs from agencies