Happy Republic Day

26th January 2011

One after this coin was minted, India would gain its independence and roughly 2 years and a half later India would become a republic. So what was the big deal? By definition a republic is a country not headed by a monarch. The word "republic" is derived from the Latin phrase res publica, which can be translated as "a public affair". In simpler words, what it means in our context is that while the head of government in Britain is Queen Elizabeth who has no control over how the country is run; our head of the state is Prathibha Patil who has no control over how the country is run.

Today is Australia Day as well. Australia is a country where the head of the state not only has no control over how it is run, it has no clue either about what is happening there either since she doesn't live in Australia, yes it is a part of the commonwealth and the head of the state is none other than Quuen Elizabeth. Happy Australia Day to my Aussie friends.