India, Jan. 25 -- India celebrates its Republic Day on January 26, marking the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950. For the first two and a half years of the country's independence on August 15, 1947, India was governed by the Constituent Assembly of India as a dominion within the British Commonwealth.

After being adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, the constitution came into effect on January 26 of the following year as a nod to the declaration of Purna Swaraj by the Indian National Congress in 1930, considered to be a prominent step towards freedom from British rule.

With the adoption of the constitution, India became a sovereign democratic republic, as guaranteed by the preamble of the text. The countr...