India a Republic, Prasad President

India a Republic, Prasad President
Proclamation and Induction Implement Sovereignty and Sever Ties With British Two-Day National Holiday
By Robert Trumbull
Special to The New York Times

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New Delhi, Jan. 25 -- The proclamation of the Republic of India and the induction of the first President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, will be marked by a two-day national holiday.

At the moment the office of Governor General ceases, a line of forty-nine occupants, going back to Warren Hastings, will end. The Governors General have included some of the brightest names in the British Empire's history.

The event also significantly alters the complexion of the Commonwealth, whose largest member, with about one-sixth of the earth's population, will no longer recognize the King of Great Britain as its sovereign. The Republic of India will, however, continue to accept the King as the symbolic head of the Commonwealth of Nations.

British Insignias Removed

The British arms and the royal crown have already been removed from the public buildings, except the two crowns that tower over the immense secretariat buildings opposite Government House on New Delhi's highest eminence. How to dislodge these ornaments, weighing two tons each, without the risk that they would crash through the secretariat roof, has baffled Indian engineers. The other crowns have been replaced by a symbolic Asoka pillar.

The pillar of Asoka, recalling the great Buddhist Emperor whose reign began in 274 B. C., will replace the crown on police and service flags and on uniform insignia. At the same time the prefix "royal" will be dropped from the designations of the Indian army, navy and air force. New currency and stamps of Indian design will be issued.

Assumption of the status of a "sovereign democratic republic" brings in to force the new Constitution, which abolishes untouchability and includes the most detailed document of fundamental rights of any constitution. All present laws in conflict with the Constitution are automatically repealed.

India's nine Governors' Provinces, eleven Chief Commissioners' Provinces and eight Princely States and Unions, will be known as States under the new Constitution.

A Governor will continue to be called His Excellency, and a Maharajah His Highness, although the Chief of State will be addressed simply as Mr. President. But no more titles may be accepted by Indian nationals except in cases of hereditary princes whose honors are guaranteed by a covenant with the Central Government.

Jan. 26 was chosen for the inauguration of the republic because on that date twenty years ago the Indian National Congress, now the governing party, issued a pledge that India must become completely free and independent of British rule.

Dr. Prasad, four times president of the Congress, will be head of state until the first general elections are held. These are tentatively scheduled for next winter. Meanwhile, the present assembly will be a provisional Parliament and will hold its first meeting as such on Saturday when the President will read his first formal message.

Territorial readjustments between the various units that will constitute the Indian Republic were announced today.

There are hundreds of small enclaves consisting of villages, towns and forest areas belonging to one unit but situated in a neighboring territory, thus creating serious administrative difficulties. The States Ministry announcement said that all such bits of land would be absorbed by the unit in which they are situated. For instance, these adjustments will involve the merger of 110 Hyderabad State villages with Bombay Province and the taking over of ninety-three Bombay Province villages by the Hyderabad Government.

There are about 1,600 enclaves, ranging in area from a few square yards to several square miles.

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