Commonwealth Games

[Ricco]

Well, India came good in the end. Quite a showy spectacle for the opening ceremony - very colourful! Something that is niggling away in my mind is:

I thought India fought for independance and left the Commonwealth? So, why are they hosting the games? :eek:

[Logical]

I don't think the games are worth the 400,000 people in Delhi who were forced to leave their homes to make way for new facilities....

[Logical]

Or all the people kicked off the streets because they were to ugly for the west (us) to see.

Saying that, I still wish for all the best with the games and the athletes. Hopefully the tourism will bring in some revenue for the city.

[scorrie]

Well, India came good in the end. Quite a showy spectacle for the opening ceremony - very colourful! Something that is niggling away in my mind is:

I thought India fought for independance and left the Commonwealth? So, why are they hosting the games? :eek:


Members with heads of state other than the British Sovereign:-

"The issue of countries with constitutional structures not based on a shared Crown, but which wished to remain members of the Commonwealth, was resolved in April 1949 at a Commonwealth prime ministers' meeting in London. Under this London Declaration, India agreed that, when it became a republic, in January 1950, it would accept the British Sovereign as a 'symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and, as such, Head of the Commonwealth'.

The other Commonwealth countries in turn recognised India's continuing membership of the association. At Pakistan’s insistence, India was not regarded as an exceptional case and it was assumed that other states would be accorded the same treatment as India.
The London Declaration is often seen as marking the beginning of the modern Commonwealth. Following India's precedent, other nations became republics, or constitutional monarchies with monarchs different from that of the United Kingdom, while some countries retained the same monarch as the United Kingdom, but their monarchies developed differently and soon became fully independent of the British monarchy. The monarch of each Commonwealth realm, whilst the same person, is regarded as a separate legal personality for each realm.""