An ex-Prime minister once confused 15th August with 26th January during an overseas interview. As a result the Republic Day, to him, became the Independence Day. Sometimes ignorance is blissful. He could not have been more right in displaying his lack of knowledge. As the Indian constitution came into effect from 26th January, 1950 after being adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November, 1949, India became truly an independent country without a monarch at the helm. It meant at the time of Independence, India had a constitutional monarch in George the sixth and a governor general in Mountbatten.
So far so good. India does not have to bear the tag of a monarch. Instead, India has a Prime minister who runs the country independently. And that independent will of the Prime minister has been working so much down the ages that Emergency, political or economic or otherwise, occurs and recurs alarmingly now and then!
The last thing India wants is to get shredded to a Banana Republic in counter response to the independent will of the people at the head.
Republic is a system which has an elected government which is expected to cater to the needs of its people. So independence should depend on the collective will of the people, not on the gallery play of an individual. Because Republic has a root word in PUBLIC, which is re-affirmed in the prefix: RE.