Speech by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the eve of Indian Independence, 1947 -
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?
That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.
And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell. The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.
It is a fateful moment for us in India, A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed! We rejoice in that freedom, The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavor? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.
To the nations and peoples of the world send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy. And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service. Jai Hind.
nehru is my hero…we will have no other as brilliant thoughtful man as prime minister…being human he had his fallacies but the foundation he laid in the initial years of institution building is why india is a stable state now unlike pakistan and bangladesh
A leader personified. This generation is far from what Nehru and Gandhi dreamed of as we have made progress but pretty materialistically.
“We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.”
Can the educated us be educated enough to understand this?? Why do we still embroil ourselves in this disgust?
This independence day, I shall celebrate the confidence, awareness and leadership shown by youth of today. Also with hope that as we reach the skies, we lay our humane foundations strong. Hope these words of Nehru echo in each one of us and remind us of yet-to-be reached greatness called India. Vande Mataram
After 61 years of Independence, India awakens everyday to a life of fear and uncertainity.
Freedom is condemned by vexatious show of disrespect for fellow countrymen. Utterance is found only as media gimmick and absurb allegations by the leaders of the nation. Dedication to the service of the nation is quantified by the bribes and scams committed every day, by the politicians, beauracrats and the rich citizens.
Nehru questioned with hope if we are brave enough and wise enough to grasp opportunities.
The Nuclear Proliferation Issue that led to the instability of the goverment verified the inadequecy of the efficiency of the Lok Sabha to act “wise” for the benefit of the country.
They had a vision of ending poverty,inequality of opportunity. yet on another day of the birth of freedom we see a divide, a divide between the rich and the poor. The brutality and the corruption has only made the rich more richer and the poor more poorer. Opportunities emerge only from the power of money or the stamp of caste/tribe.
I, as a proud Indian that I am, wish to see a day when we have leaders as those who fought for freedom 61 years ago, who were unbiased and faithful to their vows and had a vision for the prosperity of the entire nation. Jai Hind.
[...] Jawaharlal Nehru gave his famous speech titled “Tryst with Destiny” towards midnight on 14th August 1947 to the Indian Constituent Assembly. He was not [...]
[...] ) Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave his famous speech titled “Tryst with Destiny” towards midnight on 14th August 1947 to the Indian Constituent Assembly. He was not technically [...]
No bloody Indians published the great speeches of Chachaji in mp3 format it is a shame.
I SALUTE FULLY TO NEHARUJI AND THOSE WHO HAD PLAYED ACTIVE PART FOR REGAINING OUR ALMIGHTY FREEDOM. Thank You. Yashwant Deore.
plase send audio speech of mahatma gandhi nehru viveka nanda and radha krishnan
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