At the dawn of history, India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and grandeur of her success and failures. Through good and ill fortune alike, she has never lost sight of that quest, forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of misfortunes 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?
Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom, we have endured all the pains of labor and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons us now.
That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfill 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 labor and to work, and to 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 is said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. 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, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materialies. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!
We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow-stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.
On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation, who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.
Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.
We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good [or] ill fortune alike.
The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? 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 people of the world we 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! Jai Jawan!"
The speech ‘Tryst With Destiny’ was delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, on the midnight of 14th August 1947 to bring in the independence. The ‘Tryst With Destiny’ speech was perfect for the circumstances that prevailed at that time, but it’s being relevant even today in 2012, after almost six and a half decades means that as a nation we have failed. The dreams and struggles that were put forth in the speech — the same dreams and struggles are still being pursued as the 65th Independence Day is celebrated.
As we ring in the celebrations, it would be worthwhile to momentarily pause and introspect; whether the independence has been achieved in the real sense of things? Our freedom fighters fought for total Swaraj (Self-Rule), but do we really enjoy it? Why is our nation still fighting ideological wars with its neighbors, whilst its own corridors are being eroded by misfits —political or otherwise?
From 90 years of British Raj to 65 years of Neta Raj, the basic principle of Praja-Tantra (Democracy) on which free India was to move ahead has been forgotten. The American President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said; through the agony of war they learned that great powers involves great responsibility and similarly through the agony of war for freedom, we should have learned the same thing but sadly we readily acknowledged the power but shrugged off the burden of responsibilities.
Every nation has its pros and cons, so does India, but recently the pros are being outnumbered by the cons. Hence on our 65th Independence Day, we need to renew our struggle for freedom from cons. The struggle has been sparked off by a few disillusioned citizens but at the moment they are like thin bolts of lights that temporarily brighten up the night and then all is dark once again. It is said that the night is at its darkest just before dawn, so here’s wishing that the night of this 65th Independence Day be the darkest, so there is a golden dawn which the people of India richly deserve.
Happy Independence Day To You All!
And so we have to labor and to work, and to 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 is said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. 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, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materialies. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!
We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow-stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.
On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation, who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.
Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.
We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good [or] ill fortune alike.
The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? 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 people of the world we 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! Jai Jawan!"
The speech ‘Tryst With Destiny’ was delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, on the midnight of 14th August 1947 to bring in the independence. The ‘Tryst With Destiny’ speech was perfect for the circumstances that prevailed at that time, but it’s being relevant even today in 2012, after almost six and a half decades means that as a nation we have failed. The dreams and struggles that were put forth in the speech — the same dreams and struggles are still being pursued as the 65th Independence Day is celebrated.
As we ring in the celebrations, it would be worthwhile to momentarily pause and introspect; whether the independence has been achieved in the real sense of things? Our freedom fighters fought for total Swaraj (Self-Rule), but do we really enjoy it? Why is our nation still fighting ideological wars with its neighbors, whilst its own corridors are being eroded by misfits —political or otherwise?
From 90 years of British Raj to 65 years of Neta Raj, the basic principle of Praja-Tantra (Democracy) on which free India was to move ahead has been forgotten. The American President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said; through the agony of war they learned that great powers involves great responsibility and similarly through the agony of war for freedom, we should have learned the same thing but sadly we readily acknowledged the power but shrugged off the burden of responsibilities.
Every nation has its pros and cons, so does India, but recently the pros are being outnumbered by the cons. Hence on our 65th Independence Day, we need to renew our struggle for freedom from cons. The struggle has been sparked off by a few disillusioned citizens but at the moment they are like thin bolts of lights that temporarily brighten up the night and then all is dark once again. It is said that the night is at its darkest just before dawn, so here’s wishing that the night of this 65th Independence Day be the darkest, so there is a golden dawn which the people of India richly deserve.
Happy Independence Day To You All!
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