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Op-Ed AUGUST 13, 2021 | The Indian Eye 14

‘We have hard work ahead. There is no resting…’

Tryst with Destiny was a speech delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent
India, on midnight of August 15, 1947. Considered to be one of the greatest speeches of the 20th Century,

it captures the Indian Independence struggle against the British empire

ong years ago... we made a tryst with lighted up the darkness that surrounded us.
destiny, and now the time comes when We have often been unworthy followers
Lwe shall redeem our pledge, not whol- of his and have strayed from his message,
ly or in full measure, but very substantially. but not only we but succeeding generations
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when will remember this message and bear the im-
the world sleeps, India will awake to life and print in their hearts of this great son of In-
freedom. A moment comes, which comes, dia, magnificent in his faith and strength and
but rarely in history, when we step out from courage and humility. We shall never allow
the old to the new, when an age ends, and that torch of freedom to be blown out, how-
when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, ever high the wind or stormy the tempest.
finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn Our next thoughts must be of the un-
moment we take the pledge of dedication to known volunteers and soldiers of freedom
the service of India and her people and to who, without praise or reward, have served
the still larger cause of humanity. India even unto death.
At the dawn of history India started on her are too closely knit together today for any- We think also of our brothers and sisters
unending quest, and trackless centuries are one of them to imagine that it can live apart. who have been cut off from us by political
filled with her striving and the grandeur of Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is boundaries and who unhappily cannot share
her success and her failures. Through good freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is at present in the freedom that has come.
and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight disaster in this one world that can no longer They are of us and will remain of us whatever
of that quest or forgotten the ideals which be split into isolated fragments. may happen, and we shall be sharers in their
gave her strength. We end today a period of To the people of India, whose represen- good and ill fortune alike.
ill fortune and India discovers herself again. tatives we are, we make an appeal to join us The future beckons to us. Whither do
The achievement we celebrate today is with faith and confidence in this great adven- we go and what shall be our endeavour? To
but a step, an opening of opportunity, to ture. This is no time for petty and destructive bring freedom and opportunity to the com-
the greater triumphs and achievements that criticism, no time for ill will or blaming oth- mon man, to the peasants and workers of In-
await us. Are we brave enough and wise ers. We have to build the noble mansion of dia; to fight and end poverty and ignorance
enough to grasp this opportunity and accept free India where all her children may dwell. and disease; to build up a prosperous, dem-
the challenge of the future? The appointed day has come - the day ocratic and progressive nation, and to create
Freedom and power bring responsibility. appointed by destiny - and India stands social, economic and political institutions
The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, forth again, after long slumber and strug- which will ensure justice and fullness of life
a sovereign body representing the sovereign gle, awake, vital, free and independent. The to every man and woman.
people of India. Before the birth of freedom, past clings on to us still in some measure and We have hard work ahead. There is no
we have endured all the pains of labour and we have to do much before we redeem the resting for any one of us till we redeem our
our hearts are heavy with the memory of this pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turn- pledge in full, till we make all the people of
sorrow. Some of those pains continue even ing point is past, and history begins anew for India what destiny intended them to be.
now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is us, the history which we shall live and act and We are citizens of a great country, on the
the future that beckons to us now. others will write about. verge of bold advance, and we have to live
That future is not one of ease or resting It is a fateful moment for us in India, for up to that high standard. All of us, to what-
but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, ever religion we may belong, are equally the
the pledges we have so often taken and the the star of freedom in the east, a new hope children of India with equal rights, privileges
one we shall take today. The service of India comes into being, a vision long cherished and obligations. We cannot encourage com-
means the service of the millions who suffer. materialises. May the star never set and that munism or narrow-mindedness, for no na-
It means the ending of poverty and ignorance hope never be betrayed! tion can be great whose people are narrow
and disease and inequality of opportunity. We rejoice in that freedom, even though in thought or in action.
The ambition of the greatest man of our clouds surround us, and many of our people To the nations and people of the world
generation has been to wipe every tear from are sorrow-stricken and difficult problems we send greetings and pledge ourselves to
every eye. That may be beyond us, but as encompass us. But freedom brings responsi- cooperate with them in furthering peace,
long as there are tears and suffering, so long bilities and burdens and we have to face them freedom and democracy.
our work will not be over. in the spirit of a free and disciplined people. And to India, our much-loved mother-
And so, we have to labour and to work, On this day our first thoughts go to the land, the ancient, the eternal and the ev-
and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. architect of this freedom, the father of our er-new, we pay our reverent homage and we
Those dreams are for India, but they are also nation, who, embodying the old spirit of bind ourselves afresh to her service.
for the world, for all the nations and peoples India, held aloft the torch of freedom and Jai Hind.”

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