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    The Indian Eye
             Op-Ed                                                                     AUGUST 21, 2026                                       8

                          TRYST WITH DESTINY

              ‘India Discovers Herself Again’

              Delivered to the Constituent Assembly on August 14, 1947, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech

                                     has been quoted often in the 79 years since it was first heard

                  ong years ago, we made a tryst with destiny,
                  and now the time comes when we shall re-
            Ldeem our pledge, not wholly or in full mea-
            sure, 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 histo-
            ry, 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 un-
            ending 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 pe-
            riod 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 oppor-
            tunity and accept the challenge of the future?  we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and   The future beckons to us. Whither do we go
                Freedom and power bring responsibility. The   confidence in this great adventure. This is no time   and what shall be our endeavour? To bring free-
            responsibility rests upon this assembly, a sovereign   for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill will   dom and opportunity to the common man, to the
            body representing the sovereign people of India.   or blaming others. We have to build the noble man-  peasants  and  workers  of  India;  to  fight  and  end
            Before the birth of freedom we have endured all   sion of free India where all her children may dwell.  poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a
            the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with   The appointed day has come – the day ap-  prosperous,  democratic  and  progressive  nation,
            the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains   pointed by destiny – and India stands forth again,   and to create social, economic and political insti-
            continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over   after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free   tutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life
            and it is the future that beckons to us now.  and independent. The past clings on to us still in   to every man and woman.
                That future is not one of ease or resting but of   some measure and we have to do much before we   We have hard work ahead. There is no resting
            incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges   redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet   for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full,
            we have so often taken and the one we shall take   the turning point is past, and history begins anew   till we make all the people of India what destiny
            today. The service of India means the service of   for us, the history which we shall live and act and   intended them to be.
            the millions who suffer. It means the ending of   others will write about.                    We are citizens of a great country, on the verge
            poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality   On this day our first thoughts go to the archi-  of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high
            of opportunity.                              tect of this freedom, the father of our nation, who,   standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may
                The ambition of the greatest man of our gen-  embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the   belong, are equally the children of India with equal
            eration has been to wipe every tear from every eye.   torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that   rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot en-
            That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears   surrounded us.                     courage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for
            and suffering, so long our work will not be over.  We have often been unworthy followers of his   no nation can be great whose people are narrow in
                And so we have to labour and to work, and   and have strayed from his message, but not only   thought or in action.
            work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those   we but succeeding generations will remember this   To the nations and peoples of the world we
            dreams  are  for  India,  but  they  are  also  for  the   message and bear the imprint in their hearts of   send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooper-
            world, for all the nations and peoples are too close-  this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and   ate with them in furthering peace, freedom and
            ly knit together today for anyone of them to imag-  strength and courage and humility. We shall never   democracy.
            ine that it can live apart.                  allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, how-  And to India, our much-loved motherland, the
                Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is free-  ever high the wind or stormy the tempest.  ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our
            dom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster   Our next thoughts must be of the unknown   reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to
            in this one world that can no longer be split into   volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, with-  her service. Jai Hind.
            isolated fragments.                          out praise or reward, have served India even    Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was India’s first
                To the people of India, whose representatives   unto death.                               prime minister. He served from 1947 till 1964

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