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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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