Jawahar Lal Nehru
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Jawahar Lal Nehru was born into an affluent Indian family. At the age of
14 he was sent to England where he studied at Harrow Public School. He
went on to Cambridge and later studied law at Inner Temple. He joined
the Congress and was elected the president of the party four times. In
1947 he became the first Prime Minister of India. He tried to work for a
better life of Indian people. Here is a famous speech which he delivered on the eve of India's independence inside the Parliament of India. |
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TRYST WITH DESTINY
Near midnight before August 15, 1947 |
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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? 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 labour 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 to 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.
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. |
