Tryst with Destiny: Jawaharlal Nehru’s Historic Independence Day 1947 Speech

Long years ago, we made a twist with destiny. And now, the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not holding or in full measure, but very substantially. >> [music] >> 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 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 successes 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 and 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.

That 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 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 might 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