The Impact of Nehru’s Inaugural Address ‘a Tryst with Destiny’ on the Educated Indians of Two Different Generations

Thank you, members of the Indian Constituent Assembly for inviting me here today to speak to you on the 66thanniversary of India’s Independence from the British rule. It is, indeed, a matter of great honour for me to be able to speak in front of so many great people. I am immensely grateful to this assembly for giving an opportunity to an ordinary student like me to deliver a speech which is being telecast on the national network and is being watched by millions. On this occasion , I would like to remind you of the historic speech that Pandit Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Independent India, delivered on the 14th of August 1947 - the famous speech titled ‘A tryst with Destiny’. Even though I was not born at that time, I am sure that some of the honourable members of this assembly had the privilege to listen to that speech in the first hand. 65 years later, today I would like to compare the impact that speech must have made on the educated Indians of 1947 with the possible impact it may make on the educated Indians of today. It is sad to notice that with every Independence Day, the Prime Minister’s speech seems to become less and less memorable than that of the previous years. Nobody seems to pay attention to the person behind the bullet-proof glass on the Red Fort, except, perhaps, for the media. Why is this happening? Let us examine a few facts. Back in 1947 in the context the British granting India total liberty after her prolonged struggle, Nehru, a UK educated scholar who delivered the speech in formal English, had no such attention deficit problem, particularly among the elite Indians who had had British education and among the ordinary, patriotic Indians who adored those English speaking Indian ‘Sahibs.’ I believe and I am sure you would agree with me that if Nehru had delivered the speech in Hindi, its appeal among the English speaking Indians would have been weak and it might have been so forgotten. In his effective

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