Tryst with Destiny

Speeches are an important window to our historical past and are an integral part of our archives. Radio has enabled us, for the first time in history, to broadcast some of the most important historical moments to the world. 

Jawaharlal Nehru’s historical speech “Tryst with Destiny” was delivered to the Indian Constituent Assembly in the Parliament on August 14^th, 1947 at midnight just as India gained independence. This landmark narration highlights all the aspects of India’s triumphant non-violent struggle for freedom from the British Raj.

By the 1940s, British politicians, apart from Churchill, realised independence would soon be inevitable. The Labour government then appointed a new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, under orders to get Britain out by June 1948. Independence Day was set for August 15.  India's assembly would be convened on the afternoon of August 14 and continue in session until Nehru's speech shortly before midnight, when, to the chiming of an English clock and the blowing of Indian conch shells, independent India would be born. 

Airing of the speech on radio enabled millions of Indians to listen to the speech without being there in person. Radio binded the whole country together that night and India woke up to a morning where they were independent.

“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.”

Jai Hind.