Prologue continues....

“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... 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.”

Thus, India began a new journey, stepping out from the old to the new –

signifying the end of an age. History has been cruel to India whose soul

was long suppressed and whose dreams were shattered. She endured slavery

for over a thousand years and lost all her fabled physical charm.

But the indestructible spirit kept her going. Countless numbers of her people

sacrificed their lives for freeing her from colonial bondage. She could now

resume her unending quest for what gives her meaning in the ever-changing

world. During the first six decades this quest has resulted in the re￾discovery of India’s genius in redeeming the pledge that Pandit Nehru referred to in his speech. The Constitution that the people gave themselves contains the philosophy of equality of man and his fundamental freedoms.

It lays out the path for the nation to redeem the pledge. The men who

led this freedom movement and later took up the task of governance of

the country were not ordinary men. They were men of vision who had

extraordinary courage to face challenges. It was not an easy task to attempt

to transform a society afflicted by centuries of ignorance and prejudices.

To be continued...