Tryst with Destiny – "All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations."

Celebrating 75 years of Independence

Tryst with Destiny – The speech delivered by India’s first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the eve of the country’s Independence on midnight of August 14, 1947.

The speech captures India's independence struggle against the British empire.

The text of the speech:- Part 4 (Concluding)  

Continued...

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be.

We are citizens of a great country, on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

To the nations and people of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.

And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service.

Jai Hind."