"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 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, then 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 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, an 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 labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue 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 opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.
And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
To the people of India whose representatives we are, we make appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell."
Speech by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru to Constituent Assembly of India
Midnight, August 15, 1947
With a motley crowd of about 50-odd institute staff (both teaching and non-teaching), and even fewer students (out of a total of 250-odd on campus), IIMK celebrated the 58th Independence Day of India. As the director, Dr Krishna Kumar, and later, Karan pointed out, it has been a long walk to this point where we can call ourselves independent, hence the onus is on us to realize that despite independence, we are not free to do what we please. We have a responsibility towards nation-building and going further, towards being and acting for the global citizens.
The young and future stalwarts of the Indian economy (pillars, Karan called them) started moving towards the shade (I was one of them, too) as the person from CEX (Center of Excellence), in his heavily accented speech, appealed to us to at least live for the country if we cannot take birth, exist and die for the country like the freedom fighters, soldiers and other martyrs. The song (I guess it must have been in Malayalam) by CEX students was extremely well rendered and though I could not understand much of it, it did light up that hidden spark...the spark that comes to us on at least two days of the year...the spark that made Gagan limp and stumble on his crutches all the way from the hostel to the flag hoisting (hats off, Gagan!!!)...the spark that used to start with the flag and end with the laddoos in the good old school days...the spark that is dying out slowly but surely...the spark that is getting replaced by yet another spark that is splitting up the colors of the flag, the white no longer a bridge between the saffron and the green.
What does this day mean to me as an individual is the question many of us would be asking today. For me, this day tells me that I am not under anyone's control...that I can rebel if I want to, that I can do what I please and as long as I am within logical levels of decency, nobody will stop me from doing those things. But is it that simple? There are so many things that I want to do but I can not because after all, I live in a society and am not totally independent. I am emotionally dependent on my family and friends and whatever I do has to be within the limits that are tolerated by people I am dependent upon. But then again, I am sure that these people do realise that I have my own space and they respect that space. I am sure that here again, if I am within my limits, they will not only tolerate my actions but also support me tooth and nail for whatever I am doing.
At least, I am not dependent on some whimsical person who will treat me as a dog just because I belong to a region that he thinks is his territory. I am independent of such tyranny, and for this knowledge, mother nation, I am thankful. It is this knowledge which brings the smile in my salute to you, dear Tiranga...it is this knowledge that holds my head high as I implore the wind to blow such that the national flag sails proudly...it is this knowledge that makes me bow my head with shame when I am not sure if I correctly remember, forget understand, the lines of the national anthem.
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