On the eve of India’s independence, towards midnight, on August 15, 1947, prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the “tryst with destiny” speech. Nehru spoke on the aspects that transcended Indian history.
Arguably considered to be one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century, he said: “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 the still larger cause of humanity,” he said.
India Was Not Balkanised
In the run-up to the independence, a vile plan was devised by a handful of powerful princes to remain independent. The plan was led by the chancellor of the chamber of princes.
The Nawab of Bhopal was operating under the direct patronage of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Lord Wavell and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to create a third dominion called Princestaan, along with India and Pakistan.
It was planned that the 565 princely states would stay outside the ambit of the two free states and retain paramountcy under the aegis of the departing British.
The success of such a malevolent plan would have made the newly independent nation unstable and vulnerable. But three persons, Nehru, Sardar Patel and lord Mountbatten battled the rulers of the princely states at every twist and turns; and foiled the nefarious British plan to balkanise India.
What Does Purna Swaraj Mean?
At the 1929 Lahore session of the Indian National Congress, the purna swaraj declaration, or the declaration of the independence of India, was promulgated, and January 26, 1930, was declared as independence day.
The Congress called on people to pledge themselves to civil disobedience and “to carry out the Congress instructions issued from time to time” until India attained complete independence.
Celebration of such an independence day was envisioned to stoke nationalistic fervour among Indian citizens, and to force the British government to consider granting independence.
Congress observed January 26 as the independence day between 1930 and 1946. The celebration was marked by meetings where the attendants took the “pledge of independence”.
Jawaharlal Nehru described in his autobiography that such meetings were peaceful, solemn, and “without any speeches or exhortation”.
MK Gandhi envisaged that besides the meetings, the day would be spent in doing some constructive work, whether it is spinning, or serving Dalits, or reunion of Hindus and Muslims, or prohibition work, or even all these together.
Following actual independence in 1947, the constitution of India came into effect on and from January 26, 1950.
Arrival Of Lord Mountbatten
In 1946, the government in Britain realized that it had exhausted its coffers due to World War II. It also realized that it had neither the mandate at home, the international support nor the reliability of native forces for continuing to maintain control in an increasingly restless India.
On February 20, 1947, then-prime minister Clement Attlee announced that the British government would grant full self-governance to British India by June 1948 at the latest.
The new viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, advanced the date for the transfer of power, believing the continuous contention between the Congress and the Muslim League might lead to a collapse of the interim government.
He chose the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, August 15, as the date of power transfer. The British government announced on June 3, 1947, that it had accepted the idea of partitioning British India into two states.
The successor governments would be given dominion status and would have an implicit right to secede from the British commonwealth.
The Indian Independence Act, 1947, of the parliament of the United Kingdom partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan (including what is now Bangladesh) with effect from August 15, 1947.
It granted complete legislative authority upon the respective constituent assemblies of the new countries. The Act received royal assent on July 18, 1947.
The Partition And Communal Violence
Millions of Muslim, Sikh and Hindu refugees trekked the newly drawn borders in the months surrounding independence.
In Punjab, where the borders divided the Sikh regions into halves, massive bloodshed followed; in Bengal and Bihar, where mahatma Gandhi’s presence assuaged communal tempers, the violence was mitigated.
In all, between 2,50,000 and 10,00,000 people on both sides of the new borders died in the violence. While the entire nation was celebrating independence day, Gandhi stayed in Calcutta in an attempt to stem the carnage.
On 14 August, 1947, the independence day of Pakistan, the new dominion of Pakistan came into being; Muhammad Ali Jinnah was sworn in as its first governor-general in Karachi.
The Constituent Assembly of India met for its fifth session at 11 p.m. on August 14, in the constitution hall in New Delhi. The session was chaired by India’s president, Rajendra Prasad.
The members of the assembly formally took the pledge of being in the service of the country. A group of women, representing the women of India, formally presented the national flag to the assembly.
The dominion of India became an independent country as official ceremonies took place in New Delhi.
Nehru assumed office as the first prime minister, and the viceroy, lord Mountbatten, continued as its first governor-general. Gandhi’s name was invoked by crowds celebrating the occasion.
Gandhi, however, did not participate in the official events. Instead, he marked the day with a 24-hour fast, during which he spoke to a crowd in Calcutta, encouraging peace between Hindus and Muslims.
India Keeps China In Check
Internationally, India has emerged as an indispensable economic, strategic and geopolitical power in the 21st century, given its power of being the largest democracy in the world and its role as a counterweight to China’s growing influence.
In recent years, because of robust Indian diplomacy, I believe that there has been a substantial decline in the international interest in Kashmir, despite Pakistan’s efforts at highlighting the situation there to its own diplomatic advantage and to the Indian administration’s disadvantage.