Tryst with destiny
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 15, 2024 -

AS the stage has been set for celebration of the 78th Independence Day of India as "a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic" committed to Justice, Equality and Liberty for the people, it may need no reminding to anyone on how the independence of the country from the British colonial yoke had been won after a hard fight and at huge cost.

The struggle for independence had taken years and employed many forms including violent and non-violent, elite and popular, religious and secular, pluralistic and separatist.

So, when the British finally left India after more than 200 years of occupation, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who became the first Prime Minister of free India, delivered his famous 'Tryst with Destiny' speech at the stroke of midnight hour of August 14 and 15 in 1947, encapsulating the triumphant culmination of Indian freedom struggle against the British colonial rule and encouraging the people to recognise the promise and opportunity of the moment.

Addressing at the Indian Constituent Assembly, which is a precursor of the present Indian Parliament, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had proclaimed: "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, 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".

Pandit Nehru concluded his impassioned speech with an exhortation to work together for the common good of all and cautioning against narrow sectarian or religious divisiveness: "All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action".

However, seventy-eight years down the line, the question of whether India has really awoken to life and freedom still continue to haunt the mind of people.

This is rather unfortunate. Government institutions and people across the country may be celebrating Independence Day every year on August 15 with hoisting of the tricolour,taking out long parades and organising mesmerising cultural events, but security concerns over possible or perceived terrorist attacks, calls for boycott of the celebration by separatist groups and triggering of bomb blasts in the run up or on August 15 have remained an indispensable feature of the Independence Day celebration in India over the years.

On the other hand, the gap between the "haves and have-nots" in the country is ever increasing so much so that while people belonging to the affluent section of the society look upon August 15 as a day off from work for parties and family outings; it is yet another day of struggle for survival for a multitude of poor people.

Most importantly, India's 'tryst with destiny' that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had talked about is still a distant dream yet to be realised even after 78 years of Independence in the northeast region, which is connected to the rest of the country by a narrow strip of 20 to 40 km wide land, known as the Siliguri Corridor or Chicken's Neck.

Apart from its extreme location, people in the region continue to feel neglected and alienated, not just in terms of developmental disparity but also in the mental outlook of mainland Indians towards them.

Home to more than 200 racial groups, northeastern region of the country continues to remain mired in issues like underdevelopment, unemployment, communal strife, separatist movement, illegal immigration, etc.

In fact, most of the issues afflicting the region today could very well be traced back to the birth of India as "a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic" but not entirely committed to ensuring Justice, Equality and Liberty to all its people.

This could not be the 'tryst with destiny' of India that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had in mind at the stroke of midnight hour of August 14 and 15 in 1947 when the country awoke to life and freedom, surely.