Editing Tryst with Destiny (section)

{{Short description|1947 speech by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Wikisource|A Tryst With Destiny}}
[[File:Nehru tryst with destiny speech.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Jawaharlal Nehru]] delivers his "Tryst with Destiny" speech on 14 August 1947]]

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| video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cudc5Mhlcc&feature=youtu.be Tryst with Destiny, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's Independence Day Speech (1947)] video by [[Indian National Congress]]
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"'''Tryst with Destiny'''" was an [[English language|English-language]] speech by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], the first [[Prime Minister of India|Prime Minister]] of [[India]], to the [[Constituent Assembly of India|Indian Constituent Assembly]] in the [[Old Parliament House, New Delhi|Parliament House]], on the eve of [[Independence Day (India)|India's Independence]], towards midnight on 14 August 1947. The speech spoke on the aspects that transcended [[History of India|Indian history]]. It is considered to be one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century<ref name="Great_Speeches">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/series/greatspeeches | title=Great speeches of the 20th century | work=The Guardian | date=8 February 2008 | access-date=18 December 2016 | archive-date=2 December 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202020709/https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/series/greatspeeches | url-status=live }}</ref> and to be a landmark oration that captures the essence of the triumphant culmination of the [[Indian independence movement]] against [[British Raj|British colonial rule in India]]. He declared the end of the colonial era and called on citizens to recognize the promise and opportunity of the moment:<blockquote>Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny. Now the time has come 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.</blockquote>His speech<ref name="modern_history_Sourcebook">{{cite web |date=October 1998 |title=Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964): Speech On the Granting of Indian Independence, August 14, 1947 |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1947nehru1.html |accessdate=11 November 2010 |work=Modern History Sourcebook |publisher=[[Fordham University]] |archive-date=18 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120818123622/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1947nehru1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> went on to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi's efforts in the Independence Movement and called upon his countrymen to work together to<blockquote>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.</blockquote>The declaration ends with an exhortation to work together in the [[Common good|common weal]] and cautions against narrow [[Sectarianism|sectarian]] or religious divisiveness:<blockquote>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.</blockquote>