Tryst with Destiny

"Tryst with Destiny" was a speech delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in The Parliament, on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947. It spoke on the aspects that transcend India's history. It is considered to be one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century[1] and to be a landmark oration that captures the essence of the triumphant culmination of the Indian independence struggle against the British Empire in India.

Jawaharlal Nehru's speech "Tryst with Destiny"

Popular Culture

• The speech is referenced in the 1998 Hindi film Earth directed by Deepa Mehta. The film portrays the main characters listening to the speech over the radio, against the backdrop of the Hindu-Muslim riots following the Partition of India. This provides an interesting juxtaposition between the realities of Partition and the optimism that followed Independence.[2]
• Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, a Hindi film by Sudhir Mishra that portrayed the political and social turbulence of the late 1960s and the '70s in India contains a clip of the speech and the narrative voice speaks of the souring of Nehru's dream within two decades of Independence.[3]
• In the 2000 film Hey Ram directed by Kamal Haasan, parts of the speech are heard in the background providing the audience a timeline of the happenings in the movie.[4]
• The book Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie has a reference to this speech[5] as does the novel Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh.[6]
• The speech is sampled by trance artist John 00 Fleming in the album "One Hundred Ten WKO" during the fifth track, "The Stroke of the Midnight Hour."[7]
• The musical group Kobo Town uses sound clips from this speech in their song Sing Out, Shout Out from their album Independence.[8]
• The Salman Khan film Bharat also used clips from the speech in their trailer .
• The film Student of the Year mentioned the name of the speech as a clue in the treasure hunt game.

See also

• The light has gone out of our lives

References

1. "Great speeches of the 20th century". The Guardian. 8 February 2008.
2. K. Moti Gokulsing; Wimal Dissanayake (13 January 2009). Popular Culture in a Globalised India. Routledge. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-1-134-02307-3.
3. Agrawal, Parul. "Citizen Journalism: In pursuit of Accountability India" (PDF). Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. p. 9. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
4. Bhaskar Sarkar (29 April 2009). Mourning the Nation: Indian Cinema in the Wake of Partition. Duke University Press. pp. 340–. ISBN 0-8223-9221-6.
5. Salman Rushdie (7 September 2010). Midnight's Children. Random House. pp. 155–. ISBN 978-1-4090-2848-2.
6. Khushwant Singh (February 2013). Train to Pakistan. Penguin Books India. pp. 185–. ISBN 978-0-14-341796-5.
7. "Album Review: John O'Fleming – One.Hundred.Ten W.K.O". Retrieved 12 November 2014.
8. "Sing Out, Shout Out by Kobo Town - Lyrics". Retrieved 12 November 2014.

External links

• Video of Nehru's "Tryst with Destiny" address
• Nehru, Jawaharlal. "Speech On the Granting of Indian Independence, 14 August 1947". Modern History Sourcebook. Internet History Sourcebook Project. Retrieved 3 March 2010.