Jairam Ramesh Reveals Nehru’s Lesser-Known Hindustani Speech Before ‘Tryst with Destiny’
New Delhi: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday drew attention to a largely overlooked historical fact — before delivering his legendary ‘Tryst with Destiny’ address, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spoke to the Constituent Assembly in Hindustani. Ramesh described this earlier address as “one of the greatest Hindustani speeches of the 20th century.”
Sharing his discovery after revisiting the Constituent Assembly debates, Ramesh said, “The Constituent Assembly met at 11 PM on August 14, 1947. It is immortalised by Nehru’s iconic ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech delivered just before midnight. It is widely known that he spoke after Dr. Rajendra Prasad’s address, but the records reveal something remarkable that has long gone unnoticed.”
According to Ramesh, after Dr. Rajendra Prasad’s remarks, Nehru began speaking in Hindustani for about six minutes — a speech that preceded his historic English address. “Only after this did he deliver the roughly eight-minute ‘Tryst with Destiny’ that became immortal,” Ramesh noted.
He added that Nehru’s Hindustani speech was “lyrical and beautifully captured the spirit” of what would follow in English. “It stands on its own as one of the most powerful Hindustani speeches of the 20th century. Fortunately, both the text and an audio recording of this speech are available,” Ramesh said, sharing a screenshot of the text and a link to the audio on X.
In his Hindustani remarks, Nehru said:
“Kai varsh hue ki humne kismat se ek baazi lagai thi. Ek ikrar kiya tha, pratigya ki thi. Ab waqt aaya hai ki hum ise poora karen. Balki poora woh shayad abhi bhi nahi hua lekin phir bhi ek badi manzil poori hui.”
(“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.”)
