"At the stroke of midnight when the world was asleep, we awoke to freedom and liberty".
"The soul of a nation, found utterance".
It was just the beginning. The midnight hour, thronged with memories of the past, and throbbing with significance for the future, is a golden moment to relish on. Jawahar Lal Nehru.

Excerpts from Jawaharlal Nehru's speech :

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake
to life and freedom. A moment comes which comes rarely in history, when we step
out from the old to the new, when an age ends and the soul of a nation, long
suppressed finds utterance.

"It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication
to India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

 

"At the dawn of history, India started on her unending quest, and trackless
centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her successes
and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost
sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We
end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again ...

"The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means
the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.
The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every
tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and
suffering, so long our work will not be over ...

 "To the people of India whose representatives we are, we make appeal to join us
with faith and confidence in this great adventure.

"This is no time for petty and destructive criticism,
no time for ill will or blaming others.
We have to build the noble mansion of free India
where all her children may dwell." Jawahar Lal Nehru.