The mood on August 15, 1947, was festive, marked by a feeling of achievement and jubilation. People old and young, of every caste, creed and colour, were cheering and singing to their hearts’ content on jam-packed roads in celebration of azadi. Artists of the IPTA enlivened the atmosphere by their spontaneous rendition of lyrics celebrating azadi. My friends and I, eight of us, huddled in my old 1940 seven-seater Fiat and participated with gusto.

Our hero was Pandit Nehru, whose idealism and vision, reflected in his speech on the Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly on December 13, 1946, were captivating. His words that this Declaration “is a firm resolve. It is a pledge and an undertaking and it is for all of us, I hope, a dedication” and his passionate plea that “a time comes when we have to rise above party and think of the nation” struck an instant chord in our hearts. Why? Because we considered ourselves not Hindus, Christians, Mulsims, Sikhs or Parsis but first and foremost Indians. Dr Radhakrishnan elegantly described the Declaration as “a pledge to our own people and a pact with the civilised world.”

The historic meeting of the Assembly was held on August 14, 1947 at 11 p.m. It commenced with the singing of the first verse of Vande Mataram by Sucheta Kripalani. This was followed by Dr Rajendra Prasad’s address, which was delivered in Hindustani. Thereafter the Assembly stood in silence for two minutes to honour the memory of those who had died in the struggle for freedom in India and elsewhere. And then Nehru delivered his celebrated ‘tryst with destiny’ speech: “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which 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, find utterance.” Nehru’s speech brought tears to our eyes and it still does whenever I listen to it.

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