Ramesh highlights Nehru’s ‘overlooked’ I-Day address in Hindustani

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday shed light on Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘lesser-known’ address in Hindustani on the eve of India’s Independence.In a post on X, the Congress leader said before delivering his celebrated ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech, Nehru had addressed the Constituent Assembly in Hindustani.

Calling it one of the “greatest Hindustani speeches of the 20th century”, Ramesh said that revisiting the Constituent Assembly debates had brought to light this virtually forgotten detail of about Nehru’s Independence Day address.

“On August 14, 1947, the Constituent Assembly met at 11 pm. After the address of President of the Constituent Assembly, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Nehru actually started his speech in Hindustani and spoke for about six minutes. It is only after this address that the approximately 8-minute ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech followed and became history,” he said.

Describing Nehru’s Hindustani address as deeply poetic, Ramesh also shared a screenshot of the original text and a link to the audio recording.

In his Hindustani speech, Nehru had said, “Kai varsh hue ki humane kismat se ek bazi lagai thi. Ek ikarar kiya tha, pratigya ki thi, ab waqt aya ki hum ise pura karen. Balki, pura woh shayad abhi bhi nahi hua lekin phir bhi ek badi manzil puri hui. (Many years ago, we made a tryst with destiny. Now, the time has come when we shall redeem our pledge. May be not in full measure, but quite substantially.”