India independent
August 15th, 1947 will go down in history as one of the most memorable dates, not for India alone but for Asia and the world. For India, it marks the end of an old era and the beginning of a new age. For Asia, it gives a new leader, a new outlook, a new future. For the world, it gives a new India and a new method. India has attained her independence in a unique manner, with unique weapons, and along unique lines. She has shown the world that a subject country, however docile, can still organise itself into a powerful fighting unit by sheer force of will and without resort to the sword, defy the most formidable imperialist power on Earth, render its striking power ineffective, and wrench and preserve freedom with peace as its mantra and satyagraha as its means. Through mainly the inspiration and instrumentality of Mahatma Gandhi, who embodies all that is best and noblest in India, this country has reached its goal without violence. The Indian National Congress which constituted the spearhead of India’s struggle for freedom, has in the course of a little over half a century, won for the country the greatest of all assets, independence. The names of the heroes thrown up in the process are legion; those who died for it are many and those who remain are not few. To all those who have striven, the consummation must come as a prize and an emblem. India is at last free.
That this freedom is temporarily fissured and broken does not alter the fact that the heritage is common, that the future is yet to be made. The task before Indians therefore is to preserve the common heritage and to shape the future. Reconstruction and unity must be the aim. It is possible that it may take long to materialize, but that should be no cause for regret. Did not even America, with less complexities, take well-nigh a century to realise her goal of unity? One should hope, however, that India will achieve it much earlier. And while hoping it is worth remembering that just as the past belongs to India and Pakistan alike, the future too belongs to both. It should be remembered also that the country has achieved its freedom at a time when the whole world is at the cross-roads, between life and death, wandering between archaic colonialism and empire philosophy on the one hand and liberty on the other. That the people in this continent have a special role to play in it cannot be overlooked. But to fulfil the mission, Indians have to achieve unity and peace among themselves so that they may help to bring about peace and goodwill among the nations of the world that are now rent by mutual jealousies and suspicion. In the circumstances, a sense of responsibility is as important as resources of mind and character. It is the essence of national self-discipline and Pandit Nehru gave expression to the right sentiment, when, inaugurating the Liberty Week he laid great stress on these qualities. The strength of a chain being the strength of its weakest link; the effort admits of no relaxation. While therefore we should aim at strength and solidarity and ensure good government for realisation of future destiny we should also remember that self-government is not to be an instrument of power alone but an opportunity of service.
It is in the spirit of service today that India enters the comity of nations as a free and self-reliant entity. She does so as a nation not weak and embittered by a prolonged struggle for freedom but as a nation resurgent, a power with untold potentialities for good. She realises that not only herself, but along with her the whole of Asia has risen; large parts of which are liberated already, others are in the process of liberation. In such an eventuality India will utilise her freedom not merely for her own material interests much less for domination over others, but to lead and help Asia, nay the whole world. She remembers only too well that, for this, she has to repair her own economy, her own damaged freedom. But with her present leaders still in trim, she feels confident that with a little more effort, she can achieve her purpose. The partition of the country must go, tension must disappear, progressive understanding of the need for space and concord must be promoted unceasingly, common action in mutual interest being always in mind. The need also for citizens to identify self with the State being important, every citizen must live for India just as India must live for all. To adapt great words to a great occasion, India expects every man to do his duty