(Hoisted from the archives: First published on January 30th 2017)

Nehru’s Speech on the evening of Gandhi’s assassination

In my previous post written on the the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence, I remarked:

Here is the podcast of Nehru’s Independence night speech “Tryst With Destiny” as “…at the midnight hour..” he announced the Independence of India. You may note the well cadenced, Harrow and Cambridge educated, “Brown Englishman”, orating a carefully prepared speech.

Four months after Inedpendence Day, on January 30th 1948, Gandhi was assassinated in the compound of Birla House in Delhi. A few hours after the assassination, Nehru, climbing on the gates of Birla House, delivered the superb, extemporaneous, emotional short speech below.

I have found a one and a half minute sound track on the web which betrays the emotion.

No longer do you hear or read the carefully crafted prose of a London trained lawyer. What you will hear and read is the immediate emotional response of a broken hearted, brilliant Indian, speaking in English, the language in which he is the most comfortable, about the death of a man he loved and looked to as a father.

The photograph of Nehru above was taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson as Nehru was standing on the gates of Birla House, at night, lit by street lights as he spoke to the nation a few hours after Gandhi’s death. Gandhi’s funeral and cremation took place the next day, as dictated by Hindu practice. Below is the full text of Nehru’s speech broadcast over All India Radio on January 30 1948

Continue reading “On the Anniversary of the Mahatma’s Death (Jan30 1948)”