INDEPENDENCE DAY – ENGLISH SPEECH (Harman, AS Level)
On the seventy-sixth anniversary of our Independence, I extend
Happiest Independence Day greetings to all who are present here in
the celebration. This day, thronged with memories of the past and
throbbing with significance for the future, is a golden moment in the
history of India and the world. Seventy-six years ago, at this very
moment, a new age of freedom dawned for India, and as the first prime
minister Jawaharlal Nehru put it, "the soul of a nation, long
suppressed, found utterance". Today, marks the day when we had
freed ourselves from the shackles of colonial rulers and decided to
reshape our destiny.
On this solemn occasion, we remember the countless men and women
the peasants, workers and the youth of lndia, who suffered untold
hardships and sacrificed their careers and even their lives for the
freedom and independence of the nation. We pay our homage to
Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, to Netaji Subhas Chandra
Bose and the Indian National Army and the great men like
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU, SARDAR VALLABHAI PATEL, RAJENDRA
PRASAD, MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD and a galaxy of others. We
also remember and pay our tribute to the founding fathers of our
Constitution and the Chairman of its Drafting Committee, BABA
SAHEB DR. B.A. AMBEDKAR, who championed the cause of the
downtrodden and the most exploited classes of people in our society,
and who reminded us in the Constituent Assembly that "social and
economic democracy are the tissue and the fibre of political
democracy"
Our achievements, as a nation, have been impressive in spite of many
failures. We have succeeded in maintaining the unity of the nation
and kept this vast country together. In our history, we have been able
to establish economic ties of interdependence between the diverse
parts of the country. It is by clinging to our cultural values and our
traditions of tolerance, to our composite culture and secularism and to
our economic and social development programmes, that we can
maintain our unity. I believe, the collective wisdom of our society and
our polity gives me the confidence, that forces of divisiveness and
intolerance will remain marginalized and India’s remarkable growth
story will continue uninterrupted.
Furthermore, the greatest achievement of India since Independence
has been the establishment of a democratic system of government and
politics. Indian democracy is the product of a complexity of factors.
Even though, we have every reason to be proud of our democracy, we
will have to strain our every nerve to purify our political,
administrative and electoral processes removing the aberrations and
distortions that have come into the functioning of our democracy.
Though India has registered significant successes in various fields, the
fact of the matter is that we have not been able to abolish poverty,
ignorance and disease from among our people. The massive
programmes that are launched in these fields have not yielded the
desired fruits. India will grow, only when all of India grows. We as a
nation must nurture creativity, science and technology. Here, our
schools and institutions of higher learning have a special
responsibility.
And corruption is corroding the vitals of our politics and our society.
Mahatma Gandhi, with prophetic insight, had observed on the growing
phenomenon of corruption as follows: "Corruption will be out one day,
however much one may try to conceal it." And the day has come. It
seems the people have to be in the forefront of the fight against
corruption, communalism, casteism and criminalization of politics and
life in the country.
India entertains her vision of the world as an association of free and
independent nations in an interdependent world. Let us, on this
anniversary of our Independence, dedicate ourselves to the welfare
and happiness of the people of India, the peoples of Asia, and all
humanity. In the end, I would like to invoke the Upanishads. For this
invocation shall live forever, as will Mother India:
“May God Protect us;
May God Nourish us;
May we Work Together with Vigour and Energy;
May our Studies Be Brilliant;
May there be no Hostility amongst us;
May there be Peace Peace Peace.”
Jai Hind.