We have gathered from all parts of the country to live again a moment of history when, out of the long gloom of feudalism and foreign rule, India awoke to freedom and democracy. We have come to remember with gratitude the long succession of those who have gone before us. The Father of the Nation reinterpreted our ancient values and traditions and transformed ideals that seemed unattainable into powerful instruments of political action. His message reached out to village and town, inspired the educated, brought understanding to the simplest and awakened long supressed aspirations.
Our movement was a non-violent one. It released unthought of qualities in our people and revealed the many faces of courage. By participating in a cause larger than himself, every Indian grew in stature. Some groups followed the more familiar path of armed confrontation. Many were the instances of individual daring and self-sacrifice. I recall also the work of the Indian National Army away from our shores.
My mind goes still futher back, beyond personal memory, to the great rising of 1857. The immediate cause does not matter. Perhaps deep in the subconscious, underlying entiments of caste and relision was another stirring, the search for identity.
It was a remarkable century. the darkness of oppression was illumined by great intellects. Men of religion were also revolutionaries. Poets, scientists, indeed people of all professions, were one in a great objective--the resurgence of the nation.
Ultimately, success was achieved by the countless men and women, unknown and unsung who served our cause b their numbers no less than their dedication.
What was our strength? Oppressed and humiliated as we were, our leaders raised us above fear and hate. Transcending all hardship, we focussed our gaze on a vision of the future. We had faith that a people who moved with dignity and courage could not be cowed; that India awakened could never again be subdued.
We have always believed that freedom is indivisible. We have been in touch with movements for liberation everywhere and have contributed to them. Today we reaffirm our solidarity with the many Asian and African countries which became free with us or soon after, the latest of whom is Bangla Desh, and with all those who are still struggling for freedom or development.
At the moment of Independence, our energies turned from the tension of struggle to the immediate problems of partition and the vast new responsibilities which we had assumed. That night, Jawaharlal Nehru said in a mood of prophesy: "The future is not one of ease or resting bt of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges that have so often taken." A quarter of a century has since elapsed, during which we have had our share of failure and success, of tragedy and triumph. And yet we can take pride in the undeniable fact that despite the long sequence of challenges, we are today stronger--politically, economically, and socially. Our national unity, democracy, secularism and socialism remain strong and firm.
Our quest has been friendship with all, submission to none. Our fight was not for ourselves alone but for all mankind. Nor was it merely for political independence in its narrow sense. we were determined to change the old order, to eradicate poverty, to emancipate society from rigid stratification, evil customs and superstition.
The struggle for freedom began when the first man was enslaved and it will continue until the last man is freed not merely of visible bondage but the concepts of inferiority due to race, colour, caste or sex. Only those who are free in spirit can be the torch bearers of freedom and pioneers of the future.
The greatness for which we strive is not the arrogance of military power or the avarice of economic exploitation. It is the true greatness of the spirit which India has cherished through the millennia. Man in the nuclear age stands at a crucial crossroads in his destiny. Let us rededicate ourselves not only to the service of India and her great people, but beyond the broader goals of world peace and human welfare so that generations yet unborn can live with dignity and fulfilment, as part of the great world family.
From: Indira Gandhi: Speeches and Writings (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1975), 215-216.