We Indians love arguments and debates and why not? Some of the well-known post-independence debates and speeches in parliament and the public are by Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. B R Ambedkar, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi, Ram Manohar Lohia, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Jawaharlal Nehru
On 14 August 1947, Nehru, in an address to the Constituent Assembly, said, “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment, we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity with some pride. At the dawn of history, India started on her unending quest and trackless centuries which are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortunes alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortunes and India discovers herself again.
Dr. B R Ambedkar
On 25 November 1949, Ambedkar gave a historic speech to the then constituent assembly, which, over the years, has become a reference point of sorts. In his speech, popularly known as “Grammar of Anarchy”, Ambedkar said, “If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also a fact, what must we do? The first thing in my judgment we must do is hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation, and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods to achieve economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us.
Atal Behari Vajpayee
As an orator, former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee stands among the country’s best since Independence. His speeches in Parliament (both as prime minister and a member) and outside were replete with sarcasm, wit, humor, and poetry. Among his more notable speeches is the one he delivered on 1 June 1996 in the Lok Sabha, 13 days after he was elected prime minister. That speech, titled “Here comes my resignation, Mr. Speaker”, was made after the fall of his government that year.
In the year 1996, one of his famous speeches goes like “Governments will come and go. Parties will be made and unmade. This country should survive, its democracy should survive.”
The Pokhran-2 nuclear tests were conducted neither for self-glorification nor for any display of machismo. But this has been our policy, and I think it is also the policy of the nation, that there should be minimum deterrence, which should also be credible. This is why we decided to conduct tests. [In Parliament on the 1998 nuclear tests].
Education, in the truest self of the term, is a process of self-discovery. It is the art of self-sculpture. It trains the individual not so much in specific skills or specific branches of knowledge, but in the flowering of his or her latent intellectual, artistic, and humanist capacities. The test of education is whether it imparts an urge for learning and learnability, not this or that particular set of information. [December 28, 2002 – inaugural speech of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the University Grants Commission]
Indira Gandhi
The former prime minister was certainly not known to be a “natural orator”, but her speeches, most notably the one in 1971 after India’s decisive victory in the Bangladesh Liberation War, were among her finest in Lok Sabha. Addressing Parliament, she said, “This House and the entire nation rejoice in this historic event. We hail the people of Bangladesh in their hour of triumph. We hail the brave young men and boys of the Mukti Bahini for their valor and dedication. We are proud of our own Army, Navy, Air Force, and Border Security Force, who have so magnificently demonstrated their quality and capacity. Their discipline and devotion to duty are well known. India will remember with gratitude the sacrifices of those who have laid down their lives, and our thoughts are with their families… Our objectives were limited—to assist the gallant people of Bangladesh and their Mukti Bahini to liberate their country from a reign of terror and to resist aggression on our land. Indian armed forces will not remain in Bangladesh any longer than is necessary…
The triumph is not theirs alone. All nations who value the human spirit will recognize it as a significant milestone in man’s quest for liberty.
Ram Manohar Lohia
His very first speech in the Lok Sabha is considered a historical one, a speech that challenged Nehru while bringing forward the ground realities that prevailed in India back then. As part of the first of many iconic Nehru-Lohia debates, popularly known as the “teen anna pandrah anna”, Lohia wrote a pamphlet, “25000 rupees a day”
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Vallabhbhai Patel, popularly known as Sardar Patel, was one of India’s towering leaders, whose contribution to the Indian Republic is immense.
The necessity of unity and peace for a country to prosper
Free India is only a child of a year and a half. It has yet to learn to walk; it has to grow, to be strong, and its future depends upon how we build today. Therefore, we have to nurse it carefully; we have to feed, clothe and strengthen it properly. It is our great good fortune that we have here a rare opportunity to build our own country in our fashion. History will record what we are doing today.
The first requisite for building a strong, free India is unity and peace. If there is no unity in the country, it is bound to go down. Therefore, we must, first of all, adjust our differences and behave in such a manner that there is complete harmony and peace in the country. You cannot expect the Government to continuously maintain peace by force. It would be an evil day when in this country the Government has to use repressive measures permanently.
Today we are passing through a period of crisis and our young men have, in their impatience, not realizing that the freedom which has been obtained with great difficulty is likely to be lost or likely to give no benefit, no advantage, if we do not appreciate that our present duty is to unite and consolidate our freedom.
In the next part, we will present some of the prominent pre-independence discussions, arguments, and speeches.