With all the material produced on hunger strikes and
independencedays and the rest besides ..... its interesting to
find in Tuesday''s
Guardian a booklet with foreword by Ian Jack on the speech
made by Jawaharlal Nehru dated August 14, 1947.
Freedom brings responsibility ... I watched the DVD on the same situation
directed by Lord Attenborough and found it a terrible sight altogether ....
the pain and agony of the situation was important, and there was
little left to the imagination.
India stands forth, and the people of India are now free of British Imperialism ..
how many times have I read those words on walls across the world, though
surely you would say there must be other Imperialists as well as the
British! However, only the British ruled India and it was for a long
stretch ...
By the 194Os Britain had realised that
independence would come . but no one
could say whether or not India would become a whole nation or a divided one.
Independence Day was to be on 15 August. Dressed in a golden silk
jacket Nehru rose to speak he was an
excellent speaker and a good writer and
was age 57 ... his words were poetic.
And thus India gained her Independence Nehru refers to the architect of this
freedom and leaves that accolade at the door of Ghandi ... which brings
me back to the DVD ... it is a vivid film and fits in well with this excellent
booklet on the subject of India and the history of the British in India.
Finishing with the notion that Nehru''s story is like that of a man whistling in the dark ... funny thing though ... this used to happen to me ... I was on my way to
Trinity College in Dublin and just as I went to turn the corner into Upper Lad Lane a
man stood in front of me and started whistling in the dark! I wonder who he was?
Interesting stuff ... keep on reading ...