The Nehru Blog

A Tryst with Destiny

Agricultural Research in India

March 20, 1949

Address of Jawaharlal Nehru to the students of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 20 March 1949. The Indian Agricultural Research Institute was established in 1905 at Pusa in Bihar and later shifted to New Delhi in 1934. The primary function of the Institute includes the conducting of basic and applied research in the…
Work and More Work

March 20, 1949

Convocation address of Jawaharlal Nehru at Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, 20 March 1949. Mrs. Rustomji Faridoonji [1] and Friends, Always at such functions there is an initial and primary difficulty about the language one should use, and sometimes that difficulty is got over by a bilingual effort. Well, Mrs. Rustomji tells me that I…
Ramakrishna and Vivekananda

March 20, 1949

Speech of Jawaharlal Nehru at Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi, 20 March 1949. Swami [Ranganathananda] Ji, Brothers and Sisters, I am in a great dilemma because arrangements have been made to record my speech and broadcast it abroad. But since you are gathered here, it is but proper that I should speak in Hindi because it…
Hindustani for English

March 14, 1949

Speech at a Conference of Prabasi Banga Sahitya Sammelan, New Delhi, 14 March 1949. I am glad to be participating in the Bengali Literary Conference. Culture is a thing where there is room for cooperation for everybody and I congratulate the Bengalees for having organized a literary conference to which they have invited representatives of all Indian literatures.…
Danger of Disunity

March 12, 1949

Speech of Jawaharlal Nehru at a public meeting at Puri, Orissa, 12 March 1949. The British had not conquered this country after any big fight but they made the fullest use of the prevailing differences among Indians. India should sink all her differences now and stand solidly. The nation should be revitalized, which is necessary…
The Government and the People

March 12, 1949

Jawaharlal Nehru’s address to Congressmen, Puri, Orissa, 12 March 1949. Orissa is poor as it had been neglected in the past. But the province has great resources and it is up to the people of Orissa to work those resources and make the province strong and prosperous by constructive and productive work in all directions.…
Time for Constructive Work

March 10, 1949

Jawaharlal Nehru’s address to a gathering at Konarak, Orissa, 10 March 1949. The people of Orissa should strive hard to increase the productive wealth of the province and thereby contribute to India’s prosperity and strength. A country’s wealth is not judged by the gold and silver it has, but by its natural resources and by…
Narrow-mindedness hampers Progress

February 27, 1949

Address of Jawaharlal Nehru at a Durbar of Namdhari Sikhs on the birth anniversary of Satguru Ram Singh, New Delhi, 27 February 1949. Reactionary forces are trying to disrupt the life of the country. It is our duty to guard the interests of our citizens. If the independence of the country is to be preserved…

Jawaharlal will be my successor…

Do not please go away with the idea that there is a rift in the Congress. The working committee has worked like members of a happy family. Somebody suggested that Pandit Jawaharlal and I were estranged. It will require much more than the differences of opinion to estrange us.

We have had differences from the moment we became co-workers, and yet I have said for some years and say now that not Rajaji but Jawaharlal will be my successor.

He says he does not understand my language, and that he speaks a language foreign to me. This may or may not be true. But language is no bar to a union of hearts. And I know this that when I am gone, he will speak my language.

Mahatma Gandhi, AICC Meet, Wardha, 1942