The Great Speeches of Modern India

by Rudrangshu Mukherjee

  I do not wish to weary the House any further. Independence is no doubt a matter of joy. But let us not forget that this independence has thrown on us great responsibilities. By independence, we have lost the excuse of blaming the British for anything going wrong. If hereafter things go wrong, we will have nobody to blame except ourselves. There is great danger of things going wrong. Times are fast changing. People including our own are being moved by new ideologies. They are getting tired of government by the people. They are prepared to have government for the people and are indifferent whether it is government of the people and by the people. If we wish to preserve the Constitution in which we have sought to enshrine the principle of government of the people, for the people and by the people, let us resolve not to be tardy in the recognition of the evils that lie across our path and which induce people to prefer government for the people to government by the people, nor to be weak in our initiative to remove them. That is the only way to serve the country. I know of no better.

  Temples of the new age (Bhakra Nangal, July 1954)

  JAWAHARLAL NEHRU (1889–1964)

  Nehru was a champion of modernization and he believed that this could be achieved through massive government projects and public sector undertakings. New dams and factories underpinned his vision of a modern and self-sufficient India. He took great pride in the completion of the massive Bhakra Nangal dam in Punjab on the Indian side of the Sutlej river. It was 680 feet high and the second highest dam in the world. The project would generate nearly a million kilowatts of electricity and water from its reservoir would help irrigate 7.4 million acres of land. It was while inaugurating the dam that he made this speech in Hindi and added a new phrase to the nation’s vocabulary.

  I have occasion frequently these days to participate in functions marking the inauguration of some new work or completion of some other. Today, you and I and all these persons have gathered here on one such occasion. I want to know from you what you think and feel in your minds and hearts on this occasion, because in my heart and mind there is a strange exhilaration and excitement, and many kinds of pictures come before me. Many dreams we have dreamt are today drawing near and being materialized. For the materialization of these dreams, we may praise one another, and those who have done good work should be praised. But how many can be praised when the list runs to thousands, nay, lakhs?

  Let us give praise where it is due. The work which we see today, and in the inauguration of which we are participating, is much bigger than our individual selves. It is a tremendous thing. I have told you that I, and undoubtedly many of you, have frequent occasions to participate in various functions. A foundation stone is laid somewhere; a building, a hospital, a school or a university is opened elsewhere. Big factories are going up. Such activity is taking place all over the country because Mother India is producing various kinds of things. Among them, Bhakra-Nangal has a special place—Bhakra-Nangal where a small village stood, but which today is a name ringing in every corner of India and in some parts of the world too; because this is a great work, the mark of a great enterprise.

  About fifty years ago, an Englishman came here and for the first time had the idea that something could be done at this place, but the idea did not materialize. The matter was raised many times. Some rough plans were made but they were not pursued. Then India became free. In the process, the Punjab suffered a great shock and a grievous wound. But despite the shock and the wound, freedom brought a new strength, a new enthusiasm. And so with the wound, the worries and calamities, came this new enthusiasm and new strength to take up this big work. And we took it up. I have come here frequently. Many of you also must have come and seen this slowly changing picture and felt something stirring deep within you. What a stupendous, magnificent work—a work which only that nation can take up which has faith and boldness! This is a work which does not belong only to the Punjab, or PEPSU or the neighbouring states, but to the whole of India.

  India has undertaken other big works which are not much smaller than this. Damodar Valley, Hirakud and the big projects of the south are going on apace. Plans are being made every day because we are anxious to build a new India as speedily as possible, to lead it forward, to make it strong and to remove the poverty of its people. We are doing all this, and Bhakra-Nangal in many respects will be one of the greatest of these works, because a very big step in this direction is being taken here today after years of endeavour. Every work we complete in India gives fresh strength to the nation to undertake new tasks. Bhakra-Nangal is a landmark not merely because the water will flow here and irrigate large portions of the Punjab, PEPSU, Rajasthan and fertilize the deserts of Rajasthan, or because enough electric power will be generated here to run thousands of factories and cottage industries which will provide work for the people and relieve unemployment. It is a landmark because it has become the symbol of a nation’s will to march forward with strength, determination and courage. That is why, seeing this work, my courage and strength have increased, because nothing is more encouraging than to capture our dreams and give them real shape.

  Just before coming to Nangal, I was in Bhakra where the Dam is being built. I stood on the banks of the Sutlej and saw the mountains to the right and left. Far away, at various spots, people were working. Since it was a holiday, there was not much work going on, for all the people had come here. Still there were a few persons working. From a distance they looked very small against the mighty-looking mountain through which a tunnel was being bored. The thought came to me that it was these very men who had striven against the mountains and brought them under control.

  What is now complete is only half the work. We may celebrate its completion but we must remember that the most difficult part still remains to be done—the construction of the dam about which you have heard so much. Our engineers tell us that probably nowhere else in the world is there a dam high as this. The work bristles with difficulties and complications. As I walked round the site I thought that these days the biggest temple and mosque and gurdwara is the place where man works for the good of mankind. Which place can be greater than this, this Bhakra-Nangal, where thousands and lakhs of men have worked, have shed their blood and sweat and laid down their lives as well? Where can be a greater and holier place than this, which we can regard as higher?

  Then again it struck me that Bhakra-Nangal was like a big university where we can work and while working learn, so that we may do bigger things. The nation is marching forward and every day the pace becomes faster. As we learn the work and gain experience, we advance with greater speed. Bhakra-Nangal is not a work of this moment only, because the work which we are doing at present is not only for our own times but for coming generations and future times.

  Another thought came to my mind when I saw the Sutlej. Where has it come from? What course has it traversed to reach here? Do you know where the Sutlej springs from? It rises near Mount Kailash in the vicinity of Mansarovar. The Indus rises near by. The Brahmaputra also flows from that place in a different direction, reaching India and Pakistan after traversing thousands of miles. Other rivers rise from places near by and flow from Tibet towards China. So the Sutlej traverses hundreds of miles through the Himalayas to reach here and we have tried to control her in a friendly way. You have seen the two big diversion channels. At present the whole river has been channelled through one canal. After the rains we will divert the river completely in the two channels so that the dam might be built there.

  I look far, not only towards Bhakra-Nangal, but towards this our country, India, whose children we are. Where is she going? Where have we to lead her, which way have we to walk and what mighty tasks have we to undertake? Some of these will be completed in our lifetime. Others will be taken up and completed by those who come after us. The work of a nation or a country is never completed. It goes on and no one can arrest its progress—the progress of a living nation. We have to press forward. The question is which way we have to take, how we should proceed, what principles, what objecti
ves we have to keep before us. All these big questions crop up. This is not an occasion to tell you about them but we have to remember them always and not forget them. When we undertake a big work we have to do so with a large heart and a large mind. Small minds or small-minded nations cannot undertake big works. When we see big works our stature grows with them, and our minds open out a little.

  Power (Calcutta, November 1954)

  S.N. BOSE (1894–1974)

  Satyendra Nath Bose was arguably India’s greatest scientist. He is best known for his seminal contribution to quantum statistics which, after it had been elaborated and extended by Albert Einstein, came to be known as Bose-Einstein statistics. Particles whose behaviour is described by the Bose-Einstein statistics are called Bosons. Bose was a charming and delightful man of varied interests—from music to art to literature. Stories about him are legion in the scientific and literary circles of Calcutta. There is the famous story about Bose and Neils Bohr, the Danish physicist. Bose was chairing a lecture by Bohr and, to the amusement of the audience, seemed fast asleep through it. At one point, Bohr turned to Bose for help. Bose woke up with a start and instantly solved the problem. He worshipped Einstein, and refused to publish a paper because his guru had expressed a few reservations. He was also a great believer in explaining scientific ideas to common people in layman’s language. In this speech he speaks about the sources of energy and of their uses in the everyday lives of human beings. His brief discussion on nuclear power for civilian purposes has powerful contemporary resonances.

  Ladies and Gentlemen,

  I deem it a very great privilege to be able to address you on the occasion of the birthday of Sir J.C. Bose. I am among the fortunate who were able to sit at the feet of the great master for their first lessons in modern physics; and I still recollect the thrill of intense delight which we all felt, when he modestly talked about his striking discoveries on electric waves in his class. His own life was a flaming example of devotion to science; and the fact that many of the students of our period had deliberately chosen science as their calling, at a time when the facilities for such studies were rare, had been in no small measure due to the inspiring examples of those great pioneers of research in Bengal, Sir J.C. Bose and Sir P.C. Ray. May their memory live long and continue to inspire successive generations of students in our land.

  I have chosen ‘Power’ as the subject of today’s address; we are all interested in quick and extensive development of our power industry by the utilization of India’s natural resources. Our ultimate source of energy, the sun, is apparent as an incandescent disc which subtends an angle of about 32 minutes to an observer on the earth. In reality it is an incandescent globe of vast dimensions, 1.39 × 106 kilometres in diameter, but very far away from us, 1.49 × 108 kilometres. Seen from the sun, the earth, our little globe, will appear as a speck of dust in the vast space. In fact our earth collects 0.5 × 10-9 fraction of the total energy radiated by the sun at every instant. This small fraction nevertheless amounts to a constant reception of 1.6 × 1014 kilowatts, a tremendous amount distributed at the level of the stratosphere or 1.35 kilowatt for every square metre at sea-level.

  Ages ago, our little planet was born as the result of a cosmic upheaval. Originally an incandescent mass had separated out of the materials thrown out from the sun, and had gradually cooled down, through about 2,000 million years from an incandescent state to what it is now today. Deep crusts have now formed over the once molten mass, and land rocks, continents and oceans have been formed.

  Life appeared at one stage on our planet, and thenceforth through its various manifestations has unceasingly worked on and produced far-reaching consequences on earth.

  Under its ceaseless thrusts, rocks have crumbled to soil, vegetations have covered bare continents. We do not yet understand life but we realize that the power necessary for such tremendous transformation has been ultimately derived by life from the energy that the earth continuously receives from the sun. It is the radiation from the sun, which provokes evaporation from the sea; rain and snow reprecipitate this moisture and water flows back ultimately to the sea, through thousands of rivers. The sun’s heat is also the ultimate cause of atmospheric circulation. The plant world traps the daily flow of energy by the photosynthetic process, and stores it as food, which ultimately sustains the whole animal world and builds the plant body with energy-rich carbonaceous material. This process has gone on for ages. Ever since life has appeared on this earth and though endless generations have been born and have died, the results of life’s photosynthetic activity has not been all lost. It subsists in the deposits of coal and oil, which form the raw materials for the generation of power for the present age.

  These natural processes, (1) the circulation of water from the land back to the sea, which provides the basis of hydroelectric power, (2) the photosynthetic process which determines the growth of plants, are however not very efficient in the sense that only some thousandth part of the actual energy received from the sun is utilized in these processes. Most of the radiation that we receive is ultimately scattered back into space. There is thus room for speculation about means of better utilization of this abundant power we daily receive for the ultimate good of man.

  Enduring achievements can only be brought out by large concentration of power devoted to the purpose in view. Before the age of power steam and coal, man had relied on large scale employment of human and animal labour. Food and comfortable surroundings were then the principal quests and agriculture was the principal industry which engaged the attention of man. Other needs of the human society, its garments and its shelter, were also met then by unaided human skill. The development of the mechanical sense however has gradually transformed the course of human efforts.

  Human ingenuity had been devoted to the discovery of labour-saving devices, and the growth of scientific knowledge had aided materially to bring about the industrial revolution. The tempo of progress has increased enormously with the discovery of the steam engine and later by the understanding of electro-dynamical processes, and the manifold uses to which electricity can be put. Modern civilization is now based on large scale uses of natural resources and means, whereby convenient concentration can be directed on any object, and human labour does no longer play a preponderant role in all human efforts, especially among nations who are at present in the vanguard of human progress.

  The extent of electric power development in a country can now be regarded as a positive index of the economic prosperity and the standard of living of its people. As an Indian my thoughts naturally turn to my own country, and here I sadly note that India is still a long way behind the industrially advanced countries.

  In spite of magnificent ancient achievements and contribution to human civilization, present day India ranks among the underdeveloped countries, where efforts will have to be made now to utilize the natural resources that lie buried in the land, or to utilize the natural advantages which its position and geography have lent to this country. It is clear that the future development must be carefully planned and a careful survey of all our resources for the generation of electric power should be undertaken immediately.

  The three chief sources of generation of electric power are oil, coal and water-flow. Our known mineral oil resources are not very significant. For our consumption we have still to rely on foreign imports, and though the recent talks about the probability of oil deposits in Bengal have encouraged us to dream of a blissful prosperity in the near future, much yet remains to be done and explored before we can really take oil into account in formulating our future plans. Coal however is apparently plentiful. Proved natural resources of coal here according to a recent government publication is about 16,000 million tons, and probable total reserves may be still higher, say about 60,000 million tons. Much of it however is added with inconveniently large ash-content, or probably contains harmful ingredients such as sulphur in its composition. We have also to remember that large scale industrial developments will require
development of extensive metallurgical processes in this country which would principally require high grade coal. Use of coal for transport and power development would have to be carefully thought out in a manner which permits the most economic use of our natural resources. This has, unfortunately, not been considered so long and much of our valuable deposits have been thus frittered away or wasted unnecessarily.

  It is now comforting to think that recently greater care is being bestowed on our reserves, and our future developments will try to conserve our good coal and put our low-grade coals to increasing uses.

  It is perhaps relevant to remark that other more highly industrialized countries have thought about the uses of low-grade fuel and have evolved methods by which they can be efficiently and conveniently utilized. Efficient methods of combustion have been worked out and extensive researches have been undertaken on the problem of gasifications. One hears of electric supply in big cities elsewhere (in Russia for example) being now secured by utilizing combustion of peat and lignite and low-grade coals and attention is now mainly directed towards attaining a better efficiency ratio, by using higher pressures in boilers and more efficient generators. It is a depressing sight in our country to see coal freely burning in open hearths, whereby useful gases which could have been utilized in developing chemical industries are being carelessly wasted away.