Delivering his “Tryst with Destiny” speech at the hour of India’s independence in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru felt relieved that India’s “period of misfortune” had ended. Believing that India was ready to “discover herself again”, Nehru dreamt of the future bringing “freedom and opportunity to common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation”.