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Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the address known for the line “A glory has departed” to the Constituent Assembly (Legislative) on 2 February 1948, three days after Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. Nehru mourned Gandhi, accepted that he and the government had failed to protect him, and argued that grief and praise had to lead to renewed work and a struggle against hatred and violence. The Nehru Archive titles the speech “A Glory That Is No More.”
What did Nehru say after Gandhi was assassinated?
In the Assembly address, Nehru began with the scale of the loss and the coldness left by Gandhi’s absence: “A glory has departed and the sun that warmed and brightened our lives has set and we shiver in the cold and dark.” The words are from his 2 February speech, not the radio announcement he made on the day of the assassination.
His response was not only a eulogy. Nehru said that he and the government felt shame because Gandhi had not been protected. He also rejected the idea that ceremonial praise was an adequate tribute. Instead, he called on the Assembly and the country to renew their commitment to the work Gandhi had undertaken.
“The only way is to express our determination, to pledge ourselves anew, to conduct ourselves in a befitting manner and to dedicate ourselves to the great task which he undertook and which he accomplished to such a large extent,” Nehru said.
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Why did Nehru connect Gandhi’s death with hatred and violence?
Nehru placed the assassination in a wider climate of political hatred and violence. His appeal was not simply to condemn the killing after the fact: he urged people and government to confront the conditions that made such violence possible. He said “we have to face this atmosphere, to combat it, to struggle against it and root out the evil of hatred and violence.”
The speech therefore moves from personal grief and public responsibility to a political demand: mourning Gandhi should mean resisting the hatred that surrounded his death. Nehru’s mention of the assassin uses the language of the period; it should be read as part of his address, not as an independent diagnosis.
How is this speech different from Nehru’s 30 January radio announcement?
Nehru spoke on two separate occasions in the days surrounding Gandhi’s assassination. The radio announcement came on 30 January 1948, the day Gandhi was killed, and was an immediate public response. The Constituent Assembly address followed on 2 February and was a legislative eulogy that also addressed the failure to protect Gandhi and the need to combat hatred and violence. Secondary accounts describe the radio announcement as better known and the Assembly speech as comparatively overlooked; “forgotten” is an editorial description, not a measured claim about how many people know or read the speech.
| Address | Date and setting | Purpose and emphasis |
|---|---|---|
| Radio announcement | 30 January 1948; broadcast | Immediate public announcement and response to Gandhi’s assassination. |
| “A Glory That Is No More” | 2 February 1948; Constituent Assembly (Legislative) | Tribute to Gandhi that also acknowledges the failure to protect him and calls for renewed commitment against hatred and violence. |
What is the authoritative text of the address?
The Nehru Archive provides the transcript under the heading “A Glory That Is No More (2 February 1948)”. Its note cites the Constituent Assembly of India (Legislative) Debates, Official Report, Vol. I, 1948, pp. 102–104, and Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Second Series, Vol. 5, pp. 39–42.
Those two titles refer to the same Assembly address: the archive heading is “A Glory That Is No More,” while “A glory has departed” is its memorable phrase. For quotations, the archive transcript is the best starting point; secondary reproductions, including Scroll’s edited transcript, differ in wording or punctuation. Readers preparing a scholarly or critical edition should compare the archive text with the official debate record it cites.
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