India, Aug. 16 -- A Review of MR Venkatesh's Discovery and Bharat

In the annals of modern Indian history, scarcely any speeches hold a candle to Jawaharlal Nehru's address on the eve of India's Independence, for the celebrated "Tryst with Destiny" heralded a historic shift. Interestingly, though, on the surface, it may appear to be another innocuous, flowery discourse, characteristic, of course, of Nehru's usual idiolect. Upon closer review, however, one sees that there is more to it than meets the eye. Nehru proclaimed in his monologue, with a sense of the propitious gravitas of the hour, that a moment had arrived when "the soul of a nation, long suppressed," would find "utterance."

This statement is remarkable, to say the least, for i...