The above-said expression of Thomas Carlyle’s
view of historiography may not find many proponents among the modern-day
students of history, yet, it can’t be gainsaid that there have come, but come
rarely, such personalities which have almost single-handedly shaped the events
of our past and perforce, we have to accept that a part of our history is but
an expansive biography of such personalities.
Subhas Chandra Bose is undoubtedly one such
personality in the annals of history. More than 75 years after his death
in a tragic accident, his story continues to evoke awe and wonder among
Indians. While the opinions of most Indians on the other giants of his times
remain divided, there will hardly be any Indian who can discount Netaji’s
contribution towards the Indian freedom struggle. Albeit the events surrounding
the ‘mystery’ behind his death and many other apocryphal stories regarding his
resurgence as a mystic have added myth to the man, yet the legend’s life itself
is nothing short of a riveting story of toil and sacrifice. It is, ergo, no
wonder that generations of Indians who have only read about him in their history textbooks still continue to indulge in wishful thinking and
hypothetical questions as to what course the country could have taken had
Netaji been alive on 15th August 1947.
Declassified files of the erstwhile British
empire clearly reveal the empire’s almost morbid obsession with this His
Majesty’s opponent. While he was alive, the British intelligence was keen to
find or assassinate him, but even after his death, his spectre continued to
haunt them and as late as 1946, the British intelligence wanted to confirm that
Subhas was “actually and permanently dead”. While the imperialists’ fascination
with him is easily fathomable and well justified, yet what has surprised, and
even angered, most Indians has been independent India’s governments' qualms
regarding him. Declassified “Netaji Papers” show how India’s Intelligence
Bureau (IB) maintained a vigilant profile of his kin. Sisir Kumar Bose, Subhas’
nephew who helped him organize his daring 1941 escape and afterwards established
Netaji Research Bureau (NRB), remained under constant surveillance of the Kolkata
Intelligence Branch as governments of the day were under the assumption that Sisir
will be using NRB’s groundwork to launch a political movement in his name. Such
revelations are new; however, everyone is aware as to how Subhas’ role in the
Indian freedom struggle has been downplayed over the years. While the country
has surely done a disservice to this son of the motherland by not even
implementing the recommendations of Shah Nawaz Committee (of bringing back his
mortal remains from Renkoji temple) (the first attempt, though unsuccessful, to
undo this wrong was made by PV Narasimha Rao in 1990s, roughly 35 years after
the recommendation was published), a bigger disservice has been the warped and
fallacious portrayal of Subhash in the Indian history. Many have tried to use
his often-repeated quote “Give me blood, and I will give you freedom” as well
as his war-time association with Nazi Germany and the Japanese empire to brand him as a militant and even a misled nationalist. Given India’s
culture of revering warriors (and especially warriors who sacrificed themselves
for a bigger cause), such imputations have failed to detract Indians from his stellar achievements, yet such allegations have succeeded
in creating among people a very garbled view of what Subhas stood for. While
almost everyone in India loves him, yet many don’t understand who he really was
and what, if any, was his vision for a free India. This blog, taking heavily
from Sugata Bose’s His Majesty’s Opponent, is an attempt to summarize the same. Subhas lived only for 48 years, yet for a man like him, it is not the years of life but the life that he lived in those years really counts. And life he lived and he lived it like none other. Therefore, despite knowing that any attempt to 'summarize' such a life in a few pages is abortive from the very onset, but still, as a token of my gratitude to the legendary Deshnayak, I would still hunker down to the task.
Subhas’ was a life lived in-toto for the
nation. From his own perspective, he considered himself to be a pilgrim on a voyage- he
gave his unfinished autobiography the title of “An Indian Pilgrim” – in quest
of a spiritual awakening. In fact, gleaning over his letters as a young student,
one can clearly see that his primary inspiration was Swami Vivekanand and not
some revolutionary or freedom fighter of the day. Having grown up in Cuttack,
Orrisa in a prosperous family which had benefitted much from western education,
his initial interaction with the iniquities of the Raj came only when he moved
to Calcutta to study Philosophy at the prestigious Presidency college. “This great city had intrigued me, bewildered
me beyond measure,” Bose wrote of Calcutta. This sudden exposition to a new
world where the grim realities of Raj’s oppression were juxtaposed with the
culture of elite institutions such as Presidency College, led him to add one more
aspect to Vivekananda’s spiritual theory – the service of the motherland.
The nature of his unwavering spiritual quest
became explicit when Subhas encounters a major moral dilemma. ICS (Indian Civil
Services) was the most efficient hand of the British Raj. David
Lloyd George called it the “steel frame” of the fabric of the British Raj and
getting an entry into this coveted institution was a ticket to a prosperous life
of privileges. While studying in Cambridge, Bose secured a rank of 4 in the ICS
examination but rather than being cheerful about the prospects of a distinguished life of an administrator, his conscience was convulsed by a moral dilemma.
Eventually, going against the advice of his father, he chose to take the tough sea
and resigned even before completing his probation period to come back to India
and kickstart a new phase of his life. This incident, I believe, not only shows
the steel of his resolve but also proved to be a major turning point in his
life. From here onwards, the only way was forward and by forsaking the chance
of an easy life at the age of 24, he made his destiny inseparable from
India’s future.
Subhas' political life is a testament to the fact that he had the rare quality of being a thinker as well as a doer. Since his bona fides as a doer have already been established in popular thought, I shall delve briefly into his visionary side.
Having been a student of Philosophy and been inspired by Vivekananda and Tagore, he had a clear
outlook of how the post-independence India should look like. As early as 1921,
Subhas was writing to his future political guru, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das,
lamenting about Congress’ lack of policy on labour and factory legislation, as
well as on vagrancy and on relief of the poor. In the same missive, he pointed
out that Congress had no determined policy as to the type of constitution that
should be adopted. The true spirit of his visionary aptitude becomes lucid
during his years spent away from the country.
Subash went to Europe, in March 1933, as a political exile seeking a cure for an illness concerning his gallbladder. Despite the tyranny of bodily pain and restrictions on his movement, he managed to start an international PR campaign for the Indian independence movement. He established contacts with intelligentsia across almost all the major cities of Europe to garner international support for his cause. Subhas viewed this tour of his not only as a campaign to get support for India’s independence but also as a campaign to establish the foundations of Indian foreign policy once India becomes independent.
His views on Nazi Germany also become clear during his exile in Europe. Because of the rising current of racial segregation and persecution of Jews in Europe, Subash felt the atmosphere of the Third Reich suffocating. One of his major fears regarding Hitler was the possibility of an imperialist collaboration between Germany and Britain. When he visited Germany again in 1934, he submitted a memorandum to the German Foreign Office listing his grievances about the negative attitude of the German press towards Indians; Hermann Goring’s description of Gandhi as a “Bolshevik agent” and the pernicious racial propaganda. Bose went to Italy also and listened to one of Mussolini’s speeches and commented – “the speech was a fine one whatever we might think of the speaker”. The later part reveals a bit about his thought on Il Duce.
While Bose was a patient in Europe, he was
joined by another Indian political giant – Vithalbhai Patel- elder brother of
Sardar Patel. Patel was recovering from a heart attack and Bose took great care
of him during his last days and had very constructive discussions with him on
how a disciplined foreign policy should be formed to develop the case for
India’s independence in European intellectual circles. As a testimony to Subhas’s
hard work, despite his fragile health, to cement India’s case in European
thought circles, Vithalbhai willed three-quarter of his fortune to Bose before
dying to use “for the political uplift of India and preferably for publicity
work on behalf of India’s cause in other countries.” While Bose didn’t get a
penny out of the will because of the court proceeding by Sardar Patel, but the
sincerity of Bose’s visionary foreign mission for Indian independence can be
gauged by the incident.
For a large part of India’s independent history, the backbone of India’s economic planning has been the Planning Commission (PC). It won’t be wrong to say that the PC is indeed the precursor of NITI Aayog too. While many have talked about PC’s role in shaping India’s economic policy and providing a framework to the five-year plans, few know that the planning commission was indeed a brainchild of Bose. While Bose treated Gandhi with the reverence of a disciple, he never subscribed to his economic views of complete reliance on village industries. Boss proclaimed, “However much we may dislike modern industrialism and condemn the evils which follow in its train, we cannot go back to the pre-industrial era, even if we desire to do so.” He further added, “The state in independent India would, on the advice of a planning commission, be called upon to adopt a comprehensive scheme for gradually socializing our entire agricultural and industrial system in the spheres of both production and appropriation.” He put his views into motion after becoming the Congress President in 1938 and created the National Planning Committee with Jawaharlal Nehru as its chairman. Later on, the reports created by NPC were especially instrumental in providing the first government of independent India with actionable insights on policymaking.
Attracted by the European experiments of socialism, Subhas came up with the concept of socialism suited to the Indian condition and thus used the ancient Buddhist term “Samayvadi” – one who believes in equality – to define his economic stance. He was a staunch believer of the idea that real change can’t be effected in any system till its peasants and workers are given the deserved rights. He believed that an independent India could realize its rightful place only after political and social emancipation is delivered to these classes. His views on socialism were thus never formed strictly through an economic point of view but from a politico-economic mindset and he firmly believe that emancipation of labour and peasants is not necessary just for the freedom struggle but also for the continued progress of independent India.
In the current atmosphere of today, it is also crucial
to have the right understanding of Subhas’ idea of religion too. To explain this
complex issue, I believe, a simple story of his time in INA will suffice. Chettiars
in East Asia were some of the biggest financiers of Netaji’s INA, yet he was not
ready to yield on his principles for their sake. Sugata Bose writes in his biography,
“When priests of the main
Chettiar temple in Singapore came to invite Netaji to a religious ceremony in
October, they were turned away because of their inegalitarian practices. He
acceded to their request only after they agreed to host a national meeting open
to all castes and communities. He went to that temple gathering flanked by his
Muslim comrades Abid Hasan and Mohammad Zaman Kiani. “When we came to the
temple,” Hasan has written, “I found it filled to capacity with the uniforms of
the INA officers and men and the black caps of the South Indian Muslims
glaringly evident.” He hesitated to enter the inner sanctum, but a priest
gently pushed him in. Tilaks made of sandalwood paste were put on their
foreheads in true Hindu fashion. Netaji wiped his off on leaving the temple and
so did his followers.”
Netaji’s was a life lived differently. How can a man be so much committed to an abstract idea is quite abstruse, but what remains the truth is that his conception of India was much greater than what is generally assumed. His was a struggle not constricted to getting independence for India but also ensuring that India gets its rightful stage in the world. He credited England for its democratic and constitutional idea, France for its liberty, equality and fraternity, Germany for its Marxian philosophy and further proclaimed that “the next remarkable contribution to culture and civilization of the world – India will be called to make.” He also took a keen interest in the economics and foreign policy of India. During his stint as Congress President, he sent a team of doctors to treat Chinese forces engaged in their struggle against the Japanese aggression (the doctors who went there provided great help to the communists one of them – Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis- is revered every year by the Chinese people during the Qingming festival). While the concept of “soft power” has lately become important in foreign policy, Subhas was already encouraging cultural troupes such as dancers Uday Shankar and Amala Shankar to disseminate Indian arts by the 1930s. His views on religion are quite clear. Subhas admired Ataturk for his contribution to Turkey and shared his views on religion also – that a man’s religion should be a personal matter and that, while all religions should be allowed to grow, evolve and progress, religion should never become the bedrock of political or public life.
Subhas
was indeed a philosopher at heart. It was a pity that he was born as a citizen
of a subject nation. Had he been allowed the privilege of freedom, such a
talent could have, undoubtedly, achieved unprecedented results. Alas! the power
of his faculties had to be sapped by the struggle to free his countrymen from the slave
mentality. Still, one cannot say that his achievements are any less than the
giants who have trodden the earth. In a life marked by struggle, pain, and sacrifice,
he did more than many could even imagine. His failures would tower over other men’s
successes. There will never be a man like him again.
मुख़्तसर ये है हमारी दास्तान-ए-ज़िंदगी
इक सुकून-ए-दिल की ख़ातिर उम्र भर तड़पा किए
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat
Jai Ma Bharti
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