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Crusade with arms
ANOTHER birth anniversary of nationalist revolutionary Subhas
Chandra Bose, Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army, was
celebrated on January 23 last. Within a short span of his
charismatic life, he created a big impact on ``We the People of
India''. He was born in 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa. His parents,
Janaki Nath Bose and Prabhabati Devi, migrated from Calcutta to
Cuttack. Janaki Nath became Chairman of Cuttack Municipality, a
Member of the Bengal Legislative Council and was also conferred
the title, Rai Bahadur. He gave up the title in 1930 protesting
against the oppressive policies of the British Government.
Bose passed the Indian Civil Service examination winning the
fourth position but resigned in April 1921. He was the first
Indian to resign from the Indian Civil Service. The Under
Secretary of State for India sent for him. Bose told him, ``I do
not think one can be loyal to the British Raj and yet serve India
honestly, heart and soul.''
Bose returned to India on July 16, 1921, and met Gandhiji on the
same day in Bombay. He wrote, ``I remember clearly the scene on
that afternoon... Facing the door sat the Mahatma, surrounded by
some of his closest followers. All were wearing home-made Khadi.
As I entered I felt somewhat out of place in my foreign costume.
But the Mahatma received me with his typical hearty smile and
soon put me at ease and the conversation started at once. I
wanted to know about his plan which would finally lead to
overthrowing foreign rule. And so I heaped question upon question
and the Mahatma replied with patience.''
Bose, however, left disappointed because he thought that it was
impossible to change things through non-violence. He reached
Calcutta to work under C. R. Das, who, as the first Mayor of
Calcutta Corporation appointed Bose its Chief Executive Officer.
C. R. Das died in 1925. Bose was elected Mayor of Calcutta
Corporation and proved himself an efficient administrator.
Bose relentlessly fought for democracy within the Congress.
Gandhiji had suspended the civil disobedience movement.
Vithalbhai Patel and Bose did not like it. Both issued a joint
statement on May 9, 1933, saying that, ``The events of the last
thirteen years have demonstrated that a political warfare based
on the principle of maximum suffering for ourselves and minimum
suffering for our opponents cannot possibly lead to success. It
is futile to expect that we can ever bring a change of heart in
our rulers merely through our sufferings or by trying to love
them. And the latest action of Mahatma Gandhi in suspending the
Civil Disobedience Movement is a confession of failure as far as
the present method of the Congress is concerned. We are clearly
of opinion that as a political leader Mahatma Gandhi has
failed.'' In 1932, Bose had gone to Vienna for treatment for
suspected case of tuberculosis of his lungs. There he met
Vithalbhai Patel who willed all his money to Bosee to carry on
the anti-British campaign.
Mahatma Gandhi loved Bose and the latter respected him. Gandhiji
called him the ``dare-all leader''. It is said that the affix
Netaji was given by Gandhiji to Subhas. At a mass rally held on
July 9, 1943, in Singapore, the title was conferred on Subhas.
Both Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas had one thing in common i.e. their
chief concern was to transform ideas into facts. Gandhiji
believed in the doctrine of nonviolence to attain freedom but
Bose believed in revolutionary means. Bose defeated Dr. Pattabhi
Sitaramaiyaa in the election for Congress Presidentship at
Haripura in 1939. Mahatma Gandhi issued a statement saying that
the defeat of Dr. Pattabhi was his own defeat. After a few months
of his election, Bose resigned from presidentship on May 9, 1939.
He gave a speech on May 16, 1939 at Hazra Park, Calcutta,
explaining the reasons for his resignation and concluded, ``As I
have repeatedly declared, my resignation was decided upon in an
entirely helpful spirit and, in my view, will prove to be in the
best interest of the Country. Self-respect, honour and duty
towards my country demanded that I should resign, after having
made all possible attempts to reach an honourable compromise and
to avert a crisis within the Congress.''
He was dedicated to the cause of Indian Independence. His only
goal was the liberation of the motherland. It was in the early
hours of January 17, 1941, that Subhas Chandra Bose escaped from
his Elgin Road House, Calcutta, and left India in disguise as a
Muslim religious teacher, Maulvi Ziauddin. For about a year
nothing was heard of him. There was also a news flash towards the
close of 1941 that Bose had died in an air crash. Gandhiji was
deeply moved and sent a condolence message to his mother in which
he spoke in glowing terms about him and his services to India.
Later it was found that the report was false. Stafford Cripps
complained to Maulana Azad that he had not expected Gandhiji to
speak in such glowing terms about Bose.
On March 25, 1942, all doubts about Bose were set at rest when he
made a broadcast on Berlin Radio. He spoke, ``This is Subhas
Chandra Bose, who is still alive, speaking to you over the Azad
Hind Radio. British news agencies have spread all over the world
that I died in an aeroplane crash on my way to Tokyo to attend an
important conference there. Ever since I left India last year,
British propaganda agencies have from time to time given
contradictory reports about my whereabouts, while newspapers in
England have not hesitated to use uncomplimentary language about
me. The latest report about my death is perhaps an instance of
wishful thinking. I can imagine that the British Government
would, at this critical hour in India's history, like to see me
dead since they are now trying their best to win India over to
their side for the purpose of their imperialistic war.''
In August 1942, Gandhiji gave a call for the British to ``Quit
India'' and for Indians to ``Do or Die''. Bose gave his full
support to this call through his radio broadcast from Germany on
August 31, 1942, in which he said, ``The Indian people should
carry on the struggle till the last British is expelled from
India...Before dawn comes the darkest hour. Be brave and continue
the struggle for freedom is at hand. Let your slogans be `Now or
Never', `Victory or Death', `Inquilab Zindabad'.''
It was on July 4, 1943, at a conference attended by the Indian
representatives held at Cathey Cinema, Shonan (Singapore) in
which the great Indian Revolutionary, Rash Behari Bose, conferred
on Subhas Chandra Bose the supreme honour of the President of the
Indian Independent League. Rash Behari spoke thus, ``Friends and
Comrades in Arms, I, in your presence today resign my office and
appoint Deshsevak Subhas Chandra Bose as President of the Indian
Independent League. India's best is represented in him.'' Subhas
Chandra Bose described Rash Behari Bose as ``The Father of
India's Independent Movement in East Asia.''
In a speech at a military review of the INA on July 5, 1941, Bose
gave a call to the soldiers of the INA and said, ``Let your
battle-cry be - `To Delhi, To Delhi'. How many of us will
individually survive this war of Freedom, I do not know. But I do
know this, that we shall ultimately win and our task will not end
until our surviving heroes hold the victory parade on another
graveyard of the British Empire - the Lal Quila or Red Fortress
of ancient Delhi. For the present, I can offer you nothing except
hunger, thirst, privation, forced marches and death. But if you
follow me in life and in death, as I am confident you will, I
shall lead you to victory and Freedom. It is enough that India
shall be free and that we shall give our all to make her free.
May God now bless our Army and grant us victory in the coming
fight. Inquilab Zindabad! Azad Hind Zindabad!''
In a broadcast from Bangkok on October 2, 1943, on the occasion
of the 75th birth anniversary of Gandhiji, Bose described him as
the greatest leader of the Indians and services rendered to the
cause of India's freedom as unique and unparalleled and added
that his name would be written in letters of gold in the annals
of history. After the demise of Kasturba in prison, in a message
to Gandhiji in a statement issued on February 22, 1944, Bose
described her, ``as a great lady who was a mother to the Indian
people, an ideal of Indian womanhood - strong, patient, silent,
self-sufficient, she was a source of inspiration to the millions
of India's daughters.''
Rabindranath Tagore was among the first few who called Gandhiji
``Mahatma''. Bose was the first to address him as the Father of
the Nation. In a Broadcast on Azad Hind Radio on July 6, 1944, he
said, ``India's last war of Independence has begun. Troops of the
Azad Hind Fauz are now fighting bravely on the soil of India, and
in spite of all difficulty and hardship they are pushing forward
slowly but steadily. This armed struggle will go on until the
last British is thrown out of India and until our Tricolour
proudly flutters over the Viceroy's House in New Delhi. Father of
our Nation! In this holy war of India's liberation, we ask for
your blessings and good wishes.''
The deeds of INA are heroic and a saga of supreme sacrifice. On
February 4, 1946, Govind Malaviya moved a resolution in the
Central Legislative Assembly calling upon the Governor General in
Council to give up the trial of INA officers under detention. On
February 18, 1947, another resolution was moved by Khan Abdul
Ghani Khan for the release of INA prisoners. It is a national
tragedy that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on April 3, 1949,
interrupting the debate, opposed the resolution on grounds of
discipline in the army and said, ``Normally speaking every one in
this House will agree that in an army the most absolute
discipline should prevail. Otherwise, it ceases to be an army. It
goes to pieces and if there is lack of discipline, it has to be
dealt with.'' It is shocking that Netaji continues to be a war
criminal in the records of the Government. Nothing can be a
matter of greater shame than this.
It was on August 22, 1945, that Tokyo Radio announced that Subhas
Chandra Bose died in an air-crash in Formosa on August 18, en
route to Japan. He was then 48 years only. No Indian believed the
shocking news.
Today we must remember the following tribute by Gandhiji to
Netaji: ``The greatest and the lasting act of Netaji was that he
abolished all distinctions of caste and class. He was Indian
first and last. What more, he fired all under him with the same
zeal so that they forget in his presence all distinctions and
acted as one man. The greatest lesson that we can draw from
Netaji's life is the way in which he infused the spirit of unity
into his men, so that they could rise above all religious and
provincial barriers and shed together their blood for the common
cause.''
SATYA PRAKASH MALAVIYA
Former Union Minister
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