No one is a holy cow, neither Gandhiji nor Nehruji. Their detractors have been criticizing them for many many years now and social media today is full of questions like:
(1) Why did Gandhi support Khilafat?
(2) Why should we be calling him Father of the Nation, he was biased and characterless?
(3) Did we really get Azaadi because of him; he was a British stooge?
However, if a leader is to be criticized for the role he played and decisions he made, one needs to study and examine the set of conditions under which they operated and took decisions. History can not be studied in isolation, piece by piece but has to be read in its entirety. Otherwise these criticisms amount to only mudslinging. Mr Modi had once expressed the same sentiments to Rajdeep Sardesai during his Sadbhawna campaign in Gujarat.
In view of the above, criticism of the yesteryear leaders, who were involved in the freedom movement must be done from an academic point of view by researchers rather than by those who indulge in politics. Politicians and their supporters have a tendency to look at things through the prism of their political ideology and hence indulge in character vilification.
Consequently, one finds today our National Heroes particularly Gandhiji and Nehruji are increasingly being targeted and there is an attempt to denigrate their characters.
This criticism is cyclical in nature as many who have barely done any worthwhile research start casting aspersions in order to please their bosses or their party leaders. When politics gets involved, as Mr Modi had said, it’s more mudslinging. And so we see Netaji Subash Chandra Bose getting propped up in order to malign Gandhiji and Sardar Patel propped up to bring down Nehruji and so on.
If the current dispensation is allowing this kind of unauthentic criticism, and rather vilification, purely from the point of electoral politics then the role of all leaders must be examined and should be open to criticism.
If Nehru and Gandhi are not Holy cows then no other should be.
Firstly, what I found was that Subash Chandra Bose’s role in the Freedom movement has never been critically examined because perhaps the yesteryear leaders never thought of stooping down to this level of character vilification as we have now stooped down to. The old leaders held him in great esteem or perhaps when India moved into this phase of dirty electoral politics Netaji was long gone and was largely inconsequential.
Subash Chandra Bose was amongst the youngest Congress leaders. He was born in a rich and affluent family, which could send him to study in English medium schools and to England for higher education. He was barely 25 years old when he joined the Congress, reportedly inspired by Nehruji’s statement on Indian Civil Services which Nehruji called to be neither Indian nor Civil.
Reportedly, when Netaji and Gandhiji met for the first time, they differed on the question of ends- Bose was attracted to totalitarian models of governance, which was an anathema to Gandhiji. For Gandhiji means were as important as the end.
Netaji Bose would really loathe the people who are using him to malign or undermine Gandhiji, whom he addressed as Father of The Nation.
Therefore, it is agonizing and painfull to critically examine Netaji Bose, for that matter any leader who had made our Freedom possible, However, if dirty politics has become the mainstay of society, then so be it.
Young Leader Barely had an Idea of Indian Masses and Its Temperament
In a party dominated by elderly leaders who had already crossed 50 or nearing 50, young Netaji Bose got overwhelming support from the youth particularly Bengalis and hence, he had a meteoric rise in Congress. Unlike Gandhiji and Sardar Patel, both of whom had toiled hard, widely travelled in India and understood the grain of the country, it is very natural that Bose, coming from an affluent family must have had very little understanding of the Indian masses that too at a young age of 25.
Fascination for Military Uniforms.
Netaji Bose’s fascination with military came to the fore in 1928 when he organized the Annual Meeting of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta and turned up in a GOC’s (General Officer Commanding), a Major General’s, uniform of a Congress Volunteer Corps, who were also donning military uniform. Its officers were even provided with steel-cut epaulettes and his uniform was made by a firm of British tailors in Calcutta – Harman’s.
Not only Mahatma Gandhi, but many other Congress leaders did not like the strutting, clicking of boots, and saluting, as those days the military was seen as oppressive particularly so after the Jallianwala Bagh incident. Reportedly, Gandhiji afterward described the Calcutta session of the Congress as Betram Mills Circus.
Netaji Bose Stood for Totalitarianism like Kemal Attaturk .
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, propped up by current Govt to undermine Nehruji, had opposed Gandhiji’s decision to propose Netaji Bose’s name for the presidency of the Congress. Gandhi overruled his objection and Bose became president in 1938. In 1939, when Bose sought a second term, Patel opposed him again. In a public statement, he warned Bose that even if he were elected, his policies would be vetted and if required vetoed by the working committee. Rajmohan Gandhi wrote in his biography of Sardar Patel that Sardar held a poor opinion of Subhas’s efficiency and that “his disagreements with Subhas were profound”.
When Netaji Bose canvassed leading Congressmen to support his re-election, Sardar Patel was appalled. “I never dreamt”, he wrote to Rajendra Prasad, “that he [Subhash] will stoop to such dirty mean tactics for re-election”. Sugata Bose (in his book His Majesty’s Opponent) quotes Patel as saying that Subhas’s re-election would be “harmful to [the] country’s cause”. Bose, in return, accused Vallabhbhai of using ‘moral coercion’ to stop him from contesting once more. “It is impossible for us to work with Subhas’ ‘, wrote Patel to Rajendra Prasad as he wants everything to be centralized.
No wonder, Netaji Bose supported an idea that an independent India needed socialist authoritarianism, on the lines of Turkey’s Kemal Ataturk for at least two decades.
Then the question arises, had he, who believed in a Totalitarian form of government, managed to defeat the British along with his ill-trained gun-trotting volunteers, what kind of governance would these people have given us?
Netaji Wanted to be a Hero ?
Secondly, was he trained in military warfare that he donned the military uniform? The answer is a resounding No; it was just fascination. He had never been formally trained in military warfare and a Japanese General reportedly remarked that “Bose has no idea about the Big Picture of warfare”. He can not be compared with Gen Giap of Vietnam who led the guirella warfare against Americans as he rose through ranks and had undergone military training.
In that case, why did Netaji project himself as a Military Leader and sent an ill-trained group of volunteer civilians into the thick of warfare, without adequate fire support and logistic back up and allow the Japanese to use those young men as Cannon Fodder? Many of them died a miserable death in the jungles of Burma and NE without food and water, left by the Japanese without any support.
As a Commander, was he not responsible for the miserable death of these young men?
Thirdly, these slogans and songs that have been popularized, “Tum mujhe khoon do main tumhen azadi” and “kadam kadam barahe jaa” might appear to be energizing and inspiring millions but they should have accompanied by some sense of responsibility from the Commander. No military commander worth his salt would like to send his troops into thick of war in such a callous manner like he did. Even in the recently released Hindi movie Uri, the Commander, who led the group across the line of control, assured his men that he will get them all back safely. This is the kind of responsibility that is expected from the military commanders. Of course, those who are following him know the dangers, but they are assured that they are not being used as canon fodder.
Fourthly, Although the Provisional government of India and the INA were established in the Andaman and Nicobar, the islands were under the effective control of the Japanese Navy. Lt Col AD Lognathan, who was appointed as the Governor General by Netaji, realizing that he had no administrative control resigned in protest.
Lastly, some of the least understood and least debated questions are:
A. Why did Netaji Bose leave his troops at the mercy of the enemy? Does it not amount to Fleeing ?
B. Why did he not surrender along with his INA Volunteers whom he had asked for Blood in return of Azadi? His Aide had even said that he kept the treasure Box of INA in the aircraft Bose was using. There are very few examples in the military history where commanders fled leaving their troops and still being revered. Even Gen Niazi stood firm and surrendered along with his troops in Dacca in 1971; he also had all the resources available to have escaped. One can justify with numerous reasons but it was improper to have left the troops to fend for themselves.
C. How could Netaji be so naïve that he did not understand the real intentions of the Japanese and allowed his troops to be used as cannon fodder and risked the future of his country he loved so dearly?
Perhaps, had he lived and contested elections these questions would have really haunted him and impacted his electoral prospects. Was he driven by his ambitions only to just prove a point to someone? If that was so, it was a huge gamble and thank god that he did not succeed otherwise we Indians would have shifted from fire to frying pan.
In his book ‘Indian Struggle 1920 – 42, Netaji has devoted one entire chapter on Gandhiji ( Page 293 to Page 298), and it appears that although Netaji applauded Gandhiji for his role and for uniting everyone ; the land lords, the farmers, the labour class, the upper caste and the lower caste Hindus and the Muslims but it gives one a feeling that this young man was desperate to emerge as a Hero of the movement. And therefore, it’s not surprising that Sardar Patel did not appreciate this.
Notwithstanding the above, these questions that have been raised about Netaji Bose give no happiness and delight hence, there is a humble request to everyone to STOP maligning the yesteryear leaders including Gandhiji and Nehruji who fought for our Freedom and deserve all the respect. They are National Treasures and Role Models for generations to come.