Not all heroes are recognized in their time. Some are only known by the legacy they leave behind.

Appropriately dubbed as India’s Forgotten Hero, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, one of the fiercest patriots, is perhaps also one of the least understood ones. In stark contrast to Gandhiji’s pacifism, Netaji’s brand of fiery revolutionary patriotism sent a new spark of hope in the dying embers of Indian Freedom Struggle after the suppression of Quit India Movement. “Freedom is not given, it is taken. Our motherland is calling. Blood is calling to blood. It is blood alone that can pay the price of freedom. Give me blood and I will give you freedom!” Thus, roared the brave tiger of Bengal, infusing his compatriots in India and all over the world with a new zeal to fight for our motherland’s independence.

Though much has been written in contemporary times regarding the mystery shrouding his tragic death/disappearance, yet the most important lesson from the legacy of Netaji our current generation of Indians needs to learn today is his undeterred commitment towards heralding the new dawn of independence we perhaps take so much for granted (Yes offence to the “azadi” gang!).

On the occasion of his 123^rd birth anniversary today, as we remember one of our most iconic freedom fighters, let us also ponder upon the relevance of some of the most visionary ideals of our beloved national hero who was much ahead of his times.

Personification of Courage and Self Sacrifice

“Men, money and materials cannot by themselves bring victory or freedom. We must have the motive-power that will inspire us to brave deeds and heroic exploits.”

As a bright and intelligent student, a young Subhash Chandra Bose cracked the most coveted Indian Civil Services Exam with an All India Rank 4 and yet refused to be a stooge of the oppressive British Raj, thus becoming the first Indian to leave the life of comfort and stability offered by ICS for the unchartered tempestuous waves of Indian revolution.

As former President of India, Dr. Pranab Mukherjee said, “Netaji’s entire life is a story of service and sacrifice. He was a doer as well as a thinker.  He was a fighter and a natural leader of men. His writing, exceptional oratory and persuasive reasoning won him an impassioned and loyal following.  He set an example through his actions and ideals and inspired the younger generation to dedicate themselves to the service of the nation. His proud and independent spirit mocked at ill-health and ill-fortune.  He took exile and imprisonment in his stride.”

National Defense

“Get up, we have no time to lose. Take up your arms! We shall carve our way through the enemy's ranks, or if God wills, we shall die a martyr's death. And in our last sleep we shall kiss the road that will bring our Army to Delhi. The road to Delhi is the road to Freedom. Delhi Chalo (March to Delhi)."

In a first of its kind, independence movement in the then largely enslaved Asia, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj succeeded in engaging with the British not as a suppressed colony but as a nation of equals, willing to not just struggle but actually fight for its independence. The conquest of Andaman and Nicobar Islands whom Netaji renamed as Shaheed and Swaraj and establishment of the Provincial Government of Free India, gave a much-needed positive boost to the falling confidence of Indian masses, restoring their long-crushed self-esteem after centuries of systematic apartheid and genocidal massacres of the British colonial government.

Today as many question the Government’s move of reverting to the old cultural names of Indian cities we must remember Netaji and remind ourselves how important it is to honour our true unsung heroes in both action and spirit!

Even though Azad Hind Fauj eventually lost the battle at Yangoon but it certainly won the war of Indian Independence as the INA trials held later at Red Fort in 1945-46 completely shattered the last vestige of the image of the colonial British Government as any form of rule of law state and thus inspired the Royal Indian Mutiny paving way for the eventual relinquishment of British hold and the independence of India.

Also, Netaji’s military action and immortal words should remind us to “Build our National Defence System on such unshakable grounds that never again in the history of time shall we lose our freedom.”

This is not just a policy move our defence ministry should follow firmly but it is also an important lesson required for our youth on how preciously fought our freedom is and how important the role of Indian Armed Forces is in not just guarding our borders but in fiercely protecting the very dignity and honour of this great nation of ours!

Man, with a Vision

Putting our independence movement in a nutshell, there were revolutionaries who were fiercely anti British like Khudiram Bose, Shaheed Bhagat Singh or Rishi Aurobindo while there were the pacifist-moderates too with the prime examples being Mahatma Gandhi and  Pt. Nehru  but Bose shines brightest in this vast firmament of patriots, as the only leader who was a unique amalgamation of the firebrand spirit of the revolutionaries combined with the diplomatic and administrative skills of the moderates who were at the helm of the political movement.

A perfect example of the amalgamation of these two traits is Netaji’s INA which showed his military bent of mind much akin to the revolutionaries while the establishment of the Provincial Government of Free India or simply Azad Hind reflects his Chanakya like understanding of statecraft and diplomacy too. This is where the questions raised by his mostly western critics fall flat; for though they remember the misdeeds of Nazi Germany and Japan, with whom Bose collaborated to fight against the British but have a convenient amnesia when it comes to the atrocities of the erstwhile colonial British empire, responsible for the death of 35 million Indians during its more than 2 centuries of despotic rule.

Winston Churchill alone was responsible for inducing the horrific Bengal Famine and thereby killing about 3 million innocent Indians in erstwhile Eastern Indian states of Bengal and Odisha. And to rub salt on their wounds, he cruelly blamed them for their own death saying “it’s their fault for breeding like rabbits”. And as Booker Prize winner historian Shashi Tharoor notes in his book, “An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India,” when some conscience stricken British officers wrote to Churchill to release the reserve food grains which lay rotting in the godowns of surplus supplies of British Army, he peevishly wrote back in the margins of the report, “If there is a famine in India, why isn’t Gandhi dead yet?!” Such was the “high regard” the infamous Churchill held for the father of our nation, whom he often called mockingly as the “half naked fakir” and luridly fantasized about “getting trampled by a hoard of wild elephants.” Similarly, when a plague broke out in Pune, rather than making any necessary arrangements for health care, Churchill remarked at the rising death toll merrily that it was “culling the population” of Indians, who in his words were a “beastly class of people with a beastly religion.”

When your oppressor is so far gone on the cruelty spectrum to be almost bordering on insanity then shouldn’t we also accordingly adjust the yardstick of judging our heroes like Netaji whose long-term vision of the formation of an independent India, free from such savagery of British rule afforded nothing but a zero-compromise policy. At the same time, it must also be remembered that Gandhiji, a proponent of non-violence or ahimsa, did agree to send Indian troops to the 2^nd World War to support the British war efforts with the hope in reciprocation of this gesture the colonial Government will grant us self-governance. The plan did not work out the way it was intended and it can be argued, with due respect to Gandhiji, that though very noble in his ideas, he may not have been as far-sighted a tactician as Netaji. Yet if the former is called a Mahatma, shouldn’t the latter be accorded equal if not more respect when it comes to recognizing his contributions to the cause of our Independence.

Despite their difference in ideologies, Mahatma Gandhi himself wrote that Bose's "... patriotism is second to none", and he was moved to proclaim after Bose's death that he was a "prince among patriots"—a reference, in particular, to Bose's achievement in integrating women and men from all the regions and religions of India in the Indian National Army.

Nirad Chaudhuri considered it a backhanded tribute to Bose that the Congress tricolour and the Muslim League green flag flew together for the last time during the mutiny of the Indian navy in Bombay unleashed in 1946 partly at anger within the Navy at the trial of INA officers by the British.

The farsightedness of Netaji can also be seen in the fact the he firmly believed in democracy as the best form of governance of Independent India and had recommended the setting up of a Planning Commission with a strong emphasis on industrialization of Indian economy. This was mentioned by him in the 1938 Haripura session of the Congress and was then set up swiftly with Netaji selecting Nehru to take charge of the same. Thus, the former Planning Commission of India and its current avatar Niti Aayog is in fact the brainchild of Netaji who had thought of the same nine years before India's independence.

The Directive Principles of State policy in the current constitution of India can also be attributed to the genius of Bose. In his short duration as President of INC, he had written a letter to all congress premiers containing policy guidelines for governance of their respective provinces which later became the framework for many of the Directive Principles of our constitution.

The economic future of India, envisaged by Bose was also a visionary one as reflective in the formation of Azad Hind Bank which even printed its own currency!

International Diplomacy

“There are no permanent friends or enemies in International politics, only permanent interests.” – Henry Kissinger

The wisdom of above quote was aptly recognized by Bose. He viewed the international crisis that emerged out of the World War II as a great opportunity for India to achieve her emancipation. And thus, joined forces with Axis powers like Japan, Singapore and even Germany to form an anti-British coalition to secure India’s quest for independence. He thus secured the release of 40000 Indian prisoners of war, innocent soldiers unnecessarily caught up in the power game of Second World War to fight for the British imperialists forces in exchange for what turned out to be a hollow and empty promise for independence and with the help of Rashbihari Bose shaped them into the first Independent Army.

Here it must be noted Bose was always opposed to the totalitarianism of Hitler and other Axis forces but formed a short-term alliance with the long-term aim of ending India’s colonial oppression. This chapter of his life, actually helps us in deciphering a truer picture of Bose - he thought ahead of the situation always which may not have been obvious to the layman but this trait is what makes one a successful military leader doesn’t it? It is always an asset to let your enemies keep guessing your next move and Netaji a master of disguise himself was a champion when it came to playing the finally chequered game of international diplomacy and collaboration for India’s interests.

This is much like the Non-Aligned Movement of our former Prime Minister Pt. Nehru or the policy of “enlightened self-interest” of our current Government where we adopt a fine delicate balance of multilateral engagement with various international groupings including rival factions like USA- Iran, USA- Russia or Israel Palestine with equal cordiality towards all and observing a detached neutrality in their bipartisan conflicts.

Women Empowerment

Bose wanted a unit of brave Indian women who will wield the sword, which the valorous Rani of Jhansi wielded in India's First War of Independence in 1857. And thus, he formed the fearless death-defying regiment of Indian National Army, named after the legendary warrior queen, Rani Jhansi regiment. This acted not just as a means to liberate the marginalized Indian women from the tyrannies of oppressive social practices of the day but gave them the much-needed empowering confidence to train in arms and head shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts in the march of India to freedom.

Despite facing fierce opposition, given the stifling, ultra conservative mores of those times, Netaji led by example here by inspiring the then 16-Year-old Janaki Thevar to join the INA and help in the Armed Rebellion against the British. She too flourished under his leadership becoming a leader herself as she led the Burmese Unit of the INA most notably in the Battle of Imphal where she commanded 100 other Women in Guerrilla warfare and the nursing regiment

Carrying on in his glorious footsteps, today Indian Defence Force has started inducting female combatants and fighter pilots in all its three wings.

Use of Force as a form of Self Preservation

A person went to police station to complaint that his neighbour’s dog will viciously attack him as soon as he goes back to his home. The police asked the details of neighbour to take the necessary steps, but he replied that the neighbouring house is empty, no one lives there. But he knows as soon as someone comes to live there, they will have a dog and that dog will bite him. (If this anecdote happens to remind you of any ongoing or past protests, we assure you such resemblance is purely intentional!). This was the logic used and abused to discredit Bose for his activities. His short-term military alliance with Germany and Japan to overthrow the oppressive colonial British regime was automatically seen as an attempt to pull India under the yoke of German colonialism.

Such misguided attempts to discredit genuine policy moves made for the welfare of nation are not unseen in present scenario too and forces us to reflect that legitimized use of state force in itself has many facets and not many grasp the nuances of it. This was the reason a certain segment of politicians opted to not help and even oppose Bose’s attempt to garner support from Germany and Japan to throw out British.

The erstwhile colonial British Government, on the surface would have appeared to be less violent than Germans but the structural violence embedded in their rule was responsible for one of the largest Holocaust in the history of mankind. Such violence includes but is not limited to deaths of millions due to manufactured famine and massacres like the Jalianwala Bagh as pointed out by historians. And yet this flawed understanding of the concept of ahimsa made even some noted leaders oppose Bose even if it meant helping and siding with the war efforts of the extremely brutal and gruesome British Empire.

It is this further perpetuation of flawed understanding of violence that till date our legal system doesn’t recognise the contributing symptoms of learned helplessness and cyclic abuse in case of offences committed by women suffering from battered wife syndrome as a defence in criminal law, on the one hand while various human rights groups and even law schools oppose the imposition of death penalty for even the most heinous of rapists and terrorists as exhibited in the Nirbhaya and Kasab case, on the other.

The same misguided liberals again oppose imposition of AFSPA, curfew/internet ban and presence of Indian Army to maintain law and order in a terror infested state like Jammu and Kashmir while conveniently ignoring the brutal beyond words Kashmiri Pandit genocide and exodus which necessitated the presence of such Army and restrictive measures in the first place. Though they expect the privilege of state’s protection and safety from the threat of our two nuclear empowered hostile neighbours yet the same privileged self-appointed paragons of human rights oppose the use of pellet guns by Indian Army personnel to defend themselves even in the face of stone pelting mobs.

Bose here can thus act as an example to look at violence and legitimate use of force, in a much more nuanced manner in every aspect of our contemporary society and polity. This in turn can help make this nation a better country to live and a better country to die for.

Politics with a Grace

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was undoubtedly a leftist but here it must be noted that his brand of leftist socialism was not the fringe radical communism, the disturbing elements of which we see in some of the leading Indian Universities and State factions. Netaji’s leftism rather than being Stalin like, was anti colonial and in his own words dedicated to the “eradication of our chief national problems of poverty, illiteracy and disease”.

Similarly, Bose had not formed Forward Bloc as even a socialist party, but as an anti-imperialist one. It is also to be noted that Netaji, who is claimed by communists as one of their own, was in fact extensively ridiculed by them in their political cartoons which were very derogatory in nature.

Also, unlike many present-day leftists, Netaji never once insulted the Indic culture or Hinduism. In fact, being an ardent devotee of Devi in accordance with Shakti tradition, while in Mandalay, he went on a hunger strike when his written demands to the Chief Secretary, of the Govt. of Burma in 1926 seeking financial allowance for performing Durga Puja, Saraswati Puja, Holi and Dol Purnima, in the jail were unmet, while the Christian prisoners were given the same allowances for observance of their festivals.

He was also influenced by the Vedantic spiritualism of Swami Vivekananda and while in Singapore, he would gather the much-needed calm and courage by frequent meditations in the shrine room among other monks of Ramakrishna Ashram at Morris Road.

Thus, rather than being antagonistic to religion in any capacity, Netaji used spirituality to draw strength for his mission to liberate India. He even prophesized that the notion of looking down on religion will be one of the impediments in left movement in India. And one must say that time has definitely proven him right!

While it is equally true that any democratic polity needs voices (having social legitimacy) from all across the political spectrum yet the present factions of leftist groups, who are engaged in slaughtering innocent cows just to make a political statement  such as in Kerala or celebrating beef festivals and vandalizing the statute of great Hindu monks like Swami Vivekananda, in JNU are not really serving their cause by launching repeated attacks and making a savage mockery of one of the most cherished and eternal faith of the Indian masses. They have much to learn from Netaji that one can be a leftist and a proud, patriotic practising Hindu at the same time, there is no either/or situation here.

The Perils of Regionalism and Linguistic Chauvinism

Remember the undue acrimony stirred by our Hon’ble Home Minister Shri Amit Shah’s remarks on Hindi Diwas on making Hindi the national link language? Though Shri Shah, coming from a non-Hindi state himself, unequivocally clarified that far from Hindi imposition he believed in New Education Policy’s 3 language formula yet his contention that Hindi was widely spoken and could be the language to keep India united, drew condemnation from divisive regionalist factions across the country. Former HRD Minister Smt. Smriti Irani tried to replace German with Sanskrit as second language in schools (in an optional capacity nonetheless), but she too drew similar ire from these same linguistic chauvinists.

This despite the fact that Sanskrit is the main liturgical language of Hinduism and one of the first written records of Indic Civilization, the sacred Rig Veda is in Sanskrit.  Most of the present group of Indic languages, spoken today have a Sanskrit based vocabulary including several of the Dravidian ones. It was thus advocated as a national language by none other than Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

On 14 September 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Sanskritized Hindi in Devnagri script as the official language of Indian Union and to facilitate the not just political but even linguistic transfer of power from British English, a grim reminder of our colonial past, inserted Article 351 enjoining a duty on the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.

As Dev Bhasha Sanskrit,  is rightfully heralded as the very soul of Indian civilization, thus Sanskritized Hindi was envisaged by our Constitution makers as the golden thread weaving together the individual pearls of each of the regional languages in the beautiful tapestry of a composite Indic culture. This fact was recognized by Netaji, a native Bengali speaker, who first rejected his English medium convent education to be more rooted in his mother tongue and later as the President of Indian National Congress, insisted on learning Hindi under the tutelage of Jagdish Narayan Tiwari. His logic being, “If I have to work within Bengal, I can easily communicate with the masses but if I have to spread my voice to the rest of my countrymen outside Bengal, how do I transmit my message if I don’t even know Hindi?”

Thus, like Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji firmly believed that a country without a national language of its own could never be united in its struggle for independence which is why he later adopted Hindustani as the language of his provincial government, started Azad Hind Newspaper and Azad Hindi Radio’s broadcast of weekly news bulletins and fiery speeches of independence in not just English but Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Pashto and Urdu, to reach Indians both in India and abroad. He also adopted Shubh Sukh Chain, Hindi translation of Gurudev Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana (जन गण मन), as the anthem of the first Provincial Government of Free India.

Neighbourhood Influence

The ideals of Netaji when it came to freeing India from the clutches of the British were emulated by our neighbour Bangladesh too during their 1971 Liberation war. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, with the external help from India, much akin to how Netaji took help from Japan, established a Provincial Government of Bangladesh at Mujibnagar (former Baidyanathtala), very close to the border with West Bengal and had its capital-in-exile at Calcutta (now Kolkata) in India. This fact has been acknowledged by Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman himself as found in an audio clip gifted to Sheikh Hasina in 2018 by the Netaji Research Bureau wherein Mujibur had said Netaji’s struggle was like a “guiding light” to the Muktiyodhya.

This is a direct testimony to the vision of Netaji which served as a source of inspiration to the people of Bangladesh in their own independence movement, achieved by a similar armed rebellion against their Pakistani as Bose’s was rallying up the INA with the British.

We see a similar call for independence in our Western neighbourhood, currently, where the long-suppressed people of Baluchistan and Sindhu Desh are finally raising the clarion call of independence and forming Government in Exiles. Emulating from the courageous examples of Netaji may their desire for freedom find its due utterance.

Conclusion

"Never lose your faith in the destiny of India.”

While it is appropriate to dwell on the contemporary relevance of Netaji our true homage to him would be to work with dedication to make our country for whose sake the great hero sacrificed his everything, strong, prosperous and progressive so that it may one day become a great power in the world. He called upon the youth of the country to once again adopt the slogan of Ittefaq Itmad Kurbani or Unity, Faith, Sacrifice as the clarion call of our nation. 

And though non-violence and civil disobedience may have played their due part in achieving India’s independence, at the end of the day the fact remains that Netaji’s military challenge was ultimately responsible for the dusk of the mighty British empire in whose reign they said the sun never set.

But still when we read history, we find mention of many names and events written in bold letters but among them the name of Netaji’s legacy seems to be reduced to a very narrow margin. Pen is certainly mightier than sword but Bose’s saga of military might is like the scroll of parchment on which are embossed the glorious words of the Indian independence Movement, but without anyone sparing a second thought to the very scroll itself. It’s so obvious to see that its almost too easy to miss. His stature and legacy in modern India, is so ubiquitous that it’s almost impossible to notice (To appropriate the words of a very favourite poem of leftists, “Jo gayab bhi hai haazir bhi”).

Image Credits: By Personal album of Tony Mitra, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1923477

This Article is co authored with Abhishek Chakraborty, Soumyadip Saha and Shubhank Sanjeev