HISTORY, LEGENDS & MYTHOLOGY

Netaji, the Lost Hero
by Sutirtha Sanyal

     New Delhi: With the incarceration of the national leaders following the brute reprisal with which the British government muzzled down the Quit India Movement, it was the clarion call by 'Netaji' Subhas Chandra Bose, urging the Indian National Army (INA) to march to Delhi that lifted the spirits of the demoralised Indians at that crucial juncture, waging the war without any leader to guide them. History is witness to the fact that nowhere in the world has freedom been achieved from a ruthless regime through non-violent means.

     This was the case with the American War of Independence, the Irish movement spearheaded by Eamon De Valera, the Russian revolution, the French Revolution, the Chinese independence movement headed by Mao Tse tung, as well as the liberation of South America from Spanish Colonialism by Simon Bolivar. It was the same with the Indian Independence movement as well. It was certainly not the outcome of a non-violent movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru and finalised by Lord Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten that ultimately led to the creation of an independent India and Pakistan. It was earned with the blood, sweat and tears of millions of young Indians, the brave Khudiram Bose who kissed the gallows at the tender age of eighteen, the chivalrous Surya Sen who with dare-devilry raided the Chittagong Armoury, the charismatic Bhagat Singh, the idealist Chandrasekhar Azad who rather than getting caught, shot himself with his own gun and towering over them all, the most vociferous of all the revolutionary leaders, 'Netaji' Subhas Chandra Bose.

     Leaders were many, but he was the only leader who was bestowed the title of Netaji by his countrymen. Unfortunately while at the time of his supposed death, in 1945, he was India's lost hero, even 60 years after his supposed disappearance, he still remains India's unsung hero with the government yet to declare a national holiday on his birthday. However, to the youth of today, who because of their so-called western education, know to call a spade a spade, Netaji is god, because he taught the Indians to harm and hurt the British where it mattered the most. Coupled with that his escape from Calcutta at the height of WWII is the stuff legends are made of, something that can be equated only with the two other daredevil escapes in history, that of Chattrapati Shivaji and Eamon De Valera. "Netaji was the only leader who taught the Indians how to hurt the British administration where it mattered the most. There were other revolutionary leaders also, but his greatness lay in the fact that rather than launching sporadic and isolated attacks on the British, he amassed an army for militarily taking on the British government, which was at the time waging a war against both Germany and Japan in Europe and Asia," said Dinesh Agnihotri, a software engineer. "Gandhiji was no doubt a great leader, but the fact that Netaji won in spite of Gandhiji's opposition and made his mark even after coming out of the Congress, does prove that he was undoubtedly the Netaji as far as the Indian Independence movement was concerned.

     After all, nobody knew him as Netaji when he was in the Congress. It was only when he left the Congress and led the INA to war against the British, that he became Netaji," said Suman Kr Roy, an executive in a multinational organization. Rudolf Hartog who chronicled Netaji's activities during his stay in Berlin from 1941-43 and that of the Indian Legion, from 1941- 45 when it was dissolved with the German defeat in 1945, has in his book 'The sign of the Tiger: Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian Legion in Germany 1941-45' said, that notwithstanding the fact that the INA failed to accomplish its military objectives, the fact remains that the tremendous upsurge in patriotic fervour Netaji and his INA generated in India during the WWII period was the primary reason for Britain's hastened departure from India. The huge uproar all over India when three senior officers of the INA were tried for treason charges for 'waging war against the King' and aligning with the enemy, and the Naval Mutiny that broke out in Bombay in 1946, where Navy personnel lowered down the Union Jack fluttering atop the ship's mast and renamed the 'Royal Indian Navy' as the 'Indian National Navy' in sync with Netaji's 'Indian National Army', led to a spectre first time witnessed since 1857, when Britain realised for the first time that the Indian forces, which for so long had served Britain faithfully, would not hesitate to raise arms for the country's freedom.

     He states that when the Conservatives in a debate in the British parliament on February 20, 1947 asked the Attlee government, whether it would be possible to hold on to power in India for a little longer, the Labour government reasoned that it would materialize only if Britain deploys more English troops in India, which Britain weakened by the war could not afford to spare. Netaji's "Give me blood and I will give you freedom" and his INA's "Chalo Dilli" had instilled in the Indians a fighting spirit never before witnessed in the history of modern India, and the disturbing thought of another more violent armed mutiny by the Indians with the full backing of the Indian armed forces sent shivers down the spine of the British administration. No wonder that even though Netaji remains India's unsung hero with each political party using his name for their own purpose, the Indian Army plays the INA song "Kadam Kadam Badaye Ja" as one of its most important marching songs and "Jai Hind" remains India's national salute.
-Jan 23, 2005    

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