Is Subhas Bose and His Ideology Still Relevant ?

By Jayanta Roy Chowdhury

As we celebrate the 123^rd Birth Anniversary of  Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the “Prince Among Patriots,”  we must ponder over whether and why he is still relevant even after the interval of nearly 74 years since his last address to his countrymen through a radio dispatch towards the end of World War II.

After all three generations of Indians have been born since his disappearance or death on 18^th August 1945. Many ideas which were revolutionary while he was still alive no longer seem to find resonance with the world of today.  Communism has all but died out. Fascism in the form that Hitler propagated died out only to be reborn in the last two decades in other forms.

To understand the relevance of Netaji, we have to delve into his thought process and  understand what he stood for and re-evaluate them in today’s circumstances. Indeed we have to keep asking at all time, do these principles stand the test of time ?

To my mind Bose stood for three basic tenets -  democracy, secularism and socialism. Despite attempts to paint him as a fascist, by referring to his meetings with Hitler and Mussolini and his reported statement during the World war II where he said an election should be held soon after independence, but once a Government was in place it should be given emergency powers to rid India of its problems of caste and communalism, Bose followed the path shown by his political mentor Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and was a democrat to the core.

In his Presidential speech at the Haripura Congress in 1938, Bose made his political ideas on the future of India very clear : “ Our goal is that of an Independent India and in my view that goal can be attained only through a federal republic in which the provinces and the states will be willing partners.”

He was clear that this federal republic would be a multi-party democracy. Speaking on the form of India that the congress was striving for and the nature of party politics that should ensue after independence he made it clear :  “The state will possibly become a totalitarian one, if there be only one party as in countries like Russia, Germany and Italy. But there is no reason why other parties should be banned. Moreover, the party itself will have a democratic basis, unlike, for instance, the Nazi Party which is based on the ‘leader principle’. The existence of more than one party and the democratic basis of the Congress Party will prevent the future Indian state becoming a totalitarian one. Further, the democratic basis of the party will ensure that leaders are not thrust upon the people from above, but are elected from below.”

He also very clearly enunciated the fundamental rights which he felt Congress must grant to all citizens in his landmark Haripura  speech – “(i) Every citizen of India has the right of free expression of opinion, the right of free association and combination, and the right to assemble peacefully and without arms, for a purpose not opposed to law or morality; (ii)   Every citizen shall enjoy freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess and practise his religion, subject to public order and moral ity; (iii)  The culture, language and script of the minorities and of different linguistic areas shall be protected; (iv) All citizens are equal before the law, irrespective of religion, caste, creed or sex; (v) No disability attaches to any citizen by reason of his or her religion, caste, creed or sex, in regard to public employment, office of power or honour, and in the exercise of any trade or calling; (vi)   All citizens have equal rights and duties in regard to wells, tanks, roads, schools and places of public resort, maintained out of state, or local funds, or dedicated by private persons for the use of the general public; (vii)  The state shall observe neutrality in regard to all religions; (viii) The franchise shall be on the basis of universal adult suffrage; (ix) Every citizen is free to move throughout India and to stay and settle in any part thereof, to acquire property and to follow any trade or calling, and to be treated equally with regard to legal prosecution or protection in all parts of India.
These clauses of the Fundamental Rights resolution seem to have eventually found its place in our Constitution when it was drafted. It also in his own words “make(s) it clear that there should be no interference in matter of conscience, religion, or culture, and a minority is entitled to keep its personal law without any change in this respect being imposed by the majority.” 

However, for him democracy was not a borrowed idea taken from Europe. Making a historical survey, Bose in an address ten years before Haripura, cited the examples of Republics in ancient India and referred to the principle of democracy, as applied in India in the governments of villages and towns. He highlighted the fact that the doctrine of democracy was not unknown to India in the past “...from the above historical narrative it will be evident that democratic republican forms of government existed in India in the ancient times. They were usually based on a homogenous tribe or caste. In the Mahabharata, these tribal democracies are known as ‘Ganas’… (Even) in monarchical states also, the people enjoyed a large measure of liberty, as the King was virtually a constitutional monarch. This feat, which has been consistently ignored by the British historians, has now been fully established through the researches of Indian historians.”

Now let us take up his ideas of socialism – Communists and many others have termed it as “jumbled”. Possibly their rejection of his `Samyavad’ seems to have come from the fact that he  rejected the Marixian dogma of class struggle, despite admiring certain goals of Marxism and had described himself openly as a Socialist.

At the Rangpur Political Conference on March 30, 1929, he made it clear that he favoured  Swami Vivekananda’s socialistic ideas where he wanted to work for a classless, casteles society through social change and economic progress. “This socialism did not derive its birth from the books of Karl Marx. It has its origin in the thought and culture of India. The gospel of democracy that was preached by Swami Vivekananda has manifested itself fully in the writings and achievements of Deshabandhu Das, who said that Narayan lives amongst those who till the land, prepare our bread by the sweat of their brow those who in the midst of grinding poverty have kept the torch of our civilization, culture and religion burning,” Bose pointed out.

Calling this the doctrine of synthesis, Bose’s ideas stood on four pillars: 1) Freedom of Conscience, 2) Political Democracy, 3) Economic Democracy or Indian Socialism and  4) Dignity of Man.

That he clearly felt that Nazism and Hitler were an unmitigated disaster is quite clear to those who have read him and those who managed to interview  his close followers with whom he confided.  In a letter written in March, 1936 to Dr. Franz Thierfelder, the co-founder with Dr. Tarak Nath Das, of the Indian Institute of Munich, Bose wrote  “When I first visited Germany in 1933, I had hopes (of) the new German nation, which has risen to a new consciousness of its national strength and self-respect .... Today, I regret that I have to return to India with the conviction that the new nationalism of Germany is not only narrow and selfish, but also arrogant.”

When Hitler referred to white superiority in a speech in 1936, Bose denounced the Führer in a press conference in Geneva and advocated a trade boycott of Germany by Indians. Similarly, when  Hermann Göring’s made disparaging remarks about Mahatma Gandhi, Bose was stinging in his criticism. Later in conversations with his close associates Bose dubbed Hitler “baddha pagal” (raving mad).

However, the fact remains that Bose took the help of Germany and Japan in trying to win freedom for his motherland. This his followers would readily term as `Realpolitiks’ of the kind that  Chanakya or Machiavelli would have followed.

Many accused him of trying to replace one colonial power – Britain with another - Japan.  However, he was aware that this was a distinct possibility and had warned his closest associates in the INA Azad Hind Fauj to “prepare for a second war”, after India wins its freedom. He wanted the Army to be ready to fight his benefactors the Japanese  if the need arose.

The need would perhaps have arisen. The Japanese Imperial forces did much to hinder his rise even as they propped his INA up. This was despite his excellent political relationship with Japan’s Prime Minster Hideki Tojo and Emperor Hirohito. Early when the INA was being formed in 1943, when the Japanese liaison officers learned that Bose wanted to recruit more soldiers from among the Indian Prisoners of War beyond the approximately 26,000 he had recruited, many of those who had not made up their mind were abruptly shipped off to prison labour. He was denied any significant arms cache  and had to content himself with arming his men mostly with captured British weaponry, which also limited the numbers of local Indians, mostly Tamils he could recruit into his army to about 30,000, despite the fact that nearly 1 lakh volunteered.

The Japanese dilly-dallied on demands for transfer of actual control of the strategic Andaman & Nicobar Islands and did not agree with Netaji’s more sound war aims of reaching Chittagong district of United Bengal through the Arakan hills which could have triggered off a revolution in mainland India, preferring to attack Manipur and Naga districts of NEFA. The success of these two fierce battles  would at best have yielded some densely forested territory to the Indo-Japanese forces. The d extremely tenuous communication links of these areas with mainland India meant that British censorship ensured Indians knew nothing of these battles at that time and hence had no great reason to organize any supportive revolts.

It did not take a Napoleon to understand that to invade India a  more direct thrust towards Bengal was more logical. The British understood that well and decided to pre-empt such a move by removing or destroying the long distance boat services in the Bengal delta leading to the Great Bengal Famine.

Bose’s  secularism and his strong belief that India would have been better off without the curse of caste was also amply clear. A story told by Ambassador TCA Raghavan last  Sunday at Chittaranjan Bhavan about his visit to the famous Chettiar temple in Singapore should suffice to explain his beliefs.

The Chettiar Temple set up by the rich mercantile community of emigres from Tamil Nadu was anxious to donate to the INA war effort but wanted Subhas Bose to visit the temple. Bose refused complaining that the temple practiced orthodoxy and did not allow people of all castes and religion to enter its premises. Ultimately the temple authorities bowed down and urged him to visit with any associates he chose without any regards to caste or creed.

Major General A.C. Chatterjee, Minister for Finance in the Azad Hind Government who was an eyewitness to this historical incident  also gives a vivid description of it in his Memoir : ‘In due course, Netaji went to the temple, accompanied by his Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian officers. They went not only into the inner courtyard of the temple, where previously non-Hindus were not allowed to enter, but even to the sanctum sanctorum, where only Brahmins could (previously) set their feet. This was an even more remarkable incident in the annals of the temple. Not only this, but the Brahmin priest of the temple put `tilakas’ (marks) over the foreheads of Netaji and the officers, irrespective of caste, creed and religion and gave them `prasad’ (food offering) of the deity. The officers in their turn willingly accepted the `tilaka’ on their foreheads and gladly partook of the `prasad’ offered to them. By such acts, the Hindus did not become less Hindus, nor the Muslims or Christians or Sikhs any the less Muslims, Christians or Sikhs. What did happen, however, was that they all rose to the plane of human relationships to a higher level. Their love and respect for one another increased manifold. Bose then delivered a remarkable speech  explaining what the Movement implied, emphasizing upon the unity amongst the followers of the different creeds and religions of India and the significance of universal brotherhood.’

In this day and age when religious and caste based difference have again raised their head and attempts are being to drive a wedge within India, remembering this lesson in true secularism is perhaps even more important than ever.

Jai Hind !

©️ Jayanta Roy Chowdhury

23^rd January 2019