The declassification of the Netaji
Files must free Bose from chains of political myth-making and allow for the
homecoming of a nationalist who believed thatrashtrabhakti is a
synthesis of the spiritual and the political
In a country where Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose is hero-worshipped across party-lines and is revered as an icon no
less than others enshrined on the throne of history by the Congress to appease
the Nehru Dynasty, it remains a mystery of sorts why the grandiosely named
All-India Forward Bloc is rarely if ever mentioned as a participant in current
politics. After all, the Forward Bloc came into being in 1939 when Bose, like
the proverbial storm petrel, clashed with the entrenched leadership of the
Congress.
A split with the party, though not
within the party, was inevitable after his famous spat with Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi. The Forward Bloc now describes itself as a “Left-wing nationalist
party” and till such time the CPI(M) ruled West Bengal, it survived on crumbs
thrown its way by the Communists who were never quite comfortable with the
popular imagery of Netaji in jackboots. With the demise of the Left Front in
West Bengal, the Forward Bloc is now a fading footnote of history: Even if by
some magic the Marxists were to revive their political fortune, it is doubtful
the Forward Bloc will bounce back with a zing.
The unprecedented mass interest
elicited in the ‘Netaji Files’ which the Government of India refuses to
declassify for reasons that defy credulity would suggest greater support for
the political legacy, or what passes for it, of Bose in the form of the Forward
Bloc. The tidal wave of congratulatory messages for West Bengal’s Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee who, cocking a snook at New Delhi, has declassified 64
files pertaining to Bose (historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee has described them as
‘police files’) would endorse that suggestion.
The reality is to the contrary. Bose
family notables are firmly aligned with the Trinamool Congress and not the
Forward Bloc. This could well be explained as no more than one of the vagaries
that define politics in our times. But nonetheless it is a point to ponder
over, even if casually and with passing interest. Others would earnestly argue
that perhaps the time has come for one of India’s great leaders to be freed
from the confines of political myth-making that has reduced him to calendar
lithographs which adorn living rooms in provincial Bengal and the dimly lit
offices of the Forward Bloc in Kolkata.
In a sense, that would mark the
posthumous homecoming for a nationalist who believed that rashtrabhakti
is a synthesis of religion and nationalism, of the spiritual and the political.
In the early decades of this century, when others were looking up to Gandhi for
inspiration, Bose was looking elsewhere for guidance: His search for a
religious philosophy that would spur political activism led him to explore the
teachings of Swami Vivekananda and the writings of Aurobindo Ghosh. The latter
made a lasting impression on his mind, providing his political activism with a religious
side.
The profound Impact that Aurobindo
Ghosh had on Subhas Chandra Bose is reflected in his autobiography: “In my
undergraduate days, Aurobindo Ghosh was easily the most popular leader in
Bengal… a mixture of spirituality and politics had given him a halo of
mysticism and made his personality more fascinating to those who were
religiously inclined… We felt convinced that spiritual enlightenment was
necessary for effective national service…”
It is, therefore, not surprising
that he should have also been influenced by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s
construction of nationalism. And like Aurobindo Ghosh, Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyay and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Indian nation for him extended
beyond the geographical to the devotional plane. During his college days he
discovered the wretchedness of not India but “impoverished Mother India.”
Curiously, his view of the other
India, the one which appears so distant from the fashionable drawing rooms and
glittering malls of our cities, is not different from those who believe that a
divide separates ‘us’ and ‘them’. For, “the picture of real India”, which Bose
described as “the India of the villages where poverty stalks the land, men die
like flies, and illiteracy is the prevailing order”, is also the India which
many believe should receive priority over that India which revels in rejecting
anything that carries the label ‘Made in India’, including Hindu spirituality
and religious philosophy.
In his book, Brothers Against The
Raj, Leonard A Gordon writes about Bose’s quest for a religious philosophy
to serve as the core of nationalism and sustain his political activism: “Inner
religious explorations continued to be a part of his adult life. This set him
apart from the slowly growing number of atheistic socialists and communists who
dotted the Indian landscape.” And it was this “religious exploration” that set
apart Bose from Jawaharlal Nehru for whom “this was a vain quest”. Although
Bose scrupulously avoided publishing his faith or his quest, he remained firm in
his belief that “Hinduism was an essential part of his Indianness”, his
Bharatiyata. In other words, he subscribed to cultural nationalism or, call it
if you must by its other name, Hindutva.
This did not, however, make him a
bigoted Hindu, nor did it propel him towards Hindu orthodoxy. Commenting on the
“definite Hindu streak in Bose’s dislike for Gandhi”, Nirad C Chaudhuri records
in his memoirs, Thy Hand! Great Anarch, “He was in no sense a bigoted or
even orthodox Hindu. But he had grown up in the first two decades of the
twentieth century in Bengal, where, owing to the influence of Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyay and Swami Vivekananda, there was a fusion of religion and
nationalism, so that the nationalist feeling had a pronounced Hindu complexion
and Hinduism a pronounced political character.”
This “fusion of religion and
nationalism” and Hinduism with a “pronounced political character” came into
play in 1925 when during his incarceration at Mandalay prison, Bose, along with
the other Bengali prisoners, organised Durga Puja on the jail premises and
demanded that the expenses be borne by the authorities. When the latter
refused, Bose converted his spiritual quest into a political campaign by
launching a hunger strike. This practice of political Hinduism had an
electrifying impact on public opinion and soon the Swarajists lent their voice
to the popular demand for the release of all political prisoners who had not
been charged with specific crimes.
Those who deride nationalism, more
so cultural nationalism, as narrow, selfish and aggressive, a hindrance to the
promotion of internationalism, would do well to go through Bose’s speech at
Poona after being elected president of the Maharashtra Provincial Conference.
“Indian nationalism,” Bose asserted, “is inspired by the highest ideals of the
human race, Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram. Nationalism in India has… roused the
creative faculties which for centuries had been lying dormant in our people…
”Sadly, nationalism has now been
rendered politically incorrect by our deracinated intelligentsia and abandoned
by our corrupt political elite.
(The writer is a current affairs
analyst based in NCR)
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