HVK Archives: Defying the Mahatma
Defying the Mahatma - The Indian Express
Editorial
()
23 January 1997
Title : Defying the Mahatma
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : January 23, 1997
The tendency to reduce history to a series of stark struggles
between good and evil leads to unintended distortions. Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose, whose birth centenary is being observed today,
was a prime casualty of this simple-mindedness. If comic-strip
accounts of the past are anything to go by, Netaji's contribution
to the freedom struggle has been reduced to the two slogans which
have been associated with him: "chalo Delhi" and "give me blood and
I will give you freedom". Juxtaposed against the more enduring
images of Mahatma Gandhi and even Jawaharlal Nehru, these have the
effect of reducing Subhas Bose's to the periphery of Indian
nationalism. Netaji may have bowed out of public life as a
somewhat tragic and marginalised figure, but to even suggest that
he was marginal to the struggle for freedom would be tantamount to
violating his memory.
An uncompromising patriot, Netaji's problem with the Gandhi-Nehru
tradition was twofold. First, unlike the Congress leaders who rose
to prominence in the shadow of the Mahatma, his opposition to
British rule was visceral. He viewed the British Raj as an
unmitigated disaster for India, a view which was not universally
shared by his contemporaries, and certainly not by Gandhi and
Nehru. This uncompromising antipathy to the British, led him to
advocate positions which were at odds with the Mahatma's ethical
nationalism. Since colonialism was itself immoral, nothing, in
Subhas Bose's eyes, could justify opposition to it being tempered
by gentlemanly ground rules. Thus, while Gandhi and Nehru balked
at the idea of seeking fascist assistance to overthrow the Raj,
Bose was not similarly inhibited. Second, Subhas Bose entertained
a remarkable fascination for both militarism and strong leadership.
He was so attracted by Hitler and Stalin that he actually
advocated an ideological blend of communism and fascism for India.
Impatient with what he saw as the amorphousness of the Congress and
the slightly chaotic nature of its functioning, he sought to create
an alternative centred on discipline. Subhas Bose could never
reconcile himself to the fact that the national movement was not
more purposeful and monolithic in character. The INA - an army
raised with a single-minded dedication to fighting the British,
regardless of other complications - encapsulated his departure from
non-violent satyagraha.
It is conceivable that Netaji would have kept his alternative
vision under wraps had the Mahatma not edged him out of the
Congress with canny ruthlessness. But it would have surfaced
sooner or later. Subhas Bose may have been guided by an objective,
but he had a very poor sense of the political adjustments needed to
put that objective in place. He epitomised that "other" streak in
Indian nationalism which was impatient with the nuances of a mass
movement. That current may seem insignificant compared to the
Gandhian steamroller. But its body blows to the Raj undermined
Britain's resolve to cling on to India and, in many ways, advanced
independence by more than a decade.
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