The recent past has witnessed the rise of right-wing forces. The attempt to appropriate the icons of freedom struggle by the right-wing forces is quite obvious now-a-days and it has been observed in the recent past, too. This is obviously due to the lack of any heroic figures of their own. However, it is not easier to change the narrative of the thoughts and philosophy of Subhas Chandra Bose and his political legacy. It has to be kept in mind that the life and works of Subhas Chandra Bose are well documented and there is a Netaji Research Bureau, founded by his nephew Dr. Sisir Kumar Bose and presently run by his grandnephew Dr. Sugata Bose. The Netaji Research Bureau is housed at Netaji Bhawan, Kolkata, which is the ancestral house of Subhas Chandra Bose.
It is of quite relevance today to remind ourselves of his thoughts, ideas, ideals, sacrifices and convictions in India’s struggle for freedom, collected from the most reliable and authentic sources. Let us glance over the pages of history.
“Communalism has raised
its ugly head in an all out nakedness…Even the oppressed, the poor and the
ignorant long for independence. We hear voices of Hindu Raj in India owing to a
majority of Hindu population. These are all useless thoughts. Do the communal
organizations solve any of the problems confronted by the working class? Do any
such organizations have any answer to unemployment and poverty?... The ideas of
Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha of anti-Muslim propaganda in practice means full
collaboration with British” (Source: Netaji Collected Works, Volume – III,
Edited by Sisir K Bose, Published by Netaji Research Bureau, 1981)
“Fanatism is the greatest
thorn in the path of cultural intimacy and there is no better remedy for
fanatism than secular and scientific education.” (Source: The Essential
Writings of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Edited by Sisir K Bose and Sugata Bose,
Oxford University Press, 2014)
It is also important to note down here a short excerpt
from Sugata Bose’s book ‘His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s
struggle Against Empire’ ---- “Netaji successfully united Hindus, Muslims,
Sikhs and Christians in the struggle for freedom based on his commitment to
equal rights and respect for all as well as his enlightened philosophy of
cultural intimacy among India’s diverse communities. He won the implicit trust
of the minorities as no one else had…Just as Gandhian values cannot be reduced
to a cleanliness campaign, extolling Netaji’s military heroism sounds hollow if
divorced from his unequivocal commitment to religious harmony.”
History
had been witness to the fact that exactly a week before his assassination on
January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi observed Subhas’s birthday and in his final
eulogy to the great patriot, Gandhi reminded the nation that Subhas “knew no
provincialism nor communal differences” and “had, in his brave army, men and
women drawn from all over India without distinction and evoked affection and
loyalty, which very few have been able to evoke”.
Commemorating
Subhas Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary by garlanding his bust or by
erecting his statue will relegate him only. Instead, a proper tribute to Subhas
Chandra Bose would be to spread and follow the ‘rich inheritance of ideas,
ideals and dreams’, left by Bose. It is an eternal truth that the legacy of
Subhas Chandra Bose lies in his ‘generous and imaginative approach towards
achieving unity by respecting difference.’
