Unlike Nehru, Netaji believed that authoritarian rule was essential for achieving radical social goals
Unlike Nehru, Netaji believed that authoritarian rule was essential for achieving radical social goals.
Subhas Chandra Bose fulfilled a promise to his father that he would sit for the Indian Civil Service examination in London. He secured the fourth position in 1920 but then went on to fulfil his own wish. He resigned from the coveted service the following year, saying "only on the soil of sacrifice and suffering can we raise our national edifice". Returning to India, he plunged into the national struggle and by 1923, was secretary of the Bengal State Congress and president of All India Youth Congress.
By 1927, he emerged, along with Jawaharlal Nehru, as leader of the new youth movement, which came into its own by playing a major role in the anti-Simon Commission agitation which swept India that year. He was also the chief organiser of the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress (INC) in December 1928, which demanded that the goal of the Congress be changed to 'Purna Swaraj' or 'Complete Independence'.
Imprisonment in the Civil Disobedience movement followed by bad health in 1932 took him to Europe where he observed European politics, particularly Fascism under Mussolini and Communism in the Soviet Union. He was impressed by both and believed that authoritarian rule was essential for achieving radical social goals.
In fact, it is in this period that the political views of Nehru and Bose begin to diverge sharply, especially on the issue of Fascism and Nazism. Nehru was so vehemently opposed to Fascism that he refused to meet Mussolini even when the latter sought him out, whereas Bose not only met Mussolini but was impressed by him. Nehru was sharply critical of the growing danger to the world from the rise of Hitler. Bose, on the other hand, never expressed that kind of aversion to Fascism, and was quite willing to seek the support of Germany and later Japan against Britain. However, he was not happy with the German attack on Soviet Union in 1941, and that was one reason why he left Germany for Japan. For Bose, Socialism and Fascism were not polar opposites, as they were for Nehru.
In 1938, Bose was unanimously elected, with the full support of Gandhiji, as Congress president for the Haripura session. But the next year, he decided to stand again, this time as a representative of militant and radical groups. An election ensued which Bose won by 1,580 to 1,377 votes, but the battle lines were drawn. The challenge he threw by calling Gandhian leaders rightists who were working for a compromise with the British Government was answered by 12 members of the Working Committee resigning and asking Bose to choose his own committee. Nehru did not resign with other members but he was unhappy with Bose's casting of aspersions on senior leaders. He tried his best to mediate and persuade Bose not to resign.
The crisis came to a head at Tripuri in March 1939, with Bose refusing to nominate a new Working Committee and ultimately resigning. The clash was of policy and tactics. Bose wanted an immediate struggle led by Gandhiji, whereas Gandhiji felt the time was not ripe for struggle.
Having burnt his boats with the Congress, Bose went first to Germany in January 1941 and then to Japan in 1943 to seek help in the struggle against their common enemy, Britain. He finally went to Singapore to take charge of the Indian National Army (INA) which had been formed by Mohan Singh in 1941 from Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese. The INA was clear that it would go into action only on the invitation of the INC; it was not set up as a rival centre of power. Bose made this more explicit when on July 6, 1944, in a broadcast on Azad Hind Radio addressed to Gandhiji, he said, "Father of our Nation! In this holy war of India's liberation, we ask for your blessing and good wishes".
The INA was allowed to participate with the Japan Army only in the Imphal Campaign, and the experience was none too happy-discriminatory treatment, a painful retreat and surrender to the British. Captured soldiers were brought back to India and threatened with court martials. The Congress, led by Nehru, demanded leniency, calling the INA men patriots, albeit misguided. There was a wave of sympathy across the country, and Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai, Sapru, Katju and Asaf Ali donned lawyer's robes to defend the INA leaders in the Red Fort trials.
Meanwhile, Subhas Bose succumbed to burn injuries received in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. What Nehru said of the INA soldiers may well be said of him: a patriot, albeit misguided.
Guest column Mridula Mukherjee Professor of History, JNU