Subhash and Mohandas: Towards the Same Goal
on April 11, 2009
A myth propounded by history-killers and aged freedom-fighter manuals is the enmity between pre-Independence leaders in India.
Subhash Chandra Bose and Mohandas Gandhi shared a healthy and principled relationship despite their opposing ideas on the relevance of violence. In effect, they were comrades in freeing India from British imperialism. Yet, it is not hard to come across learned men and women who speak of them as ‘almost-enemies’. These learned individuals are teachers, historians and journalists. They have never been able to guide me to the source of their exclamations on the Subhash-Mohandas relationship.
“I read it in a book” or “It is well-known”.
One such source had informed me that “Subhash and Gandhi had a fight over the means to achieve independence for India. Subhash was pragmatic and Gandhi backed out of his plans”.
I realised later that in all probability, their followers may have verbally fought and opposed one another. Subhash and Mohandas disagreed but never fought and this knowledgeable person was only bringing out his biases.
Marketers espouse fights between Bhagat Singh and Mohandas Gandhi in movies to promote a false sense of patriotism and increase ticket sales.
Shyam Benegal’s movie “Bose-The Forgotten Hero”, however, did not portray any imagined acrimony between the national leaders. Their opinion differed but they held one another in the highest regard.
Subhash would stop any activity and listen to Mohandas talk on radio and ‘The Indian National Army’, headed by Subhash, revered the services of Bhagat Singh and Mohandas Gandhi to the cause of an independent nation.
It was Subhash who first addressed Mohandas Gandhi as “The Father of the Nation” from Rangoon in 1944. He also gave full support to Mohandas’s call to “Quit India” and “Do or Die”
And though Mohandas was averse to Subhash’s violent battle, he said of him that “…He was Indian first and last. What is more, he fired all under him with the same zeal so that they forgot in his presence all distinctions and acted as one man.”
The comradeship between them is very relevant now as India goes to vote in the coming elections. At a time when name-calling and insulting have become the backbone of Indian politics, Subhash and Mohandas are a reminder of the crux of democracy and of India; unity in diversity.
Theirs is a case of employing opposing ideology for a common cause, a better India. All the brouhaha about voting for change and youth-power would assuredly fail if these leaders stand for elections today. One of them would win but the country would not lose. I imagine that post-elections, Subhash and Mohandas would meet and healthily disagree over the affairs of the nation.
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Comments
This could be of interest:
Satyameva Jayate
The comments are of excellent standard, especially the Atanu article, where I found this:
“Chakravarti asked Attlee about the real grounds for granting Independence to India. Specifically, his question was, when the Quit India movement lay in ruins years before 1947, what was the need for the British to leave in such a hurry. Attlee’s response is most illuminating and important for history. Here is the Governor’s account of what Attlee told him:
“In reply Attlee cited several reasons, the most important were the activities of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose which weakened the very foundation of the attachment of the Indian land and naval forces to the British Government. Towards the end, I asked Lord Attlee about the extent to which the British decision to quit India was influenced by Gandhi’s activities. On hearing this question Attlee’s lips widened in a smile of disdain and he uttered, slowly, putting emphasis on each single letter-”mi-ni-mal”.”
This ‘unimpeachable’ truth will come as a shock to most Indians brought up to believe that the Congress movement driven by the ’spiritual force’ of Mahatma Gandhi forced the British to leave India. But both the evidence and the logic of history are against this beautiful but childish fantasy; it was the fear of mutiny by the Indian armed forces-and not any ’spiritual force’- that forced the issue of freedom”
When we look at what Subash and Gandhiji stand for, it is inevitable that they will be pitted against each other- they could have been the best of friends, but their ideology compels us to view them as rivals. We could be wrong in that, of course.
Regards,
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