There wasn’t a single Muslim in Netaji’s 60,000-strong Indian National Army,” said Chandra Kumar Bose at a webinar last week. “But then there wasn’t a single Hindu, Sikh or Christian in it either. Then who were the soldiers? Indians.”
The webinar, to commemorate Netaji’s 125th birth anniversary, was organised by a BL Block-based patriotic group called Desh and Chandra Bose, grandson of Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose, was speaking on the relevance of the leader in the 21st century.
“Laal qiley se aaye awaaz, Sahgal, Dhillon aur Shah Nawaz!” Chandra Bose shared the slogan that had become ubiquitous during the Red Fort trials of 1945-46. “Note that the three INA soldiers being tried were Colonel Prem Sahgal, a Hindu, Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, a Sikh, and Major-General Shah Nawaz Khan, a Muslim, but when it came to fighting for freedom, they were simply Indians. This is the secularism Netaji had dreamt for India.”
Leadership lessons
Chandra Bose highlighted the charisma as well as humility of Netaji, the leader. “When C.R. Das was mayor of Kokata Municipal Corporation and Netaji the chief executive officer, the latter would get out on the streets and speak personally to the cleaners about how to sanitise the city. Nothing was beneath him and this is a message for leaders of today.”
The man who interacted with sweepers could, with the same poise, address the most powerful world leaders like Hitler. “Netaji told Hitler that his views on Indians in his autobiography Mein Kampf were inaccurate. He asked him to read up on India’s glorious history before passing comment. Later when Germany was preparing to attack Russia, Netaji stated that the aggression would not be tolerated or accepted by India. Who else had the gumption to confront Hitler like this in the middle of the Second World War?” Chandra Bose asked.
Netaji’s charisma and organisational skills are further credited with large-scale recruitments in the Azad Hind Fauj.
Vision for India
The leader wanted an Indian way of socialism with political, social and economic freedom, but sadly there are still cases of bonded labour in the country and to a large extent, women do not receive the respect they deserve.
“Free India has only just started commissioning women in the Army but the INA had an all-woman regiment — named after Rani of Jhansi Lakshmibai — back in the 1940s,” said Chandra Bose. “These ideals of equality must be held on to.”
The speaker also singled Netaji out for his ability to unite people of all religions. “Unless we can learn from him we are in danger of repeating of the horrors of 1947. Our leaders must avoid divisive politics,” Chandra Bose warned. “Netaji also wanted to strengthen ties with our neighbours in Asia.”
The way to remember Netaji is not to fight over who gets to float a tableau on him at the Republic Day parade, Chandra Bose observed. “Since the leader was born in Cuttack, many Odiyas consider him to be from their state, while Bengalis claim him as theirs. Netaji belongs not to any one region but to the whole nation. And the rightful respect to him would be to reach his ideals at the grassroots level,” he said.
The webinar also featured Abhijit Ray, a grandson of Sarat Bose, speaking on his grandfather. There was Prasad Ranjan Das, a descendant of Chittaranjan Das’s brother, speaking on Das, who himself was a mentor to Bose, and Pradip Bandyopadhyay, secretary of a social group Probortok Sangha, speaking on the revolutionary activities in Chandernagore, including the role of freedom-fighters like Motilal Roy.
“Netaji’s ideals are to be remembered not just on his birth anniversary but round the year,” said Anasuya Mitra, co-founder of Desh and a resident of BL Block. She, along with another co-founder Adrija Sen, anchored the webinar. “Personally, I muster strength and courage from the leader. Even when my entire family was down with severe Covid during the second wave, I found myself praying to Netaji for light at the end of the tunnel.”