S. C. Bose

One individual may die for an idea; but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives. That is how the wheel of evolution moves on and the ideas and dreams of one nation are bequeathed to the next.

S C Bose was an Indian nationalist whose attempt during World War II to rid India of British rule with the help of Nazi Germany and Japan left a troubled legacy. The Netaji, first applied to Bose in Germany, by the Indian soldiers and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin. Earlier, Bose had been a leader of the younger, radical, wing of the Indian National Congress in the late 1920s and 1930s, rising to become Congress President in 1938 and 1939. However, he was ousted from Congress leadership positions in 1939 following differences with Gandhi.

No depiction of India’s Freedom struggle or its retelling is complete without Bose.

S C Bose was educated at Cambridge University. In 1920, Bose took the Indian Civil Service entrance examination and was placed second. However, he resigned from the prestigious Indian Civil Service in April 1921 despite his high ranking in the merit list and went on to become an active member of India’s independence movement.

History is written by victors. Therefore the story of the Indian freedom struggle was written at the wills of the first kings of Independent India. Quit India movement 1942 is exposed as the final blow to the British and the Congress party led by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru projected as the real heroes who led India to freedom through non-violence and satyagraha. In reality, the British left India because of Netaji S C Bose, who delivered the final nail in the coffin of the imperial masters.

The British ruled India only on the strength of the British Indian army whose soldiers were Indians but officers were British. Without this army, the British could never hold together, Netaji raised the level of consciousness among Indian soldiers who fought for the British.

S.C.Bose Legacy:

He joined the INC and was particularly active in its youth wing. He felt that young militant groups could be molded into a military arm of the freedom movement and used to further the cause. Gandhiji opposed this ideology because it directly conflicted with his policy of so-called political weapon Ahimsa. The British knew Bose as a future danger and had him arrested without any charge and transferred to Mandalay, Burma.

He was one who sought and worked towards Hindu-Muslim unity on the basis of respect of each community’s rights and not on the principle of politics that others did at that time. He known as a man of ideas, believed in independence from the social evil of religious discord.

“Man of incredible courage and made of strong moral and indefatigable character.”

He viewed freedom as an absolute necessity, unlike the freedom of Gandhiji that was war of negotiation with the British.

He had no doubt in mind that chief national problems at that time were the eradication of poverty, illiteracy and disease and the scientific production and distribution that can be tackled only along socialistic lines… [Still today it is a National Problem.]

Despite opposition from the Congress chairs (Nehru and Gandhi), he won the presidential election in 1939, Gandhi considered Subhas’s victory as his personal defeat and went on a fast to rally the members of the Working Committee to resign. Sacrifice of Indian will on the whims of Individual…[still can be seen in Congress.]

He wasn’t just a fighter. He had great intellectual depth and an enormous understanding of India as a land where the Oriental tradition of paying devotion to one’s parents was a cornerstone in upholding the dignity of our elders.

Netaji wanted unconditional without any negotiation and complete freedom. He dreamed of a classless society with no caste barriers, social inequalities or religious intolerance. He believed in equal distribution of wealth and destruction of communalism. His slogan “Jai Hind” still acts as a great binding force today.

The truth about S.C.Bose

• The British had ruled India under the premise that whatever the politicians did the loyalty of Indian soldiers to them would not change.
• Atlee once came to Calcutta in 1955 and said in a meeting that the INA activities of Bose had weakened the foundation of the British Empire in India and the mutiny of the Royal Indian navy made the British realize that Indian forces could no longer be trusted to prop up the British.
• B R Ambedkar told the BBC in an interview in 1955 that he believed that the British left India only because the loyalty of Indian troops could not be taken for granted after S C Bose raised a national army.

READ ALSO |  Lal Bahadur Shastri | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | Veer Savarkar |

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