An apology is due from me too. I had, in my initial ignorance entirely of the glory that was Nairsan, condemned him as a dubious source of information for Narayanan Gandhi to pass adverse judgement on Netaji. I stand by my original contention that Narayanan Gandhi is, perhaps, misreading Nairsan's memoirs, on account of obvious human fallibility, and misjudging Netaji thus, as also that he is forwarding all his propositions on Netaji on the basis of a single source of information, however significant in historical terms it may be, without taking recourse to alternative narratives of equal or near-equal validity whereby he may arrive at a synthetic and a factually more credible account of the life and works of the epic personality he chooses to run down almost in an irreverent casual way.
But future posts on A.M. Nair from his memoirs by this gentleman, for whom my gratitude grows by the hour for such service rendered unto us despite his apparent and not real dislike of Netaji, have dispelled illusions fraught in ignorance of historical fact and have endeared me to Nairsan in a very real and moving way for which I may never be thankful enough to this friend in the apparent shape of a foe who has cast such a spell over so many that it recently necessitated his expulsion from a very significant group on Netaji.
My apology is by way of expiation of an error, never in intent but sorely out of an easy inverse gullibility to data in currency that excludes Nairsan's seminal contributions to the freedom of his motherland from self-exile, compounded worse by Narayanan Gandhi's constant seeming aspersions cast on the premier patriot of our nation, and I feel happy that the hour has not flitted by before I had the measure of things to atone for past predilections, however unconscious.
A.M. Nair stands luminous in my awakening mind as the paragon of freedom, as the champion and mastermind of the Pan-Asian anti-British movement and as a great organiser of revolutionary enterprise, himself being no mean revolutionary as his multifarious anti-British subversive activities in Manchuria amply testify to.
When in a group altercation with Narayanan Gandhi I had overstepped limits of conversational civility regarding A.M. Nair but once, he had categorically castigated me for such transgression. Still I apologise to the memory of Nairsan for that lone, none too indecent but uncivil to an extent perhaps, remark where I had thrown the fool's challenge to the erudite out of fanatical allegiance to existing data base in my ill-informed mind.
It, therefore, becomes pertinent to note that reverence to a hero of one's adoration and of worldwide adulation even, does not necessarily preclude the idea of examining the said personality from a parallel perspective, however laterally displaced the viewpoint may be. This is the true scientific spirit that guides genuine research in the domain of historical episodes, dispassionate and detached, with but the unearthing of truth the sole motivation for study without personal preference or prejudice painting a predetermined picture which so often is the case with historical narratives where the victor in war determines what ought to be recorded and what ought to be expunged from the saga of the epochal events.
My abiding gratitude to Narayanan Gandhi for making available this invaluable piece of literature for the wider audience, albeit in snippets, through painstaking translation from its Tamil version, when copies of the original book in English are countable in fingers and are prohibitively expensive.
A.M. Nair, affectionately addressed as Nairsan by his Japanese associates and friends, stands transfigured before my widening vision as a being of prodigious revolutionary potency, a phenomenal participant in East Asia's expatriate Indians' struggle for their motherland's freedom and a conscientious chronicler of the turbulent times prior to and during the progress of the worst cataclysm humanity has witnessed in its chequered career since time immemorial.
As the saga of the East Asian struggle for India's independence unfolds before our clarified vision with every page of Nair's memoirs translated sending a current of contemporary consistency through the disparate data in my brain, I wonder how such a phenomenal person, almost larger than life in attributes and attainments, could have been given the go by independent India's government. What a shame that the country of his birth --- for whose freedom he spent the prime time of his life, whose executive machinery for eventual armed revolution he was a principal player in perfecting --- could not recognise the sterling spirit of this revolutionary of transnational attainments and it was left to imperial Japan to bestow on him a coveted civilian award in keeping with the Japanese tradition of honour the patriot.
My essay in apology and admiration ends here as I await the advancing days in the hope of hearing more from that treasure trove of historical data, 'An Indian Freedom Fighter in Japan : Memoirs' by A.M. Nair. May our country even now awake to the historical injustice rendered to this redoubtable revolutionary and do what it feels best in its wisdom to honour his epic contributions towards the attainment of our political freedom! At the least let history prevail and not fabricated fantasies. Jai Hind!
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