MISSION FOR MY MOTHERLAND ... 3

I can give a rebuttal to each and every point made by some so-called Gandhians against Netaji's contributions or in favour of Gandhi's machinations against him, as if to do justice to the Indian cause of freedom and future security against the inroads of fascism. But I refuse to answer on my own always as it is very taxing the whole day to keep giving umpteen responses to the twisted queries of stubborn people having neither openness of mind nor the willingness to learn and who, to quote Bertrand Russell, read 'not for information but for confirmation of their own prejudices and biases'. I also expect others in this conversation to take up cudgels for the establishment of the true historical narrative of our freedom movement. For this, it is not good enough to merely subscribe to emotional effusions in the name of Netaji and the revolutionaries but also to do in-depth study of their life and times. Then we must have comprehensive discussions on the focal points of political divergence between the votaries of non-violence and those of the armed struggle for freedom. Thus shall clarity come in due course and each of us will be rationally ready to take on whatever intellectual challenges our adversaries may throw at us. Then will the cause come to partial fruition and not before. We must be thorough in our research and must leave no stone unturned to prepare ourselves in a fool-proof way. To kill oneself, Sri Ramakrishna was wont to saying, one needs a nail-cutter but to kill others one needs shield and sword. In a like manner, to be self-satisfied with one's own understanding of the freedom movement, one need not exert oneself much and may merely opt to have faith in any narrative that gives one comfort, but to battle it out in the public domain against contrary opinion, evidence and arguments, one needs to be well-armed in both intellectual arsenal and a stock-pile of data to furnish reinforcement whenever the call comes. It is, thus, exhorted of all members to exert themselves far more to the discovery of truth through detailed investigation and study of the historical material already available on the freedom movement, for the recovery of our lost heritage of ideas and images that may, as yet, set the direction of our nation right. Jai Hind!