Lalita Bose, niece of Netaji, who reposed faith in Bhagawanji alias Gumnami Baba being Netaji after getting to see the belongings of the monk in Faizabad post 16 September, 1985.
Friday 31 August 2018
LALITA BOSE, NETAJI'S NIECE
Lalita Bose, niece of Netaji, who reposed faith in Bhagawanji alias Gumnami Baba being Netaji after getting to see the belongings of the monk in Faizabad post 16 September, 1985.
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 15
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 15
There are many who posit Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee's informal admission that Bhagawaji was Netaji as a sort of proof that he indeed was so, for they keep on quoting his unofficial statement by way of bolstering their case, but in the same vein they categorically deny the veracity of the judge's affirmation that Netaji in all probability was no more. This sort of selective adherence to statements made is a mockery of truth and one must be honest and even forthright in making one's stand clear in the light of evidence and rational rigour. Else, fanciful claims on the basis of flawed arguments do not hold ground.
The so-called scholars must be better schooled in scientific reasoning to be able to see the fallacious arguments they so often present by way of bringing home their points of view to the public. The people are not all unintelligent that they cannot see through the perfidies perpetrated by the government over the last seven decades to malign, marginalise and minimise Netaji so that his legacy may be obliterated for good to the benefit of the parties that have thus far profited from such an exercise. But that does not mean that the public must be fed all sorts of fanciful stories to win them over to an opposition of everything that is sane and likely to be true. That does not serve the cause of the restoration of Netaji's rightful place in the polity in any way.
What is needed is to educate the public about the historical life of Netaji till 18 August, 1945 so that they are made aware of who he truly was instead of who he supposedly became post disappearance. Very few know the details of his chronicled life and his political principles, philosophy and imperatives in a world torn by the exigencies of realpolitik where freedom had to be won amidst the impending and later ongoing cataclysm of the Second World War. It is here that scholars --- I mean the real ones and not the pretenders to scholarship --- need to focus and educate the people.
There are many that are on the payroll of political parties, hired historians who write what their paymasters command them to do. But there are other sincere adherents to historical truth as well who love the leader luminous of their motherland and who would spare no means to bring to the fore facts and figures that tell the true story of the freedom movement. These latter ones must be supported and encouraged to fight for the freedom of the public mind from both official myth spread and fiction floated by irresponsible half-baked scholars who have no better job than to fill up the academic vacuum in their lives through farcical propositions and fantastic tales cooked up or propagated by them. This is a pernicious trend that must be countered by propagation of the real historically recorded life and attainments of Netaji, albeit with a discerning eye, for there are heresies in such recorded history as well. However, as more and more of the young and intelligent and educated members of the polity take to the study of Netaji in depth, the air will gradually clear and transparency of vision about the seminal achievements of our patriot premier restored. Till then the battle is on against all those who foist fables on Netaji and attempt to keep him either in the shadows of history or in the realm of myths.
Written by Sugata Bose
There are many who posit Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee's informal admission that Bhagawaji was Netaji as a sort of proof that he indeed was so, for they keep on quoting his unofficial statement by way of bolstering their case, but in the same vein they categorically deny the veracity of the judge's affirmation that Netaji in all probability was no more. This sort of selective adherence to statements made is a mockery of truth and one must be honest and even forthright in making one's stand clear in the light of evidence and rational rigour. Else, fanciful claims on the basis of flawed arguments do not hold ground.
The so-called scholars must be better schooled in scientific reasoning to be able to see the fallacious arguments they so often present by way of bringing home their points of view to the public. The people are not all unintelligent that they cannot see through the perfidies perpetrated by the government over the last seven decades to malign, marginalise and minimise Netaji so that his legacy may be obliterated for good to the benefit of the parties that have thus far profited from such an exercise. But that does not mean that the public must be fed all sorts of fanciful stories to win them over to an opposition of everything that is sane and likely to be true. That does not serve the cause of the restoration of Netaji's rightful place in the polity in any way.
What is needed is to educate the public about the historical life of Netaji till 18 August, 1945 so that they are made aware of who he truly was instead of who he supposedly became post disappearance. Very few know the details of his chronicled life and his political principles, philosophy and imperatives in a world torn by the exigencies of realpolitik where freedom had to be won amidst the impending and later ongoing cataclysm of the Second World War. It is here that scholars --- I mean the real ones and not the pretenders to scholarship --- need to focus and educate the people.
There are many that are on the payroll of political parties, hired historians who write what their paymasters command them to do. But there are other sincere adherents to historical truth as well who love the leader luminous of their motherland and who would spare no means to bring to the fore facts and figures that tell the true story of the freedom movement. These latter ones must be supported and encouraged to fight for the freedom of the public mind from both official myth spread and fiction floated by irresponsible half-baked scholars who have no better job than to fill up the academic vacuum in their lives through farcical propositions and fantastic tales cooked up or propagated by them. This is a pernicious trend that must be countered by propagation of the real historically recorded life and attainments of Netaji, albeit with a discerning eye, for there are heresies in such recorded history as well. However, as more and more of the young and intelligent and educated members of the polity take to the study of Netaji in depth, the air will gradually clear and transparency of vision about the seminal achievements of our patriot premier restored. Till then the battle is on against all those who foist fables on Netaji and attempt to keep him either in the shadows of history or in the realm of myths.
Written by Sugata Bose
Thursday 30 August 2018
REASON, REALISATION AND REALITY ... 3 (UNFINISHED)
The whole world is in ignorance. It is a bondage universal. The shackles here are yet to be broken. A few links have been severed but there are a million others that hold. And yet, all of it is in a dream, a vast ignorance of a vaster reality that is the substance of the Self. It must be smashed, but how? The very instrument of aggression holds, the very analysis keeps a tinge of itself behind whence sprouts the whole of cosmic phenomena again. The means are Maya, the mind is Maya, from the alpha to the omega of this unreal experience is Maya. How to negate Maya with Maya? It seems a mission impossible on the face of it and, yet, men have traversed this path to perfection in the past. An infinite series of causal links holds apparently the captive soul and there is no hope of liberation through karma for its fruit will hold yet again. But there is hope in one sense and it is this
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 14
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 14
Right you are, Ranjan Mitra. These are not researchers as they claim nor activists proper but are professionals, practitioners of this new trade of greater religion that knows hardly any business fluctuations like their sibling occupations in the world of free market do. This particular trade thrives on a continuous suspense kept up by the concerned parties and a thrill of a population addicted to fantastic ideas and fanciful inclinations. Some are making money, some others earning flimsy fame and a few making political capital out of it. Anyhow, through all this the issue of Netaji's disappearance is being kept alive and one only hopes that serious research on his life and death/disappearance will be made whereby this longstanding mystery will be resolved at last and a complete picture of the leader's career will eventually emerge. It is a trained researcher's job, a historian's prerogative and not a child's play to discover the facts as yet hidden under covers for reasons that one may keep guessing but can never be quite certain about.
Written by Sugata Bose
Right you are, Ranjan Mitra. These are not researchers as they claim nor activists proper but are professionals, practitioners of this new trade of greater religion that knows hardly any business fluctuations like their sibling occupations in the world of free market do. This particular trade thrives on a continuous suspense kept up by the concerned parties and a thrill of a population addicted to fantastic ideas and fanciful inclinations. Some are making money, some others earning flimsy fame and a few making political capital out of it. Anyhow, through all this the issue of Netaji's disappearance is being kept alive and one only hopes that serious research on his life and death/disappearance will be made whereby this longstanding mystery will be resolved at last and a complete picture of the leader's career will eventually emerge. It is a trained researcher's job, a historian's prerogative and not a child's play to discover the facts as yet hidden under covers for reasons that one may keep guessing but can never be quite certain about.
Written by Sugata Bose
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 13
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 13
Nelson Mandela was initially an adherent of Gandhian methods but when Gandhism failed to make any change in the system of apartheid, he renounced it to become an extreme revolutionary for which he was arrested and kept in Robben Island for 27 years. That he was set free eventually had a lot to do with the emerging world political scenario post the demise of the Soviet Union and the freedom of Eastern European countries from the thraldom of communism. Thus, even in the case of Mandela, the non-violent non-cooperation method was a total failure. It has nowhere till date been a successful means of revolutionary regime replacement and consequent societal transformation.
The imperatives of realpolitik as existent and the fallacies inherent in the Gandhian system simply limit the efficacy of Gandhian methods to individual spiritual practice and mass awakening of sorts that falls well short of revolutionary requirements in the ultimate sense. They have thus far not been successful nor do they seem to be so in the foreseeable future in bringing about any resistance worth the while that can overthrow a barbaric but efficient system of governmental armed oppression aided by a modern military machine. So, it is one more myth that Mandela --- who was personally inspired by Gandhi to begin his movement but subsequently renounced it --- used Gandhian methods to free his people from the scourge of apartheid. @ Maj Gen Gagandeep Bakshi
Written by Sugata Bose
Nelson Mandela was initially an adherent of Gandhian methods but when Gandhism failed to make any change in the system of apartheid, he renounced it to become an extreme revolutionary for which he was arrested and kept in Robben Island for 27 years. That he was set free eventually had a lot to do with the emerging world political scenario post the demise of the Soviet Union and the freedom of Eastern European countries from the thraldom of communism. Thus, even in the case of Mandela, the non-violent non-cooperation method was a total failure. It has nowhere till date been a successful means of revolutionary regime replacement and consequent societal transformation.
The imperatives of realpolitik as existent and the fallacies inherent in the Gandhian system simply limit the efficacy of Gandhian methods to individual spiritual practice and mass awakening of sorts that falls well short of revolutionary requirements in the ultimate sense. They have thus far not been successful nor do they seem to be so in the foreseeable future in bringing about any resistance worth the while that can overthrow a barbaric but efficient system of governmental armed oppression aided by a modern military machine. So, it is one more myth that Mandela --- who was personally inspired by Gandhi to begin his movement but subsequently renounced it --- used Gandhian methods to free his people from the scourge of apartheid. @ Maj Gen Gagandeep Bakshi
Written by Sugata Bose
Wednesday 29 August 2018
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 12
I request researchers and activists to rationally present facts about Netaji post 18 August, 1945 in an orderly manner for easy understanding of the contentious issues regarding his disappearance and reappearance as claimed in many quarters. Right now not all are well-versed with the facts despite the availability of some books and videos related to the issue. Mere clamour and emotion effusion cannot clear confusion. Rather they tend to increase it. Any type of claim will not go as evidence. Only rationally tenable and logically coherent arguments will hold ground along with documentary evidence and evidence provided by first-hand witnesses to events and personalities related to this issue.
It has been my effort to rationalise the discourse on Netaji post his mysterious disappearance and I have solicited support from researchers in this regard but with not much response. I keep on catching glimpses of the entire saga through my interactions with knowledgeable people in this regard but cannot quite get them to articulate enough in comprehensive detail or in adequate scientific terms beyond their habitual reference to files they have accessed but cannot divulge the details of yet for there are still so many files that remain classified in governmental custody which when released will allow the emergence of a complete picture of the entire saga of Netaji's disappearance. This makes the confusion worse confounded for we are left drifting in the obscure space of speculation with no concrete evidence at our disposal whereby we may clarify our doubts and come to a mature understanding of things. The argument that each one of us must access files like researchers supposedly have done is a proposition puerile for that is quite impossible for men of limited talent and training to successfully attempt, let alone accomplish.
Another thing that is noticeable is that many are simply content to hold on to their fanciful ideas about Netaji post disappearance and do not at all feel the compulsion to probe further to find out whether their assumptions are at all justified in terms of the reality that is. Such a superficial attitude gets daily reinforced in the ordinary mind by constant propagation of myths by interested parties to further their commercial interests and even personal interests in some cases. The call of the hour is, thus, a rational discourse in open forum conducted by unbiased anchors where researchers will bring their findings and present before the polity. If they are so certain that certain theories are valid and they have corroborative evidence to support their claims, then they ought to come to the fore and face a debating panel where things will be resolved once and for all. Though, not quite, for these days anchors with preset agendas hold to ransom the panel as per the directives of their paymasters. But a series of talks and debates held on a continuous basis will surely help the discourse that right now seems to be stuck in the mire of silly claims and sillier supportive reasoning.
Let not anyone feel diffident to hold discourse thus today for social media affords a lot of channels for such presentation, but may the presentations be not superficial exercises in futility with insufficient argument ever claiming itself to be conclusive evidence on the whereabouts and identity of Netaji post 18 August, 1945.
Written by Sugata Bose
Tuesday 28 August 2018
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 11
Was Hitler the Devil as is commonly the epithet thrust on him? How many devils have there been then in the history of the world and how many of them have been British and American devils, too? It seems that the Anglo-Americans have a monopoly in labelling others the way they do but desist from self-denunciation thus.
Churchill's track record rivals Hitler close and Truman's goes a step closer. Stalin being a Communist deserves the 'civilised' world's censure for sure but Churchill deserves a knighthood for his loyal services to the Crown which included perpetrating the worst crime in Bengal when a single decision of his wiped out 4.3 million Bengalis in a famine induced by the British.
When the Soviets were closing in on Japan, the United States of America, in its bid to acquire future world hegemony, dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to stall the Soviet progress by forcing Japan to surrender before the Red Army reached her shores. Truman did it and he was hailed as the liberator of humanity from fascist barbarism of the Second World War.
The victor ever chronicles the history of the war it wins and so it was that Hitler became Lucifer and Churchill-Truman Archangel Gabriel. Netaji was termed fascist for alliance with Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, and Churchill was deemed patriot premier and the saviour of civilisation for alliance with Stalin, no less a barbarian than Hitler was in the eyes of the Anglo-Americans till when his services were required to save the island nation from servitude.
So, there we are with the Anglo-American chronicling of world history and our intellectual indigestion thereof. It is time we start disengaging from such conspiratorial chronicling of epochal events and read afresh into our historical past with an unbiased vision and unclouded judgement. Let such a fresh perspective grow from our own motherland where we ought to stop suffering the hangover of our colonial past and break free psychologically from this colonial servitude as we surge ahead into the future of limitless possibilities devoid of perfidious pronouncements on our patriot premier, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo (source -- internet) : left, Ribbentrop, centre, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, right, Adolph Hitler.
Monday 27 August 2018
REVOLUTION ... 1
REVOLUTION ... 1
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
The French Revolution marked the beginning of modern revolutions for the overthrow of monarchical regimes. It ushered in an age of popular sovereignty, interrupted and continuing through the undulating course of history. The Napoleonic rise to power subsequently robbed the Revolution of its people's control over affairs but the Emperor carried on through his reforms of the existent system the essential principles of the Revolution and brought it closer to its eventual historical fruition.
The process of history is never a rectilinear propagation but is tortuous and meandering in its flow. Through a series of revolutions and counter-revolutions the course of history is set and so it was for the French Revolution. It affected world politics in a way like no other event ever since has and shaped European and world history in a manner that seized power from royalty, the nobility and the clergy to pass it on to the people. The French Revolution, thus, marks the turning point in modern history when man took control of his destiny from the powers by divine right that were and reshaped everything temporal by dint of reason and reformation thereof that were the legacy of the Enlightenment spearheaded by Voltaire, Rousseau and their revolutionary successors.
All was not well with the French Revolution as an entire system of monarchical tyranny was overhauled and replaced by people's rule. It entailed in turn a worse tyranny of revolution for the while when hundreds of thousands of innocent lives were snuffed out by the brutal hand of historical transformation. The Reign of Terror unleashed by Danton, Marat, Robespierre and their associates sent revolutionary France to despair as a disastrous purge was conducted internally to cleanse the emerging republic of all unwanted men by indiscriminate fear psychosis generated and senseless violence to give support to it. Through this deluge of blood the Bourbon dynasty was ended, royalty and the nobility uprooted, the clergy cleaned up and privilege ended and the path now lay for reform and reconstruction after the guillotine claimed its last victim in Robespierre, the very architect of revolutionary terror.
The Jacobin leader (Maximilien Robespierre) had enunciated his terrible dictum --- “Virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue” --- which became the death-call of dissent, influenced future revolutions and dictatorial movements across the world and remains till date as the classical model of revolutionary terror whose replication in altered circumstance calls upon the bloody revolutionaries to wantonly kill political opponents and the citizenry to suit ideological imperatives and self-security in times of historical uncertainties when the forces released by cataclysmic changes in a polity go out of bounds and threaten the heads of the very leaders of revolution.
The French Revolution was enacted in the last years of the eighteenth century but its echoes can still be heard at this distance as they continue to fashion revolutionary thinking and keep on sowing the seeds of future upheavals in the minds of discontented men groaning under the tyranny of the times.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo (source -- internet) : Maximilien Robespierre
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
The French Revolution marked the beginning of modern revolutions for the overthrow of monarchical regimes. It ushered in an age of popular sovereignty, interrupted and continuing through the undulating course of history. The Napoleonic rise to power subsequently robbed the Revolution of its people's control over affairs but the Emperor carried on through his reforms of the existent system the essential principles of the Revolution and brought it closer to its eventual historical fruition.
The process of history is never a rectilinear propagation but is tortuous and meandering in its flow. Through a series of revolutions and counter-revolutions the course of history is set and so it was for the French Revolution. It affected world politics in a way like no other event ever since has and shaped European and world history in a manner that seized power from royalty, the nobility and the clergy to pass it on to the people. The French Revolution, thus, marks the turning point in modern history when man took control of his destiny from the powers by divine right that were and reshaped everything temporal by dint of reason and reformation thereof that were the legacy of the Enlightenment spearheaded by Voltaire, Rousseau and their revolutionary successors.
All was not well with the French Revolution as an entire system of monarchical tyranny was overhauled and replaced by people's rule. It entailed in turn a worse tyranny of revolution for the while when hundreds of thousands of innocent lives were snuffed out by the brutal hand of historical transformation. The Reign of Terror unleashed by Danton, Marat, Robespierre and their associates sent revolutionary France to despair as a disastrous purge was conducted internally to cleanse the emerging republic of all unwanted men by indiscriminate fear psychosis generated and senseless violence to give support to it. Through this deluge of blood the Bourbon dynasty was ended, royalty and the nobility uprooted, the clergy cleaned up and privilege ended and the path now lay for reform and reconstruction after the guillotine claimed its last victim in Robespierre, the very architect of revolutionary terror.
The Jacobin leader (Maximilien Robespierre) had enunciated his terrible dictum --- “Virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue” --- which became the death-call of dissent, influenced future revolutions and dictatorial movements across the world and remains till date as the classical model of revolutionary terror whose replication in altered circumstance calls upon the bloody revolutionaries to wantonly kill political opponents and the citizenry to suit ideological imperatives and self-security in times of historical uncertainties when the forces released by cataclysmic changes in a polity go out of bounds and threaten the heads of the very leaders of revolution.
The French Revolution was enacted in the last years of the eighteenth century but its echoes can still be heard at this distance as they continue to fashion revolutionary thinking and keep on sowing the seeds of future upheavals in the minds of discontented men groaning under the tyranny of the times.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo (source -- internet) : Maximilien Robespierre
Sunday 26 August 2018
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 10
The life of Netaji is so complex that it will need a detailed analytical book on him to clear confusion about him in people's minds. The ever-shifting trajectory of his career makes for a mystifying experience for the ordinary gullible mind whose simplistic patterns of preset thinking can scarce comprehend the historical imperatives that impelled Netaji on to his momentous political decisions often against the grain of his innate nature and against what he would consider as proper and just in circumstances other than those of the Second World War when history afforded his motherland a unique opportunity to seize freedom from the British.
Netaji is often blamed for his alliance with the fascist powers during the Second World War who were by unanimous historical judgement anti-civilisation forces. Thus, he is conveniently branded in some quarters as a fascist, one who through his political indiscretion would have brought ruin upon India had the Axis Powers won the war. Nehru laid the foundation of this thinking, toeing the line that would suit his political masters in Britain and the narrative like an undercurrent of national consciousness continues with men remaining perplexed as to what had prompted Netaji to have sided with the dreadful fascist powers in his bid to free India. After all, our other leaders led by the Mahatma had fought from within to free India. Could Netaji also not have done the same by owing allegiance to our beloved Bapu like sweetness personified Pandit Nehru did? Was it ethically correct for Netaji, being an Indian with such a long tradition of non-violence and peace to back him up and being a follower of the Apostle of Peace, Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, to have adopted this toxic political line that potentially could have destroyed India's hopes of liberation? And is it also not true that Netaji through his associations with fascist dictators and generals had become increasingly power-drunk, autocratic and eventually a dictator himself who would brook no opposition and would unleash torture on those that dissented with him?
Questions like these rock the minds of the commoners who depend on hearsay and stray bits of information gleaned from diverse sources for their clouded judgement on the matter, and the well-informed who are befuddled by their diverse currents of thought regarding this complex historical issue. And it is here that clarity is sought from historians who wish to project Netaji in the right light.
There will ever be national perspectives on Hitler and his allies, for the torment of the World War nations have neither forgotten nor forgiven their enemies for having inflicted upon them. And this leads to bias in the analysis and understanding of the players in the political arena of the times. But history has to be objective and cannot subscribe to the prejudices of the afflicted.
The victor writes the history of the war he wins and paints his adversary as a demon despicable while absolving himself of all the ills of war he has been party to. So has Netaji been projected before the world by Britain as a quisling who was up to the act of selling his country's best interests to the enemy of British India in Imperial Japan. Nehru capitalised on this and declared a one-man sword-in-hand war at the borders of India on the advancing Japanese forces led by the INA. This was hilarity at its best but there is a more sinister element to it as well. Nehru spared no means to obliterate Netaji and his INA in person and in ideological terms by way of obscuring their contributions to freedom and helping smash their remnants after the war in alliance with the Machiavellian Mountbatten whose wife he courted. And thereafter he blackmailed the Mahatma into nominating him Prime Minister of Dominion India even though the Congress Working Committee had unanimously (11 out 13 with 2 abstentions) elected Sardar Patel as the would be Prime Minister. Nehru now began to show his fangs to his disillusioned foster father and the Mahatma is reportedly said to have lamented that he had backed the wrong horse in Nehru and by implication rued Subhas' absence from the storm-tossed national scene post 18 August, 1945.
The British were an alien power who claimed inalienable rights to subjugate and govern India. Their governance over 190 years was a systematic despoiling of the wealth of the colony that was 'the Jewel in the Crown'. Against this rapacious order rose the revolutionaries during the Revolt of 1857 when the British were paid back in their own coin by their rebellious sepoys and their dependencies who 'shook off the sterile curse' of colonialism for once. The Revolt was ruthlessly suppressed after the British had suffered significant initial reverses and the East India Company was disbanded in India by the British Crown that now assumed official control of the governance of India with the Queen's Proclamation of 1858. Victoria became Queen Empress of India.
Then began the divisive politics of the British as they attempted pitting the Hindus against the Muslims initially and in later years the Muslims against the Hindus, a move that paid off in the long run as India in independence got partitioned along the preset communal lines.
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 9
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 9
Are the texts of the three purported speeches of Netaji on 26 December, 1945, 1 February, 1946 and the last one whose date has gone unmentioned barring that it was delivered in February, 1946 as well, available in the public domain? If so, kindly either post them in print for public viewing or present them in a special show for all to hear. I remain in expectant mode from now on.
We merely hear from diverse sources that the speeches were made by Netaji post his disappearance on 18 August, 1945 but till date have not had the good fortune to read the texts. I only hope the texts are, after all, available in which case they ought to be presented before the world as conclusive evidence of Netaji's survival beyond the date of his alleged air-crash. Or, is it mere hearsay and cannot be categorically proved with documentary evidence that stands the test of law. After all, one cannot cite the absence of documentary evidence to debunk the air-crash and the marriage theories related to Netaji and in the same vein propagate Netaji's post-disappearance movements in India and elsewhere without bothering to substantiate such claims on the basis of legally tenable documentary evidence. The principle holds true for all claims made by all parties and there cannot be exceptions made to suit convenience. All claims must be substantiated by credible evidence, and if it needs be, by such evidence presented before the law court, and accepted as true if, and only if, the judiciary in its wisdom holds them to be true.
REASON, REALISATION AND REALITY ... 2
It is difficult to preach the Vedanta to people unschooled in philosophical thought completely. Rituals and mythologies hold their mind faster as they manage to grip the concrete better than abstractions beyond their experience. Hence, the provision for the threefold religion, each catering to a specific class of aspirant. Education improves conception and elevates one from a lower rung of spiritual practice to a higher one. It is a fluid structure that ever shifts in the aspirant's mind as he ascends the steps to realisation.
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 8
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had never married. He was a celibate all his life. There is no documentary evidence to support this absurd theory that he had a wife and a daughter. A conspiracy was hatched thus to malign the leader and besmirch his spotless character with the taint of a secretive marital alliance so that his image suffered and his hold on the public imagination in India was significantly eroded reducing him to a mere mortal in the eyes of hundreds of millions of his countrymen who adored him as a patriot-prophet. Who all were complicit in this conspiracy is anyone's guess but researchers need to expose the perpetrators of this crime that even now is going on with impunity and with categorical support from the interested parties.
That Bose married in Nazi Germany in violation of the existent law there which prohibited Indians from marrying German women and that he did commit such an audacious act thereby compromising his cause of national freedom, that he did so at the height of the Second World War when his own political and physical future along with it were in a terrible state of flux, would prove him to be an irresponsible human being, reckless and uncommitted to a cause, either of the nation or of supposed family in the making, which he evidently was not as his past career had borne ample testimony to. The marriage of Bose, thus, had never taken place for he himself had never publicly announced it nor privately so expect in a letter to his elder brother, Sarat Chandra Bose, whose authenticity researchers have cast doubts on and which needs to be authenticated in a law court by forensic experts. Many years after Bose's disappearance on 18 August, 1945, a cache of love letters purported to be Bose's and written to his supposed wife, Emilie Schenkl, was discovered and these have been freshly foisted on Bose as being letters written by him. Here also the same principle applies that these letters need authentication by a law court for faith to be reposed in them. No such effort has been made for it suits not the parties to be clean in their claims for reasons that are easy enough to guess.
So, there we are. Bose, ever celibate, pure as purity itself, dedicated his life so towards the liberation of his motherland that he neither felt the urge nor the necessity to marry nor did he have a leisure hour at hand when he could indulge in such personal pastime to the exclusion of performance of his national duty. The facts are before you and the inferences thereof are for you to draw. Till then let me meditate on the celibate leader whose lion-heart will foster courage in this drooping soul of mine to meet squarely the vicissitudes of life. I do not lend myself to puerile propositions about the patriot premier that reek of perfidy and choose to ruminate on his life luminous that liberated us from the dark dungeons of colonial conquest. For me Netaji remains the symbol of purity, patriotism and pragmatic perfection in politics, the selfless soul who lived entirely for his motherland and suffered 'death' while living to carry on with his unaccomplished task.
Saturday 25 August 2018
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 7
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 7
Gandhi's philosophy of conversion of the enemy's heart through the practice of non-violence against violent brutality of the adversary was a novel concept that was entirely impractical and totally unsuited to the world of realpolitik where barbarism is the persistent policy. It cost India dear and will destroy her future as well if we do not shun it as the guiding national policy and come to terms with the world as it is and not as Gandhi would make us imagine it to be. If Partition, Pakistan and China have not been lessons enough, then some more shocks will knock Gandhian philosophy out of our system but, alas, at what a price!
The people of India must not be fed unrealistic ideas of the world and about human nature through wrong education and false identification with moral principles that have no bearing with real life. Emotion and adulation have a place in citizens' lives, it is true, but when systematic brainwashing is done to keep a polity passive, it augurs not well for the future of the people. The nation must be self-reliant in every possible way and here the defence of its borders must be accorded paramount importance, not merely in terms of speeches delivered by politicians of significance but in actual terms of allocating sufficient funds in the Nation Budget for the sustenance of the military programme. The current scenario is nowhere is near satisfactory and the requirements of the armed forces are not being met adequately which in times of a major war will for sure cost us dear. All this stems from our continued adherence to the Gandhian legacy which has gripped our minds and will not relent till it has destroyed us.
The situation is grim as generation after generation continues to be fed this false narrative of non-violence as having been the principle preeminent in liberating India from colonial-imperial bondage of the British. This lends the polity an erroneous and inflated idea of the practical value of non-violence as a guiding principle in matters of statecraft when under continuous security threat and weakens the people psychologically with unreal conceptions of love for the enemy that do not stand the test of the hour and inevitably leads to national loss that is avoidable with more robust thinking and policy. Our history over the last two thousand years and more is replete with such instances of foreign aggression and conquest thanks to the legacy of mass non-violence advocated by Buddhism and Jainism and their latter-day proponent in Gandhism.
It is, thus, imperative that we review the history of our freedom struggle and find out the true causes of our eventual freedom. We ought not to digest narratives dished out to us by the powers that be for they are deliberate distortions of our historical past. By constantly feeding us with falsities and fabrications in the name of the then historical situation, the Government of India has kept us in the dark about much of the real causes of our eventual freedom and its evolving revolutionary phases prior to the culminating act of independence. Such systematic programming of the national mind suits the political dispensations at the helm of affairs to continue with their post-independence agenda of subservience to the erstwhile colonial masters. It is not merely a psychological servitude but a real neocolonial aspect of our Commonwealth-affiliated independence as well.
The Government of India have since independence harboured a strange reluctance to put up a robust national front as ought to be the case when a nation comes into political being after a protracted revolutionary struggle. And here lies the catch. Did we win independence on 15 August, 1947 or were we given a truncated Dominion status by way of alms thanks to the palms of the Congress that were ever in the act of compliance with such servile receiving? How far are we independent even today after all? What were the terms and conditions of the Transfer of Power and what were the conditions attached to our affiliation to the British Commonwealth of Nations? Why are some of these contentious documents classified? What has the Government got to hide from the people? Why do we accept the Queen of England as the Sovereign of the Commonwealth of Nations when we are supposedly a Republic that ought to have no such allegiance to the British monarch? Why is it that the Queen of England requires no visa to visit India even though the President of India requires a British visa to visit that land? These are questions worth mulling over for they are intimately connected to our sovereignty and independence. How prophetic were Netaji's words from afar Singapore and Rangoon that India must make no compromise with the British in seeking independence but must wage war against the colonists to seize power! Alas, the nation did not heed his advice and it must pay heavily for it yet!
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 6
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 6
There is a prime problem in the propagation of Netaji's cause that is faced by many a researcher-lecturer who have insufficient command of the English language and, hence, fail to do justice to the knowledge available to them in terms of bringing it to the fore for the lay public to profit by. Some have also a belaboured way of speaking that bores the audience fast and induces them to switch channel. This is counter-productive for the movement. Another feature often noticeable is the amount of dramatisation some speakers do to present their facts. Not every viewer is amused by such histrionics and here as well the propagation of the message fails. Finally, facts ought to be rationally presented in an ordered manner for them to carry weight and unnecessary meanderings ought to be eschewed to keep the discourse straight.
Focus is the key and the factual content of a talk the prime requisite instead of emotional effusions filling up the audio time of a presentation. It is regrettable that the movement for Netaji's rehabilitation in the public imagination yet has not too many good speakers who can render justice to the content of the talk. And worst of all, the confused arguments and legally untenable propositions that yet tend to sway public opinion do not serve the cause well in the final analysis as they remain in the popular domain of childish fantasy and do not find a foothold in the minds of the men that matter, they who can write credible books or deliver potent speeches to drive home the point. Netaji, thus, remains a forlorn figure in the polity yet on account of insufficient effort made by his devotees and followers who ought to take up the task of right propagation more seriously and with greater sincerity to do justice to the cause.
Written by Sugata Bose
P.S. : Any help or service that may be required of me to train up any researcher or speaker on Netaji in the art of lecturing in fine diction will be most willingly afforded to such.
There is a prime problem in the propagation of Netaji's cause that is faced by many a researcher-lecturer who have insufficient command of the English language and, hence, fail to do justice to the knowledge available to them in terms of bringing it to the fore for the lay public to profit by. Some have also a belaboured way of speaking that bores the audience fast and induces them to switch channel. This is counter-productive for the movement. Another feature often noticeable is the amount of dramatisation some speakers do to present their facts. Not every viewer is amused by such histrionics and here as well the propagation of the message fails. Finally, facts ought to be rationally presented in an ordered manner for them to carry weight and unnecessary meanderings ought to be eschewed to keep the discourse straight.
Focus is the key and the factual content of a talk the prime requisite instead of emotional effusions filling up the audio time of a presentation. It is regrettable that the movement for Netaji's rehabilitation in the public imagination yet has not too many good speakers who can render justice to the content of the talk. And worst of all, the confused arguments and legally untenable propositions that yet tend to sway public opinion do not serve the cause well in the final analysis as they remain in the popular domain of childish fantasy and do not find a foothold in the minds of the men that matter, they who can write credible books or deliver potent speeches to drive home the point. Netaji, thus, remains a forlorn figure in the polity yet on account of insufficient effort made by his devotees and followers who ought to take up the task of right propagation more seriously and with greater sincerity to do justice to the cause.
Written by Sugata Bose
P.S. : Any help or service that may be required of me to train up any researcher or speaker on Netaji in the art of lecturing in fine diction will be most willingly afforded to such.
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 5
It is a such a shame that so many intellectuals in independent India feel a certain sense of hesitancy in accepting Netaji as the iconic liberator of India. Fortunately, this does not affect the common man much who ardently accepts Netaji as his leader nonpareil but for whom we would not have seen the light of freedom. It is interesting to note how governmental patronage can buy the intelligentsia to its fold and thwart the free flow of the chronicling of history, how leaders not to the liking of the dispensation in power can thereby be marginalised and reduced to becoming footnotes in history, how seminal figures of the freedom movement, the very titans who fought for and eventually liberated India can be ignored, maligned and made to die in mid-air so that the Crown of India may carry on its passage from father to daughter, daughter to son and so on. And, I reiterate, it is a shame that intellectuals play party to this grand design, this national conspiracy that would have deserved the guillotine in revolutionary France. Yet, the saga continues as generations afresh take up the mantle from their predecessors to perpetuate the myth of the foisted history of the freedom struggle even as hapless citizens galore keep watching in dismay and despair the plight of the revolutionaries they care for at the hands of these hangmen of history.
Is there then a way out? Of course, there is and it lies in the scientific research on the freedom movement by interested and unbiased citizens armed in not merely emotion but in reason as well, for an objective study is the need of the hour and not emotional effusion in the name of research. That suits the common man who knows no better a way to do justice to the cause than to express his anguish and frustration in terms emotional alone for his heroes have been wronged and he can scarce bear it. But the intelligentsia that is working for the government and the foreign powers that seek to keep India in a state of passivity, the hired historians and the purchased press, they will have to be countered effectively by a parallel movement in the reverse current that will seek to redress these wrongs of history. It is here that our thoughts must be focused and it is here that work needs to be done if we are patriots pure and love our leaders who gave their all and lost their lives to free us from British bondage. Citizens, awake to this responsibility instead of merely rabble-rousing till kingdom come.
Written by Sugata Bose
REASON, REALISATION AND REALITY ... 1
I cannot cater to your infatuations for I am hell-bent upon smashing them all for myself. Myself must stand free in the sunshine of light and life. Let enlightened reason be my guide and let the accumulation of past tendencies be burnt to the fume such that they hold me no more. It is this negation of all negatives that appear as real and affirmative that constitutes the core of austerity, intellectual and spiritual, and it is this negation that delivers one unto the realm of reality and peace where dualism with its tentacles holds no more the aspirant in the mire of materialism. Such is the liberation I seek for myself and for all who seek my service in life.
I quail not in fear of retribution from some cruel fiat that supposedly governs phenomena nor do I succumb to the temptation of masquerading as an arbitrary authority myself. I merely try to witness dispassionately the workings of the world and come to terms with it, both in the psychological plane where I seek harmony of happening if there be some such order in the universe of conscious dreams, and in the plane of active execution where I render my services to attempt altering the human condition for the better. All this necessitates a rational outlook on life, an objective understanding of things and an emotional connect with the rest of my brethren who suffer their lot from want of realisation of that which is the core of their existence.
Written by Sugata Bose
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 4
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 4
It is strange that Netaji's followers demand documentary evidence for his alleged death --- which they very much ought to --- but require no such proof when they propagate fantastic stories about his whereabouts. Whither good sense and reason? This sort of puerile affirmation bespeaks of a mind that dwells in the realm of fantasy and has no footing in the world of reality as such. One wonders what Netaji would have thought of these adherents of his unceasing fleshly existence on earth on the basis of their suppositions and ardent assumptions and their oft-quoted aphorisms from hatha yoga that supposedly makes men live well and way past a century in fine youthful fettle. The arguments they posit are facile, the features disjoint and having no bearing on the inferences drawn to support Netaji's highly healthy and active survival at the age of 121 and his possible return to lead a revolutionary revival of India and the suppressed nations of the world.
It is difficult to engage in a discussion or a debate where reason is first thrown out of the window as the first proposition on account of it being an insufficient tool for the examination of yogic truth, for Netaji in the minds of these devoted ones was/is an Avatar of unlimited powers and having, thus, the capacity for impossible attainments. After all, as the Bible says, 'Nothing is impossible with the Lord'. The Biblical consequence of such affirmations we know of as the advent of the Dark Ages and rational beings would wonder if we are in this age of modernity being confronted with yet another edition of it in the clamour and claim of these pious and not-so-pious affiliates to hyper-imagination tending to untruth. I rest my case here in the hope that sustained rational discourse on the historical Netaji will yet position him more firmly in the national imagination than the rabble of irrational propositions.
Written by Sugata Bose
It is strange that Netaji's followers demand documentary evidence for his alleged death --- which they very much ought to --- but require no such proof when they propagate fantastic stories about his whereabouts. Whither good sense and reason? This sort of puerile affirmation bespeaks of a mind that dwells in the realm of fantasy and has no footing in the world of reality as such. One wonders what Netaji would have thought of these adherents of his unceasing fleshly existence on earth on the basis of their suppositions and ardent assumptions and their oft-quoted aphorisms from hatha yoga that supposedly makes men live well and way past a century in fine youthful fettle. The arguments they posit are facile, the features disjoint and having no bearing on the inferences drawn to support Netaji's highly healthy and active survival at the age of 121 and his possible return to lead a revolutionary revival of India and the suppressed nations of the world.
It is difficult to engage in a discussion or a debate where reason is first thrown out of the window as the first proposition on account of it being an insufficient tool for the examination of yogic truth, for Netaji in the minds of these devoted ones was/is an Avatar of unlimited powers and having, thus, the capacity for impossible attainments. After all, as the Bible says, 'Nothing is impossible with the Lord'. The Biblical consequence of such affirmations we know of as the advent of the Dark Ages and rational beings would wonder if we are in this age of modernity being confronted with yet another edition of it in the clamour and claim of these pious and not-so-pious affiliates to hyper-imagination tending to untruth. I rest my case here in the hope that sustained rational discourse on the historical Netaji will yet position him more firmly in the national imagination than the rabble of irrational propositions.
Written by Sugata Bose
Friday 24 August 2018
IN APPRECIATION OF SWAPAN KUMAR GHOSH'S (Swapan Kumar Ghosh) COMMENT WITH AN EXQUISITE TOUCH TO A POST OF MINE
Swapan Kumar Ghosh : Hindus are born seculars for Hinduism does never harbours hostility towards any religion and never preaches conversion. Hindus are free to believe or not to believe in God or to question the very existence of God. There's no institution of clergy to level charges of blasphemy and impose death penalty. Can you find any secular Muslim? If any one declares himself secular then he can't be a Muslim at all. Secularism is against the basic tenets of Islam which accomodates only believers and non-believers (Kafir/Infidel) have no right to live under the premise of Islam.
Sugata Bose : What a superb exposition of thought crafted in such stylistic manner and with such a richness and truth of content! Swapan Babu, you have literally bowled me over with your excellent diction and terseness of expression. It is a tribute to your conviction that your courage seeks such eloquent mode of self-revelation and highlights the essential features of the two religions with unerring accuracy. My salute to you for such boldness in the articulation of truth which most, for reasons best known to them, hesitate to do, and I commend you for the refined and restrained manner in which you yet bring home the facts to the fore.
NETAJI --- MAN, MYSTERY AND MYTH ... 3
The race that produced the Upanishads is now mired in superstition and education is failing to remove it. Else, how could so many entertain such fantastic hopes of Netaji's return at 121 and more?
I also am an ardent devotee of Netaji but choose not to lose my rational bearings in such unreasonable expectations. I can scarce believe that he is alive today at the ripe old age of 121, much less expect him to be fit enough to return and lead a revolution in India and the world as is the contention of so many I so often encounter. It is a puerile proposition and betrays a certain lack of realism in the mental make up of a section of ardent devotees who throw caution to the winds in clinging to fanciful ideas, myths that are spread by parties having vested interests. The historical Netaji is thus buried conveniently by his fans under the weight of their imagination and his glorious deeds pale out before his supposed exploits post his disappearance when he seemingly godlike traverses the planet to liberate peoples from bondage and suffering. One feels sad to see that the historical Netaji of seminal significance in world politics is thus being eclipsed in the minds of so many by the narrative of a superman who is supposedly Netaji and whose political exploits are magical, mythical and myriad. What shall poor me say by way of reaction than to reiterate the oft-quoted words, 'enough unto the day is the evil thereof'?
I rest my case here hoping not that there will be any improvement in people's mentality despite the continuous advances of science and rational thinking, for men are men and will continue to be men with all their ills and all their hopes founded in irrational associations of the deluded mind.
Written by Sugata Bose
MAN AND HIS MERCIFUL MASTER!
MAN AND HIS MERCIFUL MASTER!
When will tribalism desert man and he will step into modernity in the rightful sense? When will religious retribution be a thing of the past and man will stand free in the light of reason? How long must man subject himself to prophetic pronouncements of the past when the light of science had not illumined the mind of man and he stumbled in his ignorance onto archaic ideas and went about expressing them in primitive ways as the absolute and inviolable Word of God? Is this civilisation when the thraldom of archaic pronouncements so hold the mind of man and keep him in terrible servility? These are pertinent questions that need pondering and the discovery of the solutions will render fractional man whole as his fractured and refracted intelligence shines in the clear light of reason and transcends the limitations imposed on it by the prisms of the past.
Man, you are in essence the God who you worship and no power on earth or in heaven or hideous hell can contain your Spirit. Realise this and give up clinging to old dogma that makes you cringe in fear before a tyrannical God and observe every injunction unjustly spelt out by Him from a strange fractional view of phenomena. Strange indeed are the ways of the Lord, that is, if such a Lord indeed exists!
Written by Sugata Bose
When will tribalism desert man and he will step into modernity in the rightful sense? When will religious retribution be a thing of the past and man will stand free in the light of reason? How long must man subject himself to prophetic pronouncements of the past when the light of science had not illumined the mind of man and he stumbled in his ignorance onto archaic ideas and went about expressing them in primitive ways as the absolute and inviolable Word of God? Is this civilisation when the thraldom of archaic pronouncements so hold the mind of man and keep him in terrible servility? These are pertinent questions that need pondering and the discovery of the solutions will render fractional man whole as his fractured and refracted intelligence shines in the clear light of reason and transcends the limitations imposed on it by the prisms of the past.
Man, you are in essence the God who you worship and no power on earth or in heaven or hideous hell can contain your Spirit. Realise this and give up clinging to old dogma that makes you cringe in fear before a tyrannical God and observe every injunction unjustly spelt out by Him from a strange fractional view of phenomena. Strange indeed are the ways of the Lord, that is, if such a Lord indeed exists!
Written by Sugata Bose
VEDANTA, THE PLAYTHING OF THE PUERILE?
Preaching the Vedanta while pandering to the vanities of the laity with all their baggage of worldly dreams is a travesty in terms and makes a mockery of this great science discovered by the sages of India millenia ago. Worldliness allowed and renunciation diluted in principle and in practice by teaching men how they may harmonise their worldly lives with this science of the Self is dealing death-blows to the Upansihadic wisdom. The blazing renunciation required for the realisation of the Self is being toned down to suit householders of East and West alike for commercial gains and for a foothold in a competitive field of the spiritual industry and it is shameful that all religious organisations are party to this desperate game of self-survival. This is reducing the pristine principles of the Perennial Philosophy (Sanatan Dharma/Hinduism) to the puerile prattle of propagators and the audience is being misled into believing that even realisation of the supreme Truth may be easily come by without the giving up of the worldly life after all. Such a compromise with truth is a cancerous growth in society today as unrealised souls are sent across the seas to preach the truths of the Vedanta in the light of their partial and refracted understanding. It seems that Swami Vivekananda has, after all, been badly let down as a series of preachers after him, barring a handful, have made a sham of the teachings of the ancient texts of the Hindus. Time it is, indeed, for a course-correction and a return to roots instead of reposing faith in new-age preachers with scant idea of what they talk about in the name of the Vedanta.
Renunciation is the soul of religion and so shall it remain ever after. Worldliness will have to be given up completely if one has to come to religion and realisation. There is no other way. It it time that these preachers with levity as their chronic characteristic and an easygoing hyper-affability as their supposed behavioural forte realise that realisation is not a plaything and must not be, for truth's sake, made to appear to be so.
Written by Sugata Bose
THE INCOMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
THE INCOMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Preaching Ramakrishna-Vivekananda fractionally to suit organisation or self is a travesty of truth and not conducive to human well-being in its fullest sense. The spiritual masters were wise enough to make their pronouncements on the human condition, on the historical imperatives and give directions to society thereof that need to be accessible to all intheir entirety so that they may be implemented in fulfilment of their true intent.
Editing out Vivekananda to suit political considerations of the day allows us in no way to know what the master had thought in totality about the contentious issues and problems that faced human society then and would do so in the future. In an age when the right to free information is fundamental, why is such editing done in the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda? We wish to access each and every word of his in the original but cannot do so for there are too many blank spaces left in his Complete Works that frustrate the reader thirsting for the entire unedited version.
One can understand the reasons for such omissions but cannot quite comprehend how it may be in harmony with the truth Ramakrishna-Vivekananda represent and uphold as the prime principle of ethical and spiritual living? One hopes earnestly that more courage of conviction will be shown in the future and the unedited Works will be laid bare for all to access and profit by. Till then we must chew upon this hope and grudgingly keep ourselves limited to rumination on the Incomplete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
Written by Sugata Bose
Preaching Ramakrishna-Vivekananda fractionally to suit organisation or self is a travesty of truth and not conducive to human well-being in its fullest sense. The spiritual masters were wise enough to make their pronouncements on the human condition, on the historical imperatives and give directions to society thereof that need to be accessible to all intheir entirety so that they may be implemented in fulfilment of their true intent.
Editing out Vivekananda to suit political considerations of the day allows us in no way to know what the master had thought in totality about the contentious issues and problems that faced human society then and would do so in the future. In an age when the right to free information is fundamental, why is such editing done in the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda? We wish to access each and every word of his in the original but cannot do so for there are too many blank spaces left in his Complete Works that frustrate the reader thirsting for the entire unedited version.
One can understand the reasons for such omissions but cannot quite comprehend how it may be in harmony with the truth Ramakrishna-Vivekananda represent and uphold as the prime principle of ethical and spiritual living? One hopes earnestly that more courage of conviction will be shown in the future and the unedited Works will be laid bare for all to access and profit by. Till then we must chew upon this hope and grudgingly keep ourselves limited to rumination on the Incomplete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
Written by Sugata Bose
Thursday 23 August 2018
IN RESPONSE TO SOURAV MISHRA'S (Sourav Mishra) RATHER CAUSTIC COMMENT ABOUT MY INTENT AND ATTITUDE IN POSING QUESTIONS TO MY READERS AND HIS WISE SUGGESTION TO ME THEREOF
IN RESPONSE TO SOURAV MISHRA'S (Sourav Mishra) RATHER CAUSTIC COMMENT ABOUT MY INTENT AND ATTITUDE IN POSING QUESTIONS TO MY READERS AND HIS WISE SUGGESTION TO ME THEREOF
Sourav Mishra : All the questions which you are posing sir are not innocent queries. You have your own preconceived bias towards this. Please remove this altered ego and put up genuine questions.
Sugata Bose : You are rather impertinent in the way you speak and you need to alter your stance before communicating with me. The preconceptions about my attitude and attribute are yours and not mine. So, keep your counsel to yourself and desist from advising me as to my intent or questioning the innocence or otherwise of my posing questions before my readers. I have noticed this tendency in you to put barbed verbal affronts but have thus far hesitated to counter them out of civility towards and natural respect for a reader and a fellow human being. But the forthrightness you have exhibited in passing derogatory judgement on me this time deserves a fitting reply and I have given you one with great restraint of articulation. Henceforth, I hope civility will prevail in your correspondence with me. I remain your friend, Sugata Bose.
P.S. The intent of questioning, though, is to quicken public interest in matters pertinent and not to foist my opinion on my readers in such matters by any stretch of imagination. This is an intellectual exercise often and not politically or selfishly motivated at any rate. You are at liberty to question me but I can assure you that I merely ask questions to collectively examine an issue from the widest possible angular range and not in any way to create a specific model of thinking or conception about the same. I, myself --- if you read my posts thoroughly --- often contradict earlier positions regarding a matter as and when I happen to view it from a different perspective. I am not structured in my thinking so much as to be rigid about matters that are worthy of cogitation from all possible angles and I keep my options open to discover fresher perspectives on anything for that matter. This keeps my intellectual pursuit green and my life a springtime of blossoming ideas. Do not take me amiss and harbour ill-feelings towards me who am your elder brother and a co-pilgrim in this 'brief sojourn' here on earth. May God bless you, Sourav, and shower you with peace, bliss and knowledge!
Sourav Mishra : All the questions which you are posing sir are not innocent queries. You have your own preconceived bias towards this. Please remove this altered ego and put up genuine questions.
Sugata Bose : You are rather impertinent in the way you speak and you need to alter your stance before communicating with me. The preconceptions about my attitude and attribute are yours and not mine. So, keep your counsel to yourself and desist from advising me as to my intent or questioning the innocence or otherwise of my posing questions before my readers. I have noticed this tendency in you to put barbed verbal affronts but have thus far hesitated to counter them out of civility towards and natural respect for a reader and a fellow human being. But the forthrightness you have exhibited in passing derogatory judgement on me this time deserves a fitting reply and I have given you one with great restraint of articulation. Henceforth, I hope civility will prevail in your correspondence with me. I remain your friend, Sugata Bose.
P.S. The intent of questioning, though, is to quicken public interest in matters pertinent and not to foist my opinion on my readers in such matters by any stretch of imagination. This is an intellectual exercise often and not politically or selfishly motivated at any rate. You are at liberty to question me but I can assure you that I merely ask questions to collectively examine an issue from the widest possible angular range and not in any way to create a specific model of thinking or conception about the same. I, myself --- if you read my posts thoroughly --- often contradict earlier positions regarding a matter as and when I happen to view it from a different perspective. I am not structured in my thinking so much as to be rigid about matters that are worthy of cogitation from all possible angles and I keep my options open to discover fresher perspectives on anything for that matter. This keeps my intellectual pursuit green and my life a springtime of blossoming ideas. Do not take me amiss and harbour ill-feelings towards me who am your elder brother and a co-pilgrim in this 'brief sojourn' here on earth. May God bless you, Sourav, and shower you with peace, bliss and knowledge!
KESHAB BHATTACHARJEE (Keshab Bhattacherjee), ORATOR INTREPID INSPIRED BY THE LIBERATOR OF INDIA
KESHAB BHATTACHARJEE (Keshab Bhattacherjee), ORATOR INTREPID INSPIRED BY THE LIBERATOR OF INDIA
What a fiery speech indeed! An object lesson for the meek protesters and the meeker research scholars who dare not muster courage enough to thunder like this in the name of the one who has done the most for us and has been wronged the most by us as well. Kudos to Keshab Bhattacherjee for his intrepid speech, a la revolution of words, so to say, rolling like the torrent of a cataract and electrifying the audience.
Not one to mince words by any means and ever quoting facts and figures with legal efficiency, Keshab Bhattacherjee set alight Mahajati Sadan on this day, 18.8.2014, to render his heart's reverence to the hero of epic proportions whose idea it was in the first place to construct this national hall after his experience of one such in Italy. That day Tagore had laid open the hall for the nation while the brothers Bose stood witness to it. Tagore had made a speech that called for the strength in man to throw off all forms of weakness and stand free in the sunshine of life and light.
Many years have since passed and Netaji, the architect of our freedom, has been much betrayed and banished to oblivion. But men like Keshab Bhattacherjee yet arise to relight the torch that glows feeble but is never quite extinguished for it is the flame of freedom that ever burns in the heart of man, in the sincere aspirations of citizens and in every element of this universe that in bondage seeks liberation.
Netaji comes alive in Keshab Bhattacherjee's talk and the politicians who sought his doom are rendered due verbal justice by this articulate pleader who seems to be possessed by the fire of the leader and has set about to bring home the contentious issues to their rightful conclusions. What is striking about the manner of his speech is that Keshab Bhattacherjee has so much courage of conviction and speaks with a fiery force and with uncompromising intent unlike the others who merely mumble out measured statements that dare not dare the authorities who were complicit in the destruction of all that Netaji worked for. His is an unrelenting diatribe against all the conspiratorial forces and he has character enough to challenge the might of even the then President of India, Sri Pranab Mukherjee, for his inconsistencies regarding the disappearance of Netaji. Keshab Bhattacherjee does not spare a single political party, nor the Congress, nor the Communists nor even the BJP, holding all as culpable to the offence of misleading the nation by false affirmations about the hero's alleged death and by the act of suppression of vital documents to prevent the surfacing of truth.
The fiery orator also explodes the marriage myth of Netaji maliciously spread by near and far ones for securing advantages peculiar to the case and maligning the spotless character of the celibate politician to reduce him in stature and so diminish his hold on the imagination of his countrymen. Nor is the speaker reticent in criticism of the JMCI itself in so far as Justice Mukherjee's arbitrary conclusion based on his so-called sensible view is concerned that Netaji owing to old age (well over a hundred) was no more.
The impact of Keshab Bhattacherjee's speech is instant and electric and it remains to be seen if anyone else worth the salt will come along and emulate him for, indeed, he is worthy of such following. God bless you, Keshab Babu! May you keep in fine fettle so that you may serve the cause of Netaji who has hardly any friend beyond the likes of you who offer uncompromising allegiance and do not make capital out of him in terms of political advantage gained nor other selfish considerations to adhere to that make truth suffer at the scaffold of sacrilege and sin! May Netaji live in you even as you live in constant recollection of the ideal of your life at whose feet you have laid the fruit of your heart's ardour, the labour of your love and the offering of your soul nonpareil!
Written by Sugata Bose
P.S. Given below is the YouTube video link to Keshab Bhattacharjee's lecture at Mahajati Sadan that is the subject matter of this essay :
What a fiery speech indeed! An object lesson for the meek protesters and the meeker research scholars who dare not muster courage enough to thunder like this in the name of the one who has done the most for us and has been wronged the most by us as well. Kudos to Keshab Bhattacherjee for his intrepid speech, a la revolution of words, so to say, rolling like the torrent of a cataract and electrifying the audience.
Not one to mince words by any means and ever quoting facts and figures with legal efficiency, Keshab Bhattacherjee set alight Mahajati Sadan on this day, 18.8.2014, to render his heart's reverence to the hero of epic proportions whose idea it was in the first place to construct this national hall after his experience of one such in Italy. That day Tagore had laid open the hall for the nation while the brothers Bose stood witness to it. Tagore had made a speech that called for the strength in man to throw off all forms of weakness and stand free in the sunshine of life and light.
Many years have since passed and Netaji, the architect of our freedom, has been much betrayed and banished to oblivion. But men like Keshab Bhattacherjee yet arise to relight the torch that glows feeble but is never quite extinguished for it is the flame of freedom that ever burns in the heart of man, in the sincere aspirations of citizens and in every element of this universe that in bondage seeks liberation.
Netaji comes alive in Keshab Bhattacherjee's talk and the politicians who sought his doom are rendered due verbal justice by this articulate pleader who seems to be possessed by the fire of the leader and has set about to bring home the contentious issues to their rightful conclusions. What is striking about the manner of his speech is that Keshab Bhattacherjee has so much courage of conviction and speaks with a fiery force and with uncompromising intent unlike the others who merely mumble out measured statements that dare not dare the authorities who were complicit in the destruction of all that Netaji worked for. His is an unrelenting diatribe against all the conspiratorial forces and he has character enough to challenge the might of even the then President of India, Sri Pranab Mukherjee, for his inconsistencies regarding the disappearance of Netaji. Keshab Bhattacherjee does not spare a single political party, nor the Congress, nor the Communists nor even the BJP, holding all as culpable to the offence of misleading the nation by false affirmations about the hero's alleged death and by the act of suppression of vital documents to prevent the surfacing of truth.
The fiery orator also explodes the marriage myth of Netaji maliciously spread by near and far ones for securing advantages peculiar to the case and maligning the spotless character of the celibate politician to reduce him in stature and so diminish his hold on the imagination of his countrymen. Nor is the speaker reticent in criticism of the JMCI itself in so far as Justice Mukherjee's arbitrary conclusion based on his so-called sensible view is concerned that Netaji owing to old age (well over a hundred) was no more.
The impact of Keshab Bhattacherjee's speech is instant and electric and it remains to be seen if anyone else worth the salt will come along and emulate him for, indeed, he is worthy of such following. God bless you, Keshab Babu! May you keep in fine fettle so that you may serve the cause of Netaji who has hardly any friend beyond the likes of you who offer uncompromising allegiance and do not make capital out of him in terms of political advantage gained nor other selfish considerations to adhere to that make truth suffer at the scaffold of sacrilege and sin! May Netaji live in you even as you live in constant recollection of the ideal of your life at whose feet you have laid the fruit of your heart's ardour, the labour of your love and the offering of your soul nonpareil!
Written by Sugata Bose
P.S. Given below is the YouTube video link to Keshab Bhattacharjee's lecture at Mahajati Sadan that is the subject matter of this essay :
Wednesday 22 August 2018
THE PERIL AHEAD AND THE CALL OF THE HOUR ... 10
Sectarianism has its own pitfalls. It divides the polity and weakens the nation. If we are a secular nation which by Constitutional provision we indeed are, we ought to rise above religion in matters of statecraft. No religion should be afforded patronage for securing votes and no religion should be allowed to convert adherents of other faiths to their fold as a matter of declared policy and essential doctrinal practice. Science and rationality ought to be the means of running the State instead of theocratic references being the guide. In essence, statecraft and religion should be kept completely apart.
In so far as religion is concerned, it ought to be a matter entirely personal and religious organisations must be kept in check where they covertly attempt to proselytise. Road-blocking to offer worship or construct structures (pandals) must not be allowed and blaring away on the microphone religious calls and citing scripture must be banned. Religious schools must be under constant supervision so that they do not cater to sectarian attitudes but rather concentrate on education that is wholesome and conducive to national welfare.
But in all this there is the reverse pitfall of the State being all-powerful and tending to curb human freedom. Balance is, thus, the key and this may only be brought about by the freedom to dissent, to discuss and debate national affairs pertaining to citizen's rights as sanctioned by the Constitution. Education must be imparted to all. There must be 100% literacy in the nation. An educated polity gives birth to an enlightened citizenry and this alone can ensure democratic rights and freedom for all.
Written by Sugata Bose
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