NETAJI --- A MARRIED MAN OR A CELIBATE ALL HIS LIFE?
This debate has been raging ever since the story of Netaji's marital alliance was floated first in the forties of the last century. No conclusive proof or corroborative evidence has ever been furnished to establish the theory, yet conveniently, the credulous public has been led into believing fantastic tales about Netaji's romance and marriage abroad with consequent progeny.
Theories are theories, after all, but when they assume serious proportions of reality that can alter history in the minds of the people, they become noxious and need vehement rebuttal. That the near and the far ones of Netaji both accept and reject this account of his alleged marriage and progeny --- for Netaji's family is large and with significant reverse opinions on the issue --- makes matters worse confounded and the people at large are befuddled all the more as to where the truth lies. We all have our individual estimations about this supposed episode, based on our personal study of the matter, and have come to our respective conclusions.
That fact is weaker than fiction, propaganda more potent when engineered to arrive at consequential ends, that destruction of evidence and suppression of it serve better the cause of proliferating fables is what Goebbels understood all too well and what our country's propaganda machinery has as well employed to drive home into the minds of the people this mystifying marital tale to tarnish the image of our patriot perennial and reduce his ascetic altitude to base human levels.
The glaring lack of evidence in the assertion that Netaji had married and had progeny is for all to contemplate on and arrive at their considered conclusions as to his celibacy or otherwise. I rest my case here.
Written by Sugata Bose
This debate has been raging ever since the story of Netaji's marital alliance was floated first in the forties of the last century. No conclusive proof or corroborative evidence has ever been furnished to establish the theory, yet conveniently, the credulous public has been led into believing fantastic tales about Netaji's romance and marriage abroad with consequent progeny.
Theories are theories, after all, but when they assume serious proportions of reality that can alter history in the minds of the people, they become noxious and need vehement rebuttal. That the near and the far ones of Netaji both accept and reject this account of his alleged marriage and progeny --- for Netaji's family is large and with significant reverse opinions on the issue --- makes matters worse confounded and the people at large are befuddled all the more as to where the truth lies. We all have our individual estimations about this supposed episode, based on our personal study of the matter, and have come to our respective conclusions.
That fact is weaker than fiction, propaganda more potent when engineered to arrive at consequential ends, that destruction of evidence and suppression of it serve better the cause of proliferating fables is what Goebbels understood all too well and what our country's propaganda machinery has as well employed to drive home into the minds of the people this mystifying marital tale to tarnish the image of our patriot perennial and reduce his ascetic altitude to base human levels.
The glaring lack of evidence in the assertion that Netaji had married and had progeny is for all to contemplate on and arrive at their considered conclusions as to his celibacy or otherwise. I rest my case here.
Written by Sugata Bose
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