IN DEFENCE OF NETAJI ... 1
Netaji remains nonpareil in the annals of freedom struggle anywhere in the world, leave aside India. Such a one has hardly ever been and but manifested at the behest of the Mother of the universe to liberate the land of the Vedas from colonial shackles that threatened to subvert her spiritual culture for good. These are seminal personalities that appear on the stage of this earth on rare occasions when a new age is about to begin even as the Avatar of the age sets about reconstructing the spiritual domain with his new implementation of the ancient spiritual principle.
That so many of the intellectual class in India continue to have misgivings about Netaji on account of his having sided with the Axis Powers in his bid to liberate India from the British is a sad reflection on the shallowness of study they have put into the subject and the equal hollowness of their knowledge of world history. Yet, they have the temerity to paint Netaji as a misguided patriot in the line Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi had chosen to read our hero of epic proportions.
The cause of such unmerited denunciation of one of India's greatest souls of all times is easy to read if one chooses to. Aurobindo quit the revolutionary scene in a rather unceremonious manner, citing divine intervention in his life that prompted him to do so. Gandhi differed in fundamental philosophical and ideological terms from Netaji. The two were, apart from their mutual love for the motherland and their earnest aspiration for her freedom, a study in contrast. As such, they had to part ways when the hour of reckoning for the Mahatma came and he found in Netaji a foe formidable to feel comfortable keeping him in the Congress anymore.
That the followers of the sage of Sabarmati and of the recluse of Pondicherry have still their axes to grind against India's patriot preeminent goes to show how deep the envy of Netaji has spread its tentacles in the body politic of the nation. But more of that later. Right now, just 'chew on this'.
Written by Sugata Bose
Netaji remains nonpareil in the annals of freedom struggle anywhere in the world, leave aside India. Such a one has hardly ever been and but manifested at the behest of the Mother of the universe to liberate the land of the Vedas from colonial shackles that threatened to subvert her spiritual culture for good. These are seminal personalities that appear on the stage of this earth on rare occasions when a new age is about to begin even as the Avatar of the age sets about reconstructing the spiritual domain with his new implementation of the ancient spiritual principle.
That so many of the intellectual class in India continue to have misgivings about Netaji on account of his having sided with the Axis Powers in his bid to liberate India from the British is a sad reflection on the shallowness of study they have put into the subject and the equal hollowness of their knowledge of world history. Yet, they have the temerity to paint Netaji as a misguided patriot in the line Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi had chosen to read our hero of epic proportions.
The cause of such unmerited denunciation of one of India's greatest souls of all times is easy to read if one chooses to. Aurobindo quit the revolutionary scene in a rather unceremonious manner, citing divine intervention in his life that prompted him to do so. Gandhi differed in fundamental philosophical and ideological terms from Netaji. The two were, apart from their mutual love for the motherland and their earnest aspiration for her freedom, a study in contrast. As such, they had to part ways when the hour of reckoning for the Mahatma came and he found in Netaji a foe formidable to feel comfortable keeping him in the Congress anymore.
That the followers of the sage of Sabarmati and of the recluse of Pondicherry have still their axes to grind against India's patriot preeminent goes to show how deep the envy of Netaji has spread its tentacles in the body politic of the nation. But more of that later. Right now, just 'chew on this'.
Written by Sugata Bose
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