INTERNATIONAL IMPERATIVES
Sugata Boseđˇ The Soviet Union had its wartime compulsions in not helping Bose directly. The feared a breach of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of Russo-German non-aggression and a sudden Nazi invasion of the Soviet territory. Hence, Stalin reckoned that Britain would refuse to ally herself with the Soviet Union in the defence of the latter in such an eventuality if he gave sanctuary to Bose in the first place and helped him with his anti-British preoccupation with the liberation of India. Consequently, as a goodwill gesture to Bose, he allowed him a transit visa to Germany to seek assistance from the latter.
As it turned out, Stalin was proved right. Hitler, ever apprehensive of the might of the vast Soviet Union, feared an invasion by the Red Army and as a preemptive move and also with the design to get into control of the vast Soviet reserves of oil and other material resources which would help him win the European War against England and France with relative ease and make Germany the virtual master of Europe, suddenly invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, the ill-fated Operation Barbarossa. Bose was in Germany then and remarked that in the war waged by Germany against the people of the Soviet Union, the sympathies of the Indian people were with the Soviet people. This was not only a bold and principled move on Bose's part but also an astute political move considering the prevailing conditions and the unfolding word scenario then in the womb of futurity but which was already in germ manifest before the seer's vision from which he could accurately discern where future India's national interests would lie in the struggle for independence from British imperialism. Bose could clearly foresee that after the cataclysmic World War the Soviet Union would emerge as a superpower and this, despite his alliance with the Nazis. During the war not once did he do any propaganda against the Soviet Union but kept his verbal tirades against only the Anglo-American alliance. This was a move strategic as well as an imperative then for Bose's ally, Japan, was in a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union which only ended at the fag end of the war when the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in July, 1945.
The situation, thus, for Bose in Germany and thereafter was extremely complex just as it had been, still was and would after the war be in motherland India as well. That he could navigate through all these complex international relations is a tribute to his genius the like of which has seldom been seen in world history. What transpired at the end of the war was unfortunate for India and we pay till date progressively higher prices for it. If only Netaji could take his rightful place at the helm of affairs at the right time!
Written by Sugata Bose
Sugata Boseđˇ The Soviet Union had its wartime compulsions in not helping Bose directly. The feared a breach of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of Russo-German non-aggression and a sudden Nazi invasion of the Soviet territory. Hence, Stalin reckoned that Britain would refuse to ally herself with the Soviet Union in the defence of the latter in such an eventuality if he gave sanctuary to Bose in the first place and helped him with his anti-British preoccupation with the liberation of India. Consequently, as a goodwill gesture to Bose, he allowed him a transit visa to Germany to seek assistance from the latter.
As it turned out, Stalin was proved right. Hitler, ever apprehensive of the might of the vast Soviet Union, feared an invasion by the Red Army and as a preemptive move and also with the design to get into control of the vast Soviet reserves of oil and other material resources which would help him win the European War against England and France with relative ease and make Germany the virtual master of Europe, suddenly invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, the ill-fated Operation Barbarossa. Bose was in Germany then and remarked that in the war waged by Germany against the people of the Soviet Union, the sympathies of the Indian people were with the Soviet people. This was not only a bold and principled move on Bose's part but also an astute political move considering the prevailing conditions and the unfolding word scenario then in the womb of futurity but which was already in germ manifest before the seer's vision from which he could accurately discern where future India's national interests would lie in the struggle for independence from British imperialism. Bose could clearly foresee that after the cataclysmic World War the Soviet Union would emerge as a superpower and this, despite his alliance with the Nazis. During the war not once did he do any propaganda against the Soviet Union but kept his verbal tirades against only the Anglo-American alliance. This was a move strategic as well as an imperative then for Bose's ally, Japan, was in a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union which only ended at the fag end of the war when the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in July, 1945.
The situation, thus, for Bose in Germany and thereafter was extremely complex just as it had been, still was and would after the war be in motherland India as well. That he could navigate through all these complex international relations is a tribute to his genius the like of which has seldom been seen in world history. What transpired at the end of the war was unfortunate for India and we pay till date progressively higher prices for it. If only Netaji could take his rightful place at the helm of affairs at the right time!
Written by Sugata Bose
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