THE LEADER WHO LIBERATED US

THE LEADER WHO LIBERATED US

The leader of unblemished character, the liberator of the motherland, the saviour of the soul of Asia. The voice of the colonised world, the rebel against all oppression, the patriot perennial, Netaji looms large on the consciousness of the conquered in their struggle for independence. As such, his role in the wider international arena has just begun and will gain strength by the hour as his legacy grips India and the rest of the world and impels it onward to freedom and glory.

Netaji is a much adored, much maligned and much misunderstood personality of epic proportions the like of whom history has hardly ever thrown up. Such a balance of being, such a synthesis of the head, heart and hand, such aristocratic bearing with rustic simplicity at heart, such lofty idealism with such pragmatic application of theory, all these contribute to make Netaji a personality nonpareil in the annals of history.

Written by Sugata Bose

LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES

LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES

The blatant lies, the blanket distortion of history that I witnessed on DD National tonight in the film 'Gandhi -- A Perspective' has shocked me about the intent of the film-maker Subhas Ghai and his producer and protagonists in the industrial world and the capitalist hierarchy. The script is so disgusting with lies, lies and more lies, a never-ending stream of lies being projected to hundreds of millions of viewers to perpetuate false history that it has left me in a state of horror and shame, disgust and utter indignation as to the intent of the film-maker and the powers that have backed him, and left me determined more than ever before to expose the treachery of the Mahatma and his brigade then and now, and all that their machinations have done to the motherland. If there be any, I challenge, come and stop me.

Written by Sugata Bose

WHO'S THE REAL MARTYR ?

WHO'S THE REAL MARTYR ?

How wonderful that the day Gandhiji was assassinated by a countryman should be commemorated as Martyr's Day in India officially but the real martyrs at the hands of the British, the revolutionaries who sacrificed their all at the scaffold or died from British bullets or the bayonet, fighting for India's integrated freedom, should be relegated to the obscurity of the chronicled history of the freedom movement !

Who's the real martyr -- one who dies to free the motherland from the bondage of the British or one that dies at the hands of a countryman who seeks violent recourse to end appeasement, albeit erroneously interpreted, as critics would be quick to point out?

Written by Sugata Bose

REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTIONARY NONPAREIL

REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTIONARY NONPAREIL

The hero of unearthly attainments, a legend who lives on in shining memory that never fades. First he beat the British, now he beats time itself as immortal he looms large in national consciousness. From the Red Fort now it is a march unto every citadel of India, every bastion where betrayers plot the downfall of the motherland, he shall shoot his shining arrow that unfailingly makes its mark.

The entire national narrative must change and stop accommodating debilitating non-violence that has cause the Partition of India owing to its feeble resistance in the name of high piety to ruthless British imperialism and perfidious Islamic intolerance. Now the hour has arrived when we must take stock of our history once more and come to robust conclusions of what went right and what when wrong with our struggle and our compromise for freedom from colonial consequence.

Haripura was the high watermark of our national struggle and Tripuri its lowest ebb when the Mahatma in all his machinations stopped the march of complete and unconditional wrested independence to a fractured and dismembered conditional compromise of a continued colonial dominance under the Commonwealth. What we are today is the legacy of that dastardly deal dubbed as Dominion at midnight.

So often we hear the world over that Bose was a fascist for he was supposedly a totalitarian dictator who flouted democratic norms of the 'civilised' world that had fought the righteous war for the emancipation of mankind from Nazi and Nipponese atrocity. By that count Britain who took the help of the communist Soviet Union to fight Hitler was no less communist and the United States of America that had sought French imperial assistance to fight their war of independence against Britain an imperial power instead of being the modern world's first democracy. So, must we call Churchill a communist, Washington an imperialist and Stalin a damned heretical communist and imperialist? What do our leftist intellectuals say to this?

His intellect was incisive, comprehension catholic, and he had a heart that could embrace all without reserve so long it did not infringe upon his primary love for the motherland and her cause of freedom. A brilliant student, a precious reader like the boy Bonaparte, Bose grew into adolescence with the fire of the failed revolution of 1857 behind him and the promise of a fulfilling one in the years to come. The atmosphere was rife with the seeds of revolution and it was but a matter of time and a blooming maturity that it would break out in all its vehemence upon the scene of dependent India grovelling under the heels of imperial Britain.

Unfinished and unfolding ...

Written by Sugata Bose

A CALL TO THE MEMBERS YET AGAIN

A CALL TO THE MEMBERS YET AGAIN

Read when a post is worth reading, show your appreciation and record your observations in the comment section. Do not hang on to a controversy to come alive.

Positive posts deserve a better deal. It is a shame that so many good posts go unnoticed while silly and shameful posts alone call out the clamour of members, often in vicious vociferousness.

To lend quality to this group be active with your researched write-ups or well-thought out observations so that the overall standard of discussion on Netaji and the revolutionaries improves and the intellectual climate of the country in a like manner rises.

I hope these words of mine will not fall flat on the polity whose micro-section the representative body here is.

Glory unto all ! Glory unto the prime mover of this group whose spirit animates all of us ! Jai Hind !

Written by Sugata Bose

Diganta Sengupta Sir with your immense and joyful writings about Netaji for the past few days attracts many Netaji follower in this group.Hope you Will lead us and make us more and More respectful and devotee to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Sugata Bose You are my great inspiration, Diganta. Netaji is evidently with you, I feel, for you are simply saturated with his spirit. You, Diganta, are emblematic of what the youth in India ought to be, what the revolutionaries had hoped future citizenry in young India would be, and what was the choicest aspiration of your life's hero in declarations galore from various fora in those bygone days of repressed but revolting India against British oppression. Carry on with your mission and we are all there with you to hold the staff of this ever-unfurling flag of freedom.

Sutapa Chatterjee Netaji is the ultimate hero. Let there be movement to commemorate Netaji's birthday as Hero's Day.

Sugata Bose This is an original name and I heartily commend you for it. But the vast number of followers of Netaji seem to have already decided on remembering this anniversary of the hero's birth as 'Desh Prem Divas' which alliterates well as well. However, such original ideas as you float keep the discussion alive and for good measure, too.

The name 'Hero's Day' is terse, apt and in keeping with all the other names such as 'Teacher's Day', Children's Day, 'Martyr's Day', 'Independence Day', 'Republic Day' and the like. Hence, your subscription to it is pertinent and worth considering as well. However, I feel, the dominant mood of the day is for 'Desh Prem Divas' which is in Hindi and will, therefore, hold its ground among the masses better who will somehow attach nationalism more with it than the appropriate name you so timely suggest.

Diganta Sengupta Sugata Bose Respected Sir, I am happy to take this beautiful message as your blessings to me.. Thank you so much sir for your words to me.

Sugata Bose Diganta Sengupta Your humility is befitting of your commitment to the cause and will save me from the charge of some that I am being over-indulgent to one who as yet is in his blossoming years of unfolding maturity.

Diganta Sengupta Sugata Bose Sir in this World everything is dependent on Love..what you give me is purely a love and blessing for my life..I always take it in this way..Though I don't know about what others opinion about this but personally I love to take your blessings always thankfully.

AN APPEAL TO ALL MEMBERS

AN APPEAL TO ALL MEMBERS

Friends, to make this group throbbing with activity, make as many posts as you can, keeping the honour of the patriot perennial in mind, though. Only when more than a critical number of good posts are made within a short period of time will the group come alive and only then shall we be able to kindle sufficient interest in our beloved leader, Netaji, and in the rest of the redoubtable revolutionaries who suffered to bring us freedom.

Any post on the freedom movement is welcome and on any revolutionary for that matter. Let write-ups be submitted and let civil deliberation and debate ensue so that we can pay rightful homage to our departed greats and, in remembering them, follow in their footsteps to rebuild our motherland into the glorious country she once was.

May all participate in this patriotic exercise to make our venture successful !

A final request. All of you are equal members in this group and must hold this group as dear to your heart. In consequence may all the members take it upon themselves to add fresh members to the group for the wider dissemination of its message !

May Netaji bless all ! Jai Hind !

Written by Sugata Bose

THE NETAJI DISAPPEARANCE MYSTERY ... 7

THE NETAJI DISAPPEARANCE MYSTERY ... 7

The disappearance mystery seeks a resolution that must for sure one day see the light of day for there are countless comrades working at it and their conjoined efforts cannot but bring about its successful closure. As of now there are three principal theories regarding the disappearance which is but common knowledge. They are as follows :

1. The Air-crash Theory ;
2. The Russian Angle ;
3. The Monk incognito living in Uttar Pradesh.

Of these the Air-crash Theory has been categorically rejected by The Justice Mukherjee Commission Enquiry Report on the basis of a complete absence of credible evidence to substantiate the said crash.
The Russian angle could not be much explored by the JMCI because the principal proposed deponent Alexander Koleshnikov failed to depose before the Commission owing to prior placement in Ankara (Turkey) on a diplomatic assignment just days before the Commission reached Russia. As such the exploration of the Russian angle to the mystery had to be aborted and that has left a significant loophole in the JMCI's investigation.

That left the Commission with the third theory which it went into in some detail as the investigations could be conducted at home and witnesses were many and some claimed to have even been close to the monk living incognito in various places in Uttar Pradesh. This remarkable renunciate was a registered Dashanami sannyasi (a monk belonging to the Order of ten sects founded by Adi Shanakaracharya) but divulged no formal name of his. As such he was referred to by common people variously. Some called him Pardewala Baba owing to his remaining ever behind a drawn curtain from where he gave his interviews (darshan) to associates, Bhagavanji on account of his exalted spiritual status to which many have testified, Gumnami Baba which the Press gave him on account of his having lived a life of total seclusion and secrecy without any contact, so to say, with the outer world which made him inaccessible to the general mass of people who were, thus, almost oblivious of his existence.

The JMCI interviewed many witnesses but could not come to a definitive conclusion as to what had transpired post 17 August, 1945 till when Netaji had been photographed at Saigon and, therefore, proof of his being alive till then could be ascertained. The evidence furnished by witnesses before the Commission and what the Commission could gather from its travels abroad were insufficient to infer anything beyond any reasonable doubt as to what had befallen him beyond 17 August, 1945. In the absence of sufficient legally tenable evidence, therefore, the JMCI concluded that there was no credible evidence to prove that death had taken place by Air-crash and that the Commission, therefore, was undecided as to the eventual fate of Netaji. It further concluded that the shes in the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo were of a Japanese soldier by th name Ichiro Okura who had died of a cardiac arrest on 19 August, 1945 and as such was not that of Netaji. It asked for a DNA Test to settle the issue which was, however, not done. Furthermore, the JMCI concluded on the basis of DNA Test of the blood samples from members of Netaji's extended family on both the maternal and the paternal lines that Gumnami Baba could not be ascertained to be Netaji.

The JMCI Report was tabled in Parliament in May, 2006 but was summarily rejected by the then UPA government without allowing any debate on the matter whatsoever.

The absence of exploration of the Russian angle to the entire mystery has left a gaping hole in the entire investigation and one wonders whether a fourth enquiry about Netaji's disappearance by way of a sequel to the JMCI ought to be demanded for by the countless followers of Netaji worldwide for a successful closure of the case. This time, though, proceedings must begin with re-tabling the JMCI in Parliament for debate on its findings so that there is national consensus for a fourth and conclusive enquiry.

The Government of India is allegedly still holding on to some top-secret files on Netaji that are in the possession of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). These will have to be first declassified and the government come clean on all its contents. Only then can the GOI exhort foreign governments to declassify all their files on Netaji and not some select files of convenience as the UK and Japan have thus far done. Russia will have to be persuaded to pursue this declassification process of their secret information on Netaji. With national and international operations thus, the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the enigmatic leader will be dispelled once and for all. To that day we look forward to.

Jai Hind !

Written by Sugata Bose

WHERE DEVOTION GOES INTO DENIAL MODE AND HOLDS ON TO FANTASTIC NOTIONS

WHERE DEVOTION GOES INTO DENIAL MODE AND HOLDS ON TO FANTASTIC NOTIONS

The body of the greatest sage comes into being and goes back to the elements when its hour on earth is over. But the spirit remains and the message it has delivered lives on and on till it exhausts its terrestrial duration once the energy accompanying it is spent. Then both messiah and message go into hibernation till a fresh influx of energy makes for a rebirth of sorts and, the baton, passed onto another, keeps the flame alive of the Master and his message for mankind. But ''the old man is gone forever, never to return," as Netaji's guide in life, Swami Vivekananda, had famously uttered.

Matter cannot hold on to its degenerate withering form against the will of the person and death of the physical form must necessarily take place one day. Thus, 23 January, 1897 marks the beginning of this epic saga and, unknown though it may be when the terrestrial form of Netaji may have withdrawn from the surface scene of our mundane world, there has to be an end to the physical form once the hour of its activation is over and the grand departure is at hand.

All things that begin must end and our devotion cannot contain Nature and compel her to act otherwise. But that should not detract from the fact that Netaji was, indeed, a divine personality and worthy in every sense of the worship of his devotees, followers and friends.

Jai Hind !

Written by Sugata Bose

THERE IS A JOY IN WRITING

THERE IS A JOY IN WRITING

There is a joy in writing. The writer am I, the reader am I and the critics are those who do not read. They but revel in fracturing content of a write-up and attributing to the author intent he may not have even been aware of. Such is the intellectual predicament of the day.

But the joy, nonetheless, remains as thoughts flow out in lyrical rhythms, reminding every moment that the Divine writes in Hus tireless stretch from the alpha to the omega of cosmic manifestation.

It was at the dawn of consciousness in those primrose hours of early adolescence that this penning of emotions and thoughts in rhythmic patterns began, and at the fountainhead of it stood Tagore in all his overwhelming influence, like a sun showering its beams in dispersed chromatic confluence through dewdrops blossoming unto life, or as cloud cover under the scorching midday heat of the summer sun, or, perchance, as a Nor'wester revealing in its whirl and flow the hidden secrets of a deeper realm. Tagore did it all.

Unfinished and expanding ...

Written by Sugata Bose

AT THE JUNCTION OF IT ALL

AT THE JUNCTION OF IT ALL

Netaji stood at the junction of all the different strands and phases of the freedom movement and fed them all to free India. He, of all the freedom fighters, waged war against imperial Britain to free India, although, others like Bagha Jatin, Rash Behari Bose and the Ghadarites did attempt unsuccessfully to do the same.

Rash Behari Bose, however, was the principal mover of the INA assault as he was its founder and had passed on its charge to the younger shoulders of his 'promised gift' to East Asians in Subhas Chandra Bose.

The experience of the Second World War only these two revolutionaries had and between them they smashed British hopes of colonial continuance in India.

Unfinished and expanding ...

Written by Sugata Bose

Sugata Bose Indeed, in the history of the world he remains almost nonpareil.

IN RESPONSE TO FRAEORTIS SATARAWALLA'S POST ON THE SAD SPECTACLE OF THE ELLORA CAVES SUFFERING FROM GROSS OFFICIAL NEGLECT IN THEIR MAINTENANCE AND THE URGENT NEED FOR THEIR PROPER CARE AND SAFEKEEPING

IN RESPONSE TO FRAEORTIS SATARAWALLA'S POST ON THE SAD SPECTACLE OF THE ELLORA CAVES SUFFERING FROM GROSS OFFICIAL NEGLECT IN THEIR MAINTENANCE AND THE URGENT NEED FOR THEIR PROPER CARE AND SAFEKEEPING

Dear Fraeortis Satarawalla, it is true that heritage is to be preserved from the ravages of the times but, alas, in the melee of things such priorities are being relegated to tertiary importance. This is regrettable, indeed, in a country where priceless heritage has been lost through savage destruction of local cultures by invading hordes and through the plain erosion of time.

Ajanta and Ellora remain the lingering grand depictions of our glorious past when culture reached its zenith in India. That such an exquisite cultural heritage should lie in such abject abuse is symptomatic of dangerous trends that need to be addressed and checked if we are not to be denied such seminal creations of our ancestors whose very history and thought lie embedded in these cave paintings and carvings like ancient recordings of episodes long lost but throbbing fresh in immortal works of art.

Time, indeed, it is that official awareness must be paramount in this regard and steps must be taken to redress this degenerate state of maintenance of heritage. Thus, public pressure must be brought upon the government in a mighty measure so that it changes its negligent stance and works for the reclamation of all our heritage sites and monuments. Thus is culture to be preserved if our civilisation is to maintain its throbbing continuity as the only surviving civilisation from ancient times.

Your initiative in this regard, Fraeortis Satarawalla, is of significant moment and one that needs maximum support from the connoisseurs of culture in our country. Your movement is in the right direction, that of the discovery and study of our historical past and passing on the knowledge to the polity in terms simple and effective so that greater awareness ensues regarding its current state of neglect and the imperative to improve such a befallen state. May God bless you in your enlightened and enlightening endeavour that will for sure conduce to the welfare of the cultural condition of our country !

Written by Sugata Bose

THE ADMINISTRATOR'S FOLLY AND THE FOLLOWERS' FERVENT RESPONSES TO KEEP THE FLAG OF FREEDOM FLYING EVEN HIGHER, FOR IN THE LIBERATOR'S ATTRIBUTES ARE ENSHRINED THE BEST VIRTUES THAT THE MOTHERLAND IS HEIR TO

THE ADMINISTRATOR'S FOLLY AND THE FOLLOWERS' FERVENT RESPONSES TO KEEP THE FLAG OF FREEDOM FLYING EVEN HIGHER, FOR IN THE LIBERATOR'S ATTRIBUTES ARE ENSHRINED THE BEST VIRTUES THAT THE MOTHERLAND IS HEIR TO

Recently a post made by me created quite a commotion here on this group page as Nehru was in a casual moment of deluded reflection on my part placed a notch above Netaji in terms of intellectual excellence. Questions galore had to be answered by me thereon in the comment section to the post with some of the responses not so friendly, as is only to be expected, considering the passionate adulation the people of India have for the hero of their dreams and fantasies who, though, was way ahead in terms of character attributes than the fondest conceptions of his fervent followers can measure up to in their fanciful imaginings. As the discussion with the passage of time has petered down and the minds have wandered off onto fresher pastures for their nourishment and exercise, I was accosted by an elderly lady, respectable and apparently erudite, as to whether Nehru was truly superior in intellectual terms than Netaji. I could not avoid her an adequate answer that would clear her confusion, in case my post had unwittingly set her mind oscillating in significant doubt as to the issue, and proceeded to provide the following answer :

Not quite, Madam Neeta Banerjee. Just a provocative assertion on my part to trigger discussion for better clarity on the relative attributes of the duo. But the move, not mischievous by any means whatsoever, as some have suggested, but made by way of sincere seeking to know more and also to find out where the polity stands on this issue, backfired, nay, boomeranged on me to catch me napping but in the process did me the greatest service to arrive at an analytical and synthetic understanding of the profundity of the Netaji-mind which with further reading is by the day confirming that the people at large are not always worse off in conception of certain essential features of the seminal greats than the so-called intellectuals abounding in society who are more often than not culpable to devious reasoning and dispersed understanding of them and, in consequence, a fractured conception of history which the common man in his applied common sense is not prone to somehow.

Anyhow, the move may have backfired but it has opened up for me a wealth of treasures lying hidden in books and writings which I have not laid my hands on for quite some time and which now needs the act of opening up for my consciousness to open up with it.

May the greats of the past bless me with understanding and fulfil my life, so help me God ! May Netaji sit rightly adorned in the midst of my heart and guide me unto fresher understanding of history and all its ilk !

Written by Sugata Bose [administrator]

Photo : Netaji and Nehru in a single frame has been provided by way of keeping the post's context and not to provoke yet again the ones for whom Nehru is sheer anathema.

Neeta Banerjee My dear Sugata Bose,
Your answer to my query is admirable, indeed.Yes, more than a slight indignance, it was an innocently questioning attitude which prompted my to write those words.
Your assertion about Jawaharlal Nehru's intellectual superiority somehow smelt of your conviction of the same.I wished to find out the reasons behind anybody's conviction in the matter.
Netaji will always cause a tussle between heart & mind in our hearts.
So let the arguments continue..!!

Neeta Banerjee This "thrust and parry " in 'fencing' language, is not only insurmountably interesting, it also encourages a multi dimensional aspect to the topic under discussion. Looking forward to your posts, as usual. My best wishes to you.

Sugata Bose Thank you. A reader won is a million tonne and a post furnished with frolic and fun.

NETAJI -- AN ALTERNATE UNDERSTANDING

NETAJI -- AN ALTERNATE UNDERSTANDING

Netaji criticised Hitler on his face about the disparaging remarks he had made about India in his book 'Mein Kampf', but was silent about the same the Fuhrer had made about the Jews and the Slavs and other races he considered sub-human. This is understandable as Netaji had gone to Germany not to seek redresses for the Jewish situation there but to seek help for the liberation of India from the British. This may not be a satisfactory answer for surface internationalists and humanists who would have liked to have seen in the uncompromising Indian leader a vehement repudiation of Nazism on the face of Hitler that day. But historical compulsions are complex and often tortuous in their workings and allowances must be made on that count to Netaji in this regard. His singular concern was the liberation of India and not world liberation as might have been the mission of a prophet like Swamiji.

The greatness of individual action while being related to its altitude in conception and execution is also intimately connected to the imperatives of the situation in which it unfolds, its prior motivations, aims and objectives and the means adopted to arrive at its fulfilment. But there is also one more consideration that ought to govern our judgement before we pass verdict on such action and that is the level of consciousness from which the act is being performed and the sacrifices involved in the process. Human welfare is not a homogeneous affair that can be achieved by a singular act of greatness or even a series of acts along a definite line, invariable and intransigent. The dynamics of society shifting focus with time and the circumstances altering with it, the need of the moment dictated by the imperatives of longstanding history and of the compulsions of the hour also shift and must be understood in their proper context if errors in analysis are not be incurred and verdict passed on an event not to miss the mark.

The problem of appreciation and criticism of a historical personality is complex and demands a training in rational rigour that eludes the common man who is prone to hazard opinions based on preferences and prejudices, preconditioning and positional stance that is dictated by the exigencies of the hour. And in so doing, the critic so easily forgets that the very considerations that bind him and often blind him in judgement were the conditions that had dictated the hero's actions within the parametric bounds of the historical situation then and that such contextual understanding must never be forsaken if one is to arrive at a sympathetic and more accurate appreciation of the motives and methods that had dictated the hero's actions in his liberation endeavour.

The premier attribute in Netaji was his love for the motherland, something that was innate in him, yet was kindled into a conflagration by his contact with the literature of Swami Vivekananda. The young lad had stumbled upon the Complete Works of Swamiji and proceeded to devour its contents till he himself was consumed by it. The ignition started early but lasted a lifetime as Subhas Chandra had promised it would in his confession to Swami Sundarananda, editor of the Ramakrishna Mission's Bengali monthly magazine, Udbodhan.

The contact of Subhas Chandra with Vivekananda was not fortuitous as it might apparently seem. It was Providential. The Swami had prophesied that he would after casting off his mortal coil continue to work for mankind and inspire men everywhere till it would know that it is one with God. And so he did after entering mahasamadhi on 4 July, 1902. Subhas was then 5 years 5 months and 9 days old. The news must have reached him from elders and his child mind, precocious and prodigous as it was, must have felt the tremors of the great departure of the seminal sage from the ambit of this earth. Born and brought up in Cuttack, Subhas had not the occasion to see the sage from close quarters or even from a distance and had to be content with hearing about him vaguely should someone in that illumined house of the Boses mentioned the Swami's name or deeds. Subhas had yet to grow up into youthful maturity before Providence would bring him face to face with the prophet patriot (ref. Bhupendranath Dutta's book by that name) and alter his life for good.

When at age 15, Subhas, now in his 10th standard in school, came upon Vivekananda's works, he was lightning struck by the vigour of the words. Only in his case he was saved and not killed by the immortal words of the Swami and his career was altered for good in its direction by the magnetic personality and message of the cyclonic monk (ref. Hemchandra Ghosh's submission post meeting Swamiji at Dhaka in 1901). The fire had been kindled and it had found its substance in the powder that was Subhas. And now the search began, the quest for God and Truth which eventually led him to the Himalayas in search of the Guru, the spiritual preceptor who could illumine his path for the finding of Truth.

The search ended at Kashi where Subhas met Swami Brahmananda, the President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. The Abbot, who was well known in the Bose family of Cuttack, divined Subhas' mission, affectionately addressed him, blessed him and graciously set his thinking along the line of patriotic service for the motherland. He then the lad back home to the waiting arms of the mother. Subhas, in his wanderjahre for three months in the plains, plateaus and the hills of India, had had his first encounter with the pathetic state of his conquered and colonised motherland. And he was determined to redress the situation. And he carried the charge of Ramakrishna in this his freedom mission, for who was Swami Brahmananda but the spiritual son of the Prophet of Dakshineshwar. Verily has it been said that the movement for freedom began with the Master in Dakshineshwar.

Subhas in college soon attracted to him a band of devoted followers who he led in the service of suffering humanity, with whom he debated and deliberated the problematic issues of the day and sought solutions in his philosophic readings, especially those of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda. Sometimes the fire of renunciation as yet seized him with a fervour that led him out with his friends, himself donning the saffron, to locations near and far in search of that stability of understanding that eluded him.

But those were tumultuous days of an entire world in strife as the Great War (World War I) raged and the fire spread to the colonies of the European imperial powers as well. Here in India the revolutionaries were plotting to overthrow the British Indian Government as the Ghadarites and the Berlin Committee advanced to the hour of an armed revolution that would end the British rule in India. But betrayals aborted both the episodes at Balasore and the Punjab and Bagha Jatin and his associates were martyred and Rash Behari Bose had to flee the country to distant Japan, never to see his motherland again.

A star had faded in the firmament of Indian freedom and another was rising from beyond the horizons that would herald a new beginning to this ever-intensifying battle for freedom. And this rising star was Subhas.

Soon, events took a precipitous turn as Subhas led a protest against a disparaging Professor Oaten of Presidency College that unfortunately led to a physical assault of sorts which Subhas was not a party to but, nonetheless, took upon himself the responsibility for the episode to save the errant friend from official retribution. The consequence was quick and sharp. Subhas was expelled from college and had to sit at home for over a year and a half before managing readmission in Scottish Church College through the intervention of the Vice Chancellor of the Calcutta University, Sir Ashutosh Mukerjee. Subhas stood second yet again in his Bachelor's Degree Examination following up on his like performance in the Matriculation Examination where he had also stood second. He was now set to sail abroad to study in Cambridge University for the coveted Indian Civil Service Examination.

There in England Subhas Chandra covered a course of two years in a mere eight months and yet stood fourth among all the candidates for the Indian Civil Service Examination. But now the dramatic part happened which gives us a massive insight into the young man's psychological make-up. Subhas refused his ICS placement to the shock of an entire empire. The most coveted post of a civil servant in those days which had no parallel in position or prestige or power among administrative jobs in the Empire he spurned like so much dust for it was not in his nerve fibre to serve the dastardly British and oil their machinery that had kept 300 million of colonised Indians in perpetual servitude. The tremors were felt from London to New Delhi as Subhas catapulted to instant fame as the hero of the hour and the hope of a new awakening that was in the germ, ready to sprout and grow into the mighty tree that would shake up the citadels of the British Crown in times to come. The hero returned to India and went straight to meet the Mahatma who had already started making grandiloquent claims that he would bring freedom to the country within a year.

The meeting took place as the young eagle met the seasoned politician wearing the spiritual garb and got into the business straightaway as to what plans and programmes the Mahatma had in mind regarding the long-term consequences of his campaign of passive resistance. The answers being unsatisfactory as the Mahatma floundered in answering every question of Bose, the youth returned to Calcutta to take up tutelage under Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, an association that was to leave a lasting impression on the young leader who was as yet in bud.

But the blossom was soon to be. Subhas immersed himself in political and civic work like a man possessed, making contacts with the revolutionaries for good measure even as he worked under the banner of Gandhian non-violent passive resistance which he deemed as the imperative of the hour for the country was completely unarmed and, so, not in a position to take up arms in general insurrection against the existent order of things.

Netaji understood the importance of the Gandhian movement of mass consolidation against the British. He was a thinker of the highest order and realised that the entrenched British administration could not be uprooted by sporadic acts of revolutionary terrorism. Nor was the half-starved population in a position to take up arms in revolution against the imperial colonial order in place. He clearly read into the mind of the masses who were as yet dormant in terms of political consciousness, leave aside psychological preparedness for armed revolution.

Unfinished and expanding ...

Written by Sugata Bose

Shiv Kumar Iyer Such a beautiful article. Excellent read! 🇮🇳🌷

IN APPRECIATION OF SHARMISTHA CHATTERJEE'S MAGICAL ESSAY ON THE HERO OF EPIC DREAMS

IN APPRECIATION OF SHARMISTHA CHATTERJEE'S MAGICAL ESSAY ON THE HERO OF EPIC DREAMS

What magical words ! They seem to make the essay fly through a rarefied atmosphere of exotic dreams and fantasies, an ethereal realm of unearthly attainments.

Yet, these are descriptions of real deeds, events historical, concrete and happening within the constraints of historical situations that are never quite conducive to the free flow of events but are ever the source of limitless hindrances that the hero overcame through his genius and grit.

But such are the enactments of epic personalities like Netaji who shape historical forces to determine the destiny of man and do so with a flair that leaves posterity wondering whether such a series of episodes ever happened in concrete terms quite or are the recordings of an ancestry making fantastic claims.

The same saga holds true for Rash Behari Bose and his innumerable almost impossible escapes from the clutches of the British, from right under their noses, so to say. The John Bulls of the British Indian CID or the Scotland Yard back home could not touch the hem of his garment as he waltzed his way through British cordons to carry out dangerous expeditions and daring escapes.

In a like manner has the narrative been written, although, the drama and the dangers of revolutionary life have not quite come through owing to stylistic levity. Nonetheless, a glorious exercise of literary excellence yet again and my heartiest commendations for it.

Written by Sugata Bose

Sharmistha Chatterjee I remain a pauper and grope for words to express my humbleness. So well written!

Sharmistha Chatterjee I am nescient..show me light.

FACEBOOK COMMENTS ... 5

Sugata Bose Indeed, this should be done and it is long due. The army of liberation was discredited and the soldiers denied pension by the Nehruvian dispensation till Indira Gandhi took the necessary measures to undo this terrible travesty of fairness and justice, leave aside gratitude to the liberators and being one with them. Even today, despite tall protestations to the contrary, the present government merely does token service to the cause and not enough in terms of adopting adequate measures to uphold Netaji, his ideology of national integration and reconstruction and his and, above all, his supreme objective of forming a super powerful army for the defence of independent India out of the volunteers to his cause of armed revolution for the liberation of India. Netaji had exhorted the soldiers of the INA to fight for India's freedom in a manner that those who would survive the war could bank on the wartime experience to provide the same for India's future national army. All these hopes of the liberator of India were but belied as Jawaharlal Nehru and his Congress collaborators conspired with the Allied Powers to allow the dismemberment of India and the settling in for a partitioned dominion status under the British Crown with its corresponding membership to the British Commonwealth of Nations. The scars of Partition we still bear and our army rejoices in its heritage of martial glory while in service to the coloniser British. Therefore, if there be a semblance of self-respect left in the children of our much ravaged motherland, we ought to forthwith come out of the Commonwealth and follow it up with the necessary patriotic actions that will truly make our liberation from British stranglehold a reality and not an eyewash as craftily planned by the British and executed by the characterless Congress prior to 1947 and clung to for unknown reasons by governmental dispensations thereafter till date. May the renaming of the Indian Army as the Indian National Army as Netaji had done be the primary steps taken towards fulfilment of the hero's dreams of a renascent India and with it may self-respect return to Indians, long deluded by an international conspiracy of epic proportions ! And with it may our soldiers, 26000 of them, who died in the jungles of Burma and in the hills of Manipur, and thousands more who perished in transit camps at Jhikargachha, Neelgunge and Barasat, be resurrected from their ashes and from the dust of the grave unto the sunshine of a nation's tearful final farewell, long lying in wait ! May we all unite to pile up pressure on the Government to take cognisance of this demand of ours and do the needful to redress this longstanding injustice and may our movement by conjoined action ever build up in strength and the capacity to make changes ! Jai Hind !

Sugata Bose Sambuddha Mukhopadhyay, it is time to defend your post, although shared from somewhere else. Else, you are creating mere nuisance and not actually provoking a discussion. You need to now come out and answer the points thrown at you, although, you may claim that the post has not been penned by you. But it can always to the contrary be said that you have shared it on this group page with full knowledge about its volatile critical content and, therefore, ought now to show some spine and defend the same.

Sugata Bose Indeed. You have so succinctly said it, Parashuram Purushottam.

Sugata Bose Not quite. Just a provocative assertion on my part to trigger discussion for better clarity on the relative attributes of the duo. But the move, not mischievous by any means whatsoever, as some have suggested, but made by way of sincere seeking to know more and also to find out where the polity stands on this issue, backfired, nay, boomeranged on me to catch me napping but in the process did me the greatest service to arrive at an analytical and synthetic understanding of the profundity of the Netaji-mind which with further reading is by the day confirming that the people at large are not always worse off in conception of certain essential features of the seminal greats than the so-called intellectuals abounding in society who are more often than not culpable to devious reasoning and dispersed understanding of them and, in consequence, a fractured conception of history which the common man in his applied common sense is not prone to somehow. Anyhow, the move may have backfired but it has opened up for me a wealth of treasures lying hidden in books and writings which I have not laid my hands on for quite some time and which now needs the act of opening up for my consciousness to open up with it. May the greats of the past bless me with understanding and fulfil my life, so help me God ! May Netaji sit rightly adorned in the midst of my heart and guide me unto fresher understanding of history and all its ilk !

Neeta Banerjee My dear Sugata Bose,
Your answer to my query is admirable, indeed.Yes, more than a slight indignance, it was an innocently questioning attitude which prompted my to write those words. Your assertion about Jawaharlal Nehru's intellectual superiority somehow smelt of your conviction of the same.I wished to find out the reasons behind anybody's conviction in the matter. Netaji will always cause a tussle between heart & mind in our hearts. So let the arguments continue..!!

Neeta Banerjee This "thrust and parry " in 'fencing' language, is not only insurmountably interesting, it also encourages a multi dimensional aspect to the topic under discussion. Looking forward to your posts, as usual. My best wishes to you.

Sugata Bose Thank you. A reader won is a million tonne and a post furnished with frolic and fun.

Sugata Bose Keep asking them please and we shall try to answer them to the extent our knowledge can stretch to provide such solutions. This mystery is seemingly unsolvable but asking the right questions will help set our direction right towards arriving at plausible theories and probable answers. So, let the queries flood the page.

Sugata Bose 'Supreme leader with supreme sacrifice' -- so beautifully said it, almost a quotable quote from now on. Tridib Ghosh, you have paid the hero a masterful homage in articulate terms. Our like sacrifice in whatever small measure for the cause of the resurrection of the memory and attainments of our revolutionaries, prince among whom remains our leader of immeasurable greatness and unfathomable love for the motherland, now must call out the best in us and set the wheel of freedom rolling yet again unto the high noon of national renaissance.

Sugata Bose Indeed, in the history of the world he remains almost nonpareil.

Sugata Bose You are my great inspiration, Diganta. Netaji is evidently with you, I feel, for you are simply saturated with his spirit. You, Diganta, are emblematic of what the youth in India ought to be, what the revolutionaries had hoped future citizenry in young India would be, and what was the choicest aspiration of your life's hero in declarations galore from various fora in those bygone days of repressed but revolting India against British oppression. Carry on with your mission and we are all there with you to hold the staff of this ever-unfurling flag of freedom.

Sugata Bose This is an original name and I heartily commend you for it. But the vast number of followers of Netaji seem to have already decided on remembering this anniversary of the hero's birth as 'Desh Prem Divas' which alliterates well as well. However, such original ideas as you float keep the discussion alive and for good measure, too.

The name 'Hero's Day' is terse, apt and in keeping with all the other names such as 'Teacher's Day', Children's Day, 'Martyr's Day', 'Independence Day', 'Republic Day' and the like. Hence, your subscription to it is pertinent and worth considering as well. However, I feel, the dominant mood of the day is for 'Desh Prem Divas' which is in Hindi and will, therefore, hold its ground among the masses better who will somehow attach nationalism more with it than the appropriate name you so timely suggest.

Sugata Bose Diganta Sengupta Your humility is befitting of your commitment to the cause and will save me from the charge of some that I am being over-indulgent to one who as yet is in his blossoming years of unfolding maturity.

Sugata Bose Please contribute posts and observations then in copious quantity.Sugata Bose I am not the one you suppose I am. First get your facts correct.

Sugata Bose Bhaskar Rao Please understand that you are thoroughly mistaken about my identity. To put its straight since you seem to harbour an erroneous impression about my person, I am not the historian-politician former Parliamentarian Prof. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Harvard University, who also happens to be Netaji's grand nephew, but am quite another Sugata Bose, a completely apolitical person of far humbler attainments and totally unconnected by blood-bond to the extended Netaji family, and am happy to be so.

Sugata Bose I am not the one you suppose I am. First get your facts correct.

Sugata Bose Bhaskar Rao Please understand that you are thoroughly mistaken about my identity. To put it straight, since you seem to be harbouring an erroneous impression about my person, I am not the historian-politician former Parliamentarian Prof. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Harvard University, who also happens to be Netaji's grand nephew, but am quite another Sugata Bose, a completely apolitical person of far humbler attainments and totally unconnected by blood-bond to the extended Netaji family, and am happy to be so.

Sugata Bose Bhaskar Rao For a change let me hear from you what your perceptions are regarding the questions posited by you.

Sugata Bose But Anuj Dhar claims that Bhagavanji suffered from PTSD. How about that? Moreover, he subscribes to the fact that Netaji had been married and had fathered a daughter which is at complete variance with what Bhagavanji had said about Netaji. If Bhagavanji was Netaji post return to India and living as monk incognito, as Anuj Dhar believes and vociferously propagates, then ought he not to know better about his own earthly affairs than a future fractional follower of his who conveniently believes what suits him and rejects where he is in a spot of bother, to make all ends meet? How about that? PTSD is a convenient way to explain all supposed anomalies of the narrative and is, to devotees of Bhagavanji-Netaji, a gross insult to his hallowed person. How about that as well?

Sugata Bose I have no idea. It was telecast on DD National this afternoon and re-telecast tonight. Simply a historical heresy, an outrageous movie that is distasteful to a degree, to put it in euphemistic terms.

Sugata Bose The comparison must be done for better clarity in comprehension. After all, despite differences, they were both engaged in the task of freeing India from colonial consequence. Hence, the comparison is absolutely valid, to my mind, and deserves utmost and careful scrutiny to arrive at a better understanding of the history of the freedom movement. History, remember, thrives through such comparisons, contrasting though historical characters may be. In fact, all knowledge that humans get to know is by such a mode of comparison, including the very perception of this differentiated world. But that is a long story and I will cut it short by appreciating your viewpoint and cogitating on it duly. Thank you for responding with due diligence. Please continue to enlighten us with such original observations as this.

Sugata Bose Rajendra Kundu Gandhi is being exposed fair and square by recent investigations into British colonial history.

Sugata Bose PTSD is the abbreviated form of 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder'. It means that a person suffering from extreme stress undergoes a nervous disorder which makes him behave in a certain erratic manner where he is prone to hallucinating. This is a psychological aberration brought about by terrible third degree torture inflicted on a person which leads to a permanent impairment of his nervous organisation and lends him to fantasising impossible attainments.

Such a feature is noticeable in Bhagavanji, Mission Netaji members note, where he talks of military missions conducted by him which, to their mind, are virtually impossible. To rationalise the whole affair and yet to cling to their conviction that Bhagavanji was Netaji living the renunciate's life incognito, they have introduced this medical element to the case which has injured the sentiments of ardent devotees of Subhas-Netaji-Bhagavanji-Mahakaal for whom such belittling of their idol is offence unforgivable. Mission Netaji's proposition has taken the likes of venerable Bijoy Nag, Madhusudan Pal, Keshab Bhattacherjee and other notables by surprise to begin with and indignation thereafter. According to them, Bhagavanji was absolutely possessed of his faculties and showed no signs of possible derangement that ought to prompt such an aspersion on him.

Whether Bhagavanji was/is Netaji Is upto individual conviction and claim, especially after the Sahay Commission has categorically rejected this proposition. The Commission has concluded that Gumnami Baba, alias Bhagavanji, was an ardent follower of Netaji but not Netaji himself.

There are divisions among the proponents of Bhagavanji being Netaji with sharp differences in their status towards the venerable monk. One group (Jayashree) claims that Netaji is alive and active in a supernal plane even today as Mahakaal and that he will appear before all, if he so feems it fit, when the times are ripe. Another group (Mission Netaji) claims that Bhagavanji died on 16 August, 1985 at Faizabad and was cremated at Guptar Ghat, Ayodhya. This latter group also subscribes to the belief that Netaji had married his Austrian secretary, Emilie Schenkl and fathered a daughter, Anita, an assertion which the former group considers heretical and worthy of the strongest condemnation.

Now there are allegations by many that commercial considerations are ruining genuine research into the the disappearance mystery and those that are in the limelight are making a quick buck by selling fanciful stories in the market of popular consumption. Thus, serious research is missing and conclusions are drawn about Netaji post August 1945 that often have neither rational rigour of argument nor sufficient legally tenable data or evidence. Were such available, the mystery would have been solved long ago in a law court and inconclusive inferences would not sully discussion and never-ending debate on the whole affair. Parties on all sides have their respective narratives by way of insufficient explanation which leaves the subject open to endless conjecture without definitive conclusion. Now you are free as well to be convinced this way or that, or to be hanging in mid-air in a state of animated suspense, if you are an optimist yet and awaiting a closure to the issue at last, or disgusted by the murkiness of the ongoing chaotic deliberations online and resigned to the fact that this affair will forever remain a mystery like so many other disappearances,namely, that of Meera Bai, Kabir, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nana Saheb.

Sugata Bose Pranab Jana You are mistaken about my identity as so many others, through no fault of mine, are. I am not the historian Sugata Bose you allude to but am quite another Sugata Bose who is totally unconnected to Netaji's extended family by blood-bond. I am apolitical completely, am not a historian except in terms of amateurish dabbling with facts and fancies of history, and only share a copious interest with my namesake in Netaji and the revolutionaries for freedom. So now that the cards are on the table and confusion is clarified, let us debate whatever propositions I have laid bare before you regarding Anuj Dhar's stance about Bhagavanji.

Sugata Bose @ Deep Roy : Do not pass communal remarks here please. A request to maintain the sanity of the page by sticking to civil discussion only.

Sugata Bose It's a brilliant piece of philosophical reflection.

Sugata Bose Abhi Aj The body of the greatest sage comes into being and goes back to the elements when its hour on earth is over. But the spirit remains and the message it has delivered lives on and on till it exhausts its terrestrial duration once the energy accompanying it is spent. Then both messiah and message go into hibernation till a fresh influx of energy makes for a rebirth of sorts and, the baton, passed onto another, keeps the flame alive of the Master and his message for mankind. But ''the old man is gone forever, never to return," as Netaji's guide in life, Swami Vivekananda, had famously uttered.

Matter cannot hold on to its degenerate withering form against the will of the person and death of the physical form must necessarily take place one day. Thus, 23 January, 1897 marks the beginning of this epic saga and, unknown though it may be when the terrestrial form of Netaji may have withdrawn from the surface scene of our mundane world, there has to be an end to the physical form once the hour of its departure has arrived.

All things that begin must end and our devotion cannot contain Nature and compel her to act otherwise. But that should not detract from the fact that Netaji was, indeed, a divine personality and worthy in every sense of the worship of his devotees, followers and friends.

Jai Hind !

Sugata Bose Dilip Chakraborty Indeed, provided I was a member of the same. You, my friend are mistaken about my identity. I am not the one you suppose I am. I am not the historian Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University, TMC's former Parliamentarian, son of Dr. Sisir Bose and Dr. Krishna Bose, grandson of the venerable Sarat Chandra Bose, grandnephew of our Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose -- well, I am not he by the remotest possibility for I am quite another Sugata Bose whose cover and profile picture if you compare with the aforesaid gentleman of international renown, your inattentive observation itself will point out the marked contrast and set me free from you erroneous conception.

So, there you are, my friend, I remain bonded to all of you here but am totally unconnected by blood-bond to the hero's extended family with whom you in error associate me. Stay well, my friend, and serve this group where we all are siblings for the common cause of the regeneration of the motherland in the resurrection of its heroes, preeminent among whom is the leading light of this group page, our beloved leader, Netaji.

Sugata Bose Prasun Dasgupta, please speak here what you said elsewhere, that is, on the NETAJI group through my accidental posting of the message there. You will have occasion here to attack me which you have done on the aforesaid group. I have deleted the post there and offer you the dais here to confront me. In case you choose not to, I shall have to delete this comment of mine in response to your earlier comment elsewhere.

Readers, you must be confused as to what is calling forth this comment of mine but Shree Prasun Dasgupta knows well enough and I await his response to which I will give my befitting reply as and when it comes, though.

And, by the way, this post carries a universal message applicable to all climes and all times and is not intended to carry any political message whatsoever. I am completely an apolitical person and have neither any affiliation to any party's line of thinking nor do I subscribe to any particular political ideology beyond whatever conduces to universal human welfare, my connotation of the human being being defined -- that is, if it at all it is possible to define things with any modicum of accuracy -- as the absolute divinity attempting to manifest its true status through the coarse contours of relativity. Hence, reading too much of politics into an innocent philosophical statement of extreme practical utility will be an exercise in futility and sheer folly.

Sugata Bose Prasun Dasgupta This is a stupendous manifestation of ignorance compounded with arrogance that deserves severest condemnation. And, if indeed your other name is Partha, then you need a sarathi quick to carry you to safety beyond the range of my articulate missiles that needs must be launched to teach you the lesson which you have not learnt as yet owing to negligence on your part in absorbing the codes of civility that determine a gentleman's honour in living.

And by the way, what was it that prompted you to pass that initial sarcasm on my person in the NETAJI group when, to my mind, it was totally uncalled for, a bolt from the blue that had no basis for its volley save in some queer motivation prompting it to which you alone are privy?

Sugata Bose Prasun Dasgupta Juxtaposition of unintelligible words in blind and ignorant imitiation of my linguistic style does not make either for lucid literature nor for communicative language but exposes the audacity to which lack of literacy is culpable to. Hence, desist from making a mockery of your literary skills which by their insensitive exhibition are reducing your status needlessly before readers who will make laughing stock of you.

Sugata Bose Prasun Dasgupta Are you out of your mind? Else, such gibberish is pouring forth from which fertile source, pray, say.

Sugata Bose Prasun Dasgupta The chaos and confusion in your brain stupefies me. I see you self-stumped on every count and vituperating senselessly against me without any rhyme or reason governing your thinking or prompting your verbal articulation thereof. Your arguments are unconnected, language often obscene that ought not to have merited a response in the first place and your motive in so ranting against me plain suspect. I wonder what the fundamental axe is that you grind against me that has so made you unbalanced in such verbal vehemence that you have chosen to let loose like so much loose cannon fired in the wilderness of your wild imaginings. To begin with, there has been so sanity on your part to start your offensive against me since any civil discussion begins on introductory not from past reference point of no consequence today. Moreover, your knowledge of history or its paucity, and your analyses thereof, chaotically moving between Netaji and Sri Aurobindo with all their references in relation to the former's alliance with imperial Nippon and the latter's repudiation of it is a trifle bewildering for they are slanted, shallow and superficial with the story siding with the Aurobindo viewpoint but failing to highlight the Bose brainwave which must have prompted the hero to have adopted the strategic line that he chose. I have written elaborately on the said confrontation between the two greats regarding this issue where sufficient rationalisation on the entire episode has been done by me, upholding the respective cases, the series of essays having evidently essayed past you to leave you thus in ill-informed misjudgement about my stated position thereof. I wonder, since this debate is hotting up between unknown adversaries, you would care to continue your babble on the NETAJI group hereon. As of now, yours has been a singular case of youthful exhibition of rant, remonstrance and rehearsed reproach targeting me for some compelling motive you are best privy to.

Sugata Bose Prasun Dasgupta You are an incorrigible young man with a bent of mind that is positively bent and in a negative manner at that. I fail to comprehend the focus of your frustration with me. Or is it a frustration with life in general that makes you thus engage in fruitless vitriol against me? You write incoherently at times, coherently at other times so that the meaning comes clearer but your intent is unknown to me. What afflicts you so, that your behaviour is so anomalous, passes my imagination. However, if this is the way you will waste your youthful hours engaging in mindless debates with imaginary adversaries, then you are not only worth pity but need intellectual and philosophical assistance from saner minds like me to get you back on track. Since I am unavailable for this onerous task of relocating your sanity, it were better that you seek the help of others who are better possessed of sanity, civility and rationality that your arrogant self.

Sugata Bose Prasun Dasgupta : So, you want to have the last laugh. So, have it by all means, for the joke is yours and the joker you are and 'all's well that ends well' so long as it is 'a comedy of errors'. Locking horns with your articulate gibberish was akin to immersion in a 'midsummer night's dream' that had lost its bearings in 'the tempest' of intemperate verbal delusions. And after all this fussilade of words aimed at me, your arsenal of intelligible and unintelligible sonic formations got exhausted and where fight could not save you, you took to flight. Adieu, friend, adieu ! 

Sugata Bose Diganta Sengupta 'Inscrutable are the ways of the Lord.' So says the Holy Bible, and so are the ways of this modern God of India and of suppressed and oppressed humanity, for inscrutable are his ways, too, indecipherable even his explicit expressions, loaded as they are with meanings that run their life and term in multiple layers of individual and collective consciousness.

Sugata Bose Diganta Sengupta, read this expanding and evolving piece which would have taken reams to write were it not for the facility of the screen and the keypad.

Sugata Bose Swaraj S Have they sought my cooperation ever or are they now seeking so through you and your aforesaid proposal? Are you speaking in your individual capacity or are you speaking on their behalf?

Sugata Bose Swaraj S That's alright. But I have reservations about your statement. I feel the Jayashree group have historically done and are doing till date much more. Moreover, I am not in agreement with many of their stated positions regarding the disappearance issue. Also, they subscribe to Netaji's marriage and progeny which is highly debatable and controversial to my thinking.

Sugata Bose Swaraj S The aircrash theory has crashed post the publication of the JMCI Report. Regarding the marriage issue, what evidence can they cite? And what evidence of Bhagavanji's death in 1985? Evidence? Where's their evidence, credible and clear?

Sugata Bose Swaraj S But you said they have based their assertions on the basis of evidence. Where's the evidence for 1) marriage 2) death of Bhagavanji in 1985 and 3) PTSD?

Sugata Bose Swaraj S I think you are, like many others, confusing me for the historian Sugata Bose of the extended Netaji Bose family. Well, I am not he but am another Sugata Bose of another lineage that has no blood-bond to Netaji Bose's family.

Sugata Bose Swaraj S Grand nephew you ought to call him, not grandchild unless, of course, you say so in figurative terms.

Sugata Bose Swaraj S I think they have sufficient support for they have their stellar group working and their satellites orbiting them.

Sugata Bose Swaraj S The UP Government may have asserted death of Bhagavanji in 1985 but have merely done so without furnishing proof of any kind whatsoever. You ought to do better research to know that Anuj Dhar has publicly stated and it is on YouTube that he accepts Netaji's marriage as a fact since he subscribes to what Sarat Chandra Bose had apparently said on this issue which, by the way, is highly debatable and inconsistent, too, with contrary claims to his stated position thereof.

Sugata Bose Tamoghna Das Sharma Good book. No, not quite negative as one might expect when it comes from a British MI 5 agent. Overall, crisp, concise, condensed and copious, quite an informative and unbiased book. Of course, if you are looking for eulogies on Netaji, you will be disappointed here.

Sugata Bose But he was our first Prime Minister and that, too, of undivided India. Unfortunate, yes, that it did not last for long as he disappeared into the mist post 17 August, 1945.

Sugata Bose Somesh Bhattacharya Please contribute your write-ups, of course upholding the truth as you see it, so that this page becomes a platform for genuine intellectual discussion on Netaji and the freedom movement. In it lies the welfare of the cause of this group that is in point of principle wholly and in practice largely dedicated.

Sugata Bose Diganta Sengupta, read this expanding and evolving piece which would have taken reams to write were it not for the facility of the screen and the keypad.

Sugata Bose Who are you talking about? And why address a human being as a pig, my friend?

Sugata Bose Swaraj S Oh, who did? So, let him laugh. Individual liberty. Laughter makes the facial muscles active and better toned. It keeps blood pressure down. Ignore these gestures unless they become positively distasteful. Perhaps, the said gentleman may not have understood the import of the essay. It can also be that it was made by mistake. Rather, let us move on to better rumination on Netaji and the revolutionaries for freedom.

Sugata Bose Nothing whatsoever. A mere conviction of Nehru based on some rational inference pertaining to the then cited circumstantial evidence. Today, we can laugh at such conjecture for the very same reason, the lack of circumstantial evidence.

Sugata Bose Rather build Netaji's image through careful study of his life and message. Our actions must be positive, never negatively wasteful.

Sugata Bose Perfect. Please give some write-ups of your own and embellish this group page.

Sugata Bose How are these two so sure about Bhagavanji's death in August, 1985 when there is no documentary proof of the same? How are these two subscribing to the concocted tale of Netaji's marriage and progeny when there is no evidence to support the tale whatsoever? Has convenience got the better of conviction or are there other compulsions as well, no less among which must be the need to keep certain quarters happy? And how did they come to their understanding of PTSD having affected Bhagavanji when they have neither met him ever nor gone by what those who have met the saint have had to say on it? Is Netaji now free market commodity that anybody and everybody can say what he feels about him? Is this not insulting the hero which ought to be considered by ardent devotees as veritable sacrilege, especially when such narratives gain national currency in no time owing to the popularity of these protagonists? Please consider these contentious issues and the way the hero's spotless image is being tarnished thus in all manner and from so many quarters, a state which calls for the severest condemnation. If what they state are true, then they are free to do so but if it comes to passing off mere conjecture as gospel truth even in a film which goes by their convictions and assertions, is it not commerce that has got the better of truth-telling? I leave it to you all to ponder these pertinent points and come to your own conclusions.

Sugata Bose Riya Bhattacharya Depends whether we are Englishmen or not, or, if not so and we are Indians, whether we deem ourselves to belong to the majority or not.

Sugata Bose Udayan Sengupta Nice of you to respond thus but my response has here been only to the points pertinent to the post. As for governmental motives, I am not privy to such and can merely like you make my conjectures about them, even vent my frustrations thereof. Beyond that I have not attempted anything more in this response. Hope to address them suitably in some future elaborate post with better reflection on the imperatives that must have prompted this perfidious course of sustained suppression of relevant facts by the government. Anyhow, thanks once again and keep up with the conference.

Sugata Bose @Sudipta Chowdhary

Dear member,

Do not be presumptuous thus in your affirmations with scant understanding as to the import of what the author has said. Cogitate deep, meditate, if necessary, to arrive at a clarified comprehension before you hazard such peremptory remark. Hope to see you in a brighter frame of mind to rationalise what the author is now saying.

Also, do not attempt to politicise this group page. This page is on Netaji and for the propagation of the history of the freedom struggle in its true contour and colour and not as it has been thus far construed and presented before the public by heretical historians serving the political dispensation at the helm of affairs.

To level charges without proper understanding of the intent of a post does you a disservice that you would fain be willing to accept. Hence, serve the cause in the rightful spirit and desist from presumptuous peremptory preaching. Of course, for good measure, you may as well allege that the author himself is culpable to the same offence. If so, then the conditions ought to apply to the author as well. But in his capacity as administrator of the group, he will be obliged to discharge his duties thus, periodically, from which there may be no reprieve for him.

Thanking you, Sugata Bose [Administrator]

Sugata Bose Asit Guin Please contribute your posts to this group. Contrary opinion is necessary for discussion, deliberation and debate. Otherwise, this page will become a monotone.