AICC Session, April, 1939. Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai and Dr. Rajendra Prasad in conference over some contentious issue. This year saw the conspiracy of the Gandhi brigade against the democratically elected Congress President, Subhas Chandra Bose, and his enforced resignation from the post, which was subsequently followed up in the extreme by his unceremonious ouster from the Congress. The Mahatma pulled his strings like a skilled puppeteer pulls to move his puppets, a master manipulator of the course of things that tragically led to the dismemberment of the motherland in the ultimate analysis.
Subhas Chandra Bose was in effect forced out of India by this massive non-cooperation movement against a Congressman that the Mahatma led. This was akin to a footballer shooting a same-side goal and bringing about the defeat of his team. The shortsighted Mahatma -- a misnomer to call him by that name, really -- ruined not only the prospects of a quick Indian freedom as envisaged by Bose but empowered the British and the Muslim League enormously by his sidelining of Bose from national politics which ultimately led to the defeat of his own principles of non-violence and passive resistance as the country engaged in civil war to decimate a million men and women while truncating its landmass into three which has debilitated the subcontinent in a manner from which recovery seems only a remote possibility in the future.
Bose had exhorted Gandhi to demand of the British complete independence of India failing which the Mahatma was to launch a massive nationwide movement for liberation. This was just six months before the Second World War when Britain was its weakest from consistent German aggression in Europe. But Gandhi thought that it was morally incorrect to wage war on the enemy when it was faced with peril on another count, in this case with German aggression threatening its sovereignty alarmingly. Gandhi also reckoned that the country [India] was then not ready for an all-out mass movement of the scale that was referred to by Bose. Hence, they fell out on this issue and, following Tripuri and the aforesaid nasty non-cooperation that the Mahatma did against his own man, Bose was left with no other viable option for attempting to secure freedom than to approach the enemies of Britain for help. And, so, he left for Europe.
Written by Sugata Bose
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