THE NATIONAL NEED ... 26

THE NATIONAL NEED ... 26

It is not good enough to be materially rich as a nation but one must be militarily strong to defend it as well. Else, the very wealth will cause enslavement of the race at the hands of foreign aggressors. The history of India bears ample testimony to it. One only hopes that India has learnt her lessons from her own historical past and shall arm herself sufficiently and build up a martial culture whereby her future freedom may always be ensured. This was one of the topmost priorities of Netaji as opposed to the potential debilitation of the emerging nation proposed by Gandhiji and Pandit Nehru amidst idealistic fraternising with the adversary and living in a fanciful world far removed from reality where the exigencies of realpolitik do not affect the nation till they do so in telling terms from which there is no recovery.

The country must be made to see the hard realities of life and the citizens must not be made to live in an illusory world of supposed spirituality which in essence is a terrible misconception of the actual intent of our scriptural principles. India's long servitude has ended and no more must she fall back into erstwhile ignorance of the enemy's capacity and intent to deal her the deathblow.

Netaji had stressed the absolute necessity of a strong modern army for the adequate defence of the country and not one that would yield territory to the enemy when under attack. He had to this effect built up his Indian National Army whose initial war of liberation against the British would provide the springboard for the launching of the future army of independent India. However, the historical tide of events deemed otherwise and India capitulated to being partitioned and aggressed thereafter constantly by Pakistan and China to suffer territorial losses and loss of manpower and resources to have today an uncertain future in terms of territorial integrity. The only way out of this is to strengthen the country militarily and to build up the age-old valorous martial culture which characterised India before Buddhist and Jain influences softened the national character and led to India's enslavement. But the fate that befell India had much more to do with the internal haemorrhage she suffered on account of her social divisions and self-exclusion from intercourse with the international community whereupon she fell behind in technological terms that affected her defence consequently.

When the Islamic invaders came, they could defeat the divided house that Indian royalty presented before them with betrayal of the motherland added to dash her hopes of preserving her freedom. The Rajputs were a valorous lot but hopelessly divided into separate principalities that could not look beyond their individual gains. Even when they combined to confront the enemy, they were invariably betrayed by some such element that viewed local revenge against an adversary as more important than the defence of the country from foreign aggression. This inability to unite again has historical, geographical and cultural causes into which the present essay is not venturing. Hence, murderous marauders repeatedly devastated the country of fabled wealth and when circumstances were propitious, they conquered the land and sent the grand Hindu civilisation of ages into hibernation with their aggressive proselytising of the alien inimical faith, Islam. The Hindus paid the price of prior oppression of the masses and the absence of a broad view of national good.

History runs its own course thus with the strong suppressing the weak and the victor imposing its culture on the vanquished. So it came to pass in India as a thousand year period of enslavement of the Hindus followed, a fate from which they are yet to effectively recover. The country is independent today but suffers from its inertia of the past reinforced by wrong orientation of the Mahatma and his men towards an unworkable passivity where political freedom may again be lost in a cataclysmic war with China or any such future adversary that yet lies gestating in the womb of time. India can no more afford to be gullible and sell her sovereignty at the altar of foolishness that goes by the name of pretentious piety and noxious non-violence. Genuine non-violence is a laudable virtue and is surely the only way out for the international community to collectively survive but citing such to defend the indefensible stance of India refusing to arm herself sufficiently against the looming threat of powerful adversaries is cheating oneself into future subjugation by them. Hence, the need for an all-out change in mentality of the race whereby it is not implied that everybody will have to join the ranks of the armed forces even for a short term of training of two years post university studies but that the physical health of the nation, its academic strength and financial well-being must be sufficiently catered to so as to bring forth a flourishing national life which will stand impregnable against any foreign aggression. Ideological clarity, a strong sense of nationalism, scientific strength, population control and strictest control over religious fundamentalism must be catered to so that India emerges as the nation which its first seers, the Vedic rishis, had envisaged it to be, a country from where spirituality would flow out to inundate the world. But for all this to happen, India must be cognisant of her defence demands.

Jai Hind !

Written by Sugata Bose