RASH BEHARI BOSE -- A FORGOTTEN REVOLUTIONARY ... 1

RASH BEHARI  BOSE -- A FORGOTTEN REVOLUTIONARY ... 1

Rash Behari Bose founded the Japan chapter of the Hindu Mahasabha which is why my love and reverence flows for him all the more. Even Sachindranath Sanyal, an associate of Rash Behari, was a dedicated Hindu to the core. These two revolutionaries understood the implications of freedom in its comprehensive sweep that entailed not only the liberation of India from European colonial shackles but also from the thousand year domination by the Islamic invaders and rulers with all their desecration of Hindu civilisation and culture, the very ruination of the age-old indigenous life issuing from the Vedas.

The clear head of Rash Behari Bose despite paltry formal education baffles one. In my considered estimation he was preeminent among all the freedom fighters, being head and shoulders above the rest. My assessment is based purely on the fact that he was the only one who attempted the revolutionary overthrow of the British Government in India during the turbulence of two World Wars. The first one was aborted at the last minute owing to Kripal Singh's betrayal but the second one succeeded with the INA precipitating events which made the British hurry home while yet here was time to avoid getting butchered by the angry Indian masses then raised to a fever-pitch of patriotic zeal following the INA Red Fort Trials and the RIN Mutiny. Rash Behari Bose's revolutionary career thus spanned the entire first half of the twentieth century, a span of time few freedom fighters could likewise match.

Rash Behari Bose learnt bomb-making but did not throw it at just any offending senior police officer or malicious magistrate but hurled it right on the Viceroy of British India, Lord Hardinge, which severely injured him, incapacitated him for several months and shook the British Empire to its very foul foundations.

On the birthday of this greatest of patriots, 25 May, 2022, this is my humble offering at his lotus feet. Where will we find another Rash Behari Bose on whom reams may be written but who today remains in official India a neglected and a forgotten character? We will never rise as a nation till the likes of Rash Behari Bose are resurrected in the public eye. Government of India, wake up. People of India, wake up, too.

Written by Sugata Bose