THE GLORIOUS SAGA

THE GLORIOUS SAGA 

Those who are least concerned about Netaji clamour the most about discussion on his chronicled life to the exclusion of his possible whereabouts post-disappearance. These ones do not love Netaji. They merely bask in the stellar glow of the great man by dint of blood-bond or there are the others who wish to paint him as a stooge of the fascists, and a 'misguided patriot', to quote Gandhi. The truth, however, is that a mother whose son has gone missing cannot rest discussing her son's attainments and philosophy but goes madly about in search of her lost son. Had Prabhabati Devi been alive post 23 August, 1945 when the Domei News Agency flashed the news of Netaji's death by plane crash, ... [1]

... her reaction, spontaneous and reflective, would have proved the point being made, for no mother can make common cause with the adversaries of her son nor compromise on truth about her missing son. That she was spared the deathly blow through her own demise in December, 1943 was benediction bestowed on her. Else, the very blow would have killed her. When her son addressed the nation from Berlin beginning with, "Ami Subhas bolchhi," it was to her that he intimated the first news thus of his well-being. Prabhabati Devi's eyes instantly welled up with tears (info., courtesy, Subrata Bose, YouTube video). Her Subi did return to her in a vaster sense, for he had equated her with the motherland ... [2]

...  When news of Prabhabati Devi's death arrived, Subhas Chandra was in the Andamans. A vast ocean of water and a vaster ocean of unshed tears separated mother and son even as they united in spirit. For Subhas Chandra was essentially spiritual and ever on the brink of embracing the renunciate's life as his early experiences and latter day late night visits to the Singapore Ramakrishna Mission amidst the cataclysm of World War II indicated. When on the last day in Saigon, 17 August, 1945 in Leon Prouchandy's house Netaji contemplated his future programme of liberating India, when he stood on an inch of ground while everything around him dissolved like a distant dream ...[3]

... or a nightmare that had barely begun, he yet held on to hope, incurable optimist that he was. Such a fighting spirit, so rare in this mortal world of fearful men, such composure amidst catastrophe, made the Japanese military officers admire him as a samurai of the highest order. Japan had pledged fraternal help to Netaji's Provisional Government of Free India and did not budge an inch even when she had been nuked twice by dastardly America. The Nipponese Army offered Chandra Bose San safe passage to the Soviet Union from where we lose our trail save for the rarest archival references and curious personal observations by pertinent people. The boy Subhas had once suddenly disappeared in adolescence in search of a spiritual preceptor... [4]

... The mature leader in disguise had disappeared from house arrest (38/2 Elgin Road) in January, 1941, travelled through Peshawar, Kabul, Samarkand and Moscow before reaching Berlin where he raised his Free India Legion with German-captured British Indian prisoners of war. Netaji had come alive for hundreds of millions of subjugated Indians when the hero addressed his countrymen over the radio and announced the broad principles of his 'fighting programme' for the freedom of India. Expatriate Indians in East Asia, thrilled to the marrow, responded. Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia had complicated matters and Netaji shifted focus to North Eastern India for launching his armed attack on imperial Britain... [5]

... Meanwhile, the Ghadar hero, the daring bomber of Lord Hardinge, the redoubtable revolutionary Rash Behari Bose had been biding time since his escape from India in the guise of P.N.Tagore in 1915. Japan had given him sanctuary, help, honour and a permanent base for his attempted pan-Asian revolution against imperial Britain. Rising Nippon shared a common aim with revolutionary India as represented by Rash Behari and his comrades-in-arms at home. With Japanese help Bose raised the Indian Independence League and the first Indian National Army comprising Japanese-captured British Indian prisoners of war. Now the senior Bose summoned the junior one... [6]

... Arrangements were made at the highest diplomatic level to bring over Subhas Bose to East Asia. An audience with Hitler, much delayed by the Fuhrer's refusal to meet Bose, did eventually mature but to no fruitful end save that of the assurance to provide Bose underwater conveyance from Germany to East Asia. The ninety day submarine journey, the longest ever, especially in war-ravaged seas, carried Bose to Sumatra whence he was flown to Tokyo to meet the Japanese Prime Minister General Tojo and Emperor Hirohito who assured him of all help. The Provisional Government of Free India was launched on 21 October, 1943 from Singapore and two days later on 23 October, 1943 it declared war on ... [7]

... the Anglo-American forces. Regarding Russia which was at war with the Axis forces, Bose maintained neutrality despite being an ally of the Axis powers. This was crucial to his future plans of soliciting Russian help in launching another armed struggle of liberation if the Axis powers failed to win the war which Bose reckoned would be the likely outcome the way the odds were pitted against them. One must remember that even Japan and Russia pitted on either side overall were not at war with each other. It was only as late as July, 1945 that the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. A month later the war ended on a nuclear note...[8]

... An overwhelmed Germany had surrendered in May, 1945 after Hitler had committed suicide. Earlier Mussolini's regime had been overthrown internally and Italy had been won back from Nazi occupation. Now Hiroshima on 6 August, 1945 and Nagasaki on 9 August, 1945 had been erased by atomic attack. Japan had surrendered unconditionally and the U.S. forces occupied the islands. Rash Behari Bose had died of natural causes in January, 1945 to be spared the horrors of the twin city obliteration and the death of his brave son, Masahide, in the subsequent Battle of Okinawa. Now it was Subhas Chandra Bose's turn to face the overwhelming odds pitted against the INA and his person. How would he react? ... [9]

...The Battle of Imphal-Kohima fought by the INA-Japan coalition against the Allied forces was the fiercest battle in imperial British history, surpassing even the Battle of Waterloo. 26,000 out of 60,000 INA soldiers who spearheaded the attack on the north-eastern flank of British India perished in this deadly battle. After initial successes that led to the establishment of the Provisional Government of Free India under the Prime Ministership of Subhas Chandra Bose across 300 sq. km of British India, now freshly liberated and the then Indian tricolour fluttering free, fortune started reversing. The changing scenario of the war in Europe with Germany being driven back from its occupation,...[10]

... concentrated Allied attack on Japan forcing Japanese airforce to withdraw from the Indo-Burma front and thus failing to provide aircover for the INA, an inordinately heavy monsoon in 1944 in the region causing logistical problems, the progressive withdrawal of Japanese forces and eventually her capitulation post Hiroshima-Nagasaki -- all these contributed to Netaji agreeing to a ceasefire of the INA but not a surrender as the rest of the Axis alliance had done. The fight would continue but on another front as yet unborn and lying in the womb of history. In pure technical terms, therefore, World War II had not and has not ended as one of the adversaries of the Allied forces has never surrendered...[11]

... Does a man become a leader just like that? Do his comrades-in-arms call him Netaji merely to match comtemporary epithets like Fuhrer, Il Duce and Caudillo conferred on Hitler, Musollini and Franco? Does such a title, spontaneous and free, come easy to a man unless he is loved, honoured, revered and adored by his colleagues, compatriots, patriots and fighters in war, for Netaji considered all his own and none his subordinates except in official governmental and military terms? He was their leader nonpareil who shared their woes in war, braved the battlefront and now retreated on foot with his Ranis to guard them, protect them from the least harm at the time of great calamity. He was their leader because he led from the front, fearless of death, the death which he prized as the price of freedom, the spilled blood the offering to the motherland on the road to Delhi, the road to freedom...[12]

... Only one Rani lost her life to shelling while on the retreat. The rest all reached safely their homes to their parents and guardians. Netaji personally saw to it that they reached their destinations safe and sound. When offered a jeep to retreat, Netaji refused it, choosing instead to travel with the Ranis on foot. Such was his concern for these valiant girls and women that he looked upon them as queens, as embodiment of the Divine Mother that he worshipped. They also reciprocated the filial love, looking upon Netaji as their father...[13]

... Now Netaji set forth on the next phase of his mission, that of seeking refuge in Russia where he planned to raise yet another army of liberation with Soviet help. From his early youth Subhas Chandra had developed links with members of the Communist Party of Russia as he had foreseen the necessity of seeking Russsian help in the future for India's liberation. A keen student of history, Bose had clearly foreseen the precipitation of a second great war in Europe in the decades ahead when Russia on account of her ideological differences with the Anglo-American forces could be relied upon to support India's war of freedom... [14]

... When he had escaped from house-arrest in 1941 and travelled to Moscow, Stalin had been reticent to help him as he did not wish to antagonise Britain who he reckoned could be counted upon as a potential ally against Hitler were the latter to order a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, violating the Ribbentrop-Molotov Non-aggression Pact of 1939. Bose was given a safe passage to Germany through war-torn Europe, which was a magnanimous gesture at any rate, and this was how the political equation of Bose's life changed forever. He was dubbed a fascist, a Nazi sympathiser and a power-drrunk leader who dreamt of being free India's absolute dictator one day...[15]

... But great people and small people often look alike, the opposite poles meeting in common misconception as identities. If Churchill and Roosevelt, both votaries of democracy and capitalism, could seek in communist Stalin a wartime ally to combat fascist Hitler, how different was it from democrat-socialist Bose seeking in fascist Hitler and Tojo his wartime allies to overthrow imperial Britain from the soil of India, especially after Stalin had refused help that had first been sought? But wise critics do not deem it necessary to critically appreciate these issues this way for they have their personal political ideologies and agendas to pursue... [16]