The strange case of Modi resurrecting Bose

Bose himself was a secular-socialist leader, but 'a forgotten hero' outside Bengal

The statue of Subhas Chandra Bose cheering up the India Gate is almost a miracle, especially if we recollect that when director Shyam Benegal made a film about him in 2004, he titled it, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero.

Bose's resurrection from 'the forgotten hero' to the centre space of India's capital by the Narendra Modi government teaches us a critical lesson on the correlation between politics and history.

Historians of each age might think their interpretations of the past will carry the weight of finality. But, history never ends. It brings out the truth buried under the layers of time and could crown even the deliberately neglected and forgotten greats.

In India, by the end of the 1960s, the Congress, led and cornered by the Nehru-Gandhi family and aided by embedded historians, almost obliterated the political significance of three greats of the recent past: Vallabhbhai Patel, B R Ambedkar, and most importantly Subhas Chandra Bose. But, by the 1980s, political Dalit and Hindutva movements came to the aid of Ambedkar and Patel. But Bose turned into a forgotten hero except in Bengal.

Also Read | Bose is being shown as counter to Gandhi. He would have rejected the idea

Why has Bose meted out this sort of treatment? Simply because he was a legend who could outshine the Nehru-Gandhi family? No. The real reason is that if this legend were acknowledged, India's history of freedom struggle would be written differently, consequently demolishing Mahatma Gandhi-led Congress' monopoly on the matter.

At the Tripuri session held in 1939, Bose dared the Mahatma by contesting for the post of Congress president, something that no one else in the organisation could even imagine. Gandhi requested Jawaharlal Nehru and then Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to contest against Bose, but both refused. Finally, Gandhi nominated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, and Bose defeated him by 1580-1377 votes, a difference of 203 votes.

It shows that Bose was the 'hero number one' in public perception. A shocked but truthful Gandhi acknowledged that 'since I was instrumental in inducing Dr Pattabhi not to withdraw his name... the defeat is more mine than his.'

In later days, Bose took leadership of the Indian National Army, or INA, and created an unparalleled legacy in India's history. After Bose's faked or actual death, the all-powerful British regime was forced to commute the sentences of the INA prisoners, fearing a massive backlash from the people of India. By then, Bose had graduated from a hero to a legend.

In an interview with BBC in 1955, Ambedkar categorically said that he believed the most critical factor that led to the independence in 1947 was 'the national army that was raised by Subhas Chandra Bose'. He also explained why. "The British had been ruling the country in the firm belief that whatever may happen in the country or whatever the politicians do, they will never be able to change the loyalty of soldiers. And that was completely dashed to pieces."

So, it is not for nothing that the Congress-Left polity and academia would try to obliterate the memory of such a leader. The leftists, who called Bose' Tojo's dog', utilised the ploy that he joined hands with the Nazis, as if the other side did not have Joseph Stalin, the butcher of millions of his countrymen, or Winston Churchill, who caused a deliberate famine that killed 2-4 million people in Eastern India in 1943.

Bose himself was a secular-socialist leader, but as he became 'a forgotten hero' outside Bengal, some brains associated with the BJP-RSS decided to establish him, following Ambedkar's line, as one of the two principal architects (Gandhi being the other) of India's freedom. Now, some years later, Narendra Modi has put Bose back at the centre stage.

Next, the government may put him in the history textbooks in a proper perspective, if only to demolish the monopoly of the Congress in the narration of our freedom struggle. After all, a relevant question always haunts the inquisitive: When the Quit India movement died down in 1942 itself, why did the British leave India in 1947?

Again, the advantage of Bose is that even the opponents of the BJP-RSS would not dare to stamp Bose as a Hindutvawadi. This is particularly significant as it indicates the Sangh family's attempt to broad-base itself.

The changed scenario teaches us that the rulers and their embedded intellectuals, however much power they may yield at some point, will someday be washed away if they distort or hide the truth. The moral of the story is: If you (read secular liberals) abandon your hero, someone else (read the Hindutvawadis) will adopt him.

(Diptendra Raychaudhuri is a journalist and author based in Kolkata)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.