NETAJI SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE & THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY (INA)
(The Key Catalysts to India's Freedom)
Maj Gen (Dr) G D Bakshi SM, VSM (Retd)
"He was certainly always a nationalist. For him, the In dian Nation was an idea, the very antithesis of the princel
y states and the caste system and linguistic conflicts, and above all, the very antithesis of Jinnah's theory of two nations."
- Anton Pelinka on Netaji Subhash -
"The
British no longer
feared Gandhi o; Nehru, but they feared Bose and the violence he represented, and his suddenl
y amplified figure overawed the conferences that were to lead to independence.11
- Michael Edwards
"The contribution made by Netaji S C Bose towards
the achievement of freedom in 1945 was no less and perha ps more important than that of M ahatma Gandhi."
- R.C. Majumdar,
Historian
"The Sikhs
may try & set up a separate regime and that will only be the su-,rt of a general decentralization and breakup of the idea that Ind ia is a country, whereas it is a subcont
inent as varied as Europe . The Punjabi
is as different Fom a M adrasi, as a Scdt from an ftalian.
The British tried to consolidate it but achieved
nothing permanent. No one
can make a nation out of the Eq«ator."
- Field Marshal Claude Auchinlek
Strategic Direction
of Freedom Struggle
Where a nation state is going, depends a great deal on where it has come from. What were its origins? How did it gain its freedom? How were its seminal institutions formed? What was its national narrative on formation? Who were its heroes?
68 years after independence, the time has come to take a dispassionate view of our recent history and reassess
the role of the key dramatis personae. This is not an exercise in digging up graves, but an essential exercise about recognizing who we are and what do we stand for. The Indian Freedom struggle
had thrown up a galaxy of great leaders who were talented men of great vision and stature.
In retrospect one of the tallest amongst them perhaps was Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose.
"There was, in Bose's perception, a linkage between how India gained independence and what India would do after
independence. How India gained independence would determine if India would be able to surmount
the powerful efforts being made to undermine her unity. At this stage
{1942} , Bose's mind was not only on the ensuing struggle,
he also gave much attention
to the question of the cohesion and modernization of Indian society.
Without these, he felt, India's political unitywould
remain vulnerable."
- Sitanshu Das, Subhash Bose: A Political Biography
The Use of Force: The key question
about the freedom
struggle is basically
what actually worked? What was the relative contribution of the use of force versus the Non-violent Agitational
approach towards
India achieving
her independence. In terms of violence - there are two landmark events - the 1857 Mutiny and the first
war of independence that it unleashed.
