Divergent paths to the same goal, Gandhi and Bose

[Vehl]

As someone who is interested in world history/geopolitics,recently I had an interesting conversation with some of my friends about the independence movements of the British Colonies. When the conversation touched upon the subject of Indian independence, I realized that most people attributed the success to Gandhi alone (some credit was given to Nehru as well). However I was quite surprised that none mentioned Subhas Chandra Bose( Also known as Netaji) and his Indian National Army. On hindsight, I should not have been surprised, given the fact that most British and even Indian accounts of the Indian freedom struggle fail to mention the contributions of Subash Chandra Bose towards Indian independence.


One of the main reasons I could think of for the lack of mention in the British media would be the fact that Bose undertook Armed rebellion against the British Raj, something which the Gandhian followers did not do. It would definitely serve the British Interests to play down armed opposition vis-a-vis nonviolent opposition.I will post a brief portrait of Bose and his valuable contribution to Indian independence. I also see some interesting similarities between the armed struggle of Bose and with that of the American war of independence. Even though Gandhi played a central role in securing India's independence, it is my view that if not for Bose and his views, India would have got its independence on a much later date.

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945)

"In this mortal world, everything perishes and will perish – but ideas, ideals and dreams do not. One individual may die for an idea – but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives. That is how the wheels of evolution move on and the ideas, ideals and dreams of one generation are bequeathed to the next… "


Early Life

Subhas Chandra Bose was born 23 January 1897; and presumed to have died 18 August 1945, although this is disputed, popularly known as Netaji (literally "Respected Leader"), was one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and a legendary figure in India today.

His nationalistic tendencies came to light when, as a 3rd year student in the prestigious Presidency College in India, he was expelled for assaulting Professor Oaten for his anti-India comments.A brilliant student, Bose later topped the matriculation examination of Calcutta province in 1911 and passed his B.A. Bose went on to study in Fitzwilliam Hall of the University of Cambridge, and his high score in the Civil Service examinations meant an almost automatic appointment.

He then took his first conscious step as a revolutionary and resigned the appointment on the premise that the
"best way to end a government is to withdraw from it"


Politics

Returning to India after the Amritsar massacre and the repressive Rowlatt legislation of 1919 Bose involved himself in Politics and joined the Indian National Congress of Gandhi.In a roundup of nationalists in 1925, Bose was arrested and sent to prison in Mandalay, where he contracted tuberculosis.Released from prison two years later, Bose became general secretary of the Congress party and worked with Jawaharlal Nehru for independence.

During the mid-1930s Bose travelled in Europe, visiting Indian students and European politicians, including Mussolini.By 1938 Bose had become as leader of national stature and agreed to accept nomination as Congress president. He was elected the president of the Indian national Congress twice.



( Bose and Gandhi, when Bose was the president of the Indian national Congress)


Disagreements with Gandhi and Nehru

Subhas Chandra Bose's political views were in support of complete freedom for India at the earliest, whereas most of the Congress Committee wanted it in phases, through a Dominion status.Nehru and even Gandhi were initially reluctant to ask for "complete freedom" due to the fear that the British would reject it outright. Bose on the other hand was adamant that complete freedom was the only thing he would agree to.

Furthermore Bose advocated the use of force against the British as a viable alternative, which Gandhi opposed.

although they shared the goal of an Independent India, by 1939 the two had become divided over the strategy which should be used to achieve Indian Independence, and to some degree the form which the post-Independence state should take: Gandhi was hostile to industrialisation, whilst Bose saw it as the only route to making India strong and self-sufficient.

The 1939 election saw Bose win the presidency of the Indian national congress over the opposition of Gandhi who backed a rival candidate,however later disagreements resulted in Bose resigning from his post and leaving the Indian national Congress.

Bose at the time claimed to see little difference between the fundamentally oppressive nature of either British imperialism or the Axis' fascism. His own politics, as far as he had any besides anti-imperialism and a personality cult, were probably radical socialist.


The World war

On the outbreak of war, Bose advocated a campaign of mass civil disobedience to protest against Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's decision to declare war on India's behalf without consulting the Congress leadership. Having failed to persuade Gandhi of the necessity of this, Bose organised mass protests in Calcutta calling for the 'Holwell Monument' commemorating the Black Hole of Calcutta, which then stood at the corner of Dalhousie Square, to be removed.

A reasonable measure of the contrast between Gandhi and Bose is captured in a saying attributable to him: "If people slap you once, slap them twice".

He was thrown in jail by the British, but was released following a seven-day hunger strike.


Escape from India

Bose's house in Calcutta was kept under surveillance by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), but their vigilance left a good deal to be desired. With two court cases pending, he felt the British would not let him leave the country before the end of the war. This set the scene for Bose's escape to Germany, via Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, escorted by Abwher agents who were disguised as road construction Engineers.

Bose believed that Socialism along with a democratic government might serve the interests of nations best, especially the ones just emerging from colonial rule. Thus he wanted to enlist the help of the Soviets to oust the British. Stalin however was not interested in such a prospect, and he passed Bose onto the German ambassador to the USSR, who then had Bose flown to Germany.

Bose in Germany


( Bose in Germany)

The ambassador had Bose flown on to Berlin in a special courier aircraft at the beginning of April where he was to receive a more favorable hearing from Joachim von Ribbentrop and the Foreign Ministry officials at the Wilhelmstrasse.

In Germany he met Hitler and Ribbentrop who promised him assistance in overthrowing the British. The captured allied soldiers of Indian origin were released and formed into a unit called the India foreign legion. This was became a part of the German Army, however Hitler was not interested in helping these soldiers fight for their country, he was more interested in using them as part of his own military expeditions in Europe.

The lack of interest if not hostility shown by Hitler in the cause of Indian independence eventually caused Bose to become disillusioned and he decided to leave Nazi Germany in 1943. Bose had been living together with his wife Emilie Schenkl in Berlin from 1941 until 1943, when he left for south-east Asia.

His disillusionment with Nazi Germany is clearly evident in this letter he sent to Dr. Thierfelder of the Deutsche Academie, Kurhaus Hochland, Badgastein, 25th March 1936

"Today I regret that I have to return to India with the conviction that the new nationalism of Germany is not only narrow and selfish but arrogant."


While in Europe he married his secretary Emilie Schenkl, and later had a daughter


( His Austrian wife Emilie Schenkl and their daughter Anita )


To Japan
He traveled by the German submarine U-180 around the Cape of Good Hope to Imperial Japan (via Japanese submarine I-29). Thereafter the Japanese helped him raise his army in Singapore.


( Participants of the Greater East Asia Conference. Left to right : Ba Maw, Zhang Jinghui, Wang Jingwei, Hideki Tojo, Wan Waithayakon, José P. Laurel, Subhas Chandra Bose.)

The formation of the Indian National Army

“It is our duty to pay for our liberty with our own blood. The freedom that we shall win through our sacrifice and exertions, we shall be able to preserve with our own strength.
“~ Bose

The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance. Initially composed of Indian prisoners of war captured by Japan in her Malayan campaign and at Singapore, it later drew large numbers of volunteers from Indian expatriate population in Malaya and Burma.

Bose was able to reorganize the fledging army and organize massive support among the expatriate Indian population in south-east Asia, who lent their support by both enlisting in the Indian National Army, as well as financially in response to Bose's calls for sacrifice for the national cause. At its height it consisted of some 43,000 regular troops.

( the INA parade )


(The Tokyo Boys,Tokyo Imperial Military Academy.)



Asia’s first Women’s Regiment

“… I want … a unit of brave Indian women to form a death-defying Regiment who will wield the sword which Rani of Jhansi wielded in India’s First War of Independence in 1857.”~ Bose


( Col Lakshmi of the INA )

Among the masses attending Bose’s rally on 9 July was Dr. Lakshmi, who responded immediately to his appeal to form a Women’s Regiment. On 12 July 1943, Bose announced the formation of the Women’s Regiment, naming it “Rani of Jhansi Regiment”, after the Rani Lakshimbai (1835-1858) who rose in rebellion against the British during the 1857 Mutiny.
This was the first time such a regiment was created in Asia.

The INA's first commitment was in the Japanese thrust towards Eastern Indian frontiers of Manipur. INA's special forces, the Bahadur Group, were extensively involved in operations behind enemy lines both during the diversionary attacks in Arakan, as well as the Japanese thrust towards Imphal and Kohima, along with the Burmese National Army led by Ba Maw and Aung San. A year after the islands were taken by the Japanese, the Provisional Government and the INA were established in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with Lt Col. A.D. Loganathan appointed its Governor General. The islands were renamed Shaheed (Martyr) and Swaraj (Independence).

However, with the military reverses suffered by the Japanese forces in the East, the INA came to an End.

Death of Chandra Bose

Bose is alleged to have died in a plane crash Taihoku (Taipei), Taiwan, on 18 August 1945 while en route to Tokyo and possibly then the Soviet Union. The Japanese plane he was travelling on had engine trouble and when it crashed Bose was badly burned, dying in a local hospital four hours later. His body was then cremated. This version of events is supported by the testimonies of a Captain Yoshida Taneyoshi, and a British spy known as 'Agent 1189’




Some believe there is evidence that Bose did not die on that place crash but was taken prisoner by the Soviets and later died in one of the Siberian camps.


Impact on the British Raj

At the conclusion of the war, the government of British India brought some of the captured INA soldiers to trial on treason charges. The prisoners would potentially face the death penalty, life imprisonment or a fine as punishment if found guilty. It was initially believed by Auchinleck that no less than twenty death penalties were likely to be confirmed.

These trials attracted much publicity, and public sympathy for the defendants who were perceived as patriots in India Beyond the concurrent campaigns of noncooperation and nonviolent protest, this spread to include mutinies and wavering support within the British Indian Army.


The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny

The Raj also observed with increasing disquiet and unease the spread of pro-INA sympathies within the troops of the British Indian forces.<42> In February 1946, while the trials were still going on, a general strike ratings of the Royal Indian Navy rapidly deteriorated into a mutiny, incorporating ships and shore establishments of the RIN throughout India, from Karachi to Bombay and from Vizag to Calcutta. Amongst the rallying cries of the ratings the central one was the INA trials and slogans invoking Subhas Bose. Significantly, the mutiny received massive militant public support. At some places, NCOs in the British Indian Army started ignoring orders from British superiors. In Madras and Pune, the British garrisons had to face revolts within the ranks of the British Indian Army.

Fay(Fay, Peter W. (1993), The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence,) records Auchinleck as having sent a "Personal and Secret" letter to all senior British officers as having explained the remissions of the sentences in the first trial as

“...practically all are sure that any attempt to enforce the sentence would have led to chaos in the country at large, and probably to mutiny and dissension in the Army, culminating in its dissolution”



Thus it could be argued that the actions of Chandra Bose did have a direct and very significant effect on the course of the Indian independence struggle. A considerable number of historians now agree that Chandra Bose did play a very important role in India’s Freedom Struggle on par with that of Gandhi.

He was the first to call for complete freedom while others like Gandhi were for a phased one.

His policies also forced the British to rethink the date of Indian Independence as they could not have governed India without the Support of the Indian army, an Army which did mutiny right after World War 2, in response to the red fort trials of the ex INA soldiers. Although the military campaigns did not lead directly to India’s Independence, the postwar trials of INA officers served as a catalyst for India’s Independence.


Gandhi and Bose, even though they espoused different ideologies had the utmost respect to each other. In a speech broadcast by the Azad Hind Radio from Singapore on July 6, 1944, Bose addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the "Father of the Nation". This was the first time that Mahatma Gandhi was referred to by this appellation. Gandhi called Bose the "Prince among the Patriots".


A short Video/audio record of the Speech Bose gave to the INA before its first battle where he spells out his desire for freedom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kChz4uldQL8


The Renkoji Shrine in Japan

Renkōji Temple is a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan. It is the purported location of the ashes of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian freedom-fighter, which have been preserved since September 18, 1945

The ashes of Subhas Chandra Bose came to the temple for the purpose of a funeral ceremony but Rev. Mochizuki, father of the present chief monk, agreed to keep them in safe custody. Bose's funeral was held at 8:00 p.m. on September 18, 1945.<2> Netaji’s associates observe his death anniversary on August 18 at the temple every year. Over the years, several Indian officials have visited Renkoji to pay their respects to Subhas Chandra Bose

The ashes of Netaji are placed in a small pagoda inside the Temple.






ps: This post started as a brief one…but turned out to be quite long…..and is my first journal post as well :)
_________________________________________
Some interesting websites
http://www.s1942.org.sg/s1942/indian_national_army/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose

PPS: I have extensively used online materiel for this post, I apologize for not being able to cite all of my references.

[gateley]

1. How interesting. Never heard of Bose, never paid that much attention to India as

it was out from under British rule by the time I was born, plus it wasn't a BIG topic in school, so thanks for this! :hi:

[Vehl]

2. Thank you

He is not that well known in India as well.Thanks to the congress party which tried to downplay his role...especially due to his disagreements with Nehru(the first PM of India) . But the past few decades have seen him get more media time as India and Japan try to strengthen diplomatic ties. If I rem correctly a few years ago during a visit to India, the Japanese Prime Minister met with one of Bose's relatives.


I came to know of Bose when I used to listen to stories of ww2 from my granddad. His brother used to be in the Malayan Civil service and apparently had the opportunity to meet Bose.


:hi:

[gateley]

3. Again, how interesting! I was going to ask how you became aware of him but how cool

that your granddad has almost first-hand stories! :hi:

[Vehl]

5. yep :)

And what's even more interesting to me was that my granddad was a follower of Gandhi (while his brother was a supporter of Chandra Bose). As a young student he had the opportunity to listen to a speech Gandhi gave at his school (When Gandhi visited Ceylon in 1927). According to him, that speech was enough to make him a follower of Gandhi

During the early-mid 40s he also had the good fortune to visit India and meet Gandhi and to be present when the British flag came down on the 15th of august 1947 .

Apparently him and his brother both never had any arguments over whom they have chosen to follow except for the occasion good natured jibe.

[pnorman]

4. Those in Asia who had collabated with Japan during WW2, are with very few exceptions, a far better

type than their their counterparts in Europe. Greatly interested in Asian history, particularly Japanese, i once had a good collection of books on that topic. I no longer have them, but I recall Chandra Bose very well. Much thanks for the above! With the internet, I should now be able to research much of that missing information.

[Vehl]

6. I agree

Most of those from Asia who collaborated with the Axis/Japanese during ww2 did that for other reasons than mere racial hatred or dictatorial ambitions. Oft Asian nations endured famines induced by careless colonial rule(Like the Bengal Famine during ww2 which resulted in the death of nearly 2million people) and other draconian laws which; to the eyes of the colonial subjects didnt make the British look any better than the Axis, when it came to their regard for life. Doubly so when millions of Colonial subjects were drafted into the Colonial armies and sent to fight wars halfway around the world, not of their choosing.


I'm glad that you remember Chandra Bose well. World History is my hobby. Ive not been to any of the East Asian countries yet, but hopefully ill be able to visit them one day.


PS: on a related note, I wonder if Chandra Bose is related to Amar Bose (Bose Sound systems). Wiki says that Amar Bose's Father was an Indian freedom fighter who came to America in the early 20s in order to escape the British.

[pnorman]

8. Here's what I've been able to Google on Chandra Bose so far:

http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Subhas%20Chandra%20Bose/

It goes much deeper into the subject than I had gone so far, and l'm still Googling! It also looks as though you may also have been on that same web-site.

Having gone to sea for many years on US-flag merchant vessels, I've frequently been to many of those Asian nations. But other than encouraging a deeper interest in their histories and cultures, racing down gangways in search of "singles bars" doesn't really count too much in that direction!

[Vehl]

11. cool

Lucky you.I would love to have a job that would take me around the world!

[pnorman]

7. From the above:

"Initially composed of Indian prisoners of war captured by Japan in her Malayan campaign and at Singapore" My recollection from my long gone books on that topic, was that the majority of those captured Indian soldiers promptly joined the INA.

It's almost impossible to exaggerate the savagery of the Japanese conquest ("liberation") of much of Asia. But initially and even later, Japan's "Co-Prosperity Sphere" had much popular support there --- in Indonesia (Dutch East Indies), Burma, Thailand (almost an ally of Japan), even in the P.I.!. Not only Laurel, but Aguinaldo were avowed collaborators. Post-war history of Asia would be incomprehensible without bearing all that in mind.

[Vehl]

10. yep

I agree that one cannot downplay the horrors perpetuated by the Japanese conquest; but as you pointed out, there was considerable support to the co-prosperity sphere.

and yep, from what I heard, almost all the captured Indian prisoners of war joined the INA without a second thought. ironically they had to fight the Gurkha's in the Malayan campaign.

[Panaconda]

9. K&R n/t