Netaji- Subhash Chandra Bose

[Bharatvarsh2]

I agree. But there is more. Indians tend to forget that it was Veer Savarkar who

brought Rash Behari [Bihari] Bose and Subhas Chandra Bose in a common cause.

Here is how: When world war II began, Savarkar declared that "the sanest policy

for us which practical politics demand is to befriend those who are likely to

serve our country's interests in spite of any `ism' they may follow for

themselves and to befriend them only so long as it serves our purpose" (Savarkar

1964 6: 413).



On 22 June 1940, Subhas Chandra Bose came to brief Savarkar at the latter's

residence in Mumbai on an agitation centred on the Black Hole monument in

Kolkata that Bose was leading. The `Black Hole of Calcutta' referred to a small

dungeon where troops of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, had held British

prisoners of war after the capture of Fort William in 1756. The British claimed

that 146 of their men and women prisoners held there died from suffocation, heat

exhaustion, and crushing. A tablet erected on the site of the Black Hole to

commemorate the victims mysteriously disappeared in 1822 whereupon Lord Curzon

commissioned a new monument. Its presence in Kolkata became a cause celebre and

a rallying point for nationalists when Bose began lobbying for its removal in

which he received support from the Indian National Congress and the Muslim

League. Bose had hoped that the agitation would draw Hindus and Muslims closer

and in that connection had already visited M. A. Jinnah and was now calling on

Savarkar.



In their meeting Savarkar said to Bose, "Why do you want to waste time in the

agitation to remove this monument? Instead of courting arrest and languishing in

jail, a person of your stature should go abroad and form an army to attack the

British from outside the India." Bose disregarded Savarkar's counsel at that

time and went ahead with the agitation for which he was jailed and kept under

house arrest from where he would make the much celebrated escape to Berlin (see

Banerji 1990: 135-136).



Upon learning of Bose's arrival in Berlin, Savarkar contacted his old colleague

Rash Bihari Bose in Japan and recommended that Subhas Chandra Bose should lead

the war effort from the base in Japan with the connivance of the Japanese

government with whom Rash Bihari had cultivated close relations. Rash Bihari had

also managed to bring together in a common cause the Indian Independence League

formed by Pritam Singh and the Indian National Army of Mohan Singh (the two were

feuding and scheming against each other). When Bose arrived in Japan from

Berlin, Rash Bihari handed the baton to him as the sole leader (Netaji) of the

Indian National Army (INA)(see Punj 2002).



On September 30, 1943 Netaji toured Andaman as the supreme commander of Azad

Hind Fauz and paid tribute to the freedom fighters (including Savarkar) in the

Cellular Jail. He got printed thousands of copies of the Tamil version of

Savarkar's Indian War of Independence of 1857 and distributed them in public.

Andaman and Nicobar islands were re-named as Shaheed and Swaraj islands.



In a speech on Azad Hind Radio (June 25, 1944) Netaji acknowledged Savarkar's

foresight in these words: "When due to misguided political whims and lack of

vision, almost all the leaders of Congress party have been decrying all the

soldiers in Indian Army as mercenaries, it is heartening to know that Savarkar

is fearlessly exhorting the youths of India to enlist in armed forces. These

enlisted youths themselves provide us with trained men and soldiers for our

Indian National Army" (Punj 2002).



References:



Banerjee, Nitya Narayan. 1990. Hindu Outlook. Calcutta: Hindutva Publications

Punj, Balbir K. Subhas vs Savarkar. 2002. The Asian Age, May 20, 2002

Savarkar, V.D. 1964. Samagra Savarkar Wangamaya: Writings of Swatantrya Veer

V.D. Savarkar (6 vols). Pune: Maharashtra Prantik Hindusabha.



Shrinivas Tilak



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hinducivil...sage/43358