History is most important but most history across the world has been
written with a strong bias towards the victor and those in power. The life history
of many Indians who sacrificed themselves in freedom movement was not properly
portrayed, in schools, we took pride in
memorizing the name of Lord Curzon, Wellesley, Dalhousie, Minto-Morley reforms
– we read about a lot about this
glorified clerk of British East India Company. Later
it was capsuled that Gandhi got us freedom without drop of blood and Nehru
family started ruling the Nation.
Give Me Blood! I Promise You Freedom!! The British are engaged in a worldwide
struggle and in the course of this struggle they have suffered defeat after
defeat on so many fronts. The enemy having been thus considerably weakened, our
fight for liberty has become very much easier than it was five years ago. Such
a rare and God-given opportunity comes once in a century. That is why we have
sworn to fully utilise this opportunity for liberating our motherland from the
British yoke. The first phase of our
campaign is over. Our victorious troops, fighting side by side with Nipponese
troops, have pushed back the enemy and are now fighting bravely on the sacred
soil of our dear motherland – thundered this man.
One man who was
non-submissive, had clear vision and strategy –
made the British fear him, has left the most indelible impression on
India – as fighter par excellence, a great martyr, a man who could have shaped
the destiny of India - ‘Nethaji
Subash Chandra Bose’ and today is the day when Nation remembers him.
On 7
December 1941, the Japanese attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbour and
later declared war on Britain and the United States. .. but we never read about the ‘Battle of
Imphal’ – the capital of State of Manipur in 1944 when Japanese armies attempted to destroy the
Allied forces and invade India, but were driven back into Burma with heavy
losses. Together with the simultaneous Battle of Kohima on the road by which
the encircled Allied forces at Imphal were relieved, the battle was the turning
point – a victory could have changed the fortunes of the Nation. According to a voting in a contest run by the
British National Army Museum in 2013, the Battle of Imphal was bestowed as
Britain's Greatest Battle.
The Battle of Imphal-Kohima March - July 1944: An M3 Lee tank
crosses a river north of Imphal to meet the Japanese advance. Source : www.iwm.org.uk/collections
Movie is only a form of entertainment, yet there are some films
/ some scenes that move us. Shankar directed ‘Indian’ [Bharatheeyudu] was a
good film. To many the hero was not the
young Kamal but the older Indian Senapathy. The flashback in black & white
was really moving taking us to older days, especially the footage of the great
Nethaji Subash Chandra Bose. The story
shows Senapathi as a young valiant fighter joining Bose’s army with the full support of his wife
Amirthavalli. The handful of Nation’s soil to be smeared on forehead daily is poetic. Senapathi gets captured, survives the brutalities and comes to back in
free India riddled with corruption, and he fights that !!
On Sept 16th, 1985, in a dilapidated house in Faizabad, formerly
the capital of Oudh province in India, a reclusive holy man known as Bhagwanji
or Gumnami Baba (‘the saint with no name’) breathed his last. Locals had long
suspected that he was none other than Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945), the greatest revolutionary who raised an independent army against the
British Empire seeking total
independence for India. The Second World War had enabled him to practise what
he preached and his Indian National Army
fought with the Japanese in Burma attempting to drive the British out of
the subcontinent. Sadly, his death has
remained mysterious. Nethaji was
reported killed in an air crash in August 1945, while trying to escape to the
Soviet Union, many believed then and continue to believe now that, helped by
his Japanese allies, he faked his death, reached Russia and returned to India
many years later to lead the secret life of a hermit.
After their first
defeat at the hands of British in 1757, there arose many instances when Indian patriots formed groups and fought
hard and bitter battles exhibiting selfless sacrifice. Alongside hundreds of Velu Thampi, Peshwa
Baji Rao, Sardar Shyam Sing, Rani Laximibhai, Tantia Tope, Maharaj of Dumraon,
Nana Sahib, there are many hundreds hidden whose exploits, history did not
record or were neglected by the British historians and later partisan historians.
.. towering among them all would be ‘Nethaji Subash Chandra Bose’.
History records that Subash Bose, whose
success in Indian National Congress was not accepted by Mahatma Gandhi had
their last face-to-face meeting and ‘long conversation’ in June 1940 before
Subhas’s imprisonment and daring escape. Subhas made ‘a passionate appeal to
Mahatma to come forward and launch his campaign of passive resistance’. Gandhi
was ‘ non-committal’ because he felt ‘the country was not prepared for a
fight’.
On 5th Feb 1941, the Dy
Foreigh Minister of Third Reich, Dr Woermann received in Berlin a coded message
from the German embassy in Kabul. It stated
that 3 days earlier, Indian patriot Subhas Chandra Bose had walked unannounced
into the Embassy and asked for help in going to Germany. He had arrived in Kabul after perilous journeys
from Calcutta, across the north-western frontier and the tribal areas lying
between India and Afganisthan. He sought
protection in German legislation and also help in reaching his
destination. The passage to Berlin
necessitated flight over Russian territory, the German Embassy contacted the
Russian Ambassador who explained that they could not help the fugitive from
India escape secretly from Afghan as that would embroil Russia’s relations with
Afganisthan.
The man was daring and was not afraid
to precarious existence; he had started from Peshawar under assumed names,
dressed like Pathan, and playing deaf and dumb too. Subash and Talwar walked over rocky grounds, climbed mountains,
rode mules, faced risk of recognition and arrest – after dithering far too
long, Russia yielded to pressure from 3 Axis powers to let Bose pass through
Moscow with stipulation that Bose would not stay in Soviet Russia and pass
through Moscow in disguise. Mussolini’s
Govt came forward more enthusiastically than others to help Subhas. History has not probed deep to Bose’s
thought, preferences and plans. While in
June 1940, Hitler’s victory had seemed imminent, in Jan 1941, it had become a
probability. When victory was no longer
certain for Germany, other considerations came to the fore and led Bose decide
in favour of Russia.
Imphal, the capital of Manipur state,
lay in a plain surrounded by hills and was the main British base in the area.
It was held by Scoones’ 4th Corps. In 1944,
Imphal was not what it is now, yet some physical features do remain the
same. The main entrance to the valley is
by the all-weather road which winds its way northwards through some picturesque
natural scenery and narrow tracks. General Mutaguchi had estimated his campaign
for occupation of Imphal area would be over in a month or so. Hence, after Tokyo’s order to march received in
Jan 1944, he did not at first have much anxiety about rains – the troops began
to arrive piecemeal by roadvehicles and on foot. Its 15th division was to come from
Nanking China, were detained by Singapore’s command ostensibly to construct
road and overawe Japan’s unwilling ally, the Thai Govt. All these exasperated
the strategy of Mutaguchi.
Inspite of the questionable wisdom of
announcing his timetable to Press, General Mutaguchi’s 15th army had
kept the secret about crossing the Chindwin very well and the sudden appearance
of 3 divisions of Japanese troops on India’s frontier took the British by complete
surprise. Japanese appeared at the door of Kohima in April and occupied
it. In the end Japanese military circles
did not appear to credit Mutaguchi with intelligence of high order. Mutaguchi had been telling Nethaji that INA
men could join Japanese army after the latter had broken through the enemy’s
defences. Mutaguchi’s assault on Imphal
basin was an action replay of Japanese army trapping 7th division of
British in Kaladan valleu, followed by his failure to secure the surrender of
the enemy. Netaji
had wanted to drive the enemy out of Imphal rather than hold them captive there
– ‘No’ Mutaguchi had exclaimed, - ‘there is a big fish in the tank and I want
to catch it’ !!!. Getting a foothold
even without annihilation would have left them much stronger.
Nethaji had clear views
that the result of the Battle of Imphal concerned India much more than Japan. With Imphan in its control, Bose’s
provisional Govt could have stirred up an anti-British revolt in eastern India
after widespread sabotage of British military installations and means of
communication. So significant were these to India, yet, did we ever read these and
Battle of Imphal in our school curriculum or in our Nation’s History and who is
to blame ???
INDIA did not feature in Second World
War, but the turn of events widely impacted it – yet the Historians and
politicians chose to ignore and record its impact. Nethaji was daringly different. He arrived in Kabul escaping the
British. As he was strategizing to fight
the invaders, Gandhi had led campaigns and garnered all attention of freedom
struggle. The non-violent campaigns did
not impact and were not powerful enough to dislodge the colonisers. After failure of 3 such peaceful attempts,
the fourth one was launched by Nethaji, an armed assault form outside India in collaboration
of Britain’s enemies. Its aim was either
to overcome the power or that the freedom fighters laying down their lives
would rouse patriotic feelings in the minds of Indian soldiers serving the
British Army.
Even
as those efforts went unheralded by the Congress dominated struggle, one
influential member of British cabinet, Sir Stafford Cripps, proposed that UK
make a precipitated withdrawal from India with all her forces and administrative
personnel. That
was the precise moment, Nethaji Subash Chandra Bose had brought freedom within
the grasp of people, instilling fear in the minds of colonisers.
The man of this day – NETHAJI SUBASH CHANDRA BOSE – stands tall
above Gandhi, Nehru and all others whom we read about. Nation today remembers and pays homage to the
great son of India.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
23rd Jan 2023
Biblio : collated from
various sources and some excerpted from the Book – : ” Netaji Subash Chandra
Bose – from Kabul to Battle of Imphal “ – by HN Pandit.
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