In Bengal, the political battle over Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
There are many, especially in Bengal, who believe that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose not only did not die in an air crash in 1945, but survived long after India became independent. Netaji-spotting and conspiracy theories became a cottage industry, spurred by diehard fans, multiple government-appointed commissions and books and films, often based on tenuous research. What’s different in 2021 is Netaji being dragged into electoral politics.
With the party founded by Netaji, the Forward Bloc, having faded into obscurity, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making a concerted bid to claim Netaji’s legacy in the run-up to the state elections. Netaji has a special relevance for Bengal. He has long fed into the Bengali notions of pride as well as neglect in independent India.
When West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee objected, in the presence of the prime minister, to cries of Jai Shri Ram at a function in Victoria Memorial to commemorate Netaji’s birth anniversary, she was expressing her anger at a slogan that has acquired a political hue and riled her earlier. But, at another level, she was objecting to the BJP’S attempts to own Netaji.
Indeed, just as in the case of Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar — other icons the BJP has attempted to appropriate — the effort to do so with Netaji is fraught with ideological contradictions. If nothing else, Netaji was avowedly secular through his political career.
Nearly a decade before he formed the Indian National Army (INA), Netaji wrote a passionate message to his fellow Bengalis: “One of the dreams that have inspired me and given a purpose to my life is that of a great and undivided Bengal … a Bengal that is above all sects and groups and is the home alike of the Muslim, the Hindu, the Christian and the Buddhist.”
Again, in 1937, when a controversy arose over the singing of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Vande Mataram by Congress members on formal occasions, Bose suggested taking the advice of Rabindranath
Tagore. Tagore said that while the first verse of the song was inspirational, the rest could be offensive to Muslims. This interpretation was accepted by Bose and the Congress.
Netaji’s secular spirit found true expression in INA and the Azad Hind government. While Jai Hind was the slogan of INA, three Urdu words — Itmad, Ittefaq and Kurbani — were its motto. Several other incidents highlight Netaji’s secular outlook. Historian Sugata Bose, who is also a member of Bose’s family, notes that, in 1943, when priests of the main Chettiar temple in Singapore invited Netaji to a religious ceremony, he turned them down. He eventually consented only after the temple authorities agreed to a gathering of all castes and communities. Netaji’s compatriot, Abid Hasan, has written that the temple was “filled to capacity with the uniforms of INA officers and men and the black caps of the South Indian Muslims glaringly evident.”
Perhaps, the famous public trial in 1945 of three INA officers — Prem Kumar Sahgal, a Hindu, Shah Nawaz Khan, a Muslim, and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, a Sikh — best showcased the composition of INA and Netaji’s secular leanings. As Sugata Bose argues, the “Hindu right lauds his military heroism, ignoring his deep commitment to Hindu-muslim unity and the rights of religious minorities”.
The effort to own Netaji has intensified in this election cycle, with his 125th birth anniversary celebrations also acting as a catalyst. The current situation is complicated by a political divide within Netaji’s family. Sugata Bose and his late mother, Krishna Bose, are former MPS of the Trinamool Congress while a cousin, Chandra Bose, unsuccessfully contested the 2016 Assembly election on a BJP ticket.
What is certain though is that once the election is over, Netaji will once again be consigned to statues and portraits as well as conspiracy theories.