My dear Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose;
If I fail you, it is because I am incompetent to
talk about myself, our country and people !! ….the country you left and of course with
the people and the politicians around. As an individual I was always awed by the great
patriotism and valiant courage you displayed.
India attained its freedom from
British raj in 1947 but it soon submerged into some kind of stagnancy, some
kind of bondage to a particular political party and more so the particular
dynasty. That was our unbecoming !
At this juncture as the
nation awaits your birthday once again, Netaji, my observations can easily lead
to ponder where the country and
more so the people – you loved so much - had taken a wrong turn.
Netaji: The Valiant Patriot |
India as a nation known to people of my generation –
late 1960s-early 1970s as my parents married only in 1967 – has progressed. But
in retrospect, Netaji, India as a civilization has been actually in the process
of change and each passing day sees that transition in the context of the
millennium-old spectrum of social life. All these meant multiple challenges.
Foremost of all these challenges has been one core issue – that is the gap in
“absorption” of a rich ancient culture into a new synthesis called modernity.
You had left India at a crucial juncture of its
history. Some of your compatriots and albeit political rivals took over the
reins of power and sorry to say, often displayed gross selfishness, partisan
and parochialism. A new kind of political culture was pushed. It actually
accentuated several dormant problems and these have today turned into demons – those
cannot be controlled.
The Hindu-Muslim disunity is one of them. Casteism
is the other. It only shows your leadership as the INA you led was able to shed
all these trappings. Sadly, a free India could not. No democracy – as enforced
in the manner – actually can achieve that. This was our another faultline, may
be!
The sociology of nationalism debate would suffice
that India as a nation – post the gruesome partition of 1947 – does bear
resemblance to “western nations”.
Bertrand De-Jouvenel, the French Philosopher who was
born in 1903 and has seen your times, was impressed by our country’s size (post
1947 itself) and had said in 1960s later that “Bihar itself has a population
equal to France”.
So, Netaji, our beloved Netaji….India is itself a
continent – with considerable variety of people, their culture, occupation and climate
and natural resources. So perhaps naturally we also inherited the challenges of
provincial discrimination, religious (or communal) passions and hatreds.
Sadly,
we did not do enough as citizens to conquer these vices. I often wonder,
whether your presence amidst us during such hour would have resolved at least a
few problems.
On this birthday, you will hit newspaper and television
headlines with a ‘difference’. Some ‘secret and codified’ papers regarding your
life and times may be brought out by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This new leader, India
chose so enthusiastically in 2014, comes from the land of Mahatma Gandhi and
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Without going into details, I ought to share with you
another information that Modi also – mildly put - has disapproval of certain
things Pt Jawaharlal Nehru did and said.
We will debate these political issues on a later
day, Netaji. But as an ardent admirer of yours – initially by the fashion as I too
was born a Bengali and you are a folk hero of Bengalis. And later by conviction
– I beg your attention to the contemporary setting. Things are actually in a mess today and would have certainly pained you – if not shocked you! The
challenges are many and yet we as countrymen and women continue to contribute
in increasing a few – at least every month. The
situation we are in, Netaji, should be enough to wake us up to the realization that
the basic game has changed fundamentally. Lingering territorial disputes are no
longer the driving force. After 68 years, we still have found no answer to
starvation and problems on water have only grown manifold.
Instead, it
is high time we appreciate that the world and our country should be viewed
through economic prism and developmental lens. One community can be rivals to another in one front and
at the same time we need to be on a winning partnership in another.
The task
ahead is for scrupulous placement of several broken chapters and episodes on an
increasingly complex chessboard. But you would appreciate, Netaji, this is an interconnected
chessboard.
I am referring to the game of chess as this sports
teaches each one of us that after the game is over – pawns and the King have to get inside the same box.
Now the practical issues: In 1940s when you left us
in agony and even few years later – in 1947 – when India was divided but free
from colonial masters – as a nation India emerged a miserable figure. Our
country was stricken with dire poverty. But overall there have been intriguing
changes in food scenario and plans. The heavy shortfalls in agricultural stocks
and targets are now thing of the past. In industry we have reaped benefits from
dependence on heavy industries. But the truncated new-economic culture ensured in
many pockets the gap between haves and have nots has increased manifold.
Our farmers often end their lives themselves. We disrespect women and fight over religion.
On your part, on some
occasions, and leaders like you spoke of self-dependency in industrialization. This
has been another area of our failing Netaji. You would appreciate that India
was actually a colonial economy par excellence – when we exported raw materials
and Britain dumped the manufactured goods. From our Asian brothers like
Japanese, we need to learn corrective steps on these fronts.
A Rare snap of Bose |
Lately our
government is talking about ‘Make-in-India’. Japan or even neighbours like
South Korea have over the years utilized the same technical novelties that are
prevalent in India but are strangely enough not adequately adopted. Sad na?
In the ultimate analysis, Netaji, as one of your
million admirers – in this missive one only hopes it is time Indian people give
unto themselves a critical advantage of hearing the opposite views. We hate criticism. In the process, we fail to do the right diagnosis.
We have
become such much of a country of ‘yes men-and-women’ and this cannot be an India
the fearless son of my country like you dreamed off.
Warm regards. Will I hear from you, Netaji, ever?
ends
My dad & daughter: Both Netaji fans |
Good Writeup... I will only add one point on to this. Until we as a humanity take the sole responsibility towards our-self first, Shake off all the dirt's still attached to our psyche and conditioning of past we wont be able to change the face of what the world and humanity is as of today.
ReplyDeleteWe all need a very deep catharsis of our own psyche, cure ourselves of all emotional and psychological garbage for the birth of a new blissful humankind. Only then can their be a possibility of a happier blissful world that we always long for.
May we all be inspired to look into ourselves first before changing the neighbors, society, nation and this planet at large.
Love & Hugs,
Joy
tks joy lovely comments...u really think global and for entire humanity...something Netaji stood for!
ReplyDelete