1948 - Jan 30 - Tees January - Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated :::: Homage ! Did Nehru make Gandhi ji irrelevant after 1947

"I would like to warn you that after our Army of Liberation sets foot on Indian soil, it will take at least twelve months, and perhaps more, to liberate the whole of India from the British yoke. 

Let us, therefore, gird up our loins and prepare for a long and hard struggle," Netaji Subhas Bose had said.

Netaji also spelled out: "It is now possible for the Indian people to draw the sword. We are happy and proud that India's Army of Liberation (Azad Hind Fauz) has already come into existence and is steadily increasing in numbers". 

"We have on the one hand, to complete the training of this Army and send it to the field of battle as soon as possible…The final struggle for liberty will be long and hard and we must go on fighting, till the last Britisher in India is either cast in prison or thrown out of the country".

 Mahatma Gandhi had rested immense trust in Jawaharlal Nehru. In fact, India's freedom struggle is more often the stories of association of these two leaders -- their differences and their ways of influencing each other.

Was that an 'opportunist' Nehru using Mahatma Gandhi as a crutch to make it to the top into the corridors of power? This is one issue of public debate also because, the incumbent Modi government has in more ways than one tried to discover and re-discover the fault-lines of India's first Prime Minister.  

Many say even prior to 1947 when contentious issues such as Partition was being discussed, Gandhi ji almost lost his power of influence. On the crucial the idea of Partitioning mother India was 'accepted', it is said it was a wrong day as Gandhi ji ought to maintain silence that day. 

The mindset common and faceless Indians developed after Independence also left Gandhi annoyed. After independence, Gandhi spent much of his time praying, fasting and discussing duties of citizens. 

In October 1947, at a prayer meeting in Delhi, he raised the bogey of 'ticket-less' travel in trans and said: “People think that since they had won freedom there was no need to buy tickets… The railways certainly belong to us now but ticket-less travelling has led to a loss of Rs 8 crore… if people start having free rides in trains, it is a kind of violence…"

But physical violence had become the order of the day and some parts in eastern side like Noakhali was burning. Partition was possibly a 'scheme' enforced by the colonial masters and in retrospect, it could be possibly stated that it was enforced by the British colonial masters in active association with a few Indians, especially Nehru. 

Between Nehru and Gandhiji, while Gandhi had the power to mesmerize the peasantry, it is often said that Nehru drew the intelligentsia to the Congress. But Nehru almost dragged the party to communism too; but Gandhiji's intervention stalled that. If by 2015-16, people have started talking about Rahul Gandhi showing the 'drift' to far Left; the fact of the matter is possibly he inherited that doctrine of politics from Nehru himself. 

In 1930 when Congress elected a new president, Gandhi backed the usual school of thought and that was Nehru. According to author Michael Brecher, "There were two basic reasons for this choice --- namely to divert radical youth from Communism to the Congress; and to wean Nehru himself from the drift to the far Left".

"No two leaders of the freedom struggle were so different from each other, and also so intimately connected to each other, as were Gandhi and Nehru. Superficially it would appear that the two were poles apart. There could be hardly anything in common between Nehru, with his Marxism, universalism and focus on modern science and technology and Gandhi with his spinning wheel, evening prayers and inner voice. 

Yet there existed an extremely deep bond between them which often helped to tide over an otherwise extremely stormy and contentious political relationship," says an article in 'National Herald'.    

Mahatma Gandhi-Subhas Chandra Bose disagreement 

When Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his 'faction' called for the establishment of 'parallel governments' based on local Congress committees, Bose-Mahatma Gandhi differences came to the fore. As the fissures remained, the Bose group "expressed its displeasure by forming a Congress Democratic faction within the Congress party, says Nehru's biographer Michael Brecher.  

The book 'Nehru - A Political Biography' (by Brecher) says: "Nehru was silent throughout the debate : emotionally he was sympathetic to Bose, but intellectually he was drawn to Gandhi". 

It is also well known that at personal level even Bose was an admirer of the Mahatma. In 1943, Netaji said, "Gandhi's name will be written in golden letters in history".

Notably, this was four years after their disagreement at Tripuri Congress in 1939. 

It is also known that Bose was very popular and his methodologies were liked by hundreds of Congressmen and women. 

Netaji of course had developed political differences not only with Mahatma Gandhi, but also with Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad and even Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel especially after the Tripuri Congress session.  

In more ways than one, Gandhi’s dominated non-violent nationalism was being 'challenged'. 

Bose had a mind of a calculative diplomat and hence his strategic vision was clear: "British Empire constitutes the great obstacle not only in the path of India's freedom but also in the path of human progress. Since the attitude of Indian people is intensely hostile to the British in the present war, it is possible for them to materially assist in bringing about the overthrow of Great Britain."

Mahatma Gandhi had earlier written words, which became historic as parting words between a mentor and his admirer. 

"You (Subhas Bose) are irrepressible…till one of us is converted to the other's view, we must sail in different boats, though their destination may appear but only appear to be the same," Gandhiji wrote to Netaji. 

"Meanwhile let us love one another as remaining members of the same family that we are," the Mahatma further stated. 

In 'Brothers Against the Raj', Leonard A Gordon observed "Gandhi was unconverted by anything Bose had to say. To him, Bose had remained a lost son." (Hindustan Times) 

It was this ‘lost son’ who went on air on the 75th birth anniversary of his Bapu, devoting the broadcast to "an estimation of the place of Mahatmaji in the history of India's struggle for independence. The service which Mahatma Gandhi has rendered to India and to the cause of India's freedom is so unique and unparalleled that his name will be written in letters of gold in our national history for all time."

Netaji, with his sense of history and ability to draw lessons from the past, used the broadcast to give a birds-eye view of India’s ruthless subjugation by the British East India Company and then, the British Government.

After the 1857 war of Independence, and in 1885 the formation of the Indian National Congress, Netaji recounted the rising tide of national spirit across the country.

The Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre were turning points, Netaji recounted, “after tragic events of 1919 the Indian people were stunned and paralysed for the time being. 

?All the attempts for achieving liberty had been ruthlessly crushed by the British and their armed forces. Constitutional agitation, boycott of British goods, armed revolution - all had failed alike to bring freedom. There was not a ray of hope left and the Indian people, though their hearts were burning with indignation, were groping in the dark for a new method and a new weapon of struggle". 

Bose also said: "Just at this psychological moment, Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the scene with his novel method of Non-Cooperation and Satyagraha or Civil Disobedience. It appeared as if he had been sent by Providence to show the path to liberty. Immediately and spontaneously, the entire nation rallied round his banner."

"Every Indian's face was now lit up with hope and confidence. Ultimate victory was once again assured.”

Netaji declared in 1943: “It is no exaggeration to say that if in 1920 he had not come forward with his weapon of struggle, India would today perhaps have still been prostrated. His services to the cause of India's freedom are unique and unparalleled. 

No single man (other than Gandhi) could have achieved more in one single lifetime under similar circumstances".

‘Selected Speeches of Subhas Chandra Bose’, published by Publications Division, Government of India in 1962

What had the Indian people learnt from the toil and sweat of Gandhi: Netaji explained highlighting two major factors. “They have, first of all, learnt national self-respect and self-confidence as a result of which revolutionary fervour is now blazing in their hearts." 

"Secondly, they have now got a countrywide organization, which reaches the remotest villages of India. Now that the message of liberty has permeated the hearts of all Indians and they have got a countrywide political organisation representing the whole nation, the stage is set for the final struggle for liberty, the last war of independence.”

ends