Forum

Indian politics from the very beginning of independence was dominated by vested interests and pet narratives. The political dispensation had been ruthless in exterminating any contrary or opposing viewpoints. Pandit Nehru, was extremely intolerant to criticism and it was evident in the way he treated criticism and critics. Subhas Chandra Bose was, by all means, a political rival or Nehru and most of the Congress stalwarts. He was the most popular Indian leader, the war hero, whom the people almost venerated and worshiped. The political ruling class had also inherited the legacy of the British administrative system, a system that was not only corrupt and inefficient, but also steadfastly Anglophile and followed its colonial masters and their brown torch bearers in the independent India. Nehru's heart was in Europe and feet was in India. Despite his fine oratory and scholarly bent of mind, Nehru understood very little of India and even less of Hinduism and its legacy, culture and influence over India. He had embarked on a mission of cultural conquest, of eradicating the Indian culture of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, Upanishads and Gita, with the modern leftist education in the name of secularism. Subhas Chandra Bose on the other hand was India personified. He had tremendous respect for traditional India and he predicted that India had a mission of becoming the world teacher. He realized when he was a teenager that he had a definite mission and had incarnated to fulfill that divine mission. He was inspired by Swami Vivekananda's ideals. He was deeply spiritual while Nehru was a non believer. This fundamental difference in approach and views of Nehru and Subhas created an irreconcilable difference between the two. Mountbatten had suggested that if Subhas returned then Nehru's power would be challenged. Nehru probably had this firmly rooted in his consciousness. He therefore proceeded with a missionary zeal to eradicate the legacy of Subhas in every possible way. In this effort he was aided by other Congress leaders, most of whom were against Subhas since 1939. Even the one time Subhas loyalists who had joined Nehru's camp were more interested in placating their bosses and get their interests aligned. Indian politics thus became a game of self interest fulfillment and clinging to power by hook or by crook. The Selfless ideals of Subhas and other revolutionaries were put in the back-burner. Gandhi became a brand, a marketable commodity that can be leveraged to gain traction in international markets for image makeover and also in domestic market for getting votes. Subhas was non saleable for the political leaders. The main party, the Congress, was dead against him and only selectively utilized his legacy to further its own agenda. The opposition did not find any gains in promoting Subhas. Moreover the ideology of Subhas confused them - was it leftist, was it rightist? His spiritual activities were looked down upon. He did not have any organization. Forward Bloc in the form that he envisaged had long ceased to exist. So nothing could be gained by promoting the ideals of Subhas, not even in his home state of West Bengal. It is very difficult to change an existing narrative. Very few political leaders have courage or conviction to make attempts to change an established narrative like Subhas's death in a plane crash or his contribution to the freedom movement. Therefore we have not seen any political party coming out in his open support or in disclosing more about his so called mystery. In the words of a great man, "Indian politics...ugh..it stinks." The great man knew, he had faced the brunt of the dirty politics in 1939, in the aftermath of the Tripuri Congress. He told with disdain that there was always a dearth of statesmen in the world and India had none of them. He also stated that India should have opted for a State religion, that democracy not disciplined is mobocracy, demoncracy.

If Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose did indeed survive and live a secluded life, he did it on purpose for the sake of the country as his coming out would have jeopardized his plan, his sadhana. Now let us think for a moment what Netaji would have been deeply disturbed about the independence of India. It was the Partition of India, a very idea that he stood staunchly against, he warned his countrymen time and again about the devious plan of Britain to deliver a crushing blow to India, leveraging the communal Muslims who wanted a separate state. Jinnah was merely a puppet in the hands of Anglo Saxon Imperialism and so was Nehru and other Congress leaders. Gandhi was helpless as he had lost his credibility and will after 1942. Only Subhas was the stumbling block. He would have been sorely distressed by seeing the condition of his beloved Bengal, millions of Hindus butchered, hundreds of thousands of womenfolk raped and thousands packed to Arabia as sex slaves. All this would not have happened had there been one person at the help, one person who possessed a stern whip, whom even the communal Muslims dared not disobey. Partition of Bengal was necessary for British-Congress-Jinnah triumvirate because a united Bengal backing Subhas Chandra Bose would have been dangerous for the Congress leadership. Subhas was the political rival whom Congress would like to finish off at all cost. No, they did not believe the concocted death story, nor did the British. But it was necessary for them to continue with a “dead” Subhas Bose as public memory would be short. A dead man’s legacy can be erased easily, simply by suppressing the INA and by buying off others who could question. So one by one key aides of Netaji were bought off while ordinary soldiers of INA were allowed to languish at meagre pensions without state support, without reinstatement to the Indian army (vide Major B.C Khanduri’s order to the Indian Army soldiers not to put up any photo of Netaji or INA men anywhere - he could not have don it without the blessings of the political leaders). So Netaji was dead - a commission was set up post haste using one British lapdog ICS and a veteran of INA who was already purchased with a deputy ministership. When Suresh Bose could not be purchased even by offering Governorship, he was completely ignored. To the world Netaji was dead, but the leadership knew he was not. Hence letters to the family were snooped and when there was much hulla about a certain sadhu in Shaulmari, the prime minister himself was concerned. So Netaji was absolutely unwanted by the country. But Netaji, if he was alive, would have been on a mission. A mission to set things straight when he knew that things looked too dire for India. It could well become a seat of third world war. With spies everywhere, political leadership bought by foreign powers or intimidated by them, no strong leader in the helm to direct the country, corruption and internal troubles, communal tension and open enmity from Pakistan and China, and the nefarious designs of the Communists and socialists within, India was about to go to pieces. Moreover Netaji was strongly in favour of a united India, a India prior to partition, sans the communalism. If he had really been looking forward to a vision of a united and strong India, self reliant India, his coming out would have served no purpose as he would be in the midst of a civil war - between his followers and that of Congress and Communists. Remember, he did not covet political leadership. He only wanted a united and strong India, a country of his dream. By remaining in the background, by slowly working on his plan at an international level, he would have played a far greater and more effective role than by coming out for the sake of the sensation mongers and hypocrites who wanted him to come out. His enemies also wanted him to come out of his hiding so that they could finish him off completely. Critics of Netaji's afterlife refuse to believe that he could become a hermit. Their main point of contention are two fold - actually one if we look closely - 1) A person like Netaji cannot remain hidden for so long. Its uncharacteristic of him, who was always a man of action 2) "Netaji was a Tiger. Tigers don't hide. To the second contention Adheer Som has a response in his book Gumnami Baba, a Case History, chapter "Impossible", "a) sannyas is not a form of hiding but of spiritual pursuit in seclusion that has long been a hallowed Indian tradition; and b) Tigers DO hide - they hide when they are hunted, they hide when they hunt, and they hide as they bide their time to spring."

Surjya Sen passed out BA from Calcutta University in 1918. After passing out he became a teacher in the Chattogram National School. He was a teacher in Mathematics. He did not interact much but became a very popular teacher - Masterda. Surjya Sen was devoted towards Indian independence movement. He set up a devoted group of youth that included Ambika Chakrabarty, Julu Sen, Nirmal Sen etc. He and his students took advantage of the Non cooperation movement to secretly organize the revolutionary army. They took advantage of the movement to coordinate with every revolutionary group that was active like Jugantar and Atmonnnati Samity. The revolutionaries joined the Bengal Volunteers group of Hemchandra Ghosh to further strengthen the revolutionary activities in a military way. Surjya Sen started preparing for the final assault and Chattogram was decided to be the place where the assault on the empire would be launched. The revolutionaries had secretly met Subhas Chandra Bose. A war council was prepared whose members included - Supreme Commander Surjya Sen, Nirmal Sen, Loknath Bal, Ananta Singh, Ganesh Ghosh, Ambika Chakrabarty, Uprendranath Bhattacharya. The name of the army was Indian Republican Army. On 18th April, 1930, on the day of the Easter Rising of the Irish revolutionaries, the Chattogram revolutionaries decided to launch a coordinated attack on the police armoury, the railway armoury and the other Government establishments like the telegraph and the telephone offices. Ananta Singh and Ganesh Ghosh would attack Police armoury, railway armoury attack would be led by Nirmal Sen and Loknath Bal, Ambika Chakrabarty would attack Telegraph and Telephone Exchange. A thirty member squad would be waiting at the HQ near the police armoury. The coordinated assault would be launched in motor vehicles. The attack was successful. The revolutionaries controlled the entire Chattogram for three days. British left the town in hordes. Magistrate Wilkinson survived an attack by feigning death. National Flag was raised in place of Union Jack. There were debacles as well. Himangshu Sen was severely burnt and Ganesh Ghosh and Ananta Singha went to the city for his medical treatment. As Ganesh and Ananta were delayed, Surjya Sen, being unable to get complete information of the situation of the town, thought that they had been encircled and that Ganesh and Ananta had been captured. He therefore ordered the force to move to the jungles and hilly tracts. Ambika Chakrabarty led the team. The British police and army team reached Jalalabad hills with heavy weapons. The freedom fighters were without food and water. They were seen by the villagers, so police had got their trace. They had reached the hill top and started their fight when the army reached near the base. With heavy guns the army fought back from a trench and the revolutionaries began to lose their armymen. First to go was Tegra (Harigopal Bal), the younger brother of Loknath Bal. Then fell Tripura Sengupta, Naresh Roy, Bidhu Bhattacharya, Prbhas Bal, Madhu Dutta, Nirmal Sen, Ardhendu Dastidar, Jiten Dasgupta, Pulin Ghosh, Shashanka Sen, Moti Kanungo. As the evening came the British Army retreated. The dead soldiers of the revolutionary army were given Guard of Honour. Ambika Chakrabarty was injured but was thought to be dead. The rest of the revolutionary army started to go deep into the forest and jungles as morning would bring more forces. Ambika walked alone and took shelter in a village. Nirmal and Ardhendu were injured. Nirmal and Masterda went a separate way while others under Loknath Bal moved in a different direction. They later met in the Koapada village. They were further helped by Binoy Sen who gave shelter even by incurring debt for days, Mahendra Choudhury who assumed the role of a secret service officer, and Satinath Sen who had helped Mahendra in fulfilling his duty. By morning thousands of Army men had arrived in Chattogram as reinforcement and had started to intimidate and terrorize the citizens. They had combed the entire area and recovered the bodies of those who were killed. Injured Ardhendu was captured and he died in jail. The associates of Masterda in the meanwhile had gathered strength and on 5th May a group of six revolutionaries Rajat, Manoranjan, Deviprasad, Phanindra, Swadesh and Subodh went to attack the white dominated area of Chattogram. Police were alerted and they had to take shelter in Rajat's house. Then they escaped to Kalarpol village by crossing Karnaphuli river. The ignorant villagers thought them to be bandits and surrounded them. In the meanwhile police had arrived and a fierce gun battle followed after which three revolutionaries were caught and four escaped. But again their presence was betrayed while trying to take refuge in a Muslim house. Rajat, Swadesh, Devi and Manoranjan died in the gun battle that followed. Ananta, Ganesh and two of their associates were caught in the Pheni station by the local police but they could escape by firing at random. Ananta and Ganesh reached Calcutta. In Calcutta they were met by Loknath Bal and took shelter with the Jugantar group. The Jugantar group had sent them to Chandannagore where they took shelter in a house rented by two revolutionaries Shashadhar Acharya and Suhasini Ganguli, who played the role of husband and wife in order to protect the revolutionaries. On 28th June Ananta Singha surrendered himself to I.G Lowman. On 1st September a police force reached Chandannagore with Charles Tegart at the helm and raided the house of Shashadhar. In the gun battle that followed Jiban Ghoshal lost his life. On 1st December an attack was launched on I.G Craig in Chattogram. Being indisposed Ramkrishna Boswas, a close associate of Master Da could not take part in Chattogram uprising. He took up the responsibility of killing Craig who was notorious for his high handedness in dealing with ordinary citizen in the aftermath of the uprising. In the station Chandpur the train had stopped and the revolutionaries Ramkrishna and Kalipada thought that Craig was sitting in a first class compartment. Unfortunately they had killed Tarini Mukherjee. Both were caught while escaping. Ramkrishna was sent to the gallows. He was in the condemned cell beside Dinesh Gupta, the daring revolutionary of Bengal Volunteers who had been captured while launching a ferocious attack in the Writers' Building. It was Subhas Chandra Bose who ensured that the two met before departing the world. Ramakrishna was hanged few days after Dinesh courted death. Kalipada was deported for life. The British administration carried out extreme repressive activities to terrorize ordinary population. At its forefront was communal Muslim officer Asanullah, who had carried the terror activities to the extreme by not even sparing school going children and Hindu women. On 30th Aug, 1931, Asanullah was shot dead by a young boy named Haripada Bhattacharya. He was tortured to the utmost extent, needles were pricked through his finger nails, but the young boy did not budge and did not reveal any name. He was beaten daily for extracting information on the whereabouts of Masterda and his associates. When sever repression failed he was sentenced to deportation for life. The boy belonging to a poverty stricken family accepted the ordeal without batting an eyelid. Another brave son of mother Bengal was sacrificed. The revolutionaries did not stop, magistrate Durno was attacked next by Saroj Guha and Ramen Bhoumik belonging to the Jugantar group. In Kumilla, Ellison, the police super, who was notorious for his repressive measures, was killed by Shailesh Roy. Surjya Sen, Nirmal Sen and Apurba Sen of Indian Republican Army took shelter in the family of Savitri Devi of Dhalghat. Police had raided the house and the revolutionaries retaliated. Nirmal Sen and Apurba Sen died. Masterda and Preetilata Wadeddar, the fearless woman revolutionary who would go down in the history book for attacking European Club, escaped. Severe punishment was waiting for Savitri Devi for sheltering the revolutionaries. Her meager property was confiscated, house was broken, she along with her son and daughter arrested and put in terrible condition in MEdinipur jail. She lost her son Ramkrishna in jail as he contacted tuberculosis. She was not allowed to even meet her dying son who died owing to wretched and inhuman condition in British jail. The Hindu widow could endure the various ignominies that she underwent in jail but could not bear the loss of her son in such a terrible plight. Such was the British fairness, British justice and British Governance system in India! On 24th September, 1932, Preetilata prepared herself for the final assault on the European Club in Chattogram, to protest against the British repressions. The revolutionaries went inside the heavily guarded club dressed as ordinary cart drivers. By the time military police arrived the operation was complete and the revolutionaries escaped, barring Preetilata, who had consumed cyanide. The last episode was unfolded in the Gairala village near Dhalghat. On 2nd February 1933, a local traitor called Netra Sen, being lured of the heavy prize money that police had promised, divulged Surya Sen's position. Masterda and his worker Brajen Sen were arrested. Terrible torture awaited both of them. They were brought enchained all the way on foot from Gairala to the central prison. On the way they were beaten continuously and mercilessly by the British police. Tarakeswar Dastidar and Kalpana Datta could escape in the dark. They were soon captured in a battle in another village where they had taken refuge. Netra Sen, the traitor, received his prize, his head rolled on the food plate in front of him by a revolutionary's dagger. A bullet was too precious for a worthless worm like him. A special tribunal was created for the Chattogram revolutionaries. Sarat Chandra Bose, the elder brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, had appeared for the revolutionaries. On 1st March, 1932, the first special tribunal ensured deportation for Ganesh Ghosh, Ananta Singh, Loknath Bal, Ananda Gupta and others. The third tribunal awarded death sentence on Masterda. In jail Masterda was severely tortured to break his morale. But he remained unperturbed till the end. A devotee of the Goddess Kali, he had already sacrificed himself and his associates to her. A eyewitness described in the Bengali book Chattogram Astragar Lunthan, as to how Masterda initiated the newcomers to the revolutionary army in a Kali temple. On 12th January, 1934, Masterda and Tarakeswar Dastidar were taken out of their cells, beaten to the pulp and then hanged unceremoniously before sunrise. Chattogram lost its hero. As a revenge the young revolutionaries had staged another assault. On 7th January, 1934, during a cricket match of the British officers, four young revolutionaries Nityagopal & Himanshu Bhattacharya, Krishna Choudhury and Harendra Chakrabarty staged a daring attack and courted death.