{"id":122386,"date":"2022-01-25T16:49:29","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T23:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=122386"},"modified":"2022-01-25T16:49:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T23:49:29","slug":"netaji-subhas-chandra-bose-displaces-mahatma-gandhi-as-the-father-of-indias-independence-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/01\/25\/netaji-subhas-chandra-bose-displaces-mahatma-gandhi-as-the-father-of-indias-independence-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose displaces Mahatma Gandhi as the Father of India\u2019s Independence struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

January 25 is India\u2019s Republic Day.\nIt will be celebrated on a grand scale this year as usual but with a marked\ntwist. The Govt. of India will formally salute Netaji Subash Chandra Bose as\nthe father of India\u2019s freedom struggle displacing Mahatma Gandhi from a\npedestal that many thought was unassailable. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its plans to elevate Subhas Chandra Bose above\nall other Indian freedom fighters include:  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1)     Commencement of <\/em>the Republic Day celebrations from January 23 so as to\ninclude Bose’s birthday anniversary, which has been declared as ‘Parakram\nDiwas’ (day of valour)<\/strong> by the Central Govt. to inspire people,\nespecially the youth, to act with fortitude in the face of adversity as Netaji\ndid, and to infuse in them a spirit of patriotic fervour, and <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2)     The construction of a grand statue of Netaji\nmade of granite which will be installed soon at the India Gate in New Delhi.\nUntil such time this is done Prime Minister\nNarendra Modi has unveiled a hologram statue of Bose on January 23. The statue is titled\n‘  Liberator of India’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modi\nsaid that the freedom struggle had involved the sacrifice of lakhs of people,\nbut after Independence, there was an attempt to erase their contribution.\nToday, he said, the country was taking steps to correct those mistakes. He\ncited his government\u2019s decisions, including observing Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas in\nhonour of tribal freedom fighter Bhagwan Birsa Munda, constructing the Statue\nof Unity in honour of Sardar Patel, and naming an island in the Andamans after\nNetaji, as steps in that direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These moves represent a <\/em>historic shift towards changing the grand\nnarrative of India’s liberation from British occupation. The colonial hangover\nof not saying anything to displease the former masters i.e., British Raj, now\nappears to be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highly publicized narrative that\nMahatma Gandhi using \u2018Ahimsa\u2019 and \u2018non- violence\u2019 in his civil disobedience\ncampaigns won freedom for India has been discarded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a big myth propagated by the\nBritish and empire loyalists in India.  Gandhi\u2019s \u2018Quit India\u2019 Satyagraha\ncampaign launched in 1942 fizzled out with no effect on the colonial Govt. They\nsaw no threat to their colonial rule from Gandhi and the Indian Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a comment on social media:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi took over as the\nPresident of the Congress in 1920 he started a tamasha called the non-violent\nmovement. He would call fasts and he would call off fasts at his whim. This\ntamasha started to suit the British well and they ruled without any difficulty\nfor 27 years thereafter and would have ruled for another 27 years but for Hitler\nand WW II. This is what Dr. B R Ambedkar thought about the non’- violent\nmovement ——- <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“….. courting prison has become an act of martyrdom\nin India. It is regarded as both patriotic and also as an act of courage…….\nprison life today has lost all its terrors. It has become a mere matter of\ndetention. Political prisoners are no longer treated as criminals. They are\nplaced in a separate class. There are no hardships to suffer, there is no\nreputation to lose and there is no privation to undergo. It calls for no\ncourage. ” ( Source speech delivered at the 101st Birth Anniversary\ncelebrations of Ranade at the Gokhale memorial Hall, Pune 1943 ). I wish to\npoint out to the readers that the tamasha called the non-violent movement\nsuited the British so well that in later years the movement leaders like\nGandhi, Nehru, etc., used to be detained at the AGA Khan Palace — yes palace\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mutiny <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the threat of a Mutiny from\nthe British Indian Army soldiers, Navy, and Air Force that finally convinced\nthe Labour Govt. of Clement Atlee to quit India. A repeat of the Indian Mutiny\nof 1857 in 1946 may have ended in the probable slaughter of 30, 000 British\nsoldiers then resident in India by more than 2, 500, 000 well – trained Indian\nsoldiers who had been discharged (demobbed) and returned to India.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The credit given to Gandhi for liberating\nIndia has now collapsed. There was no push factor in his campaign. When Clement\nAtlee, former British Prime Minister, on a visit to India in 1956, was asked by\nthe acting Governor General of Bengal, Chakraborty, whether Gandhi and his non\n– violent movement had an impact on the British Govt. decision to quit India,\nAtlee replied by saying ‘ M I N I M A L ‘.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of Asia fought. Japan in particular\nhad a battle plan to liberate India. (\u2018Japan\u2019s Master Plan for Victory: What\ncould have been\u2019 by Moteki Hiromichi \u2013 Tokyo: 2018). Western colonialism in\nAsia was ultimately defeated by force of arms on the part of the people of\nAsia. The Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Burmese, Indians, Philippines,\nhave all successfully fought the West, resisted foreign occupation, and finally\nwon.   The exit of the West from the East after nearly 500 years of\nmilitary adventurism and hegemonic rule is one of the defining landmarks of the\n20th century. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It must be admitted however that Netaji\nreceived help from both Germany and Japan to wage war against the British then\nin occupation of India.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An\ninteresting question is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 If\nAdolf Hitler did not supply a German Submarine to carry Netaji Subash Chandra\nBose out of Germany and to rendezvous with a Japanese Submarine I 29 off the\nshores of Madagascar, which would then, in turn, carry him to Penang and later\nJapan, how would his life story have unfolded then? The level of support\nrendered by both Germany and Japan to Netaji to raise the Indian Legion in\nGermany, and the Indian National Army in Singapore, was quintessential to\nenable Netaji to play the role that he did eventually. Trying to be politically\ncorrect should not lead to sidelining or suppressing important facts from the\nnarrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Independence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s independence was tied to\nIndia gaining independence. If India did not gain independence on August 15,\n1947, neither Burma nor Ceylon would have been granted independence on January\n04, 1948, or February 04, 1948, respectively. When Britain lost the jewel in\nits Crown i.e., India, it decided to vacate South Asia altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to revise the narrative on\nhow Sri Lanka achieved independence. We got independence on a platter without a\nsingle fight or blood letting because much of the fighting and blood sacrifices\nwere made by freedom fighters of other Asian countries led by Japan in the\nsecond world war (WW2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Furthermore, Britain was heavily\nweakened economically and militarily by the war against Germany and was in no\nmood to fight more wars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senaka Weeraratna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Senaka Weeraratna January 25 is India\u2019s Republic Day. It will be celebrated on a grand scale this year as usual but with a marked twist. The Govt. of India will formally salute Netaji Subash Chandra Bose as the father of India\u2019s freedom struggle displacing Mahatma Gandhi from a pedestal that many thought was unassailable. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}