Netaji – India’s Independence and British Archives

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Ever since Independence, the official narrative of India's Second War of Independence has been that India got its freedom on the strength of Gandhian Non Violence and Satyagraha, as epitomized by a famous Bollywood song - 'De di hamein azadi bina kharag bina dhal -Sabarmati ke sant tu nein kar diya kamal'. This was as if India never did, never needed to, never should and never will fight for gaining or safeguarding its freedom. It is this pacifist narrative that has circumscribed our national policy till the shame filled episode of the war with China in 1962. This narrative had no place or role for the Indian National Army (INA), for Subhash Chandra Bose or for thousands of patriotic Indians such as Rash Behari Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Veer Savarkar and Bhagat Singh to name only a few.

The AXIS forces lost the Second World War after the horrible atomic bombs devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Axis forces surrendered to the Allied forces on 15 August 1945, bringing about an abrupt end to one of the fiercest wars ever fought, costing the world some 75 to 85 million lives. But Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the Supreme Commander of the Azad Hind Fauj (INA), though aligned with them refused to give up his fight for driving the British Raj from India.

The surrender of INA forces was followed by large scale incarceration of the soldiers and officers of the INA in SE Asia and in India. The British had succeeded in maintaining complete secrecy about the very existence of the INA throughout the war but the stories of bravery, suffering and sacrifices by the INA soldiers and Subhash Bose's outstanding contribution during the war for Independence came to light from stories told by the returning INA soldiers. India learnt that almost 30,000 INA soldiers had made the ultimate sacrifice for India's Independence. That Indian patriots had paid for freedom with their blood, dearly and gladly. People of India spontaneously recognized Netaji Subhash as India's greatest Hero, his Azad Hind Fauj as its first ever national Army and Azad Hind Haqoomat as the first legitimate government of Independent India with Subhash Chandra Bose as its first supreme leader.

Dr Kalyan Kumar De, has now for the first time brought out into the public domain, authentic documents from the British Archives. His research and analysis proves beyond doubt that it was not Gandhi's Satyagraha or Nehru's leadership, but Subhash's militant nationalism and its influence on the public psyche of India that forced their hand leading to India's its truncated transfer of power on 15th August 1947.

**Contents and Sample Pages**