Appropriate Netaji, but disregard his pluralism!

In the face of the ruling party’s attempts to appropriate Subhash Chandra Bose as a symbol of nationalism, the way forward can be navigated only by remaining attuned to Netaji’s secular vision of India.

By S.N. Sahu

Just a few days ago, the Union government announced that Republic Day celebrations would henceforth stretch from January 23-30 every year. January 23 was chosen because it marks the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose; a date which Prime Minister Modi had earlier announced would be celebrated as ‘Parakram Diwas’.

After Modi assumed office, he had put several classified papers concerning Netaji in the public domain. Many believed that these papers would make some explosive revelations about Netaji’s supposedly adversarial relationship with Jawaharlal Nehru. On the contrary, they served to reflect the warmth and respect between the two men.

Modi and the BJP recurrently invoke Netaji’s name in their politics and often unfairly accuse Nehru of not affording the former adequate space in history. However, we must remember that Prime Minister Modi, ironically, abolished the Planning Commission, something deeply linked with the legacies of both Nehru and Netaji alike.

Abolishing the planning commission

Netaji established the Planning Committee in 1938 as the president of Indian National Congress (INC) and appointed Nehru as its chairman. After India attained Independence, Nehru, as the first Prime Minister of India, continued with Netaji’s legacy by rechristening the Planning Committee as the ‘Planning Commission’. The Commission thus represented how Netaji’s legacy shaped our nation.

But today, a vestige of this legacy is, tragically, no longer present and in its place we have a new institution; the NITI Aayog, which has nothing to do with Bose’s world view.

As the Commission stands demolished, Netaji’s rich and enduring values in terms of his secular world view and religious pluralism, too, are being endangered through a systemic majoritarianism being pushed virulently at every level.

Netaji invoked Tipu Sultan’s legacy

While reading out the historic proclamation of the Azad Hind Government while taking the oath as its first prime minister, Bose referred to the courage and bravery of numerous heroes and heroines who had laid down their lives in the fight against British rule and, among them, was Tipu Sultan.

Bose had done this to draw inspiration from them and fight for our freedom. Imagine how shocked he would have been to see BJP leaders oppose the Karnataka Congress government’s decision to celebrate Tipu Jayanti; to hear Prime Minister Modi mock the Congress for celebrating the “Jayantis of Sultans”.

Netaji upheld Urdu

Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj’s motto comprised three Urdu words: ‘Ittehad, itmad aur qurbani’ (unity, faith and sacrifice). He would have undoubtedly been aghast at the sight of the hatred for Urdu India has witnessed over the past few years. Forces, representing hatred and the negation of our composite culture, would have not only flown in the face of the Indian National Army’s (INA) motto but also undermined the Urdu terms ‘Sipah-Salar’ (commander-in-chief) which were used to describe Netaji.

The BJP’s ‘Barah-sau saal ki gulami’ narrative

Bose would have been appalled by Modi’s divisive and distorted formulation, “Barah sau saal ki gulami ki maansikta humen pareshan kar rahi hai (‘The slave mentality of 1,200 years is troubling us’).

Such a twisted understanding of history, mischievously describing Mughal rule as a period of “slavery” solely on account of their faith, stands in sharp contrast to Netaji’s constructive vision of pre-British India, marked by a common, shared heritage forged by both the Hindus and Muslims.

In his book, An Indian Pilgrim, Bose outlined the composite culture of both communities who shared a common destiny for thousands of years and shaped their future together, in the face of all sorts of challenges. In the book, he described the Battle of Plassey as a joint Hindu-Muslim endeavour to confront an adversary which had caused an existential crisis. It is worthwhile to quote his words:

Criticism of communal forces

Today, when majoritarianism poses a mortal danger to the ideas of equality and equal opportunity embodied in India’s constitutional vision, it is worthwhile to recall Bose’s words: ‘‘If we want to make India really great, we must build up a political democracy on the pedestal of a democratic society. Privileges based on birth, caste or creed