India is a land of netas. There is hardly any lane and by-lane that does have neta. None becomes Netaji, actually does not dare to be. Subhas Chandra Bose is the name of journey from neta to Netaji.
Netaji proclaimed the formation of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind (Free India) in Singapore on 21st October, 1943. That government got immediate recognition from the Axis forces and Ireland. This government had its own currency and ruled over a part of India.
Earlier, in 1938, after re-election at Tripuri Congress by majority of votes, Subhas was forced to step down as Gandhiji said that those Congress members who “cannot keep pace with it (new Congress committee headed by Subhas)….must come out of the Congress.” In one word, Gandhiji wanted a revolt against Subhas from the Congress within. Tagore pleaded with Gandhiji to accept Subhas. Gandhiji observed that between him and Subhas the “gulf is too wide….I see no way of closing ranks…. .”
Subhas wanted an all-out attack against the British by sending an ultimatum against Britain resolving the petty party affairs as the time was ripe for such an attack to uproot the imperialist ruling forces from power. Subhas did not want to waste any time because the British was mired in blood on the Second World War front. Gandhiji dourly blocked his request of mass movement by citing corruption in party’s ranks and the resultant bloodshed for such an aggression. (This Gandhiji himself would give a call for Quit India movement against the British at the Bombay session of All India Congress Committee just three years later in 1942 on 8th August under his own leadership.)
Left with no option, Subhas tendered his resignation as Congress chief. It was accepted with express-speed by the Congress at its Calcutta meet on 29th April, 1939. Subhas was kicked out from Bengal Provincial Congress Committee as its chief later by the A.I.C.C. on 11th August. The A.I.C.C. took a decision that Subhas would not contest for any party post for three consecutive years. The B.P.C.C. was dismantled totally. Tagore wrote a letter to Gandhiji to reconsider the decision of putting a ban on Subhas. “Subhas is behaving like a spoilt child of the family.” Gandhiji held. “Subhas Bose…has definitely ranged himself against Congress.” Pundit Nehru observed.
Like the romantic prince, who in Taser Desh (the dance-drama of Tagore, dedicated to Subhas) undertakes an accidental expedition in changing the inhuman rules of a land by bringing about an air of revolt among the cards (tash) who mechanically obey them and later become humans by breaking free the shackles of tyrannical rules, Subhas left behind these politicking Jis and Pundits and formed a government in exile in Singapore to liberate his mother land.
This Azad Hind government adopted Tagore’s “Jana Gana Mana Adhinayak Jai Hey” as its national anthem and sang it with full-throated verve and joy.
Subhas formed an army: INA, to unleash attacks on plundering British rulers who invaded India close to two hundred years back.
But real life is far from fiction; in this case, the dance-drama. If the Land of Cards prince is successful in liberating the land, Subhas failed after some early success. Reeling under back to back bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan (whose support was instrumental for Subhas’s government’s existence and his military venture against the British in India) was reduced to atoms. Japan surrendered on 10th August. When Sibbier Appadurai Ayer, Minister for Publicity and Propaganda department of Subhas’s Azad Hind Government, told him of Japan’s surrender, a smile broke on Subhas’s wit-laced face. “Well, don’t you see we are the only people who have not surrendered?” Subhas asked.
Subhas left Singapore for Saigon. From Saigon he flew off for Russia, the country, he believed, would support him in his battle against the British.
On 17th August, Subhas’s plane took off.
The rest is silence.
Emilie Schenkl, the German lass who Subhas loved and married and had a child, Anita, might have heard the news of her husband’s death from radio evening news. She might have wept inconsolably silently in her bedroom where little Anita was sleeping peacefully in lone cozy bed.
Subhas might have died. But like the prince of Taser Desh, he ignited a passion for life:
Do not fear the unknown
Bang open its closed doors…
(To) liberate life and mind.
The need for liberating prince, Subhas, is forever. Hence is the wistful wait to listen to a caring voice booming on radio once again: “This is Subhas Chandra Bose speaking to his countrymen in East Asia…”
Until this happens, let us sing in the words of Mumtaz Hussain (who welcomed Subhas in Singapore as he landed with fellow comrade Abid Hasan from Germany in a submarine to Japan and from Japan to Singapore in a twin-engine Japanese aircraft): Subhas-ji, Subhas-ji, woh jaan-e-Hind aagaye, woh naaz jispe Hind ko, woh shan-e-Hind aagaye…’
“Jay Hind”– to the first Prime Minister of free India: Subhas Chandra Bose. Not silently. But loudly. Proudly. Profoundly.