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Freedom Movement – Heroism and Betrayals

Shantanu Dey

Tales of Heroism and Betrayals in Indian Freedom Movement

In this narrative we are trying to present some of the facets of Indian freedom movement in which individual as well as the collective heroism and betrayals shaped the dynamics of the overall movement especially in its later stage. It is upto the readers to decide as to who were the betrayers and who were the heroes. We’ll only present some facts that can be easily verified from various sources but not from the school text history books, nor from the so called “facts” presented by the historians who conveniently forgot to acknowledge the contribution of many who actually shaped the course of Indian history. Among historians perhaps the most honest and accurate analysis came from Dr Ramesh Chandra Majumdar which helped us in assessing the facts and discriminating between fiction, propaganda and truth. Let us therefore try to form an independent judgment by going beyond the traditional history books.

Bose – The forgotten Hero

“I was a fighter, one fight more, the last and the best.”

No, we are not talking about Subhas Chandra Bose. Netaji of course was one of the greatest heroes whose contribution has been vastly undermined by the post-independence historians and scholars belonging to certain schools of thoughts who unfortunately dominate the intellectual circle. But there was another Bose before him who defined what heroism was while rushing headlong into opposing the mighty British Empire. We are talking of Rashbehari Bose, the founder of the Indian Independence League and one of the key architects of the Indo German conspiracy of 1914. While studying in Dupleix College in Chandannagar Bose came in contact with the Charu Chandra Roy who was the principal of the college. Charu Chandra inspired the young Bose with the spirit of love for the nation. He realized that independence from an oppressive brutal ruthless foreign regime was the only path that had to be adopted and for that extreme sacrifice is needed. The ground was fertile and the seeds were sown. Now Bose, who was more inclined towards a military career but never got a chance, being a Bengali, had to take up a Government job as a means of livelihood and was staying in Himalayan foothills of the North. However he was influenced and inspired by Aurobindo Ghose and Jatindranath Bannerjee, and secretly worked under the guidance of the latter. He came into prominence through the famous incidence where a major conspiracy was hatched to kill Hardinge, the newly appointed viceroy after transferring the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi.

It was a general established belief among the Government circles and also among some of the Indians that Rashbehari was a spy. In fact after Hardinge was severely injured Rashbehari went back to Dehradun and organized a meeting to condemn the incident. But the police and authorities discovered much later to their consternation and chagrin that the “spy” was actually a mastermind of a huge conspiracy to overthrow the British Empire.

The entire plan of attacking the Viceroy was hatched in Chandannagar and Shreesh Chandra Ghose, a noted revolutionary was the proponent. The reason was simple and clear – it was to teach the British Government that India did not consider them as legitimate rulers and they had no business spending lavishly Indian money to establish their superiority over India. Rashbehari agreed to implement the plot with the help of some daredevil associates. One of them was a sixteen year old boy named Basanta Biswas. On 23rdDecember 1912 a huge celebration was planned on the occasion of the coronation of King George V. A huge procession a la Mughals were taken out by the British Raj on the roads of Delhi with Hardinge on an elephant like an emperor. The procession came near the Punjab National Bank in the clock tower. Suddenly there was a major bomb blast and Hardinge was grievously injured. In the cacophony nobody knew who threw the bomb and Basanta who was disguised as a beautiful young lady, escaped. So did Rashbehari. Rashbehari and Basanta had extensively practiced in Dehradun in order to hurl the bomb properly. Hardinge escaped death but no one could be arrested in the incident. However a year later police was able to obtain a major breakthrough and arrested almost all the masterminds like Ameer Chand and Awadh Behari of Delhi, Basanta Biswas and others. British Police’s retribution was swift and the revolutionaries were hanged. One of the conspirators, Deenanath, had possibly betrayed them. Then entire India came to know the mastermind, the chief architect of the plan. But by then he had escaped by taking various subterfuges. Sometimes he was a common Oriya servant or sometimes he was an Anglo Indian violin player. Sometimes he was a fakir and at other times a cleaner of toilets. Every time he escaped the British police net. His escapades remind us of a famous character of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s novel “Pather Dabi” – the revolutionary Sabyasachi.

By then the First World War was imminent and Rashbehari thought that it was a great opportunity to strike the British. He began to work on a pan India operation, enlisting help from different revolutionary organizations across India, in North Indian provinces and in Punjab where he was already well known. The Indians settled in Europe, America and Canada responded to the call. Among them the most prominent were Kartar Singh of Ghadar party and Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, the fiery Maharashtra youth who met Bose in Benaras. At least four thousand revolutionaries, mostly from Ghadar party, pledged support. The local revolutionaries like Sachindranath Sanyal and Damodar Swaroop were not far behind. In Bengal Rashbehari got support from one of the greatest leaders – Bagha Jatin and his associates, and also from prominent members of the Anushilon Samity. The plans were made for an international uprising with a mutiny in the army ranks in different parts of Asia and in barracks in India. Discussions were held with German leaders to send consignment of arms. Berlin Committee was formed in Germany to help the discussions. Rashbehari was the mastermind behind the idea of mutiny in the barracks. Different leaders took the responsibility of different cantonments to spread the message of a coordinated revolution in the army ranks. Headquarter was in Lahore which came under Rashbehari. Minutest details were taken care of and everything was organized by the indefatigable spirit and planning capacity of Rashbehari who would be on whirlwind tours to oversee every details of the operation. Trainings were organized in different districts for the young revolutionaries. Support was enlisted from Indian army personnel and communities in Burma, Singapore and other Asian colonies. 21st February 1915 was to be the target date.

But it was all in vain! Two traitors divulged the entire plan to British intelligence. The revolution failed and British police and army swooped down on the mutineers. The arms consignment did not reach Balasore because of an international espionage and BaghaJatin and his associates died fighting from a trench. Every revolutionary was caught, a huge cache of arms and ammunitions were discovered by simultaneous raids across India, and mutineers were either court martialed or gunned down in the barracks of India. Only Rashbehari and Pingle escaped. In Singapore Indian army had successfully mutinied and had driven out the British but only to retreat when they heard the failure of the plan, after Russia and Japan joined the British to flush out the mutineers. The army men who were part of the conspiracy were mercilessly killed.

Pingle was caught while trying to enlist the support of Meerut Regiment. SachindranathSanyal was deported to Cellular jail. Lahore conspiracy case was launched and the chief perpetrators including Kartar Singh and Pingle were awarded death penalty. Ghadar party became dysfunctional as almost all its leaders were apprehended and mercilessly dealt with by the ruthless administration. Only Rashbehari could not be caught. In an ingenious move he left for Japan by collecting passport from the very British officers who were literally hunting for him. He disguised himself as Raja P.N Tagore, a distant relative of Rabindranath Tagore and boarded the ship to Japan. He met Sun Yat Sen in China. He tried sending some arms consignment from China but they were caught by the British. Then he arrived in Japan as a fugitive. He was joined by Heramba Gupta from America.

                                           Rashbehari and his wife Toshiko (courtesy Wikipedia)

Birtish government soon got information and sent a strong note to Japanese Government to deport and handover Rahsbehari and Heramba. Japanese Government which was friendly to British had agreed for the extradition. Rashbehari took help of Mitusuru Toyama, a nationalist leader and founder of Genyosha secret society. They called for a press conference to help Rashbehari seek refuge in Japan. In the meanwhile a certain Mr Soma who owned the Nakamuraya bakery had consented to take Rashbehari as a guest. Later as per Toyama’s plan Rashbehari married their daughter Toshiko and had to spend seven years in concealment to escape deportation. The Soma family voluntarily undertook a great sacrifice for a foreigner who had taken refuge with the, first risking their reputation and material interests and then giving their daughter (with her permission) to him. Koko Soma’s infant daughter died because of her severe stress. Rashbehari never forgot the hardship and sacrifices of his Japanese family. He got citizenship in Japan in 1923. Toshiko passed away in 1924. Rashbehari never married again and spent his remaining days as a journalist and writer. He gave his youngest daughter to the Soma family and asked them to adopt her. His son was enlisted in the Japanese air force and died in action in the Second World War.

At the beginning of the Second World War the hero came out of his hiding. He had spent his best years, was aged and lonely but still a lion was a lion. He sensed opportunity and used his connection with the Japanese authorities to ensure better treatment of Indian prisoners of war and Indian families living in South East Asian nations captured by the Japanese. Thanks to his tremendous influence on Japanese Government no Indian soldier was mistreated by Japanese army and no Indian family suffered from the atrocities. He gave the clarion call, “Asia is for Asians, White supremacists leave Asia”, which was echoed across Asia. Mainly because of Rashbehari’s efforts Japan formally accepted that India is for Indians and the Prime MinisterHideki Tojo made a public declaration on the same. In every South East Asian Nation the Indian prisoners of war were gathered and brought under the leadership of Mohan Singh. In every country like Burma, Thailand, Philippines, Dutch East Indies, Indo China, Shanghai, Korea, Manchuria organizations were established under the supreme leadership of Rashbehari. From Tokyo Radio he reached out to India and announced his plan of freeing India with help from Japanese help. He reached out to every Indian leader – Gandhiji, Nehru, Patel, Jinnah, Savarkar, AbulKalam Azad, Rajgopalachari, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan to appeal for creating a united front against British. He convened a conference in Tokyo in March 1942 to establish the Indian Independence League. He called for a second conference in June 1942 and a resolution was adopted to invite Subhas Chandra Bose to East Asia and hand over to him the responsibilities of leading the Indian Independence League. He requested India to reject Cripps Mission. Rashbehari was a superior organizer and planner as was evident in 1914. His Indian Independence league formed an army of Indian prisoners of war which later became known as Indian National Army. He formed the government departments, established his headquarters in Bangkok. Azad Hind was formed and Rashbehari formally handed over the flag to Netaji Subhas Bose on 4th of July 1943 in an emotionally charged atmosphere in the Cathay Theater of Singapore. After that, he was a disinterested observer as recollected by Dr. Pabitra Mohan Roy in his book, “Netaji-r Secret Service.” Pabitra had joined the IIL and later worked as a secret service officer in INA.

The tireless worker of Indian independence did not covet any leadership. His only dream was to see India free. However that was not destined to be. He passed away suffering from tuberculosis in January 1945. The Japanese Government honoured him with the Order of the Rising Sun and the emperor sent his imperial coach to carry his dead body to be buried beside Toshiko.

And what did we do his legacy in India? Released a 

commemorative stamp! And historians have conveniently forgotten him or even went to the extent of pursuing their colonial masters’ line of terming him as a conspirator and a Japanese stooge.

According to the History of Freedom Movement volume 3 by Dr. R. C Majumdar, “The outbreak of war in the East in 1941 caused a great stirring among the Indians in these regions. Those living in territories freed from European domination organized themselves into associations with the main objects of contributing their quota to the liberation of India from the British yoke and serving the interests of the overseas Indians during the critical period of transition. Such associations were established in a large number of towns and villages and attained great popularity. Out of these associations was born the idea of an Indian Independence League of which they regarded themselves as branches. A definite shape was given to this idea by the great Indian revolutionary, Rashbehari Bose.”

A great tribute has been paid to Rasbehari Bose in the website boseofjapan.wordpress.com by Elizabeth Eston. She and Lexi Kawabe have put up a lot of effort to write in 6 volumes the book “Rasbehari Bose: The father of the Indian National Army”.

Silver – The spy who did the unspeakable

Silver – this was the name of BhagatramTalwar who helped Netaji cross Indian and Afghan border. Documents unclassified in the 90’s revealed that Bhagataram, an active member of the communist KirtiKishan Party, was a quintuple agent during the work, working closely with Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. He also worked as a Russian, German, and Italian agent but most likely his allegiance lied with Russia, the communist heaven, even at the cost of his country’s interest. Since Russia was an ally of the British, he and his party therefore actively helped the British by providing confidential information about Netaji Subhas Bose in Germany and other Indian revolutionaries and provided false information to Bose through German agents.

Why did Silver help Netaji cross the border? Reason was simple. At that time when Netaji crossed the border Russia was still an ally of Hitler. In fact Russia had attacked Poland and the Balkan countries and had shared the spoils with Germany, and Stalin had even greater ambitions. Russia buried Finland and Lapland destroying their faint resistance. The aim for both the power mongers were to get absolute control over the resources in the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Baltic Sea region – the oil and gas fields, the coal mines and other natural resources that were aplenty. When Hitler, perceiving danger attacked Russia, the allegiance of the Communist Party and its wing in the North West Frontier and Punjab, KirtiKishan Party changed. And Silver, despite the fact that his brother Harkishen was hanged by British, worked with them to betray his own countrymen, in order to help Russian alliance win the war.

Before Netaji left India there was a grand plan that he hatched with his chief supporters in Bengal, Hemchandra Ghosh’s Bengal Volunteers (BV), to wage a direct rebellion in the North West Frontiers and in Afghanistan with the help of the local tribal chiefs. He had submitted the plan as part of his memorandum to the German Foreign Office in April 1943. This plan was in sync with the German plan called Operation Tiger – of attacking British India through Afghanistan and helping local revolutionaries like Fakir of Ipi there to carry out sabotage.Bhagatram had considerable influence in the Pashtun speaking areas and enlisting his help, BV leaders tried to make the tribal chiefs prepare for a rebellion against British in the event German and Indian soldiers march to Afghanistan. However after Russia was attacked BV suddenly sensed a lull in their efforts. Bhagatram had sunk without a trace and one by one every leaders of BV of whom Bhagatram knew by now were compromised to the British. Thus Hemchandra Ghosh, Satya Gupta, Bhupendra Kishore Rakshit Roy, JyotishGuha and all other front line leaders were arrested, Satya Gupta and JyotishGuha were subjected to unimaginable torture by British military to reveal the plan of Subhas and Jyotish died in the process. Uttamchand, who had given shelter to Netaji in Kabul, was arrested and send to an Afghan prison and his thirty year old radio business was destroyed. All the information about the BV activities and their link to Subhas Bose were known to only one person – Bhagatram. But Bhagataram was at that time untraceable only to surface after the war. All throughout the war he was working as an undercover agent of the British under the direction of his party from the day Russia sided with Britain in the war. Nobody suspected Bhagatram until 1990 when the war information became classified by Britain. And the papers revealed his secret – how the so called aide of Netaji compromised India’s efforts for gain. James Bond creator Ian Flemming’s brother, as part of MI5, was closely associated with Silver.

The curious case of a misguided political party

Communist party had changed their allegiance and colour very fast right after Hitler declared war against Russia. In fact so fast was their change in strategy that there may be some suspicion in some quarters as to whether the ideological basis of their newfound love for Britain was fabricated and the real basis was probably more materialistic. This political party openly declared a “people’s war” and sided with British administration and Government in condemning the war efforts of Subhas Chandra Bose and also revolutionary activities that would undermine the people’s war against the “Fascists” in India. British Government repaid their debts. All the interned leaders of that party were freed and were given royal treatment. Point to be noted here is that Russia, a co-signee of the Atlantic Charter did not even press for Indian independence as part of the charter. Instead Russia had actively taken part in forcefully occupying several hapless smaller nations and at that time that political party did not have any problem with the Fascists, nor did they have any sympathy for the Nations that were swallowed by Russia.

Therefore the party thought and declared that to “Help Russia was our supreme objective” without any consideration of Indian independence. Is there any other instance of any such political part anywhere in the world who would forego their national interest just for supporting another country’s war efforts? Gandhiji pushed the resolution of Quit India Movement in Congress Working Committee on 14th July 1942 and it was generally accepted despite opposition from few key leaders. The top leaders of Congress were arrested soon after and the movement, which was an uncoordinated set of activities led by second wrung leaders aided by socialist party, was crushed most ruthlessly. However the “people’s war” advocates completely opposed any movement to disturb the war effort and destabilizing the allies and therefore sided with the British Government. This particular political party was also ideologically opposed to Subhas Chandra Bose whom they supported during his early days of political career esp. during his president ship of Congress. They even went to the extent of calling him Quisling of India endorsing the official stand of the British.  Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha led by Syama Prasad Mukherjee and Veer Savarkar also opposed Quit India Movement for vested communal and other interests. To be fair to Syama Prasad he possibly wanted to protect the united Bengal province under FazlulHaq of whose Government his party was a stakeholder and he was naturally apprehensive of the designs of Muslim League to take over the Muslim majority areas of Bengal with tacit support from Congress and open support from British in the event of a revolution against the latter. But the same cannot be said of the communists. According to Communist Party’s official press release, “The groups which make up the fifth block are the Forward Block, the party of the traitor Bose,… must be treated by every honest Indian as the worst enemy of the nation and driven out of political life and exterminated.”  P.C Joshi pledged unconditional support to the Government of India and army to fight Subhash Chandra Bose and Azad Hind Fauz. Joshi’s letters also revealed that the communist party of India received financial assistance from British in return for the favour and also had a secret pact with Muslim League.

Today of course communism is almost irrelevant in India and the world and Russia is no longer held in awe and reverence by the surviving lot.

The clueless bunch of peaceniks

Between 1939 and 1942, after Subhas Chandra Bose was driven out of Congress president post and from the party in the worst possible way, Congress remained a bunch of indecisive, clueless body of peace lovers whose only pleasure in life was to indulge in the politics of prayers and petitions. Without exception almost all political leaders belonging to the pro Gandhi camp were guilty of ill treatment of Subhas Chandra Bose, including Gandhiji’s protégé Nehru whom Subhas respected and trusted for being a forward looking elite. Subhas was driven out of Congress as he had demanded that world war provided an opportunity to demand total independence. Peaceniks claimed that it was not morally right was British was fighting a war. What was Jawaharlal’s motive in denouncing Subhas was not clear, however he persisted in completely and staunchly opposing him in Tripuri Congress. The Gandhi brigade of Nehru, Sardar Patel, MaulanaAbulKalam Azad, Rajgopalachary, had at first taken a decision of supporting British in their war effort. They were still day dreaming that by being nice and friendly to British, we would get independence in return after the war. Gandhiji himself was much disturbed during battle of Britain. He said that he did not want independence by taking advantage of a demolished Britain. Noble gesture, but such policies are irrelevant in war time as Sri Krishna unequivocally told Arjuna. Gandhiji knew Gita by heart, only he did not understand Sri Krishna too well. Congress had forgotten the betrayal of British twenty years back when in return for the war time support what India got was the massacre in JallianwalaBagh and atrocities on its people. They also had underestimated the extent of Winston Churchill’s love for imperialism and his arrogant racism. But Gandhiji perhaps had a change in heart. He demanded that Congress go for a movement to oust British from India. At first, none of his coterie responded favourably. But Gandhiji persisted. At this juncture, under President Roosevelt’s pressure Churchill had to send Stafford Cripps for a peace mission, to ensure and enlist support of Indian political class. Jawaharlal Nehru was the only person who was positively disposed to the proposals of Cripps. Gandhiji rejected it and called it a Post Dated Cheque on a Crushing Bank. Gandhiji had learnt from his “Himalayan Blunders”. He understood now the British cunningness and duplicity. Although under persistence from Gandhiji’s Quit India resolution was adopted, Congress leaders were still ambivalent about the outcome. In any case they were interned and had no connection with masses until 1945.

Gandhiji’s initial position of opposition to Subhas’s decision to take advantage of world war was ideological. He thought that by trying to take advantage of British’s defeats during the war, India would be violating the principles of non-violence and would be joining the Axis forces by default. His stand was, India can be no party to such an imperialist war. While Nehru and other Congress leaders had heartily supported this stand they did not have any idea or vision as to how to get independence for India. Only Subhas had a concrete and a decisive plan and only he took action, at enormous personal cost and sacrifice.

Nehru had gone a step ahead and said that India should offer not only sympathy but unconditional support to Britain. He said, “We do not approach the problem with a view to take advantage of the British difficulties.” Like the Communists, he conveniently forgot his purpose and goal and the interests of India. He even went on saying in 1940 that “launching a civil disobedience campaign at a time when Britain is engaged in life and death struggle would be an act derogatory to India’s honor.” Seriously! When India is looking forward for independence, her undisputed leader and future prime minister is too concerned about her “honor” to claim her independence. However not everybody was in sync with him. AbulKalamAzad, surprisingly was candid enough to say that, “Indians have the right to take up sword if they have no alternative.” Even Rabindranath Tagore’s unstinted support for Subhas and his appeal on his behalf fell on deaf years as the Congress political leadership was in no mood to relent on this issue. In 1941 Gandhiji told C.F Andrews that “Subhas is behaving like a spoilt child.”Subhas wrote a frank letter to Nehru on March 28, 1939 that ran to twenty seven pages. He reproached Nehru severely. “When a crisis comes, you often do not succeed in making up your mind one way or the other.” Nehru’s doublespeak was thoroughly exposed in that letter. Subhas was disdainful about Nehru’s foreign policy. “Frothy sentiments and pious platitudes do not make foreign policy“, he said. He said that Patel and others would let Nehru talk and talk and in the end ask him to draft their resolution. Subhas had reasons to be peeved, Nehru had not only let him down, he deliberately betrayed him. Nehru replied about the misgivings of Subhas that “I plead guilty to them.” He also expressed his view that Gandhi should accept Subhas as the president. He was clearly riding two horses as Subhas had charged him to do.

Subhas had neither forgiven nor forgotten the duplicity of Jawaharlal. He continues in Indian Struggle, “In this internal crisis the man who was inconvenienced most was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Up till now, he had, with great skill and ingenuity, been able to ride two horses at the same time and had thereby been able to secure the support of the Gandhi Wing, while being a friend or patron of the Left. Challenged by the Forward Bloc, he had to make his choice and he began to move towards the Right — the Gandhi Wing. And as the relations between the Gandhi Wing and the Forward Bloc became strained, Nehru rallied more and more to the support of the Mahatma.”

While Nehru had denounced Subhas and even declared to fight him if he stepped into India with Japanese soldiers, Gandhiji had said, “If the Japanese ever come to India they would come not as our enemy but as the enemy of the British.” It’s surprising that Nehru and other Congress leaders did not realize this simple truth, or that they did not want to. Sardar Patel had a change of heart too. He supported heartily the resolution of Quit India, being disgusted with the inaction and long passivity. But Gandhiji paved the path for final struggle when he put forward his ultimatum to the Congress leadership. He declared, “I cannot wait any longer for India’s freedom…If I wait any longer God will punish me. This the last struggle of my life.” Congress had to accept the resolution,Gandhiji still was the undisputed leader, atleast until the so called failure of Quit India. Nehru however did not forgive him. He said in Discovery of India in the context of the decision to launch a struggle for freedom movement – “Gandhiji’s approach also seemed to ignore international considerations and appeared to be based on a narrow view of nationalism.”

In fact Nehru, the undisputed leader of Congress had summed up the attitude of the peaceniks – “The way Subhas Bose has chosen is naturally wrong, I cannot accept but must oppose”. This statement was widely broadcasted gleefully by the British in the All India Radio.

Dr. R.C Majumdar further went on stating in his magnum opus, “History of the Freedom Movement of India”, that Nehru seemed to live in an ideal world of his own creation which had no relation to actual facts.”

And yet, he became the prime minster and victors write the history in their favor. Heroes are only there to sacrifice everything and thus provide a strong foundation which the opportunists can leverage.

Quit India Movement could have been a failure but the masses rose in uprising in many places in India with a ferocity that was hitherto unknown to the British. Although with brute force they were able to finally subjugate the uprising but they knew one thing, that their days in India were numbered. So ideally Congress could claim no credit for whatever little was achieved during Quit India Movement. In fact the radio broadcasts of Subhas Chandra Bose and Rashbehari Bose, the active leadership of socialist party leaders and the general anger of the unorganized masses played a significant role in the movement. The local heroes largely remain unsung and unrecognized. Their names are not even mentioned in the history books, but they were the ones who had fought inch by inch and their determination and courage won the day in frightening the administration who had no option but to play the sinister game of divide and rule.

Louis Fischer, in the course of his conversations with Gandhi asked him about Subhas Chandra Bose. Gandhi described Bose as a “patriot of patriots”, but, “misguided”.

Gandhi had earlier dismissed an appeal by Rabindranath Tagore to reconsider the decision to ban Subhas for three years from Congress Working Committee. “Bans cannot be lifted without their apologizing for indiscipline”, was his exact quote. This was the treatment that he meted out to one, who not only called him the “Father of the Nation”, but also asked for his “blessing and good wishes”, “in this holy war for India’s liberation.” Mahatma had told Subhas just before the latter left the country, “With the fundamental differences between you and me, it is not possible till one of us is converted to the other’s view, we must sail in different boats, though their destination may appear, but only appear to be the same.”

A lot of pain was expressed by noted historian Dr. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar when he said in 1966 – “What I have not been able to forget to this day that the name of Subhas Chandra Bose was not mentioned even once. This I think was not accidental. It was sought to be conveyed that independence has been achieved through nonviolence and that Netaji and INA had not contributed anything at all to it.”

Reference:

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