Surajit Sen
Today, no one can dislodge the contribution of the Nehruvian era in building modern India which is based on science, education and industry. But why many people still detest those formative years of our nation-building despite of many significant development? The primary reason is probably the apathy of the then govt to recognize the contribution of the countless number of freedom fighters who made supreme sacrifice to liberate India from the captivity of the British rulers. Unfortunately, even after 75 years of independence, we are still reluctant to correct the course of our history.
The epic example is the endeavour of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his colleagues who established ‘Azad Hind Govt’ in the South-East Asia. His able leadership gave birth of the first Provisional Government of Free India (GOI in exile) which was recognized by about 10 nations. But most unfortunately, the heroic battle of the die-hard Indian National Army (INA) soldiers (the estimated number is around 50,000) in the hilly terrain of the Indo-Burma frontier was never recognized as the mainstream struggle for freedom. All the events happened before the ‘Fall of Japan’ in WW II when the atom bomb crushed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to dust on 6th and 9th August, 1945, respectively. Japan, the key constituent of the ‘Axis Force’ in Asia, surrendered to the ‘Allied Force’ on 14th August and immediately after that, on 18th of same month, Bose had no other option but to leave South-East Asia in search of some alternative avenue to liberate India. As noted by many historians, the effort of Bose and his INA had not gone in vein because soon after the WW II, the ‘INA Trail’ began in Red Fort in spite of strong public protest. The public anger generated against the court-marshal of the INA people had triggered the Royal Naval Mutiny in British-India in 1946, which in turn, has accelerated our freedom. The bravery of the INA soldiers was never recorded with proper dignity in our history books. The onus of dissociating that episode from the Indian freedom movement lies on those leaders who governed the country immediately after the independence and their touch-bearers who followed them in the subsequent years.
In spite of their many significant contribution in nation building, these leaders have failed to achieve the acceptability of the common people for ignoring the contribution of the unsung freedom fighters selectively. Even today, that faulty cult is still being practiced by several political parties which has worsened their public image and the opponents are fetching political devident out of it.
In absence of proper patronage, recently the style of writing the discourse on some select episode of the history of freedom movement no longer remains a simple academic exercise. Today it is indeed a product of intense RTI activity, which enables the researchers to fetch classified information from various govt and other depositories and then, quick dissemination of that information in the public domain via various Internet based media to mobilize public opinion. This approach has not only created a political compulsion on the major political parties to take a decisive conclusion on a issue, but also proved instrumental to rule out the possibility of framing politically biased concocted story. It transpires today that, mere teasing tweet, clever tweak and powerful twist – 3T of Indian history, cannot distract the real story of the freedom movement. Thanks to these independent researchers whose diligent and sincere effort has able to unearth several uncharted domain of our freedom movement. Based on plenty of impeccable evidences, their study has revealed some startling facts which, as a democratic and matured nation of 75 years, we should accept without any fumbling and, if found irrefutable, should be adopted in our history book without further loss of time. Possibly this is the only way to show respect to the thousands of INA soldiers and many nameless freedom fighters who have chosen martyrdom for their beloved country.