Historian Ramchandra Guha claimed that Subhas Chandra Bose was on the same side as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, and he would be “embarrassed and pained” to know that his name was being used to diminish the two leaders.
Guha also highlighted that it was Netaji Bose who called Gandhi ‘Father of the Nation’ and wondered how “they (BJP) have managed to convert” Gandhi, Nehru, Bose and Patel into rivals.
While speaking at an event in the national capital, he said, “On most things except non-violence, Bose was on the same side as Gandhi and Nehru. He would be the first person to be appalled, embarrassed and pained by what is going on, that Bose is being used to decertify Gandhi and Nehru.”
Talking about the respect and admiration Bose had for Gandhi and Nehru, the historian noted that Netaji named his brigades “Gandhi, Nehru and Azad (Chandra Sekhar)” when he started the India National Army (INA).
“Even Mahatma Gandhi gave a speech in Calcutta and saluted SC Bose’s patriotism after he died in 1945,” he added.
Ramchandra Guha further claimed that while resigning from the Congress president post, Bose had said that “if I cannot get the trust of India’s greatest man – that’s what he thought of Gandhi – I would not continue as the president”.
Subhas Chandra Bose resigned from the Congress chief post a year after he was appointed to the position in 1938.
For the “confused” critics of Gandhi and those claiming that it was violence that got India its independence, Guha said, it is important to know that every country in Asia and Africa that won independence through violence is a “dictatorship” today.
Guha’s ‘India after Gandhi’ is touted to be a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest democracy.
