THE OTHER SIDE OF NETAJI FORGET NOT

The Other Side of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

AMIT GANGULY

ith that supernatural personal foreign land, this is all that I can do for you charisma, Subhas Bose kept Kiani Sahib, for the great services rendered Waddressing the mammoth by you’ and tears rolled down his cheeks, gathering in the rains for hours, while which affected the entire military gathering assuming the leadership of the INA in July and they wept. 1943, on arrival from Germany. The The domesticities of this irrepressible audience kept dancing in maddening prince among patriots also makes interesting excitement at his every exhortation, shouting reading. Once when his wife Emilie Schenkl and pledging sacrifice for India, their kept on insisting from Vienna for bangles motherland. from India, Bose, being totally unsure of the The above phenomenon in S. E. Asia lady’s choice, pacified her by declaring that reflects the mass appeal of Netaji known to the best of the glass bangles in the world many. But it would be equally intriguing to being imported from Czechoslovakia or note his relatively lesser known emotional Japan, she should better try buying them in temperament. Two such incidents can be Europe itself. However, his justification for cited as memorable. not sending our Indian tea was much Once while on a visit to Bangladesh stronger in the sense that he hated wasting (erstwhile East Bengal), as Bengal Congress money by paying 10 shillings as duty for a President, Bose had asked the boatman as to pound of tea! why was he so afraid to cross over the On the other hand, Bose’s genuine Padma river in a stormy weather? The keenness in capturing the ethereal beauty of boatman had replied that it was not for Kanchanjunga or Dalhousie during the rains himself but for the safety of the illustrious in his camera and sending out the best snaps passenger and his entourage, that he was to Vienna and his ardent passion for anxious about. This brought tears to Bose’s purchasing some of the best art books and eyes, who, however, diverted the attention of Viennese or German classical music records, his companions by joining the boatman in a bring to light the other facets of his Bhatiali song, followed by a Shyama character. Emilie had to be sternly cautioned Sangeet (song devoted to Goddess Kàli) and by Bose to ‘think thrice before you act’ after Tagore’s ‘O Amar Desher Maati’ by she had bungled in spending a huge sum of himself. money in airmailing to him from Vienna to On another occasion, while putting a Badgastein, an entire lot of his clothing, new badge on Zaman Kiani, promoting him even though she was repeatedly told to send to the rank of an INA General, he said, ‘In a only the ‘Trench coat’.

Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture  May 2017 27 AMIT GANGULY

Many domestic trivialities such as growing a Pathan-like beard within the teaching her yogurt preparation or dieting confines of a tent (set up in his Elgin Road exercises through his letters (while himself bedroom itself) prior to his great escape, in suffering in Yarawada jail or Arthur Road the guise of the Empire of India travelling prison) or giving lessons on ‘Nishkàma’ insurance man, Mohd. Ziauddin. Of course prayer or on demarcations between Kaffee, this Pathan disguise proved a little too good Cafe and Coffee, sending stamps to her for when his earnest endeavour to stop the collection or quips on his Bengali Dhoti- Russian ambassador’s car in a Kabul bazaar Kurta clad photographs, highlight the failed because the Russian refused to be lighter, witty, romantic side of Netaji. His convinced that he was Bose. love of nature becomes alive in his Coming back to amusing events, we are expressions on mad waterfalls (‘Pagla reminded of a period when Bose was Jhora’) of Darjeeling or the snow-capped recuperating from a ‘strange illness’ during Alpine peaks (‘grand and sublime’). February 1939 in Calcutta. Good wishes His emphatic views on how Austria kept pouring in from all over the country, in could compete with Switzerland in attracting form of packets, amulets, ashirvàdi flower, more Indian tourists or his masterly analysis sacrificial ashes, etc. from Hakims, Vaids, ranging from Goethe’s Shakuntalà to the Homeopaths, Naturopaths, Astrologers, German version of the Bhagavad Gità, on to Parsi specialists, etc. Bose, though innately India’s Olympic chances in Hockey or his rationalistic, wished to respect the amusingly candid contention that being born sentiments of the people (like when asked to in the previous century he was too old for shave his head on his father’s death, Bose Emilie, reveal to us a different Bose, more obeyed, but not before questioning Gauri homely, more close, more credible, more Nath Shastri, ‘Do the Shastras say so?’) but earthly. in the process he found to his utter dismay, his pillows had started getting elevated to Human proximity unusual heights, with the materials While languishing in sick bed in a cold underneath!! There were also rings with Calcutta hospital, with deafening cacophony gems to combat Tantrik ‘Màrana-Kriyà’. To of street traffic all day long, coupled with top it all, came along ‘Glucksklee’ from painful cries of patients around, he had Vienna, a special plant to bring in good smilingly remarked that the noisy, crowded, luck! smelly atmosphere was more comforting to It is interesting to note the modern and him because of human proximity, rather than liberal outlook of Bose when he advises his the never-ending isolation in jails. A similar nephew in Germany, as far back as in 1938 humorous remark followed his visit to to go ahead and marry the ‘out-of-caste-girl’, Lahore (now in Pakistan) after resigning as every man and woman had the right to from the second term of Congress marry the person of his or her choice. Presidentship. On receiving a much warmer Besides one must take up studies on sex, reception, he said ‘India is a strange place, prior to marriage. here people love you for giving up power, The way Bose could inflame the spirit of rather than for being in power.’ self- sacrifice in a person is well known: a It makes one shiver in thrill at the classic example being the old Muslim unconventional approach adopted by him in businessman Seth Habib in Singapore in

28 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture  May 2017 THE OTHER SIDE OF NETAJI SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE

1943, who left his entire fortune and as a January, 1935 that here was a book that was pauper, joined the INA. However, relatively both ‘calm, dispassionate and an ablest work lesser known is the amusing incident of a on current Indian politics’, not possible by a Japanese girl getting impressed by Bose. It person with the above dubious distinction. was in 1944, on a return journey from Tokyo It is undeniably an uphill task to fathom to Singapore that Bose, with a batch of the depths of Netaji’s character. For senior INA officers, was being entertained example, even while exclaiming at the by Japanese geisha performers over dinner beauty of Belgian countryside (‘I feel it like in a Nagasaki hotel, as the Governor’s a dream!’) in the company of Vithalbhai special guests. The banjo-playing girl, at the Patel in 1933, the moment the doorman at end of her delightfully lively performance, the entrance of a famous Casino (in the same insisted that she should spend the night in place, near Antwerp) requests him to take Bose’s room. Bose, like a benign Buddha off his Indian long coat, he cancels his (with an expression of deep contemplation) programme and walks off without a word. humoured her like a kind parent, persuaded This once again vindicates the clarity of his her to go back home, without really hurting thought and action. the feelings of the starry-eyed young fan. His well-known ‘one-point-aim’ mission (coined frequently by his close friend Dilip Minor irritants Kumar Ray and his first biographer Hugh ‘No coffee, No parade’ agitations Toye) of overthrowing the ‘white-faced among military recruits in INA were minor foreigner’, nucleated in Presidency College irritants those days. The way Bose had and proved to be the turning-point for his tackled the problem of too many religious lifelong resolute conviction. He admitted greetings in his army (comprising later recalling the tragic events of 1916 and Garhwalis, Dogras, Rajputs, Sikhs, Muslims, their inner significance: ‘my Principal Christians, etc.), by simply substituting his expelled me but he had made my future brilliant innovation ‘’ (the term we career’. use even today) and the way he came Rewinding back to amusing events, endearingly close to the common soldier and Laxmi Sehgal had recalled later that as 1939 deservingly earned the everlasting label of passed to 1940 and England pre-occupied ‘Netaji’ show his marksmanship in human became England in-Peril, Bose’s elation relations. With this we realize how wrong grew. As the news came over the radio that Shedai of was when he tried France had fallen, his face lit up with joy, he to belittle Bose by remarking that since hugged some of us and danced around the Orlando Mazotta (Bose’s passport name in room like a merry school boy, because he Germany) belonged to a class that had was pleased to see that India could take nothing in common with the soldiers, he advantage of it. could not understand them. A more sinister Such ‘One-point-aim’ persons do not scar on Bose as ‘an extremist, a wild man, a abound. Hence, eventhough Lord Almighty menace to society’ was quashed by the has blessed us with a billion, most of us foreign editor (W. N. Ewar) of the Daily being multi-point-aim persons, there is a Herald, London, when he commented on heady cocktail of aim-clashing, bringing the Bose’s book ‘Indian Struggle’ on 28 net result to ‘you know—better’. „

Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture  May 2017 29 AMIT GANGULY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 Leonard A Gordon, Brothers Against The 6 Sisir Kumar Bose, The Flaming Sword Raj, Viking, 1990. Forever Unsheathed, Liberty Publishers, 2 M. Z. Kiani, Indian Freedom Struggle 1986. and the Great INA, Reliance publishing, 7 S. C. Bose, The Mission of My Life, 1994. Thacker, Spink & Co., 1953. 3 Netaji, Collected Works, Vol. 7, Letters to 8 Tatsuo Hiyashida, Netaji Subhas Chandra Emilie Schenkl 1934-42 ed. Sisir Kumar Bose, Allied Publishers, 1970. Bose and , Oxford University 9 Proceedings of the International Seminar on Press, 1994. Netaji and India’s Freedom, Calcutta, 1973, 4 A. N. Bose, My Uncle Netaji, Bhartiya ed. Sisir K. Bose. Vidya Bhavan, 1989. 10 Hugh Toye, Subhas Chandra Bose the 5 Peter Ward Fay, The Forgotten Army, Ann Springing Tiger, Jaico Publishing House, Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1995. Fort Mumbai, 1991.

* Dr Amit Ganguly is Professor, NIT, Durgapur.

(Continued from page 23)

each other, discrimination is noticed no right over her father’s property; in household management. The wife she had only the privilege of had to bear all the burden in maintenance of her father’s property. managing the household affairs. (x) So far as the married daughter was (vii) The brotherless daughter’s right of concerned, she had no right over her inheritance was first recognized in father’s property. She could only Vedic period. claim the gifts given to her at the (viii) In Vedic India, wife had no legal time of marriage. right over her husband’s property. (xi) Generally widows had no right over She had only ownership over her her husband’s property. But the wedding gifts. widows acquired their husband’s (ix) On the basis of the references of the share as the guardians of their minor Rigveda and the Atharvaveda cited in sons. But if the widows were the text of the paper, Upadhyay remarried, they did not get any share concluded that the unmarried of their husband’s property. daughter had the share over her (xii) In Vedic period men were engaged in father’s property. But the word many occupations, but women were ‘share’ was not clearly defined by only engaged in weaving industry him in his book—Women in Rig reflecting imposition of restrictions Veda. But we maintain that an on the choice of occupation for unmarried daughter with brother had women. „

* The author is a Guest Faculty, Presidency University. The translation of hymns have been taken from Hymns of the Rig Veda by R. T. H. Griffith, edited by J. L. Sastri.

30 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture  May 2017