Netaji Subhas and the Mahatma" by Prafull Goradia, The Pioneer, Jan23, 2004

On Netaji Subhas's birth anniversary, it would be worthwhile to compare his role in the freedom struggle with that of Mahatma Gandhi. Their equation was essentially adversarial. British author Michael Brecher has criticised the practitioner of satyagraha for having pushed out the exponent of freedom by any means. To quote: Of all the participants only Gandhi had a clear and consistent object - to oust Bose. (Nehru: A Political Biography, page 245). Historian Michael Edwardes wrote that Gandhi, whom so many in India and abroad believed to be only sweetness and light, had by the use of his overwhelming prestige and the sort of intrigue one would expect from the Tammany Hall, succeeded in disposing of the only real opposition to his leadership. (The Last Years of British India, page 67).

Bose's radical agenda did not suit Gandhi who opposed him for seeking re-election as president of the Congress in 1939. Nevertheless, in the polls that followed, Gandhi's candidate, Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya, was defeated. The Mahatma could not stomach his candidate's defeat. In his book, The Springing Tiger, historian Hugh Toye has written: Bose's popular mandate as president of the Congress in 1939 was denied by intrigue, intrigue not only against him but against the very democracy which had elected him.

There is no doubt that but for Gandhi the masses of India might not have become aware, for many more years, about the importance of independence.....

However, Gandhi's contribution in precipitating the British departure was very limited....Gandhi himself was not in any undue hurry....On the other hand, the impact of the Indian National Army, or the Azad Hind Fauj, founded and led by Bose, had a telling effect on the psyche of the British rulers....

Netaji Subhas's action thus hit the Achilles' heel of the foreign rulers. They took it as a clear message that it was time to pack their bags and go. So then, Gandhi awakened the Indian masses to the value of being free and stirred their souls to depend Independence. But it was Netaji Bose who precipitated the British departure. This achievement of the springing tiger has not enjoyed the highlight it deserves....

Thus, that it was the Mahatma's satyagraha/ahimsa that won us Independence can certainly be questioned as being a myth. It was Netaji's militancy and influence over the Indian civilian and military machinery and the Navy revolt in Mumbai in 1946 that really shook the British. Yet the myth of a mealy-mouthed non-violence is a myth zealously fostered by the Nehruvian dispensation. As Goradia continues, "Nehru made it his party's as well as Government's policy to underplay the legend of Netaji".

It wasn't just Gandhi and Nehru. "The communists had lampooned Netaji in the most unpalatable terms...during the freedom movement. Later, they acknowledged their `historical blunder'. On the last Netaji anniversary, Mr Bhattacharya asked historians to `give Netaji his proper due in the freedom movement of India"