jabdakhata

 Swami Vivekananda had said in Karma Yoga,  "If you really want to judge of the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one time or another. Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man. Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is the really great man whose character is great always, the same wherever he be. " The traits of Subhas Chandra Bose as disclosed by those who had interacted closely with him bears testimony to this. Adopted from www.netajisubhasbose.org S.A Ayer, Propaganda Minister of Azad Hind gives a description of the domestic life of Netaji in Singapore, his traits and his daily routine in his book "Unto Him a Witness". Netaji used to stay in a seaside Bungalow. "Usually, he was a late riser, because he invariably retired very late, and then read political and religious bo...

 Adopted from www.netajisubhasbose.org Continued from Part 1 S.A  Ayer thought that the "title of Supreme Commander, if it truly fitted any commander on the battlefields of Europe or Asia, fitted Netaji most superbly. He looked supreme, every inch of him." He used to address his soldiers as "sathiyon aur doston", literally comrades and friends. He mesmerized his soldiers by his own personality, charm, magnanimity and personal warmth. He told them to stay out of the battlefield if they had even the slightest doubt for the cause that they were fighting for or if they were afraid. His men knew that he meant every word that he spoke. He was sincere and for the first time they had a leader, the Supreme Commander, who was so frank and brutally honest with them so as to offer nothing but hunger, death and deprivation in return for their service. Probably this motivated his retreating Azad Hind men to live on absolutely nothing but jungle grass, and yet not even thinking of...

  Adopted from the Freedom Portal www.netajisubhasbose.org Much has been said against the methods adopted by the revolutionaries like the political murders, dacoities and the violence in general. It has also been speculated that the violence was generally unfavourable to the Indian populace and therefore the attempts of the revolutionaries had largely failed. However it would be naïve to write off the contribution of the revolutionaries and also to dismiss their modus operandi. The one sided narrative that had been developed since independence by the Government and the political classes and a category of historians that India had won independence largely by non violent means, needs a serious scrutiny.  ​ It is true that the revolutionaries had adopted two distinct courses which were often unpalatable to ordinary peace loving folks. One was political murders and the second was dacoity. However the objective behind the political murders was not terrorism, but to raise the c...

In the Udyaga Parva of Mahabharata when Sri Krishna had come to meet Kunti, the mother of the five Pandavas, the queen who had not seen her sons for a period of thirteen years, who had kept alive the hope of seeing them becoming king again, Kunti told him to give Yudhisthira, her eldest son, the message - of reclaiming what was rightfully his and behave like a true Kshatriya. In this connection Kunti narrated the tale of Vidula, another outstanding woman who had inspired her son Sanjaya to fight. Vidula was well educated. She chastised her son Sanjaya, who, upon being defeated by the rival king of Sindhu desh, had been lying down forlorn and depressed. Vidula told him in strongest term that Sanjaya did not deserve to become her son. He was not displaying the valour and the courage of the Kshatriya. He should abandon his fear, rise and fight. She asked him to put forth his courage and reclaim his land from the hand of his enemy even at the cost of his life. She told him to make him...

 In the Mahabharata Udyoga Parva, we get an alternate version of the Yayati's curse to his fours sons and his installation of Puru, the youngest son, as his successor. Dhritarashtra was telling this story to Duryadhana in order to persuade the latter to follow Krishna's advice of peace - (excerpt from Kishori Mohan Ganguli's translation of Mahabharata) The lord of creatures, Soma, was the original progenitor of the Kuru race. Sixth in descent from Soma, was Yayati, the son of Nahusha. Yayati had five best of royal sages as his sons. Amongst them, lord Yadu of mighty energy was the eldest-born. Younger to Yadu was Puru, who, as our progenitor, brought forth by Sarmistha the daughter of Vrishaparvan. Yadu, O best of the Bharatas, was born of Devayani and, therefore, O sire, was the daughter's son of Sukra, otherwise called Kavya, of immeasurable energy. Endued with great strength and prowess, that progenitor of the Yadavas, filled with pride and possessed of wicked u...

Adapted from www.netajisubhasbose.org Post independence history has shaped around a cult - the cult of Gandhism, the myth of Ahimsa as a potent force that has shaped the freedom movement of India. Court historians of different hues, Red or Green, have been too hasty to conclude that the founding father of Indian Nation had been Gandhi as his ideal of non violence brought forth the much cherished freedom. However a careful analysis reveals that the assertion is deeply flawed. In the first place, we have already seen, that while Gandhi's movements made important contributions to the freedom movement, they on their own were not enough to force the British to leave India. In fact almost all of the major movements launched by Gandhi failed to achieve their objectives. Gandhiji also could not achieve his primary goal of Hindu Muslim unity. Despite his weak remonstrances, India was mercilessly partitioned into fragments by the British Raj, in connivance with Congress leaders, on the expli...

  Subhas Chandra Bose's major relief effort was evident during the North Bengal floods in 1922-23. An authentic account is taken up from the memoirs of St. Nihal Singh (titled A Saint turned Patriot) from Netaji, His Life and Works edited by Shri Ram Sharma. The writing goes as follows, "A few weeks after his release from prison, Subhas was found grappling with formidable situation in North Bengal caused by a serious flood, rather unusual for the time. He was entrusted by Sir P.C Roy with the task of bringing relief to the afflicted in North Bengal. He at once went to Santahar and took charge of the relief operations there. He knew no rest. His energy never flagged and he would first put himself in the perilous position before he would ask anybody to take that place. His example served as an inspiration to his coworkers most of whom were very young and inexperienced." - The details are provided in the post https://www.netajisubhasbose.org/post/subhas-chandra-bose-and-nort...

It is a common perception that with the so called death of Subhas his brand equity lingered for sometime among his most tenacious followers who expected that he would return from dead and when it did not happen, the euphoria around him and INA died down. Many INA veterans died in penury and no help came for them. Public simply forgot. There was no outrage when shoddy investigations by "Loaded Dice Commissions" proclaimed that he died in a plane crash. Brand Subhas became more and more irrelevant, and the Brand Gandhi was carefully crafted by the political circle of India and was exploited (and still being exploited by Modi and his elk) to the fullest extent. Gandhi became an international brand - a sort of mini Christ to be an ideal that was never practical but nevertheless worthy of worship as per West. Subhas Chandra Bose was an outcaste. He collaborated with the Nazis, sided with the Japanese and dared to challenge the British Empire and the White Suprematist Hegemony of A...