" history is written by the victors "
Some great king,politician or poet said that.May be Napoleon,may be Churchill.Exact source is quite unknown.But one thing is for sure - he was great.He was great by the shear magnitude of his words.Coming to the Indian context,not only history but also the signboards of all the famous monuments and universities have been written by the victors.The Independence of India is seen to be the magical of a single party,with 'The Family' at its helm and Mahatma as its spiritual guide.So much so,that the role of Indira Gandhi as the head of Monkey Brigade has now become legendary.I too heard the story as a child.But what you don't get to hear in Independent India is the story of millions and millions of commoners who died fighting for their motherland.And their fight was not the non-violent fight preached by Mahatma Gandhi.They paid the price in blood.Chandrasekhar Aazad,the man who fought till his second last bullet,only to put the last bullet in his own temple so as to be not captured by the Britishers alive,died in the famous Company Garden of Allahabad.After Independence,the Garden was renamed Motilal Nehru Park.Only after much furore,the particular spot of Aazad's martyrdom was encircled and named after him.Veer Savarkar was never arrested and kept in the infamous Cellular Jail or Kaala Paani for petty crime like theft.He was involved in serious political activities which included a struggle against the British Empire for India's freedom.Yet he was not even given the monthly pension customary for freedom fighters until Nehru was Prime Minister.No honour was bestowed upon the man who served the gruesome jail term of eleven years under the evil British laws in a place where hell and death were things one dreamt of attaining.Not even in his death,although Indians are none to glorifying one and all after their deaths.All because he was a political opponent of Congress.Another man who never bowed to the Britishers but was soon systematically ignored by subsequent governments after Independence was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.But he was not just a political opponent.He was the man who commanded the respect of the commoners and the mighty alike.Be it Hitler or Stalin in 1940's or the common Congress worker in the 1920's and 30's.The man who served as Congress President,winning the election only after defeating a candidate supported by Mahatma himself but had to go because of "differences" with the 'High Command',had the weight of 60000 strong soldiers behind him.And a nation which thought him as another pole of India's freedom struggle.With his slogan "Tum Mujhe Khoon Do,Mai Tumhe Aazadi Dunga (Give me blood,and I will give you freedom)" and "Dilli Chalo (Capture Delhi)" he was a man whose voice could be clearly heard and felt far and wide at a time when even Gandhi was compelled into using the term "Do or Die".And that proved to his undoing.That a man single-handedly raises a force and declares a war against the mightiest empires of its time,is quite unheard of in the entire history.And what a dedicated force!Two-third of his soldiers fought till their last breath.And those who were left alive in the war were not even accepted as freedom fighters in Independent India.They never got their due credit in the freedom struggle(in the words of NSA Ajit Doval).So much so,they were even kept out of the Indian Army.No government tried to celebrate the contribution of Netaji in freedom struggle or even tried to dig his whereabouts.He was a man whose presence or even discussion in independent India could have hurt the treatment of India's independence as the sole handiwork of the ruling dynasty.The glorious fighter was fatefully or forcefully faded into oblivion.But the harsh truth is that these freedom fighters were never fighting for petty prizes or to sit on the throne of Independent India.It was a selfless struggle for their Motherland and for the self pride which never allowed them to become allies of the Empire(Subhash Chandra Bose came fourth in the esteemed ICS Exams).Even the politicians of Bengal,who are famous for protecting and promoting the relics of its legends,only paid lip-service to Netaji.While the poets and painters continue to bash in the cultural saga of the state,Netaji is a forgotten hero.
Some great king,politician or poet said that.May be Napoleon,may be Churchill.Exact source is quite unknown.But one thing is for sure - he was great.He was great by the shear magnitude of his words.Coming to the Indian context,not only history but also the signboards of all the famous monuments and universities have been written by the victors.The Independence of India is seen to be the magical of a single party,with 'The Family' at its helm and Mahatma as its spiritual guide.So much so,that the role of Indira Gandhi as the head of Monkey Brigade has now become legendary.I too heard the story as a child.But what you don't get to hear in Independent India is the story of millions and millions of commoners who died fighting for their motherland.And their fight was not the non-violent fight preached by Mahatma Gandhi.They paid the price in blood.Chandrasekhar Aazad,the man who fought till his second last bullet,only to put the last bullet in his own temple so as to be not captured by the Britishers alive,died in the famous Company Garden of Allahabad.After Independence,the Garden was renamed Motilal Nehru Park.Only after much furore,the particular spot of Aazad's martyrdom was encircled and named after him.Veer Savarkar was never arrested and kept in the infamous Cellular Jail or Kaala Paani for petty crime like theft.He was involved in serious political activities which included a struggle against the British Empire for India's freedom.Yet he was not even given the monthly pension customary for freedom fighters until Nehru was Prime Minister.No honour was bestowed upon the man who served the gruesome jail term of eleven years under the evil British laws in a place where hell and death were things one dreamt of attaining.Not even in his death,although Indians are none to glorifying one and all after their deaths.All because he was a political opponent of Congress.Another man who never bowed to the Britishers but was soon systematically ignored by subsequent governments after Independence was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.But he was not just a political opponent.He was the man who commanded the respect of the commoners and the mighty alike.Be it Hitler or Stalin in 1940's or the common Congress worker in the 1920's and 30's.The man who served as Congress President,winning the election only after defeating a candidate supported by Mahatma himself but had to go because of "differences" with the 'High Command',had the weight of 60000 strong soldiers behind him.And a nation which thought him as another pole of India's freedom struggle.With his slogan "Tum Mujhe Khoon Do,Mai Tumhe Aazadi Dunga (Give me blood,and I will give you freedom)" and "Dilli Chalo (Capture Delhi)" he was a man whose voice could be clearly heard and felt far and wide at a time when even Gandhi was compelled into using the term "Do or Die".And that proved to his undoing.That a man single-handedly raises a force and declares a war against the mightiest empires of its time,is quite unheard of in the entire history.And what a dedicated force!Two-third of his soldiers fought till their last breath.And those who were left alive in the war were not even accepted as freedom fighters in Independent India.They never got their due credit in the freedom struggle(in the words of NSA Ajit Doval).So much so,they were even kept out of the Indian Army.No government tried to celebrate the contribution of Netaji in freedom struggle or even tried to dig his whereabouts.He was a man whose presence or even discussion in independent India could have hurt the treatment of India's independence as the sole handiwork of the ruling dynasty.The glorious fighter was fatefully or forcefully faded into oblivion.But the harsh truth is that these freedom fighters were never fighting for petty prizes or to sit on the throne of Independent India.It was a selfless struggle for their Motherland and for the self pride which never allowed them to become allies of the Empire(Subhash Chandra Bose came fourth in the esteemed ICS Exams).Even the politicians of Bengal,who are famous for protecting and promoting the relics of its legends,only paid lip-service to Netaji.While the poets and painters continue to bash in the cultural saga of the state,Netaji is a forgotten hero.
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