ON 124TH
ANNIVERSARY OF SUBHASH CHANDER BOSE
HOW
HINDUTVA GANG BACK-STABBED NETAJI
RSS-BJP
rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fan of Netaji. But Indians must
know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and
INA. Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made
no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials. There are plenty of documents available in the archives of
Hindu nationalist organizations to show the terrible betrayal of his cause by
the Hindu Mahasabha under the leadership of Savarkar who was also adored by the
RSS as Hindutva icon. When Netaji was planning to liberate the northeast of the
country through INA, it was VD Savarkar who offered full military cooperation
to the British masters. While addressing 23rd session of Hindu Mahasabha at
Bhagalpur in 1941, he said:
"The war which has now reached our shores directly
constitutes at once a danger and an opportunity which both render it imperative
that the militarization movement musts be intensified and every branch of the
Hindu Mahasabha in every town and village must actively engage itself in
rousing the Hindu people to join the army, navy, the aerial forces and the
different war-craft manufactories."[i]
To what
extent Savarkar was willing to help the British would be clear by the following
words of his:
"So far as India’s defence is concerned,
Hindudom must ally unhesitatingly, in a spirit of responsive co-operation with
the war effort of the Indian government in so far as it is consistent with the
Hindu interests, by joining the Army, Navy and the Aerial forces in as large a
number as possible and by securing an entry into all ordnance, ammunition and
war craft factories…Again it must be noted that Japan’s entry into the war has
exposed us directly and immediately to the attack by Britain’s enemies…Hindu
Mahasabhaits must, therefore, rouse Hindus especially in the provinces of
Bengal and Assam as effectively as possible to enter the military forces of all
arms without losing a single minute."[ii]
Savarkar
called upon Hindus “to flood the
[British] army, the navy and the aerial forces with millions of Hindu warriors
with Hindu Sanghatanist hearts” and assured them that if Hindus
recruited in the British armed forces,
"our Hindu nation is bound to emerge far more
powerful, consolidated and situated in an incomparably more advantageous
position to face issues after the war— whether it be an internal anti-Hindu
Civil War or a constitutional crisis or an armed revolution."[iii]
Savarkar
believed in the invincibility of the British imperialists. His presidential
address at Madura is a living testimony to his unabashed support to the British
imperialistic designs. He rejected out rightly Netaji’s attempts to liberate
India. He declared:
"Not only on moral grounds but on the grounds
of practical politics we are compelled not to concern ourselves on behalf of
the Hindu Mahasabha organisation with any programme involving any armed
resistance, under the present circumstances."[iv]
When the
British government in the wake of the World War II decided to raise new
battalions of its armed forces, it was Hindu Mahasabha under direct command of
Savarkar which decided to enroll Hindus in a big way in this venture. This is
what Savarkar reported to the delegates at the Hindu Mahasabha session at
Madura:
"Naturally, the Hindu Mahasabha with a true
insight into a practical politics decided to participate in all war efforts of
the British government in so far as they concerned directly with the question
of the Indian defence and raising new military forces in India."[v]
It was
not as if Savarkar was unaware of the strong resentment which was brewing in
the ranks of common Indians against such an approach. He brushed aside any
criticism of Hindu Mahasabha’s decision of co-operating with the British in war
efforts as,
"political folly into which the Indian public
is accustomed to indulge in thinking that because Indian interests are opposed
to the British interests in general, any step in which we join hands with the
British government must necessarily be an act of surrender, anti-national, of
playing into the British hands and that co-operation with the British
government in any case and under all circumstances is unpatriotic and
condemnable."[vi]
If on
the one hand, Bose was working on the military strategies to take help of the
German and Japanese forces to liberate India, on the other hand, Savarkar was
busy in directly assisting the British colonial masters. This amounted to the
betrayal of the cause espoused by Netaji. Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha openly
stood with the British government which later was able to kill and maim
thousands of brave cadres of the INA. While greatly eulogizing the British
masters, Savarkar told his followers at Madura that due to the ever-advancing
forces of Japan with a declared objective of freeing Asia from European
influence, the British government needed Indians in large numbers in its armed
forces which must be helped. While praising the British war strategy, he said:
"The British statesmanship, far sighted as it
usually is, realised this also that if ever war broke out with Japan, India
itself must be the centre of gravity of all war preparations…chances are that
an army with the strength of a couple of millions shall have to be raised,
manned by Indians under Indian officers as rapidly as Japan succeeds in
advancing near our Frontiers."[vii]
Savarkar
spent the next few years in organizing recruitment camps for the British armed
forces which were to slaughter the cadres of INA in different parts of the North-East
later. The Madura conference of Hindu Mahasabha concluded with the adoption of
an ‘immediate programme’ which stressed “to
secure entry for as many Hindus recruits as possible into army, navy and the
air forces”.[viii]
He also informed them that through the efforts of Hindu Mahasabha alone,
one lakh Hindu’s were recruited in the British armed forces in one year. It is
to be noted that during this period RSS continued inviting Savarkar to address
the RSS youth gatherings for motivating the latter to recruit into the British
armed forces. His call to the RSS cadres had no ambiguity: “Let the Hindus therefore come forward now
and enter the army, the navy and the air-forces, the ordnance and other
war-crafts factories in their thousands and millions.”[ix]
Hindu
Mahasabha under Savarkar’s leadership organised high-level Boards in different
regions of the country to help the Hindus seeking recruitment in the British
armed forces. We come to know through the following words of Savarkar that
these Boards were in direct contact with the British government. Savarkar
informed the cadres,
"To deal with the difficulties and the
grievances which the Hindu recruits to the Army find from time to time, a
Central Northern Hindu Militarization Board has been formed by the Hindu
Mahasabha at Delhi with Mr. Ganpat Rai, B.A., L.L.B Advocate, 51, Panchkuin
Road, New Delhi, as convener."
The similar kind of Boards were established in
different parts of India. Savarkar also told HMS cadres that
"Sir Jwala Prasad Shrivastav; Barrister
Jamnadasji Mehta, Bombay; Mr. V.V. Kalikar, M.L.C., Nagpur and other members on
the National Defence Council or the Advisory War Committee will certainly try
their best to get these difficulties removed so far as possible when they are
forwarded by these Militarization Boards on to them."[x]
This
clearly shows that the British Government had accommodated leaders of the Hindu
Mahasabha on its official war committees. Those who declare Savarkar as a great
patriot and freedom fighter must bow their heads in shame when they read the
following instruction from Savarkar to those Hindus who were to join the
British forces:
"One point however must be noted in this
connection as emphatically as possible in our own interest that those Hindus
who join the Indian [read the British] Forces should be perfectly amenable and
obedient to the military discipline and order which may prevail there provided
always that the latter do not deliberately aim to humiliate Hindu Honour."[xi]
Astonishingly,
Savarkar never felt that joining the armed forces of the colonial masters was
in itself a great humiliation for any self-respecting and patriotic Indian. The
British Government was in regular touch with Savarkar so far as the
organisation of its highest war bodies was concerned. It included individuals
whose names were proposed by Savarkar. This is made clear from the following
thanksgiving telegram Savarkar sent to the British government. Bhide’s volume
tells us that,
"The following Telegram was sent by Barrister
V.D. Savarker [sic], the President of the Hindu Mahasabha to (1) General
Wavell, the Commander in-Chief; and (2) the Viceroy of India on the 18th
instant (July 18, 1941).
YOUR EXCELLENCY’S ANNOUNCEMENT DEFENCE COMMITTEE
WITH ITS PERSONNEL IS WELCOME. HINDUMAHASABHA VIEWS WITH SPECIAL SATISFACTION
APPOINTMENT OF MESSERS KALIKAR AND JAMNADAS MEHTA."[xii]
[As
per the original text.]
It is
important to note here that even the Muslim League, sub-serving the interests
of the British rulers, refused to align in these war efforts or join Defence
Committees established by the government as done by Savarkar.
It will
be a sad day for India with glorious tradition of anti-imperialist struggle
that children of those who criminally betrayed Netaji and his INA by siding
with the British rulers are playing mischief with the icons of all-inclusive anti-colonial
struggle. What right RSS-BJP rulers have to show their affinity to Netaji and
INA which fought for a democratic-secular India when they declare themselves to
be Hindu nationalists, committed to turn
India into a theocratic Hindu state and belittling the minorities? We should
not allow Hindutva gang to kill Netaji once again.
Shamsul
Islam
January
23, 2020
Link for some of S. Islam's writings in
English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati
and video interviews/debates:
Facebook: shamsul
Twitter: @shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com
[i]
Cited in Savarkar, V. D., Samagra
Savarkar Wangmaya: Hindu Rashtra Darshan, vol. 6,
Maharashtra Prantik Hindusabha, Poona, 1963, pp. 460-61.
[ii] Ibid., p. 460.
[iii] Ibid., p. 461.
[v] Ibid., p. 428.
[vi] Ibid., p. 428.
[vii] Ibid., p. 435.
[viii] Ibid., p. 439.
[ix] Ibid., p.xxvi.
[x] Ibid., p. xxvii.
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