Daily Times

Our ancestors chose the dishonourable, easy way out offered by that British agent Gandhi, instead of the difficult but genuine path shown by Bhagat Singh and Surya Sen, and we are still suffering for that, even 71 years after independence, and will continue to suffer for many years more

I regard the true freedom fighters of our country to be Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen (Masterda), and his other compatriots of the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar, Khudiram Bose, Chandrashekhar Azad (whose memorial in Alfred Park in Allahabad I would visit often to bow my head there), Ashfaqulla, Rajguru, Ram Prasad Bismil (whose song ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai’ is known to many), etc.

In our national historiography these real patriots are barely mentioned, they are generally relegated to a footnote, and treated as mavericks, deviants or outsiders, not freedom fighters, while that fake ‘ Mahatma’ and his coterie, and that pawn of the Japanese fascists, Subhas Chandra Bose are depicted as the real freedom fighters.

Gandhi described Bhagat Singh and the militant Indian youth fighting against British Imperialism as ‘misguided souls’. He often said that militant nationalism was injurious to India’s struggle for freedom. In reality he knew that if those methods became popular among the Indian masses his own popularity would decline, and his ‘Mahatmahood’ would disappear as he would stand exposed as a British agent.

When the British sentenced Bhagat Singh to death, Gandhi made no effort to save his life. He never wrote any letter to the British Viceroy to commute his sentence, nor did he issue any public appeal for this purpose, and he never went to meet Bhagat Singh in jail when the latter was on hunger strike.

By diverting the genuine freedom struggle against the British from its revolutionary path to harmless and nonsensical channels like satyagrah, Gandhi was ensuring that British rule over India would continue.

It is said that Gandhi gave us Independence in 1947. This is totally false. In fact by diverting the genuine revolutionary independence struggle against the British in India to harmless and nonsensical channels like ‘Satyagrah’ Gandhi was ensuring that India should not become independent. Independence came for the reason I have mentioned above.

Some people ask if I call the path of armed struggle the correct path why have I criticised Subhas Chandra Bose, who was also on the path of armed struggle?

I have given my reasons in my blogs ‘The Japanese agent Subhas Chandra Bose’ and ‘Bengalis and Bose’ on my blog Satyam Bruyat.

The path of Gandhi and his associates like Nehru and Patel resulted in parliamentary democracy, which in India really means appeasing and appealing to caste and communal vote banks. Casteism and communalism are feudal forces which must be destroyed. Whereas if we had adopted the path of Bhagat Singh and Surya Sen we would have become united in our struggle against poverty, unemployment and other evils

If ‘Netaji’ was not a Japanese agent, why did he give up the fight against the British when the Japanese surrendered? He should have carried on a guerrilla war against the British, like the Chinese Red Army.

If the Japanese had been victorious against the British does anyone seriously think they would have granted independence to India? No, they would have made India a Japanese colony, and ruthlessly exploited and looted it, as they did to parts of China which were under their occupation.

In fact Bose was being used by the Japanese, and they would have bumped him off the moment his utility for them was over, or made into another Pu Yi, a puppet ruler of India. He was no doubt a brave and personally honest man, but he had become an agent of Japanese fascist imperialism.

The path of Gandhi and his associates like Nehru, Patel, etc resulted in parliamentary democracy, which in India really means appeasing and appealing to caste and communal vote banks. Casteism and communalism are feudal forces which must be destroyed if India is to progress, but parliamentary democracy further entrenches them. Thus the path of Gandhi and his associates continues to divide India on caste and communal lines, whereas if we had adopted the path of Bhagat Singh and Surya Sen we would have become united in our struggle against poverty, unemployment and other evils, and like China emerged as an industrialised and powerful nation, with our people enjoying decent lives

The writer is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India

Published in Daily Times, November 28^th 2018.