On Netaji's Birth Anniversary, a Reminder of His Warm Relations With Nehru

Today is the 127th birth anniversary of one of the most charismatic leaders of India's independence movement, Subhas Chandra Bose, popularly known as Netaji.

Bose, who started his political career as a protege of Deshbhandhu Chittaranjan Das, became, along with Jawaharlal Nehru, the most popular leader of the country's youth.

In 1928, the Nehru Report, prepared by Motilal Nehru, who headed a committee of an all-parties conference to prepare a draft for the constitution of a free India, was made public. The report was presented on the assumption that the new constitution will be based on India's Dominion Status.

This was opposed by the young radical group of the Congress headed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas who were propagating full independence. However, when it came to the choice of the President, during the Congress session at Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bose not only supported Motilal Nehru but went to the extent of saying nobody else would be acceptable. He wrote to the elder Nehru on 28 July 1928, "I cannot tell you how disappointed the whole of Bengal will feel if for any reason you decline the Congress Presidentship...we can think of nobody else who can rise to the occasion."

Both Had Their Vision of India’s Lit Up by Idea of Socialism

The 1930-40 decade saw four great stalwarts of the Congress as presidents of the party: Sardar Patel (Karachi, 1931), Jawaharlal Nehru (Lucknow, 1936 and Faizabad, 1937), Netaji (Haripura, 1938 and Tripuri, 1939) and Maulana Azad (Ramgarh, 1940). Of all these topmost leaders of the Congress after Gandhi, no two leaders were as close to each other than Nehru and Bose till the latter fell out with Gandhi in 1939 which also adversely affected his relations with Nehru.

Both Nehru and Bose had their vision of India’s lit up by the idea of socialism. They both therefore laid strong emphasis on centralised planning, heavy industries and state ownership of key industries. The deep ideological affinity they shared also turned into strong personal relationship between the two men.

When Kamala Nehru died in Lausanne in February 1936, Subhas, already in Europe, reached there before she breathed her last and helped Nehru make the funeral arrangements.

Before Kamala died, the presidentship of the 1936 Congress Session at Lucknow had been offered to Nehru. Within a few days of her death, Subhas wrote to Nehru on 6 March 1936 from Austria, "Among the front-rank leaders of today, you are the only one to whom we can look up for leading the Congress in a progressive direction. Moreover, your position is unique and I think even Mahatma Gandhi will be more accommodating towards you than towards anybody else."

'You Cannot Imagine How I Have Missed You All These Months'

After Subhas was elected President of the Congress in 1938 for its 51st session in Haripura, Nehru -- after a strenuous election campaign tour of the country -- left for Europe where he propagated India’s case and got the opportunity to acquaint himself with the situation that was inevitably leading to the Second World War.

On 19 October 1938, Bose wrote to him: “You cannot imagine how I have missed you all these months...you have been able to do such valuable work during your stay in Europe... several problems will await solution till you are back.” The newly-elected Congress president who had offered Nehru the chairmanship of the proposed National Planning Committee repeated the offer, “Hope you will accept the chairmanship of the National Committee. You must if it is to be a success.” Nehru not only accepted it but carried forward the idea in independent India by setting up a Planning Commission which made 5-year plans for the country till it was unfortunately wound up in 2014 by the present government.

The relations between Nehru and Bose continued to be cordial even after the latter was re-elected the Congress President in 1939. When differences arose between the Mahatma and Subhas on the constitution of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the latter sought Nehru's advice and wrote to him on 15 April 1939: “Will it be possible for you to run up here for a few hours? We could then have a talk and I could have your advice as to how to proceed next?”

Nehru not only travelled from Allahabad to Manbhum in Bihar to meet Bose, who was bed ridden, but also wrote to Gandhi on 17 April: “I think now, as I thought in Delhi, that you should accept Subhas as president. To try and push him out seems to be an exceedingly wrong step.” But despite Nehru's best efforts the differences between the Mahatma and Subhas could not be sorted out. It had become extremely difficult for Gandhi, in the circumstances of the time, to reject the advice of his other colleagues in the right wing, led by Patel, who were determined not to compromise with Bose.

Ultimately, Bose resigned from the Congress, formed his own party, the Forward Block, and the rest, as they say, is history.

There Have Always Been Attempts to Exaggerate Their Differences

Lest it be forgotten, Netaji named one the brigades of his Indian National Army as Nehru Brigade. After he died in air crash in 1945, Nehru ensured that his widow, Emilie, was given life-long financial assistance by the Congress party. Her daughter, Anita Bose also received monetary aid till she got married in 1965.

There have always been attempts to exaggerate the differences between Bose and Nehru. Yes, there were differences, but only after 1939 onwards. The differences were restricted to views on fascism and their relationship with Gandhi.

Nobody could have put it better than Rudrangshu Mukhererjee, who in the concluding part of his book Nehru & Bose-Parallel Lives writes: “Subhas believed that he and Jawaharlal could make history together. But Jawaharlal could not see his destiny without Gandhi. This was the limiting point of their relationship.”

What if Bose had not died in the air crash? This is mere speculation but he still wouldn't have made it as Prime Minister. The right-wing in the Congress of 1947 was too strong. They accepted Nehru as he was Gandhi's choice. But he wouldn't have been the Mahatma's choice. If Sardar Patel accepted the offer to be Nehru's Deputy PM, perhaps Netaji would have also done the same. Then, instead of one, India may have had two Deputy Prime Ministers.

However, history is not based on 'ifs' and 'buts'. No political party can claim his legacy more than the Indian National Congress, whose president he was for two consecutive terms, in 1938 and 1939, when he was only 41, a year older than Nehru as president in 1929.

(The writer, an ex-Army officer, is a columnist and author of Freedom Struggle and Beyond. Views are his own and not the party's. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)