Friday, October 9, 2009

Azad Hind

During my school days I was a voracious reader of novels and short stories. One day Appan told me that kind of reading alone was not sufficient, that I should broaden my coverage of different subjects.


He gave me an article by Nagavally RS Kurup on Netaji Subash Chandra Bose in a magazine. This was shortly after the trial of Indian National Army (INA) personnel in the Red Fort was over. I found the piece of writing fascinating and read up everything I could about Netaji and the INA.


I often feel that the story of this great leader and the brave men who took up arms with him to fight for India’s freedom has not received the place it deserves in Indian history.


It was unfortunate that Gandhiji and Netaji did not see eye to eye on important matters. If they had stood together, perhaps the partition of India could have been avoided.


I hope to write a full fledged article about Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. This is only a brief note.


How many Indian school children know that Bose had established a Government for Free India (Azad Hind) which had an army, a central bank, postal department etc?


I used to collect stamps in my school days. My favorite was this set of Azad Hind stamps:


Photos: Wikimedia Commons.

















2 comments:

Raja Basu said...

You are absolutely right. Netaji has been rudely deprieved of his rightful place in the history of Indian freedom movement. His only fault was that he fell out with Mahatma, the "Holy Cow" of Indian freedom movement. And since it is unlikely that the government of India will do anything to ensure that his right evaluation, it will be very nice if educated people like you take the mission of enriching the common people about this Great Leader's contribution.

Sunita Mohan said...

Forget school children, even I had no idea about the Govt. for Free India. It's such a pity that history has become somehing that one has to mug up in school ... remember dates and places and ignore everything else.
I look forward to reading your detailed article about Subash Chandra Bose.