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Netaji's ideological grounding was weak and his lack of political acumen only compounded his mistakes
The ideological commitment of any individual is best tested when he or she is pushed to the wall. Because it is here that the option to take an easy way out or strike a compromise appeals the most. And it is in such circumstances that one of India’s most prominent nationalist leaders Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose made some of the biggest strategic mistakes of his life.
Bose's tryst with Nazism and Fascism has always remained a matter of debate. Experts have variously called his decision a “tactical folly”, “lack of political acumen” and “genuine flirtation”. The truth – as always – lies somewhere in between.
Let's consider Bose's initial tryst with the ideology. Throughout the 1930s and even later, Bose's basic ideology was grounded in socialism. Sugata Bose – grandnephew of the INA leader and professor of history at Harvard – writes that Bose's differences with MK Gandhi were primarily because he thought that the latter had no plan in place whatsoever for a post-independence India. Besides, Bose’s idea that the independence movement “should depend, for its strength, influence and power on such movements as the labour movement, youth movement, peasant movement, women's movement, student's movement” was abominable to right-wingers like Vallabhbhai Patel.
Bose tried to reach out to the leaders of both Fascist and Nazi regimes in the late 1930s but without much success. Some suggest that he secretly entertained middle-rung Nazi leaders in Bombay in 1938 when he was president of the Indian National Congress (INC) for a brief period. However, his efforts to connect with Nazi forces till then were mostly based in and around the principle that an “enemy's enemy is my friend”. He certainly displayed no particular liking for the Nazi or Fascist ideology as a whole. The admiration was selective. And that was not unnatural because even Gandhi had praised Mussolini’s “care of the poor, his opposition to super-urbanisation, his efforts to bring about coordination between capital and labour”.
Around the same time, Hitler, who was clearly in awe of the British Empire and definitely wanted to have a respectful share in its sphere of influence rather than substituting it with a German empire, saw little strategic value in entertaining Bose. “The land for us, the seas for England,” visualised Hitler. However, he did see the tactical benefit in using Bose as a chip to bargain with the British. On the other hand, Bose was sceptical of Hitler's hatred for the Soviet Union and was uncomfortable discussing it. Hitler was shrewd enough to judge that and advised him to reach an agreement with the Japanese to avoid "psychological mistakes".
Ideologically speaking, they did not particularly admire each other – at least it was not the kind of mutual admiration that Mussolini and Bose shared. In fact, during his initial tryst, Bose tried hard to have Hitler's racist references to Indians excised from further editions of Mein Kampf. The relationship grew worse as Bose had by then little appetite for racism and went as far as to rebuke Hitler at a press conference in Geneva after yet another rabid racist speech by the latter. Some historians claim that he even asked for a trade boycott against Nazi Germany.
The ideological commitment of any individual is best tested when he or she is pushed to the wall. Because it is here that the option to take an easy way out or strike a compromise appeals the most. And it is in such circumstances that one of India’s most prominent nationalist leaders Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose made some of the biggest strategic mistakes of his life.
Bose's tryst with Nazism and Fascism has always remained a matter of debate. Experts have variously called his decision a “tactical folly”, “lack of political acumen” and “genuine flirtation”. The truth – as always – lies somewhere in between.
Let's consider Bose's initial tryst with the ideology. Throughout the 1930s and even later, Bose's basic ideology was grounded in socialism. Sugata Bose – grandnephew of the INA leader and professor of history at Harvard – writes that Bose's differences with MK Gandhi were primarily because he thought that the latter had no plan in place whatsoever for a post-independence India. Besides, Bose’s idea that the independence movement “should depend, for its strength, influence and power on such movements as the labour movement, youth movement, peasant movement, women's movement, student's movement” was abominable to right-wingers like Vallabhbhai Patel.
Bose tried to reach out to the leaders of both Fascist and Nazi regimes in the late 1930s but without much success. Some suggest that he secretly entertained middle-rung Nazi leaders in Bombay in 1938 when he was president of the Indian National Congress (INC) for a brief period. However, his efforts to connect with Nazi forces till then were mostly based in and around the principle that an “enemy's enemy is my friend”. He certainly displayed no particular liking for the Nazi or Fascist ideology as a whole. The admiration was selective. And that was not unnatural because even Gandhi had praised Mussolini’s “care of the poor, his opposition to super-urbanisation, his efforts to bring about coordination between capital and labour”.
Around the same time, Hitler, who was clearly in awe of the British Empire and definitely wanted to have a respectful share in its sphere of influence rather than substituting it with a German empire, saw little strategic value in entertaining Bose. “The land for us, the seas for England,” visualised Hitler. However, he did see the tactical benefit in using Bose as a chip to bargain with the British. On the other hand, Bose was sceptical of Hitler's hatred for the Soviet Union and was uncomfortable discussing it. Hitler was shrewd enough to judge that and advised him to reach an agreement with the Japanese to avoid "psychological mistakes".
Ideologically speaking, they did not particularly admire each other – at least it was not the kind of mutual admiration that Mussolini and Bose shared. In fact, during his initial tryst, Bose tried hard to have Hitler's racist references to Indians excised from further editions of Mein Kampf. The relationship grew worse as Bose had by then little appetite for racism and went as far as to rebuke Hitler at a press conference in Geneva after yet another rabid racist speech by the latter. Some historians claim that he even asked for a trade boycott against Nazi Germany.
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