Speaking on the 127th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi said on Tuesday that it was Bose who should be credited, not the Indian National Congress or Mahatma Gandhi, for compelling the British to leave India in 1947.
Delivering a speech at Anna University in Chennai, Ravi also claimed that for a long period after the British left, systems were in place that ignored India’s cultural, spiritual, and civilisational heritage.
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According to him, this neglect extended to the freedom fighters and martyrs, including those from Tamil Nadu who he said significantly contributed to Bose’s Indian National Army (INA).
Arguing that Bose’s role in India’s independence has been misunderstood and under-appreciated, Ravi highlighted Bose’s progressive vision, including the formation of a women’s battalion, a concept that was only realised in Independent India’s military decades later.
He also described the post-1942 period as a time of inaction in the national freedom movement led by Gandhi, which, in his view, became a “non-event”. He credited Bose with reigniting the fight against British rule, particularly highlighting the naval revolt of February 1946 and the Indian Air Force strike as direct consequences of Bose’s influence.
Ravi referred to a conversation from 1950 in which then British PM Clement Attlee purportedly said that the non-cooperation of the Indian National Congress had “minimum” impact in prompting the British to leave.
It was the fear among the British of being insecure in India following the revolt of the Navy and the rebellion of the Air Force that influenced their decision, the Governor said.
“When I read this, I thought I should look into it. Having spent a considerable period in the Intelligence Bureau, a successor of British intelligence, I delved into archival data from February and March, 1946. I was amazed to see the dispatches sent from India to Britain. Every day brought a frightening report. The Central Intelligence, as it was called in those days, reported that anything could happen anytime. Besides the Indian military, they realised that even the Indian police could not be trusted. Within a month of this revolt, they decided they would make India free. It was the consequence of what Netaji did,” Ravi said.
He also called for a reevaluation of historical accounts to include the contributions of overlooked freedom fighters, and appealed to state universities to start Netaji chairs and more research into his contributions and the INA.