Had Netaji&’s vision of an undivided and independent India materialised, the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai and the almost relentless violence and tension in the Kashmir Valley might have been averted. The present-day turmoil is rooted in a dubious  game-plan of the British, one that was executed with the help of greedy and short-sighted politicians. The Partition and its aftermath had created hatred, suspicion and malice in the minds of people on both sides of the  Radcliffe Line. The countries of the subcontinent are now paying the price for the colonial policy of divide and rule. 

Netaji had foreseen a potential battlefield after Partition. His association with the Axis Powers during the Second World War has been a subject of prolonged discourse.  His opponents had once called him  a “quisling”. He believed in the adage, “My enemy&’s enemy is my friend”. His grasp over international politics was considerable, as subsequent events would testify. Unlike other politicians of the country who had been fighting and negotiating among themselves for sharing power after the end of British rule, Netaji continued to propagate the idea of a free and undivided India, which he had nurtured since his student days. Achieving the goal of total and undivided freedom was his single-point agenda. When he realised that the Congress would not support him in his mission, he decided to embark on an innovative and very dangerous adventure which had no precedence in the history of freedom struggles anywhere in the world. He decided to leave the country and align with the enemies of the British so as to push for total freedom from outside. 

This journey had two phases : (a) first from Calcutta to Berlin via Peshawar, Kabul and Moscow, and then (b) from Germany to the Far East via submarine when the Second World War was at its peak.

In the early hours of 17 January 1941, Subhas Chandra Bose began his escape from India masquerading as a religious teacher, Maulvi Ziauddin, accompanied by his nephew, Dr Sisir Kumar Bose. On 28 March 1941, he flew to Berlin from Moscow. He tried in vain to contact the Soviet rulers. “I am not altogether happy about going to Berlin or Rome. But there is no choice” (The Springing Tiger by Hugh Toye, a British intelligence officer, p. 65). 

In Berlin, he  helped in the formation of Indian Legion, which comprised Indian soldiers who were captured in North Africa by the Germans. He called for an Axis declaration on Indian Independence which both Berlin and Rome resisted, dubbing the idea as too premature. However, Japan was willing to issue such a declaration. On 29 May 1942, Bose was received at the Reich Chancery in Berlin by Adolf Hitler, Ribbentrop, the Foreign Minister, and other members of the Nazi hierarchy. The meeting did not produce any tangible results because of Hitler&’s ambivalent stance towards India and the British. England was important to Hitler and Germany hoped for a compromise. Eventually Bose told them: “Britain is our traditional enemy. We will fight her, whether you support us or not”. This reaffirmed  the true revolutionary and independent character of Netaji. The only positive outcome of the meeting was an assurance by Hitler to provide Bose with a submarine that would take him to the Far East.

In fact, Hitler was always critical about the form and nature of the movement that was being waged against British rule in India, namely the non-violent struggle. He was acutely conscious of  the ruthlessness of the British, as noted by him in Mein Kampf (p. 587) – “England will never lose India unless she admits racial disruption in the machinery of her administration or unless she is overcome by the sword of some powerful enemy. But Indian risings will never bring this about. We Germans have had sufficient experience to know how hard it is to coerce England.”

It is now generally known that  Hitler had expressed his strong disbelief about the ability of Indians to overthrow British rule and had also made anti-Indian racist remarks on occasions (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by WL Shirer, p. 1102) – “The Indian Legion is a joke. There are Indians who can’t kill a mouse, who’d rather let themselves be eaten up. They won’t kill an Englishman either. I consider it nonsense to put them opposite the English.” At last, Netaji&’s days in Europe came to an end and he, along with Abid Hassan, left  in a German U-boat on 8 February 1943. They finally reached Tokyo on 13 June after an arduous journey of 18 weeks through the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.

Thus was opened in South-east Asia a new chapter in the history of the freedom struggle. The formation of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind and the Indian National Army (INA) is now history. The war in South-east Asia had finally ended with the surrender of Japan in mid-August 1945. Then suddenly came the tragic news of the death of Netaji in an air crash in Taihoku in Formosa on 18 August 1945.

Even to this day, not many accept the news of Netaji&’s death and consider the alleged air crash to be a stratagem to reaffirm Netaji&’s disappearance, possibly addressed to Russia which was his priority destination since he escaped from India. However, the real story of his disappearance possibly lies hidden under a heap of classified documents that need early disclosure.

It would be pertinent to quote from Netaji&’s book, The Indian Struggle (p. 359)  – “Pakistan is, of course, a fantastic plan and an unpractical proposition – for some reasons than one. India is geographically, historically, culturally, politically and economically an individual unit. Secondly, in most parts of India, Hindus and Muslims are so mixed up that it is not possible to separate them. Unless Hindus and Muslims join hands and fight the British, they cannot liberate themselves and their unity is possible only on the basis of a free and undivided India. An independent Pakistan is an impossibility and Pakistan, therefore, means in practice, dividing India in order to ensure British domination for all.”

This indicates Bose&’s deep understanding of the political and socio-economic scenario prevailing at that time in India (aka Hindusthan). Had Netaji&’s vision of free and undivided India been fulfilled, the history of South-east Asia would have been different. Tension, terror and uncertainty are now the permanent features of life in the subcontinent.