From tthe scrapbook :: 13 :: Role of INA in freedom struggle

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Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor, recently repeated what Clement Atlee, Prime Minister of Great Britain at the time of India’s Independence had revealed during his visit to India in 1956. Earl Atlee had told the then acting Governor of Bengal that the British departure from the country was hastened by the activities of the INA and the nationalist fervor it injected into the armed forces. Doval’s revelation was taken as an attempt at appropriation of Netaji and his legacy for the BJP.

It seems, Clement Atlee who was Prime Minister of Great Britain when India became independent came on a visit to Kolkata in 1956 and stayed there for two days as guest of Governor West Bengal. The (acting) Governor at that time was Phani Bhushan Chakravarti, the first Indian Chief Justice of Bengal. He had a lengthy conversation with Atlee during which he happened to have asked the latter what the reason was for the uncalled-for haste for the British exit from India, particularly when there was no compelling reason for them to leave in such haste. There was no anti-British movement and the last one, the Quit India Movement, had petered out. That is when Atlee told him there were numerous reasons, but the most important one was Netaji’s activities, the INA and its fight against the British besides the nationalism that it evoked in the British Indian armed forces. Atlee had in mind the naval mutiny of Karachi and Bombay, the army rebellion of Jabalpur and stray rebellious incidents in the Royal Indian Air Force. His contention was that with the erosion of the loyalty of the Indian armed forces for the British Crown, it was felt, it would be difficult to keep the country within the Empire.

Asked whether the non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi had anything to do with the hasty withdrawal of British from the country Atlee replied, pronouncing each syllable separately with a disdainful smile, “minimal”. If one goes by what Atlee is reported to have told the then acting Governor of Bengal it was in no way the Indian National Congress’s non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi that forced the British to withdraw from India.

Ever since independence the Congress has cornered all the glory magnifying its role in the freedom movement to the exclusion of all others, including that of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Its claim of winning freedom for the country by means that were non-violent in nature was a fraud that was spun and perpetrated by the leaders of the Congress. As it turns out with the statement of Atlee, it was Bose’s daring efforts to throw out the British by combining with the Axis Powers, though held controversial by many, proved to be the nemesis for British imperialism. Not only was India freed of the British yoke, India’s independence resulted in freedom of many small and big nations right around the world. The sun, which had stopped setting over the British Empire a century or so ago, started setting over it again. The seed for this was sown by Netaji and his Indian National Army. The INA became idol for the men in the British Indian forces who were very unhappy on account of the post-War INA Trials at the Red Fort. The rebellions in the British Indian forces were because of their discomfiture as they were always told that they could win wars only when led by the British. In the INA they were led by their own countrymen acquitting themselves very creditably.

The leaders of the Congress were always antipathetic towards Subhash Chandra Bose even though he was popular among the Party’s rank and file. While Bose wanted firmer actions against the ruling British his opponents in the Congress believed in compromises. In fact, when he found that his efforts were being stymied by his opponents he escaped from confinement and went to Germany to meet Hitler to seek help for India’s independence. INA followed as a corollary and that seems to have worked against the British.

Even in his death controversy did not leave Netaji alone. There were quite a few theories about his disappearance after he left Saigon for Tokyo. Many believed that he wanted to go into the custody of Russians after the surrender of Japan and had therefore proceeded to Manchuria which was close to being annexed by Russia from Japan. Many considered the ashes kept at Renkoji temple as fake.

Even in India a large section of people believed that there was no plane crash and that Netaji had come back to India to live incognito as a saint. First it was a saint of Shoulmari who was considered by many as Netaji. Later, another saint living in Faizabad, UP, was widely believed to be Netaji. Intermittently reports would appear of his close connections with members of the Bose family who, along with some of his friends, were reported to have visited him. After his death in 1985 a large number of documents, including photographs of the Bose family, were recovered from the aashram of the Baba who used to be called Gumnami. Various items of personal effects, like his silver rimmed spectacles and a gold Rolex wrist watch were also found in his ashram after the Baba’s death. Recently, a report appeared in the newspapers indicating that American handwriting experts have certified that the handwriting of Bose and the Baba had very strong similarities. Other physical features of the two also happened to tally.

In view of Atlee’s statement on the British withdrawal many historians have said that the time has now come to re-appraise the role of Subhash Bose in the freedom struggle. Hitherto, written history has extolled only the roles of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. That is from where Rahul Gandhi got his wrong notions about the Congress winning freedom for the country. But as many feel, the roles of leaders like Netaji in the fight for freedom need to be re-assessed particularly when they had been moved to and kept in the margins all these years by the hegemon that was the Indian National Congress.

*Photo from internet 

FROM THE SCRAPBOOK :: 2

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Euthanasia

I had heard about Euthanasia, the process of physician-assisted death of terminally sick patients or of patients suffering from progressive incurable diseases, more than forty years ago. It was being talked about in the newspapers when cancer was slowly assuming menacing proportions with practically no cure available. In those days it went by the term “mercy killing”.

My late brother who was at one time Special Assistant to Dr. Karan Singh, the then Health Minister, also once happened to tell me that the minister wanted to know more about the process. No progress has, however, been made since then and Euthanasia, as an alternative to acutely suffering patients from several kinds of fatal diseases, continues to remain only in the realms of possibilities with no prospects in the near future of its being introduced.

In the United States euthanasia was introduced in the state of Oregon as far back as in 1997 and since then it was introduced in several other states like Montana, Colorado, Vermont, Washington DC etc. Perhaps, California, known as the trend-setting state, was so far the last to put into effect only in 2016 the law relating to assisted suicide. According to the available data as many as 504 terminally ill patients have requested for life-ending drugs since the law came into force. While the state authorities have not released any figures it is presumed that the overall figure would be much higher. Nonetheless, it is apparent that the law in question is working pretty well. The families of those who have made the choice have indicated that the law has provided comfort and relief to the dying from intolerable suffering. Some see providing the option to the dying as a logical evolution in the current medical care system.

Euthanasia has been in medical discourses for quite some time. I recall having read the depositions of elderly people in the West who did not wish to spend their last days in nursing homes or hospices regardless of the high quality of nursing care in them. The prospects of suffering from Alzheimer’s, dementia, insufferable body and joint aches, chronic constipation and all other diseases that are associated with failing vital organs as advancing age chips away at the system is frightening to them, as it is to all of us. Most of them demanded the choice of assisted suicide particularly when there was no hope of recovery and the suffering was likely to pile on by the day. What they wished for was a self-willed dignified death without the hassles associated with interminable deep suffering – both physical and mental.

If one wishes to see the sufferings of the terminally ill patients a visit to any cancer hospital would be fruitful. I have had occasions to see from time to time the agony on the faces of these patients in the local JL Nehru Cancer Hospital. However much the hospital provides palliative treatment to those who are at the terminal stage the effort only marginally lightens the patients’ sufferings. Perhaps, an option for assisted death would be far more welcome than the prolonged pain and agony from which release is unlikely. Forcing a terminally sick patient to live out his life of acute pain and misery in keeping with the prevailing societal mores would not seem to be making any sense. An option for termination of life, if exercised, would release not only a patient from his/her unbearable, insufferable and intolerable pain, agony and misery but also relieve his/her family and well-wishers from prolonged exposure to the sufferings of a loved one that heavily impacts their psyche.

Unfortunately, in this country there is neither enough social cohesion for making a demand for euthanasia nor are the governments so enlightened as to enact such laws on their own. Besides, the leaders of the society are far too busy in garnering votes at future elections. Even the medical fraternity has failed to propose such a measure which apart from providing relief to terminally ill patients would make their own life a little easier. Besides, in the prevailing environment of shortages and inadequacy numerous beds/wards could be released for treatment of those who have better chances of recovery to lead a healthy life.

One tends to feel that the debate on the matter needs to resume. A time seems to have come when a scientific and more modern view of this important matter is taken by people in authority. After all, when medical science, despite its rapid advancement, is not able to provide release from pain and suffering to a patient wouldn’t it make sense that the patient, if he so wished, could ask for a dignified termination of his miserable life?

CICLOVIA

Somehow or other Colombia has been at the vanguard of urban transport initiatives. The Bus Rapid Transit System, BRTS for short, though established first in Curitiba in Brazil, it is Bogota in Colombia that we in India drew inspiration from. The country has a fascinating rapid transit system which we have tried to emulate but have miserably failed in the effort for varied reasons that need not be gone into here.

A fresh initiative has come from Colombia and this time it is not about the polluting diesel buses that are used in the bus rapid transit system. It is about good old bicycle and an attempt to resurrect it after it was virtually pushed into oblivion as a means of personal mobility. The Colombian initiatives have had emphasis on conservation of environment. Just as the BRTS was meant to apply brakes on the rapidly increasing green house gases in the atmosphere the new initiative that goes by the name Ciclovia attempts to popularize  emission-free transport as also to improve the health of people and their general wellbeing.

Ciclovia is not, in fact, a new initiative. It was commenced around 1974 when sections of roads were closed on Sundays for motor vehicles for half a day and only cyclists, walkers and joggers were allowed on them. The Indian Ambassador in Colombia writes that what started as a small exercise now covers more than 121 kms. of Bogota’s roads with the participation of one fourth of the population of the town of eight million on every Sunday and on other holidays that work out to 68 days in a year. He says, from 7.00 AM to 2.00 PM young and old come out in colourful apparels to give themselves an outing in their own city.

Many cities of Colombia and Latin America have adopted Ciclovia. Apparently people like the initiative prompting the administrations to add hundreds of kilometers cycle routes in Bogota and elsewhere. Ciclovia’s popularity is being used by commercial firms to broadcast their messages through various cycling events. Even the Indian Embassy is reported to have celebrated the International Yoga Day in June 2016 using Ciclovia.

We in India were at one time totally dependent on the bicycle. It was the only vehicle for quicker mobility for the blue collared workers as also of a few sections of white collars and students. The middle class and the lower classes back then had no other alternative as four wheeled motorized vehicles were much beyond their reach andpublic transport run by the governments or their agencies was unavailable. I remember during our college days in the mid 1950s many of our professors used to cycle down to the college. They would be immaculately dressed in three-piece suits in winters with matching felt hats. In summers, it would be shirt sleeves and sola hats, bicycles remaining as the means of commuting. Reports used to be received of Pune having the largest number of bicycles. With changing shifts in factories swarms of cyclists would choke the streets. Today, however, things have changed; it is now the motorised two-wheeler or a car; a bicycle is used, if at all, for pleasure rides.

Nonetheless, efforts are being made to popularise the use of bicycles. In Bhopal already around 10 kilometres of cycle tracks have been constructed and bicycles are on offer on rent – somewhat in the pattern of Paris and other European cities after this movement took off more than a decade ago. For us in India the weather is a great hindrance, particularly in summers when due to searing heat of the sun none would like to expose oneself to the unfriendly elements. During the rest of the year, however, cycling could be promoted for hobby as also for commuting.

That is precisely what Ciclovia, with all its multiple environmental and health benefits, would seemingly seek to suggest to us.  

*Photos from internet

From the scrapbook :: 1

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Planting spruce for “Future Library”

It was in the news recently that Oslo in Norway is going to grow trees for

A spruce tree

books that might be printed a hundred years from now. One thousand spruce saplings are being planted in a forest outside Oslo. Whenever an author produces a manuscript it would go into a time capsule kept in an Oslo library to be read by none. Only in 2114 “the trees and text will be finally turned into a book”. So, whatever Margaret Atwood, poetess and novelist, produces henceforth will all go into the capsule, only to be published in the next century.

Katie Paterson, a 36 year-old European artist initiated the “Future Library” project for spruce trees to be grown in Norway’s Nordmarka forest for the books to be printed in the next century. It is she who proposed that Margaret Atwood’s book would be the first to be capsuled for the Future Library. Another popular author David Mitchell has also handed over his manuscript to be published a hundred years from now. Mitchell is reported to have said "It's trees, it's books, it's a circle, it's pulp, it's organic matter turning into this stuff [paper] …and then words get printed on them. I love that”

Katie Paterson appears to be a very hopeful person. She seems to believe that a century from now forests will still be there and there will be still people who would like to hold a book printed on paper in their hands despite the upgrades in technology taking place seemingly at supersonic speed. She is also up to creating a press which would print these books and arrangements are being made to ensure that it remains fit enough to roll out the preserved manuscripts on paper. A periodical maintenance job is being arranged. This is nothing but a strong belief in human behavior and a way of life which, she hopes, will persist even a hundred years hence. According to Paterson, Future Library believes “there will be a forest, a book and a reader in 100 years. The choices of this generation will shape the centuries to come, perhaps in an unprecedented way.”

The project has environmental undertones. It seeks to protect at least 1000 spruce trees for a hundred years in an area where the trees may come under the axe sooner than later. Norway is happily placed in respect of forests which cover about 37% of its land area but more than 23% of it harvested for commercial purposes.

Paterson’s is undoubtedly an unique project and one can only hope that her claims that a century away people will be affected by the choices made by the current generation come true.

Penalising for wrong parking

The other day a Hindi daily reported that a fine of Rs. 8000/- was imposed on a car owner for improper parking in London.  It seems a wealthy commuter arrived in his BMW near Mayfair or some such place in the Hyde Park area and did not care to keep his car within the space indicated for parking. His car was outside the line drawn for the purpose by a mere six inches or so but the London Police charged him for violation of the laws and fined him Rs. 8000/-. For us in India it looks an incredibly huge amount for a minor violation but in British currency it must have been around 100 pounds. Though 100 Pounds would be chicken feed for a man running around in a BMW in London – a very expensive place – yet it is, to my mind, a reasonably big amount. One could even call it a heavy penalty.

Because of such stiff penalties for even minor offences one would seldom come across a vehicle parked casually without any regard to the laws as in any city of India. While in the developed countries there is what is called governance, and that too very effective, here we have none of that, mostly because of attitudes of our politicians who nurse their voters any which way, including by interfering with the policing work for all kinds of violations – even relating to violations of traffic rules. A local minister told as much to a representative team of the Bhopal Citizens’ Forum. He brazenly said if any of his constituents sought his help when in trouble with the Police he would certainly intervene regardless of whether the violator was right or wrong.

No wonder the streets of London or, for that matter, any European city one wouldn’t find encroachments on the roads or pavements. If one stood on a pavement in a street corner one would see all around roads and footpaths free of kiosks or push-carts. However, where permitted, pavements are used for outdoor cafetarias/restaurants and not for kiosks or hawkers. In Vienna I remember to have seen kiosks built by the local body well away from the Ringstrasse – a road where there is heavy traffic of locals as well as of tourists. We even had pizzas off these kiosks cooked by an Italian.

We in India are, however, very ‘tolerant’ – yes, very tolerant of all kinds of violations, particularly of civic laws. We have all the paraphernalia for enforcement of these laws but somehow these cannot be enforced largely because of vested interests and use of political influence, sometimes even of the lowest level. Somehow all the powers have gravitated towards the elected political executive and the real enforcers have been left twiddling their thumbs. Recent instances of attempts to remove illegal kiosks from near MP Nagar had to be given up because of pressure of MLAs and municipal councilors.

 Hence one can never find the same civic discipline as one finds in the developed countries of the world. Here what is needed is change of attitudes, especially of the political class. That, however, may take an eternity.

11th June 2017

*Foto of spruce tree from internet