Subhas Chandra Bose was one of the finest products of Indian renaissance. Discuss his ideology and political vision. (250 words)

By Srirangam Sriram, Sriram's IAS, New Delhi.

The period when Subhas Chandra Bose was born, the Indian society was going through a dynamic transition. Old ideas and institutions were coming under the challenge of the new liberal rational tradition. The atmosphere was clouded with the ideas of reform movements and political agitation. All these were most prominently felt in Bengal which was for long the nursery of Indian nationalism and of which Subhas Chandra Bose was a product.

Ideology of Subhas Chandra Bose

• Views on Religion: Subhas Chandra Bose, being a Secularist, had an attitude of impartiality towards all religions. According to him, the Government of Free India must have an absolutely neutral and impartial attitude towards all religions and leave it to the choice of every individual to profess or follow a particular religion of his faith.
• Views on communalism: Bose was of the firm opinion that socio-economic issues cut across communal divisions and barriers. According to him, the remedy lies in the solution of the political problem on the establishment of a national, popular and democratic government in which people will have direct right to participate and indirect right to criticize. All Indians living in South East Asia were united in the Indian National Army irrespective of caste, race, sex and creed.
• Caste system: Subhas advocated emphatically the abolition of caste system in India. He supported inter-caste marriages in India.
• Emancipation of women: Bose believed in female emancipation in the true sense of the term and in liberating women from all shackles and artificial disabilities - social, economic and political. He spoke in favour of all-round education for women. He was a supporter of widow remarriage and abolition of Purdah system. He created the Rani Jhansi Regiment and appointed one woman Cabinet Minister in the Provisional Government of Azad Hind, giving her a position after him in the order of preference.

Political Vision

• Goal: The goal of his life was the liberation of India and rebuilding it into a republic. Even though he joined the National movement under the leadership of Gandhi, he eventually came to think that Indian freedom could not be achieved by the Gandhian strategy.
• Foreign assistance: Besides, he was sure that foreign assistance was essential for a country like India to win freedom and he tried his best to enlist the support of axis powers during the Second World War. Thus, he organized the Azad Hind Fauz comprising 30,000 soldiers and officers and mobilized them on the north-eastern front to give a valiant fight to the British army.
• Egalitarian society: In his Free India, Subhas Chandra Bose had the aim of creating an egalitarian society in which all members would enjoy almost equal economic benefits and social status. According to him, in the Free India, there must not be any discrimination on ground of caste, race, sex, creed or wealth.
• Concept of freedom: His concept of freedom implies not only emancipation from political bondage but also equal distribution of wealth, abolition of caste barriers and social inequalities and destruction of communalism and religious intolerance.
• Democracy: Subhas had developed immense faith in the power of the people. According to him, Democratic theory emphasizes on the common man as the agent of change, evolution and progress, and recognizes the potency and potentiality of the common man to participate in the political process.

Subhas Chandra Bose had always held the belief that free India will fulfill various aspirations of its people, devoid of any discrimination and exploitation. He applied his ideas and beliefs in efforts to free the country from colonial rule.

Published date : 31 Oct 2020 03:16PM