I already wrote an article on Netaji last July, so people know by now that I am a Netaji-enthusiast. I have heard about him, his policies, strategies, political ideas from when I was a baby so it is but natural that I will have some interest in him. His disappearance and our Government's attempt to make us forget all about him is a different story though. Talking about Netaji, other than what I heard at home or read in his autobiography, there is another man who showed me the colossal character that Netaji was, from a totally different perspective. That man is Abid Hasan Safrani.
If you haven't yet, please spend some time reading "The men from Imphal". It is 18 pages in total so shouldn't really take a whole lot of time to read. Read it, ponder over it, and I am sure you will understand what our country could have been if only we had a leader, just ONE leader worth the name.
The book, if I may call those 18 pages one, starts with The Retreat, the torture our army had to bear after hoisting the Tricolor at Moirang in sickness and hunger with allied forces bombing them from above. Even then, our army men, the first army of our nation, those men had in them a grim resolution to fight and win, to see India liberated. Abid says that is was not just hurrah-patriotism, nor were they fanatics hallucinating about a victory, they knew they had lost the war but they were still resolute on fighting the final battle. Why did they do so? Why didn't they just surrender and run away? Only because they had a leader to look up to.
Netaji, the word that means revered leader was the man who was their Supreme Commander. A man who had sacrificed a plush life, his political status, his home and family all for the country and he led his army by example. He was the one who taught the men and women of INA to be first an Indian and then a Punjabi, Bengali, Assamese or Tamil. Who taught Hindu, Muslim and Sikh men to eat sitting in one row next to one another sharing food from the same kitchen. It was Netaji who had girls don the uniform of a soldier, with rifle in hand fighting at fronts as Rani Lakshmi Bai. He told them that Indian girls have always chosen death over dishonorment. But why would they choose death by jumping into the pyre? Why not choose death as a valiant soldier?
And he was the leader who gave us a National slogan - Jai Hind!
I have always known that the best way to know someone's character is to see how he behaves in adversity. Abid Hasan showed me that side of Netaji. The one who even when defeated did not surrender, who showed the world how Indians can organize themselves into an army and fight. Netaji wasn't defeated in 1945, Netaji's values are getting defeated everyday now. In a country where corruption reigns supreme, the sacrifices of our heroes are being mocked at, the strength of character shown by Netaji, the values he tried to imbibe in us are lost, they are dead.
Abid Hasan was one of those people whom I say have a bubbling fountain of unending happiness somewhere inside. They bubble with enthusiasm and nothing can make them feel sad for long. There's just no way stopping them. I had the feeling when I read the book and saw his character being portrayed very well by Rajit Kapoor in the movie "The Forgotten Hero". I don't know much about Abid Hasan. Wikipedia couldn't tell me either, but all I know is those few years he spent with Netaji, and the nice little document that he has kept for the future generations is a great piece of evidence of what we could have had for our country that we would no longer get.
Refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abid_Hasan
If you haven't yet, please spend some time reading "The men from Imphal". It is 18 pages in total so shouldn't really take a whole lot of time to read. Read it, ponder over it, and I am sure you will understand what our country could have been if only we had a leader, just ONE leader worth the name.
The book, if I may call those 18 pages one, starts with The Retreat, the torture our army had to bear after hoisting the Tricolor at Moirang in sickness and hunger with allied forces bombing them from above. Even then, our army men, the first army of our nation, those men had in them a grim resolution to fight and win, to see India liberated. Abid says that is was not just hurrah-patriotism, nor were they fanatics hallucinating about a victory, they knew they had lost the war but they were still resolute on fighting the final battle. Why did they do so? Why didn't they just surrender and run away? Only because they had a leader to look up to.
Netaji, the word that means revered leader was the man who was their Supreme Commander. A man who had sacrificed a plush life, his political status, his home and family all for the country and he led his army by example. He was the one who taught the men and women of INA to be first an Indian and then a Punjabi, Bengali, Assamese or Tamil. Who taught Hindu, Muslim and Sikh men to eat sitting in one row next to one another sharing food from the same kitchen. It was Netaji who had girls don the uniform of a soldier, with rifle in hand fighting at fronts as Rani Lakshmi Bai. He told them that Indian girls have always chosen death over dishonorment. But why would they choose death by jumping into the pyre? Why not choose death as a valiant soldier?
And he was the leader who gave us a National slogan - Jai Hind!
I have always known that the best way to know someone's character is to see how he behaves in adversity. Abid Hasan showed me that side of Netaji. The one who even when defeated did not surrender, who showed the world how Indians can organize themselves into an army and fight. Netaji wasn't defeated in 1945, Netaji's values are getting defeated everyday now. In a country where corruption reigns supreme, the sacrifices of our heroes are being mocked at, the strength of character shown by Netaji, the values he tried to imbibe in us are lost, they are dead.
Abid Hasan was one of those people whom I say have a bubbling fountain of unending happiness somewhere inside. They bubble with enthusiasm and nothing can make them feel sad for long. There's just no way stopping them. I had the feeling when I read the book and saw his character being portrayed very well by Rajit Kapoor in the movie "The Forgotten Hero". I don't know much about Abid Hasan. Wikipedia couldn't tell me either, but all I know is those few years he spent with Netaji, and the nice little document that he has kept for the future generations is a great piece of evidence of what we could have had for our country that we would no longer get.
Refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abid_Hasan
5 comments:
boi ta kothay pabo? online available?
My only consolation is that in my 33 yrs. of teaching I tried to imbibe in the minds of students these very words that you have written. Even if only a fraction of them remembers who was the REAL leader that the country lost, it will be my tribute to him.
recentely ekta caption porlam "A man can be destroyed but not defeated"... goes for INA.
Ha amio ekhane onek ke bolechi. Era to Gandhi chhara amader freedom movement er ar kaukei chene na. Tobu janlo amrao juddho korte jantam.
Boi ta Kakun ba Dadabhai er kache ache nishchoyi.
Can you please provide links to where i can read'Men from imphal?'
Thanks, brilliant article !
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