Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi on Tuesday felicitated INA Veterans at a function organised in Anna University to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi on Tuesday contended that India’s freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi had become a non-event after 1942 and the country would not have got freedom in 1947 if not for the struggle by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Addressing a function organised in Anna University, Chennai, to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, he claimed the non-cooperation movement of Indian National Congress (INC) had “fizzled out” after the commencement of the Second World War and there was “no worthwhile resistance” to the British in India. “We were all busy fighting ourselves… British were enjoying it,” he said.
According to Mr. Ravi, it was at this moment that Bose led an armed struggle against the British by forming the Indian National Army (INA) and forming an alliance with some foreign powers, leading to the defeat of the British in certain pockets.
The Governor said though the INA was disbanded in 1945, it ignited a fire within the Indian soldiers in the British Indian Army, which according to him led to the revolt of Royal Indian Navy and Royal Indian Airforce in 1946. He said this was when the British realised that they were not safe in India as “after all they were in India on the security provided by the Indian soldiers”.
Mr. Ravi contended that the British were “so scared” and “hurriedly out of fear” said that they were going to leave the country in 15 months. During his service in the Intelligence Bureau, he said he accessed archives of the intelligence reports sent from India to Britain in the 1945-46, which reportedly showed how panicked the British were.
He said it will not be an exaggeration to say that India owed its independence to a great deal to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He said moving such a leader to the “margin of our national freedom movement’s history” would be an “ingratitude of the highest order”.
Opining that a large number of soldiers who fought in the INA were from Tamil Nadu, he said it was unfortunate that there were no chairs in universities in the State named after Bose to conduct research on his contributions.