Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s letters to Nehru show a warmth and intimacy that is often overlooked

I n 1928 the Nehru Report, prepared by a committee headed by Motilal Nehru to prepare a draft for the Constitution of free India, was made public. The report was presented on the assumption that the new constitution will be based on Dominion Status. This was opposed by the young radical group of the Congress led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, who formed the India Independence League propagating total independence.

However, when it came to the choice of the president of the Congress session at Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bose not only supported Motilal Nehru but went to the extent of saying nobody else would be acceptable. He wrote to Motilal Nehru on July 28, 1928: “I cannot tell you how disappointed the whole of Bengal will feel if for any reason you decline the Congress presidentship...the situation in the country today is such ...we can think of nobody else who can rise to the occasion.” Similar sentiments were expressed by JM Sengupta.

Motilal Nehru was unanimously elected president of the Calcutta session. Jawaharlal Nehru was elected the president of the next session at Lahore where, as per his and Bose’s wishes, and demand of the youth, the historic resolution for ‘complete independence’ was passed and January 26 (later Republic Day) was declared as Independence Day.

The 1930-40 decade saw four great stalwarts of the Congress as presidents of the party: Sardar Patel (Karachi, 1931), Jawaharlal Nehru (Lucknow, 1936 and Faizabad, 1937), Netaji (Haripura, 1938 and Tripuri, 1939) and Maulana Azad (Ramgarh, 1940). Of all these topmost leaders of the Congress after Gandhi, no two leaders were as close to each other than Nehru and Bose till the latter fell out with Gandhi in 1939 which also adversely affected his relations with Nehru.

Both Nehru and Bose had their vision of India’s lit up by the idea of socialism. They both therefore laid strong emphasis on centralized planning, heavy industries and state ownership of key industries. The deep ideological affinity they shared also turned into strong personal relationship between the two men.

When Kamala Nehru died in Lausanne in February 1936, Subhas, already in Europe, reached there before she breathed her last and helped Jawaharlal make the funeral arrangements. In 1935, he had written to Nehru who was in jail: “If I could be of any service to you in your present trouble, I hope you will not hesitate to send for me.”

Before Kamala died, the presidentship of the 1936 Congress session at Lucknow had been offered to Jawaharlal. But he was hesitant, preoccupied as he was with his wife’s illness. But within a few days of her death, Subhas wrote to him on March 6, 1936 from Austria: “Among the front-rank leaders of today, you are the only one to whom we can look up to for leading the Congress in a progressive direction.”

In April 1936, Bose returned to India from Europe where he had been permitted to go for medical treatment. But no sooner had he returned that he was arrested and put under house arrest in Darjeeling. From there he wrote to Nehru: “From the papers I gathered that you were overworking yourself and I was concerned about your health...I can appreciate how difficult it is for you to avoid overworking...I do hope that you will not strain yourself too much. It will not help anyone if you have a breakdown.” For the first time Bose ended the letter with ‘love’.

This shows the attachment between the leaders was growing stronger. After Subhas was elected President of the Congress in 1938 for its 51st session in Haripura, Nehru -- after a strenuous election campaign tour of the country -- left for Europe where he propagated India’s case and got the opportunity to acquaint himself with the situation that was inevitably leading to WW 2. On October 19, 1938, Bose wrote to him: “You cannot imagine how I have missed you all these months...you have been able to do such valuable work during your stay in Europe... several problems will await solution till you are back.” The newly-elected Congress president who had offered Jawaharlal the chairmanship of the proposed National Planning Committee repeated the offer: “Hope you will accept the chairmanship of the National Committee. You must if it is to be success.” Jawaharlal Nehru not only accepted it but carried forward the idea in independent India by setting up a Planning Commission which made 5-year plans for the country till it was unfortunately wound up in 2014 by the present government.

The relations between Nehru and Bose continued to be cordial even after the latter was re-elected the Congress President in 1939 by defeating Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, the nominee of Mahatma Gandhi, in a straight contest. When differences arose between the Mahatma and Subhas on the constitution of the ‘Cabinet’ as the Congress Working Committee (CWC) was then called, the latter sought Jawaharlal’s advice and wrote to him on April 15, 1939: “Will it be possible for you to run up here for a few hours? We could then have a talk and I could have your advice as to how to proceed next?”

Jawaharlal not only travelled from Allahabad to Manbhum in Bihar to meet Bose, who was bed ridden, but also wrote to Gandhi on April 17: “I think now, as I thought in Delhi, that you should accept Subhas as president. To try and push him out seems to be an exceedingly wrong step.” But despite Jawaharlal’s best efforts the differences between the Mahatma and Subhas could not be sorted out. It had become extremely difficult for Gandhi, in the circumstances of the time, to reject the advice of his other colleagues in the right wing, led by Patel, who were determined not to compromise with Bose.

Ultimately, Bose resigned from the Congress, formed his own party, the Forward Block, and the rest, as they say, is history. Lest it be forgotten, Netaji named one the brigades of his Indian National Army as Nehru Brigade. After he died in air crash in 1945, Nehru ensured that his widow, Emilie, was given life-long financial assistance by the Congress party. Her daughter, Anita Bose also received monetary aid till she got married in 1965.

With West Bengal elections around the corner there will be attempts by vested interests to distort history and exaggerate differences between Bose and Nehru. Yes, there were differences but only after 1939, towards the fag end of Netaji’s life cut short by the cruel hands of destiny. The differences were restricted to views on fascism and relationship with Gandhi.

Nobody could have put it better than prof Rudrangshu Mukhererjee, who in the concluding part of his book Nehru & Bose-Parallel Lives writes: “Subhas believed that he and Jawaharlal could make history together. But Jawaharlal could not see his destiny without Gandhi. This was the limiting point of their relationship.”

(The writer, an ex-Army officer, is a former member of National Commission for Minorities and a political analyst)