Netaji's Vision of Ethical Governance and Society
| Date | 01 July 2013 |
| Published date | 01 July 2013 |
| Author | Jaytilak Guha Roy |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120130318 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
NETAJl'S
VISION
OF
ETHICAL
GOVERNANCE
AND SOCIETY
JAYTILAK GUHA ROY
Netaji Subhas Bose s social, economic and political notions
were empirically formulated
for
a purposeful observance and
implication with the sole objective
of
liberation
of
India from
the yoke
of
exploitation and oppression and reconstruction
of
a free India. His emergence as a socio-political thinker can
be traced on a careful study
of
his activities, letters, writings
and speeches at different phases
of
the freerjom struggle. The
sum
of
his ideas and convictions that constitute his social and
ethical moorings are represented in this article. It shows a
course
of
evolution
of
his social, economic
and
political
concepts
connected
with
the
development
of
his
own
deliberations responding to the changing socio-political
environment
in
India and the world outside.
INTRODUCTION
LET US start our discourse with three questions with probable answers.
Our first question is: What do we mean by ethical governance? In response,
we may say that ethical governance implies a system
of
governance which
is based on the strong edifice
of
moral and ethical values. Such a system
of
governance has to be run by a government which is totally free from
corruption and transparent in its functioning. Our second question is: Why
do we need ethical governance? The answer, in all probability, would be
to solve the major problems
of
our country such as poverty, lack
of
health-
care facilities, illiteracy, hunger, income disparity, corruption, etc. Our
third question is: What should be the aim
of
an ideal society? The probable
answer would be to create an unified society where there
woul
be
communal harmony, sustainable growth, etc.
NEfAil'S
IDEA OF ETHICAL GOVERNANCE
In the above context, Netaji's vision
of
nation building would indeed
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provide us
an
invaluable guidance. Subhas Bose was not just an epic hero.
His elevation to the glorious status
of
Netaji was a long history marked by
his unique understanding and accurate analysis
of
the historical events
and eventuality, his vision for the nation and the world, and his extra-
ordinary qualities
of
leadership.
Netaji was not merely a leader and a soldier -statesman, but a great
visionary too. He had a clear vision for his beloved nation. He was perhaps
the only President
of
the Indian National Congress who presented to his
countrymen a clear,
if
not detailed, plan for India's reconstruction after
Independence. In his Presidential Address at the Haripura Congress1
of
1938, Subhas Bose said:
..
.I
have no doubt in my mind that our chief national problems relating
to the eradication
of
poverty, illiteracy and disease
...
can be effectively
tackled only along socialistic lines. The very first thing which our
future national government will have to do, would be to set up a
Commission for drawing up a
comprehensi~e
plan
of
reconstruction.
Subhas Bose had visualised poverty as a major problem
of
our country.
He also provided solution for it. As he observed very poignantly in his
Haripura Address:
Regarding reconstruction,
our
principal problem will be how to
eradicate poverty from our country. That will require a radical reform
of
our land system, including the abolition
of
landlordism. Agricultural
indebtedness
wiJI
have to be liquidated and provision made for cheap
credit for the rural population. An extension
of
the cooperative
movement will be necessary for the benefit
of
both producers and
consumers. Agriculture will have to be put on a scientific basis with a
view to increasing the yield from the land.
As a great visionary, Netaji
had
also realised that agricultural
improvement would not be enough to solve India's economic problem,
and a comprehensive scheme
of
industrial development under state-
ownerships and state-control would also be required. Giving a blue print
for a new industrial policy for independent India, he said in his Haripura
Address:
A new industrial system will have to be built up in a place
of
the old
one which has collapsed as a result
of
mass production abroad and
alien rule at home. A planning commission will have to carefully
1For full text
of
Bose's Haripura Address, see M.C. Gupta and Jaytilak Guba Roy (eds),
Subhas Bose: The Man and His Mission, Delhi, IIPA, 1999, Appendix-I, pp.103-124.
NETAJI'S VISION OF ETHICAL GOVERNANCE AND SOCIETY I 629
JAYT/l.AK
GUHA
ROY
consider and decide which
of
the home industries could be revived
despite the competition
of
modern factories and in which sphere large
scale production should be encouraged.
As a pragmatic political leader, Subhas Bose knew that modern
industrialisation was a necessary evil and suggested measures to minimise
its evils. As he observed quite pertinently in his Haripura Address:
However much we may dislike modern industrialism and condemn
the evils which follow in its train, we cannot go back to the pre-
industrial era, even
if
we desire to do so.
It
is well, therefore, that we
should reconcile ourselves to industrialisation and devise means to
minimise its evils and at the same time explore the possibilities
of
reviving cottage industries where there is a possibility
of
their surviving
the inevitable competition
of
factories.
Subhas Bose had also emphasised the need to address the problem
of
our increasing population as one
of
the important means to tackle poverty,
starvation and disease in free India. As he observed very forthrightly in
his Haripura Address:
With regard to the long-period programme for a free India, the first
problem to tackle is that
of
our increasing population. I do not desire
to go into the theoretical question as to whether India is over-populated
or not. I simply want to point out that where poverty, starvation and
disease are stalking the land, we cannot afford to have our population
mounting up by thirty million during a single decade.
If
the population
goes up by the leaps and bounds, as it has done in the recent past, our
plans are likely to fall through.
It
will, therefore, be desirable to restrict
our population until we are able to feed, clothe and educate those who
already exist.
NETATI'S
IDEA
OF
AN
IDEAL
SOCIETY
As a keen observer
of
history, Subhas Bose was able to realise that the
British imperialists would meticulously plan to divide India on communal
lines to perpetuate their interests. As he observed very poignantly in his
Haripura Address:
It is well known truism that every empire is based on the policy
of
divide and rule. But I doubt
if
any empire in the world has practised
this policy so skillfully, systematically and ruthlessly as Great Britain.
In accordance with this policy, before power was handed over to the
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Irish people, Ulster was separated from the rest
of
Ireland. Similarly,
before any power is handed over to the Palestinians, the Jews will be
separated from the Arabs. An internal partition is necessary in order
to neutralise the transfer
of
power. The same principle appears in a
different form in the new Indian Constitution (of 1935). Here we find
an attempt to separate the different communities and put them into
watertight compartment. .. I have no doubt that British ingenuity will
seek some other constitutional device for partitioning India and thereby
neutralising the transference
of
power to the Indian people. Therefore,
any Constitution for India which emanates from Whitehall must be
examined with the utmost care and caution.
Netaji had, therefore, emphasised the
n~ed
for communal harmony.
He knew that Indian unity could not be achieved without solving the
problem
of
the minorities. In this context, he had referred in his Haripura
Address to the pronouncement
of
the All-India Congress Committee at its
meeting in Calcutta on October, 1937 in which it stated that the Congress
"considers it its duty to protect the rights
of
the minorities and their
participation in the fullest measure in the political, economic and cultural
life
of
the nation."' That pronouncement had mentioned further unequivocally
that "The objective
of
the Congress is an independent and united India where
no class or group or majority or minority may exploit another to its own
advantage, and where all the elements in the nation may cooperate together
for the common good and the advancement
of
the people
of
India."
Emphasising the need for discovering deeper remedy for our communal
problems, Subhas Bose made the following observation in his Presidential
Address on
Vision
of
a
Free
India
2 at the Maharashtra Provincial Conference
in Poona on May 3, 1928:
It
is necessary for the different religious groups to be acquainted with
the traditions, ideals and history
of
one another, because cultural
intimacy will pave the way towards communal peace and harmony.
However, the question is: how to achieve such cultural intimacy among
the different religious groups? In the aforementioned address, Netaji Subhas
had also given its answer in the following words:
In order to facilitate cultural rapprochement, a dose
of
secular and
scientific training is necessary. Fanaticism is the greatest thorn in the
path
of
cultural intimacy, and there is no better remedy for fanaticism
than secular and scientific education. This sort
of
education is useful
2/bid., Appendix VI, pp. 141-149.
NETAJI'S
VISION
OF
ETHICAL
GOVERNANCE
AND
SOCIETY /
631
JAYTILAK GUHA
ROY
in another way, in that it helps to rouse our economic consciousness.
The dawn
of
economic consciousness spells the death
of
fanaticism.
There is much more in common between a Hindu peasant and a Muslim
peasant than between a Muslim peasant and a Muslim zamindar. The
masses have only got to be educated wherein their economic interests
be, and once they understand it, they will no longer consent to be pawns
in communal feuds. By working from the cultural, educational and
economic side, we can gradually undermine fanaticism and thereby
render possible the growth
of
healthy nationalism in this country.
As a great thinker, Sub has Bose had realised the significance
of
national
unity in order to preserve harmony and goodwill among the people for
which he suggested the setting up
of
a machinery which would be provided
by a Citizen's Defence Corps organised on an all-party basis. This body
would only aim at preserving internal peace, harmony and goodwill.3
CONCLUDING
OBSERVATIONS
Our foregoing discussion is a modest endeavour to highlight Netaji's
ideas
of
ethical governance and ideal society. During the course
of
this
discussion we have observed that he was a great visionary, political thinker
and a keen observer
of
history. Unfortunately for us, he was not in our midst
at the time
of
Independence
of
India. Had he been with us during that time,
the history
of
India would have been different. Nevertheless, we should try
to follow his ideas and thinking even today to solve our national problems.
Let us conclude our discussion with the following observation
of
Pattavi
Seetaramaya,4 whose defeat to Subhas Bose at Tripuri Congress
of
1939
led to the expulsion
of
Netaji from the Congress:
Greatness never advertises itself until it inevitably comes into the
limelight
of
its
own
self-luminosity.
Reflected
light
cannot
be
independent. They are planetary in character but the innate, self-born
brightness
of
the stars emit their scintillations in their own time and lit
the skies and the earth even from those astronomical distances which
are not easily conceivable. Even so did Subhas Babu shine from after
like a radiant orb in the blue firmament
...
Subhas will, I believe,
be
greeted by millions
of
men and women as, indeed, a Patriot and Prophet
of
Resistance and Revolution!
3Presidential Address on "All Power to the People" at the All-India Forward Bloc
Conference in Nagpur, June 18, 1940, Ibid., pp.156-164.
4Pattavi Seetaramaya, "Subhas the Immortal" in T R Sareen(ed.), Forgotten Images:
Reflections and Reminiscences
of
Subhas Chandra Bose, Delhi, S.S. Publishers, 1997,
pp.58-59.
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