SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE AS A TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER

 

“The hallmark of a natural born leader is the ability under stress to transcend the barriers of fear and conventional wisdom, alike, in undertaking actions capable of causing geostrategic ripples beyond intended space and time.”

-          “Elephant On The High Himalayas” 

Backdrop

If I were to look at a phrase that most aptly describes the leadership characteristics of Subhash Chandra Bose, than the one displayed at the top would be the one. It best explains the leadership enigma of Subhash Chandra Bose being elevated to the status of a National Icon, not on the foundation of success in his mission, but riding the wave of his biggest failure, the synchronous defeat of the ‘Azad Hind Fauj’ along with the Japanese Army in South East Asia!

There is no denying the fact of Subhash Chandra Bose being a charismatic leader. Tomes have been written on his life, his political journey, causes espoused by him and his contribution to the freedom struggle against the British rule in India. But there is distinct dearth of literature that studies the transformational nature of his leadership.

To understand the leadership impact of Subhash Chandra Bose on India of his era, and increasing relevance of his ideology in the current epoch, it is first essential to look at the geopolitical and historical context of some harsh realities of the world of geopolitics.  

Geopolitical Context

“It is the mailed fist behind the folded hands which ensures peace essential for successfully engaging in trade and commerce.” - “Internal Security Portends Republic of India 2021-25” 

There are three incontrovertible laws of nature – in the evolutionary process only the fittest survive, world is naturally unequal, and might is right.  The real politique world also reverberates to these harsh laws of nature.  There is simply no place for ethics and righteousness in determining the outcomes and decisions on the world stage. National self- interest determines the outcomes. Whether it is the Permanent membership of UN Security Council, the World Trade agreement, allotment of carbon emission goals towards environment protection, protection of Human Rights, they all reflect inequality of nations.

The real geopolitical or comprehensive national power of a nation flows from its strategic might, economic strength, cultural and spiritual energy. A skewered development of these critical factors would greatly impede the geopolitical weight of a nation. We have to just look at the respective power potential on the world stage of erstwhile USSR which despite military strength collapsed owing to its weak economy, Japan the economic super power lacking matching military strength, and the superpower challenger China faltering in its challenge to the US owing to being detached from its cultural and spiritual moorings.

Subhash Chandra Bose was one of those rare Indian leaders of his time who came closest to understanding the real truth behind these tenets.

Historical Context

“The battles of the mind are more difficult to win and have longer lasting impact than the physical war.” - “Elephant On The High Himalayas” 

Historically, India was already a society in terminal stage of decline, mired in wide deviations from its moral path and cultural moorings, before the advent of the East India Company and resultant British rule over India. The origin of this decline can be traced to the modifications, somewhere around 200 CE, to the earlier social codification done by Manusmriti when at one stroke it consigned the women and the Shudras to an eternal inferior status in society. Ancient texts were suitably modified and interpreted to reinforce the new dogmas. You cannot shackle 70% of the society by denying them the fruits of productive enterprise and yet hope to remain a vibrant and forward looking society.

Concomitantly, there was decline in India’s military might vis-à-vis its flourishing trade and commerce of the times. Invaders lured by its fabled wealth and weak defence made inroads and ensconced themselves as the dominant power. The advent of the British in India was also preceded by a time of great stress in Indian society. The Gurjar Pratihar empire was in a state of decline in northern India restricted to the region of Kannauj, with Tomar Rajputs establishing their kingdom in Delhi, and Chandels in Madhya Pradesh. India had been repeatedly vandalised by the savagery of raids by the Ghaznavid empire led by Mahmud Ghaznavi. The massacres, destruction, loot, rapes, and enslavings had devastated the society.

Even then, India came under foreign rule not because the invaders were stronger than it. The country lost due to its internal bickering. All the invaders from Alexander to Babur to the British East India Company came in with a force of just 20,000 to 50,000 soldiers. It is the armed support to the invaders from within that proved to be India’s undoing.

Direct British rule over India lasted for just under a century, from The Crown taking over India from East India Company in 1858 to grant of independence in 1947. The coercive power of a state is a must for it to survive and thrive. The British established the Military as their external coercive arm to extend their dominion, the Police as their internal coercive arm to suppress dissent, and the Revenue Administration machinery as their internal coercive arm for filling their coffers. Even seventy years post-independence this mind set is still visible in our system of local governance and policing.

India was the world’s largest economy with 32.9 % share of world GDP in 1^st Century CE, 28.9 % in the 11^th Century CE, and 24.4 percent in Seventeenth Century CE. In perspective entire Europe’s share in 17^th Century CE was 23.3 percent. By 1947 India’s GDP as a share of the world GDP had shrunk to 3%.

To safeguard their rule over such a vast region the British had to subjugate its will, which they did by a deliberate policy of denigrating India’s culture and system of education. This was the basis of the English Education Act of 1835, the final blow of the sword that would sever Bharat from its cultural roots for next two centuries.

To assist in keeping the peasantry suppressed at large, the British established an intermediary neo-feudal class ‘The Sahibs’, with colonial titles. It laid the foundation of a subservient India, led by the new ‘Sahibs’ and ‘Sirs’, beholden to the British Empire for their ill-gotten influence and position in return for keeping the ‘Indians’ subjugated culturally, morally, and politically.

A new and subservient India was created with the active support of these ‘Sahibs’ and ‘Sirs’. The erstwhile Bharat became a distant memory. How well the British succeeded in their designs can be gauged from the fact that even seventy years post-independence we are still fighting the progenies of these ‘Sahibs and Sirs’, and the neo converts beholden to their ‘eco system’, to regain our cultural, moral, and political heritage.

Discussion of Broad Leadership Factors

Political Ideology

Subhash Chandra Bose firmly believed in fighting for achieving freedom from foreign rule. This ideology brought him in direct conflict with the pacifist approach to achieving freedom espoused by Mahatma Gandhi, the most towering political personality of his time in India. His ideology reflected the strong roots of his belief, in that though born, educated, and brought up in accordance with British culture, he developed empathy with the plight of his countrymen under British rule.

Subhash Chandra was a man possessed with great courage of conviction and charismatic appeal, aptly reflected by his emerging victorious on two occasions in elections to head the Congress Party, by defeating the candidates supported by Mahatma Gandhi. His political maturity and nation first outlook is best showcased by his action of voluntarily abdicating from his elected position when opposed by followers of Mahatma Gandhi in leadership roles in the Congress, rather than weaken the struggle for freedom by staying on. In an interesting aside, the roots of the ‘High Command culture’ of Congress can be traced to the political maneuverings by Mahatma Gandhi to time and again force out duly elected but inconvenient Congress heads.  

His eleven arrests in a time span of two decades, by the British Indian Government, strongly reflect his actions being in sync with the beliefs he openly espoused, and his capacity of risk acceptance.

Visionary Leadership

The strongest factor in the transformational leadership displayed by Subhash Chandra Bose lay in his vision and organisational abilities.

In 1938, as head of Congress Party, Subhash Chandra Bose proposed the adoption of an Industrialisation policy to modernise the economy. However it was strongly opposed by Mahatma Gandhi, who espoused following the route of cottage industries.

As head of Indian National Army (INA) he was instrumental in ensuring combatant role for women by raising the ‘Rani Jhansi Regiment’, exclusively comprising of women volunteer fighters. Independent India is still struggling with this concept to accommodate women in combat roles.

Subhash Chandra Bose was that rare Indian leader of stature who, convinced that freedom from foreign rule could be gained only by fighting for it, had the vision to seek support of foreign powers to fight the might of the British empire. Risks were inherent in pursuit of this path. But he walked the path with determination, leading him to escape from British custody to clandestinely travel to Italy, Germany, Japan, and then head the dormant INA to fight the British empire, in collaboration with Japan.

The formation of the INA also reflected his vision of a united India without barriers of religion, caste and creed. The four Brigades of the INA were named after national leaders and structured on unitary lines comprising soldier mix belonging to all religions and castes, contrary to practice of British Indian Army (BIA). Under his influence the re-raised INA comprised near equal percentage of Indian prisoners of war, and Indian expatriates from South East Asia.

Though Japan, and consequently INA, faced defeat in confrontation with the BIA, Subhash Chandra Bose was looking ahead to continue the fight for freedom with support from USSR. He was well versed enough in geopolitics to understand that though USSR and Great Britain were allies in their fight against Germany and Japan, they were also mutual adversaries.

Military Leadership

Though not formally schooled in military affairs, he had adequate grasp of nuances of military leadership. ‘Tokyo Boys’, 45 soldiers from INA selected to undergo training as pilots with Japanese Air Force, setting up of separate training establishments for Officers and civil volunteers, forming ‘Bahadur Group’ for special operations, raising exclusive women volunteer fighters ‘Rani Jhansi Regiment’, are testament to his military acumen and organisational abilities.

Subhash Chandra Bose also displayed a marked grasp in the overall importance and handling of psychological warfare to influence the Indian compatriots in the BIA. The recourse to radio address, emotive slogans, and propagative hoisting of Indian flags were significant milestones in the psychological warfare.  

His vision to infiltrate INA soldiers into the Indian hinterland, post a decisive victory in North East India, to stoke fires of insurrection were highly imaginative and alarming for the British. It was but natural for the British Indian Government to look at Subhash Chandra Bose as their most dangerous enemy, and pursue Russian Government to continue to detain him within Russia.

Emergence as National Icon

The emergence of Subhash Chandra Bose as a National Icon is a highly emotive issue within the country even today, as it is inextricably linked to the competing ideologies of the major political parties. His most controversial action of forming and leading the INA into battle against the BIA, and the resultant difference of opinion between the British Dominion of India and its citizens to look upon this act as a Mutiny against the State or as Freedom Fighters in India’s struggle for independence from foreign rule, also exercised decisive influence on his emergence as a National Icon.

Invariably it is the victors that write history, and Great Britain was the clear victor of the War. The defeated combatants of the INA were regarded as mutineers by the State, and tried and convicted for treason. But the trials brought into public domain the courage and daring of these ‘puny band of mutineers’, fighting against heavy odds, undeterred by the might of the British empire. The citizens came to regard them as heroes, forcing the Congress, the dominant political force within India, to openly come out in espousing the cause of the ‘mutinous’ freedom fighters. Such was the public support for the soldiers of the defeated INA, that the British Indian Government had to pardon the convicted ‘mutineers’. This in turn established the legacy in the public mind of Subhash Chandra Bose as a National Icon. The soldiers of the INA came from all caste, creed, religion, and corners of the country. Their return to their homes spread first person accounts of their saga of glory and the leadership of Subhash Chandra Bose throughout the length and breadth of India, further strengthening his legacy in the eyes of its people. 

During the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, the order to fire on a peaceful gathering of protestors, though given by the British officers, was implemented by Indian troops. In just a quarter of a century, a sizeable number of the Indian soldiers of the BIA had metamorphosed into INA and fought against the colonial empire of Great Britain. The loyalty of BIA could no longer be guaranteed. Also of significance here is the emergence of Indian Officers in BIA, owing to its expansion by almost five times to 25 lakhs, in a short time frame of a couple of years, during Second World War. The British simply did not have adequate strength to officer the expanded BIA. This opened the way for the emergence of BIA units led by Indian Officers.

The end of the war placed the British Government on the horns of dilemma. The massive standing army could no longer be maintained, but demobilising trained soldiers had the inherent risk of releasing trained manpower to forces opposed to British rule in India. The writing was there on the wall for the British that the main stay of their hold over India, the BIA, could no longer be relied upon to uphold British rule.

The lore of Subhash Chandra Bose surviving his purported death in a plane crash, his being kept captive in Russia, and the legend of his leading the life as ‘Gumnami Baba’ on the banks of river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh, and the series of inquiry commissions into his death, only succeeded in keeping his memory alive in public eyes. With time such mysteries do assume a larger than life presence in public perception.  

Food for Thought

The biggest downside of the sudden and enforced departure of Subhash Chandra Bose from the political scene of India was the resultant void of a competitive ideology to confront the pacifist approach pursued by the dominant political faction led by Mahatma Gandhi to pursue the vision of a free India. This pacifist approach to a large extent also influenced the acceptance of partition of the country on religious lines. Probably the lure of holding the reins of authority was more powerful than the interest of an independent but unified nation. Looked at with hindsight, the pacifist approach, which justified partition as a means to avoid bloodshed, ultimately led to shedding of even more blood and that continues to even this day.

The questions, whether continued presence of Subhash Chandra Bose could have averted the partition of the country, led to building of a more cohesive society, enabled realistic empowerment of women, resulted in faster and more balanced economic development, and made India a more powerful and confident geopolitical power on the world stage, are now of mere academic interest.

Relevance to Current Epoch

“Maintaining national environment conducive to enterprise is the essence of complete spectrum of obligations of the Executive towards the State.” – “Elephant On The High Himalayas” 

The transformational ideology of Subhash Chandra Bose is highly relevant to our times. In the social sector, women empowerment, healing of social rifts created by exploitation of caste and religion based politics are major issues facing the nation even seventy five years post-independence.

On the governance front, setting up, empowerment, and enhancing efficiency of existing systems for delivery of public services is a requirement waiting to be met. Long term vision to develop comprehensive national power, prerequisite to safeguard national sovereignty, needs to be put in place.

Subhash Chandra Bose was the only leader in pre-independence India who came closest to understanding the real levers of influence that operated the world of geopolitics. It is surprising that the corridors of power in New Delhi are still dominated with brains that resonate to the colonial era rhythm of a pacifist and play safe mindset. This pacifist approach needs to be shed and replaced by a proactive long term geopolitical vision incorporating synchronous growth of economic and military might, strong enough to protect own trade and national interests. This can only come about by synchronising words with action, that is replacing sloganeering with deeds, adopting a proactive strategic stance, and developing calculated risk acceptance ability, principles that best personify Subhash Chandra Bose as a Transformational Leader.

 

(This essay is sourced from the talk delivered by the author during the webinar organised by Uttarakhand Sanskrit University, Haridwar on 23 January 2021 to mark the 125^th Birth Anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose.)