The Curious Case of Netaji


The last couple of weeks saw Google bestowing tributes on a Russian filmmaker and a Mexican Diva.

Today, I saw a Nigerian football icon grabbing this honor.

Google Doodle, thank you!

But I was surprised and disappointed to see that we conveniently forgot to acknowledge that today also happens to be the birthday of a National Hero and a true revolutionary of his times – Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

But, you know what, I understand the reason behind such a gross omission.

Google Doodle, it isn’t your fault. It is, entirely ours.

Netaji remains one of those icons who is largely forgotten and ignored by a country which has been a land of folklore and gruesome battles. I think the very reason to believe that he could single handedly bring Independence to a ravaged sub-continent from the ruthless colonial rule was in itself, so scary and hard to believe that we ended up on a tentacle based opinion and denied him the very chance to become that elusive legend that he never graced upon during his lifetime.

With all due respect to the Mahatma and Congress, Netaji was one of the first to voice out and propagate the concept of ‘Complete Independence’. His ideologies and vision to achieve this through the unthinkable (Getting Russia’s attention, speaking to Hitler and the idea to use Japan for INA to make inroads in to the country) is unsurpassable. For all his daring exploits and an inspiration that he was to the young guns, he was shamelessly accused of fascism and betrayal.

Political propaganda, vested interest or personal disdain, Netaji never got his due. In fact, he continues to be a regional colossus with statements of uncertain resonance.

Netaji, Happy Birthday!

I am sorry, it’s not that we have forgotten you, it’s just that we are yet to learn the art of absorbing marauding greatness.

Published by lifeoholic

Flamboyance meets me, and I could be contagiously luring. It kind of comes off in my writing, as my stories of passion and indulgence unfold.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: