As India is celebrating “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”, there is a renewed enterprise at all levels to look back and remember stellar personalities of our freedom movement in new perspectives. Attempts are being made to find unexplored sides of these stalwarts to fill up lacunae in their complete assessment. The study of no other patriot offers as much new fodder for thought as that of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. We remember him as a patriot of patriots, a statesman, a visionary and as a great inspiration for the youth of the country. But not much light has been shed about his association with or involvement in the field of journalism though his contribution in this field is not at all insignificant. “I can assure you that the ultimate defeat of the enemy is assured beyond any doubt. It would therefore be the height of folly; it would be insanity to think of compromising with the Empire that will soon disappear from the face of the earth.

Therefore, countrymen at home and abroad, go on doing your very best. The zero hour will soon arrive and then together we shall march and together we shall win our final victory”. This is the last part of the speech delivered by Netaji on 26 January 1944 and it was published in Azad Hind – a periodical for Free India with which Subhas Chandra Bose was closely associated. But Netaji’s association with publications is not confined to Azad Hind. At different times in his life and political career we see his passion for journalism and publication. He even expressed his fondness to his mentor C.R. Das. Yet this interesting and important side of Netaji has been relatively neglected by scholars and researchers over the years. Everyone talks about his military skill, his courage, his patriotism, his organisational skills, and his indomitable spirit. Yes, these are his sterling qualities, but his interest and contributions in the sphere of journalism too need to be studied and discussed with equal seriousness if we want to know this patriot better.

Advertisement

It was as a journalist that Bose introduced himself in 1933 to the Jewish writer and later his friend Kitty Kurti in Berlin, and in 1944 to the journalists in Tokyo. Not only did Netaji’s passport show him as a journalist, but in 1940 Bose got handsome compliments from the Calcutta Journalists’ Association for fearless journalistic endeavours. He always stressed on the need for a free, effective and nationalistic press. Despite not being a professional journalist, Bose introduced several innovations while managing his papers. His journalistic integrity is borne out by the fact that he even got rid of undesirable and inefficient press hands. It is to be noted that his talents for publicity received respectful acknowledgement from foreign newspapers like The Times of London and The New York Times. Bose’s great organisational skill as well as his mass-communication measures had, to a large extent, found expression through the medium of the press. Most of the political programmes and the tenor of political thinking that Bose presented before the nation were circulated mainly through contemporary nationalist newspapers.

He was also associated with the managerial and editorial work of several daily and weekly papers – mostly party organs – for a number of years. Politics and journalism ran almost parallel to each other throughout his illustrious career. Bose had deep faith in the socialist ideology and socialists across the globe kept themselves associated with different newspapers and publications in order to disseminate their views. Karl Marx edited the 19th century German newspaper Rheinische Zeitung. The Italian Socialist Party brought out their mouthpiece Avanti (“Forward”) in 1896. Among American socialist papers mention may be made of New York Call, Socialist and Chicago Daily. Lenin also secretly published writings on several issues in the Russian underground newspaper paper Iskra. Netaji got inspiration from these papers, and he also made his mark in this field as editor with Forward Bloc – a Political Weekly, the first issue of which came out on 5 August 1939.

However, he was keenly aware of the need for objective journalism in the larger interests of a democratic order. He elicited the support of a few non-partisan yet nationalist-minded persons. Among the contributors to this weekly, the names of Nirad C. Choudhury, Humayun Kabir, Gopal Halder, Bhabani Sen and Somnath Lahiri come readily to mind. In the matter of directing his party organs, Netaji was mainly governed by an all-India outlook. We can get a fair idea of the diversity of topics published in the paper from essays under titles like “China Fights Imperial Japan”, “The Spain under Franco”, ‘The Study of History”, “Nazi Imitators”, “Mr. Jinnah’s Fancy-Flight” and “Nehru’s Visit to China” He took good care to see that the general run of newspaper readers in his country were sufficiently enlightened about the major national and international events of his time.

In a way he learnt to link up education, propaganda and journalism with a view to carrying on the freedom struggle against the British rulers. Bose’s journalistic life started with the editing of Banglar Katha and ended with that of Azad Hind. In some of his editorials in Banglar Katha, he eulogised the ideals of the French Revolution, that is liberty, equality and fraternity, and asked readers to get inspiration from the spirit of the European Renascence. Some of his journalistic pieces published in his own name or under a pen name, in India or abroad, have not yet been traced. Some of his editorials in Forward Bloc remain to be identified. Thus, his courageous and tireless role as a devotee of nationalistic literary journalism await proper assessment by serious and inquisitive researchers. Bose got interested in the vocation of a journalist way back in his Cambridge days. He expressed a desire to this effect in his letters from abroad to C.R. Das, Sarat Chandra Bose and his friend Charu Chandra Ganguly.

It was perhaps, in the fitness of things, that he started working for the Congress in Calcutta as the Public Secretary – an office which served the purpose of his initial apprenticeship in journalism. Later, Bose came to manage and virtually edit the dailies Banglar Katha and Forward, both started by Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das as organs of the Swarajya Party. Bose worked tirelessly to lift the standard of these two party organs. The Calcutta Municipal Gazette, an organ of the Calcutta Corporation, was also his brainchild. Besides the abovementioned papers, Subhas was, as contributor or advisor, also associated with a number of papers namely Atmasakti, Navasakti,, Vijoli, Swadesh, Modern Review as well as Liberty (which succeeded Forward). Bose earnestly sought help from these publications to foster anti-imperialist national unity and to wage a relentless resistance struggle against the British rulers in India.

While abroad, Bose worked as a foreign correspondent of an English newspaper in India and helped in the publication of bulletins in Geneva on India. To carry on effective propaganda in the interest of India’s freedom, Subhas worked in close co-operation with Vithalbhai Patel during his stay abroad. He left no stone unturned in projecting the Indian viewpoint in the foreign press. Bose’s sole aim in his political career was India’s freedom from the British rule. For this purpose, he was willing to work with anyone irrespective of political or ideological affiliations. He did not hesitate to contribute to the Socialist and National Front – papers belonging to different political parties. His weekly magazine Forward bears the stamp of mature journalism and in editing the paper he sought the assistance of communists without any political prejudice.

Netaji also suffered imprisonment for fearlessly voicing his opinion in the editorial entitled “Day of Reckoning” through the columns of Forward Bloc. It was due to his inspiration that Azad Hind was published from the Berlin Free India Centre, apart from another Urdu journal Bhai Band. Bose strove vigorously to counter Allied propaganda and presenting to the world the Indian perspective. Even in East Asia he was instrumental in the publication of a number of daily and weekly papers in different Indian languages bearing such names as Azad Hind, Young India, Voice of India, Awaz-E-Hind and the like. He also helped in bringing out booklets and bulletins under the aegis of the Indian Independence League and the Azad Hind Government for the sake of pursuing vigorous and sustained propaganda-warfare. These details regarding Bose’s journalism show that no comprehensive assessment that ignores this aspect will be complete.