INDIAS FREEDOM MOVEMENT - BOSE AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY

INDIAS FREEDOM MOVEMENT - BOSE AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY



INDIAS FREEDOM MOVEMENT - BOSE AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY

Subash Chandra Bose was the Supreme commander and Chief of the Free India Forces , the I.N.A. (Indian National Army). Commander Bose and his INA forces conducted military campaign against British Imperialism for the SOLE PUPOSE - liberation of occupied India. During World war two, His forces received training and support primarily from the Axis nations Germany, Russia, and Japan and some from Italy.
Commander Bose and the INA found comradeship with the regular German forces, under the command of Field Marshall General Rommel (DESERT FOX- North Afric/ C.O, Western European defence command), HOWEVER BOSE AND HIS SOLDIERS disliked Hitlers policy against the Jews of Europe and the war against peacefull America. The Indian National Army troops needed the Germans for the liberation of India, and help in training and arms. Majority of the Indian National Army disliked Hitler's ambitions of world dominance and treatment of the Jews. It should be noted that Commander Bose was the only Axis ally that openly opposed Hitler in the treatment of Jews, and the Invasion of Russia which eventually caused a rift that resulted in the withdrawal of command and operations from Hitler to the Japanese Command and eastern sector. Bose found more common Asian brotherhood with the Japanese in culture and religion. The INA did not want to fight the Americans, only the British and their allies that occupied India.

The Indian National Army was an all volunteer force of persons of Indian Origin, worldwide, consisting of all faiths and gender represtated from all states of India. The INA also had allies from Irish Republicans, and Jewish entities from Haganna and Irgun who supported the Indian Agenda in Intelligence gathering.

Commander Bose and the INA were a key factors in the eventual British Decision to leave India.

Mahtma Ghandi and Commander Bose were allies in the freedom struggle with A COMMON OBJECTIVE - INDPENDECE FROM BRITISH RULE. Ghandi believed in the lesser of two evils and supported the British in World War two, while Bose believed in allying temporarily with the Germans and axis nations in the armed struggle against the British Occupiers.
Commander Bose and his free India forces fought the British in the tropics primarily Burma.
The unfortunate dilemma of the Indian National Army was fighting against their fellow Indian Brothers serving under the British flag. This was highly disheartening for both sides of Indian soldiers fighting against their own for the common objective. The Indian National Army forced the British Command to negotiate with the moderates faction in forcing an early withdrawal out of India. The moderates fought for the British during world war two inreturn for the British Promise of leaving India. Bose on the other hand felt the British had lied and mislead the Indians enough with false promises and oppression that direct action was needed to force the British in a negotiated withdrawal and or a forced withdrawal from occupied India.

The Indian National Army and Commander Bose were key factors in the liberation and freedom of India from the British. Unfortunately Commander Bose and his Patriots are not fully given the recognition they fully deserve.
Commander Bose and the INA , like Mangal Pandy , Baghat Singh and their cohorts were the true patriots in the Century long war of Independence from the British Empire. Subahs Chandra Bose and the Men and Women Soldiers of the Indian National Army were true Patriots and national heroes that need more recognition and remembrance in full civilian and military honors. Please honor these forgotten heros.
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INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT : BHAGAT SINGH PART 1

INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT : BHAGAT SINGH PART 1

Parag Shah of Global Mavericks in his video magazines presents clips of RANG DE BASANTI a production/distribution UTV starring Aamir Khan and many British stage artists. These movie clips depict the Indian Freedom Struggle against British Imperialism through the endevours of one of many India's heros "Bhagat Singh" and his band of freedom fighters. UTV had done an excellent job and won the film awards and the International festival in Kalau Lampur Malaysia and had nominations in canes. It was my privalage to witness the awards and meeting people connected with this vast endevour in Mumbai.

All persons who undertook this wonderful political movie on Indian history has done a wonderful job.

Hats off for the entire team involved with this wonderful motion picture.
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INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT : STORY OF BHAGHAT SINGH - PART 2

INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT : STORY OF BHAGHAT SINGH - PART 2

INDIAN HISTORY PART 2

Parag Shah of Global Mavericks in his video magazines presents clips of RANG DE BASANTI a production/distribution UTV starring Aamir Khan and many British stage artists. These movie clips depict the Indian Freedom Struggle against British Imperialism through the endevours of one of many India's heros "Bhagat Singh" and his band of freedom fighters. UTV had done an excellent job and won the film awards and the International festival in Kalau Lampur Malaysia and had nominations in canes. It was my privalage to witness the awards and meeting people connected with this vast endevour in Mumbai.

All persons who undertook this wonderful political movie on Indian history has done a wonderful job.

Hats off for the entire team involved with this wonderful motion picture.

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Indian Struggle for freedom (Original Video) Top Viewed

Quit India Movement and Partition

INC, fearful of getting involved with the world war, launched the Quit India Movement in 1942. Gandhi reasoned with the British that "... a few thousand British cannot control or govern millions of Indians". A Government favorable to Indian freedom won the post-war election in England and India was liberated. INC had played a very vital role in the Indian national movement.

Throughout the freedom struggle, Indians had to battle the religious divide and hatred among Hindus and Muslims. The British used this inherent divide among Indians to suppress the Indian freedom movement and eventually divided the nation into a Muslim Pakistan and a secular India.

India - Incredible India - One land everyone desire to see

India's Freedom Struggle - UMR India Association - Diwali

The Rise of Mahatma Gandhi

Woman Weaves Handspun Cotton Under Gandhi's Bust. People from all walks of life followed Gandhi's ideals

Mohandas Gandhi's taking helm of INC was a turning point in its history due to his enormous following, his spiritual powers and his non-violent means of fighting. Gandhi introduced the concept of Satyagraha (roughly translated as rightful demand : see Gandhi's comments on Satyagraha) which appealed to the common Indians who were largely pious and religious.

Gandhi adhered to a strictly non-violent protest. Every time a disturbing incident broke out, he suspended his actions, fasted and prayed for peace. and every time he was successful.

Dr. Annie Besant

Dr. Annie Besant
Dr. Annie Besant is one of those foreigners who inspired the love of the country among Indians. She declared in 1918 in her paper "New India": "I love the Indian people as I love none other, and... my heart and my mind... have long been laid on the alter of the Motherland."Annie Besant, born of Irish parents in London on October 1, 1847, made India her home from November, 1893. Dr. Besant, said Mahatma Gandhi, awakened India from her deep slumber. Before she came to India, Dr. Besant passed through several phases of life-housewife, propagator of atheism, trade unionist, feminist leader and Fabian Socialist. By 1889, "there was scarcely any modern reform (in England) for which she had not worked, written spoken and suffered."Dr. Besant started the Home Rule League in India for obtaining the freedom of the country and reviving the country's glorious cultural heritage. She started a paper called "New India." She attended the 1914 session of the Indian National Congress and presided over it in 1917. She could not see eye to eye with Gandhiji in regard to the latter's satyagraha movement.
An orator and writer with poetic temperament, Dr. Besant was a veritable tornado of power and passion. By her eloquence, firmness of convictions and utter sincerity she attracted some of the best minds of the country for the national cause. She was largely responsible for the upbringing of the world renowned philosopher K. Krishnamurti.
Dr. Besant died in 1933.

Annie Wood was born in 1847 in London into a middle-class family of Irish origin. Annie was always proud of being Irish and supported the cause of Irish self-rule throughout her adult life.
Her father died when she was young and left the family almost penniless. Annie’s mother was forced to support the family by running a boarding house for boys at Harrow. She raised the money for a private tutor for Annie in this way.

Annie was educated privately by a female tutor as an Evangelical Christian. She was given a strong sense of duty to society and an equally strong sense of what independent women could achieve.

As a young woman, Annie was also able to travel widely in Europe. There she acquired a taste for Catholic colour and ceremony that never left her.

She was married in 1867 in Hastings, Sussex, to 26-year-old clergyman Frank Besant, younger brother of Walter Besant. He was an Evangelical Anglican clergyman who seemed to share many of her concerns.

Soon Frank became vicar of Sibsey in Lincolnshire. Annie moved to Sibsey with him, and within a few years they had two children: Digby and Mabel.

The marriage was, however, a disaster. The first conflict came over money and Annie’s independence. Annie wrote short stories, books for children and articles. Frank took all the money she made: married women did not have the right to own property. Politics further divided the couple. Annie began to support farm workers who were fighting to unionise and to win better conditions. Frank was a Tory and sided with the landlords and farmers. The tension came to a head when Frank struck Annie. She left him and returned to London.

Annie began to question her own faith. She turned to leading churchmen for advice. She even went to see Dr Pusey, leader of the Catholic wing of the Church of England. He simply told her she had read too many books. Annie returned to Frank to make one last effort to repair the marriage. It proved useless. She finally left for London. Divorce was unthinkable for Frank, and was not really within the reach of even middle-class people. Annie was to remain Mrs Besant for the rest of her life. At first, she was able to keep contact with both children and to have Mabel live with her. She got a small allowance from Frank.

Her husband was given sole custody of their two children.


She fought for the causes she thought were right, starting with freedom of thought, women's rights, secularism (she was a leading member of the National Secular Society alongside Charles Bradlaugh), birth control, Fabian socialism and workers' rights.
Once free of Frank Besant and exposed to new currents of thought, Annie began to question not only her long-held religious beliefs but also the whole of conventional thinking. She began to write attacks on the Churches and the way they controlled people’s lives. In particular she attacked the status of the Church of England as a state-sponsored faith.

Soon she was earning a small weekly wage by writing a column for the National Reformer, the newspaper of the National Secular Society. The Society stood for a secular state: an end to the special status of Christianity. The Society allowed her to act as one of its public speakers. Public lectures were very popular entertainment in Victorian times. Annie was a brilliant speaker, and was soon in great demand. Using the railway, she criss-crossed the country, speaking on all of the most important issues of the day, always demanding improvement, reform and freedom.

For many years Annie was a friend of the Society’s leader, Charles Bradlaugh. It seems that they were never lovers, but their friendship was very close indeed. Bradlaugh, a former seaman, had long been separated from his wife. Annie lived with Bradlaugh and his daughters, and they worked together on many issues.

Bradlaugh was an atheist and a republican. He was working to get himself elected as MP for Northampton to gain a better platform for his ideas.

Besant and Bradlaugh became household names in 1877 when they published a book by the American birth-control campaigner Charles Knowlton. It claimed that working-class families could never be happy until they were able to decide how many children they wanted. It suggested ways to limit the size of their families. The Knowlton book caused great offence to the Churches, but Annie and Bradlaugh proclaimed in the National Reformer: "We intend to publish nothing we do not think we can morally defend. All that we publish we shall defend."

The couple were arrested and put on trial for publishing the Knowlton book. They were found guilty, but released pending appeal. As well as great opposition, Annie and Bradlaugh also received a great deal of support in the Liberal press. Arguments raged back and forth in the letters and comment columns as well as in the courtroom. For a time, it looked as though they would be sent to prison. The case was thrown out finally only on a technical point: the charges had not been properly drawn up.

The scandal lost Annie her children. Frank was able to persuade the court that she was unfit to look after them, and they were handed over to him permanently.

Bradlaugh’s political prospects were not damaged by the Knowlton scandal. He got himself into Parliament at last in 1881. Because of his atheism, he refused to swear the oath of loyalty. Although many Christians were shocked by Bradlaugh, others (like the Liberal leader Gladstone) spoke up for freedom of belief. It took more than six years before the whole issue was sorted out (in Bradlaugh’s favour) after a series of by-elections and court appearances.

Meanwhile Besant built close contacts with the Irish Home Rulers and gave them support in her newspaper columns. These were crucial years, in which the Irish nationalists were forming an alliance with Liberals and Radicals. Annie met the leaders of the movement. In particular, she got to know Michael Davitt, who wanted to mobilise the Irish peasantry through a Land War: a direct struggle against the landowners. She spoke and wrote in favour of Davitt and his Land League many times over the coming decades.

However, Bradlaugh's parliamentary work gradually alienated Annie. Women had no part in parliamentary politics. Annie was searching for a real political outlet: politics where her skills as a speaker writer and organiser could do some real good.



For Annie, politics, friendship and love were always closely intertwined. Her decision in favour of Socialism came about through a close relationship with George Bernard Shaw, a struggling young Irish author living in London, and a leading light of the Fabian Society. Annie was impressed by his work and grew very close to him too in the early 1880s. It was Annie who made the first move, by inviting Shaw to live with her. This he refused, but it was Shaw who sponsored Annie to join the Fabian Society. In its early days, the Society was a gathering of people exploring spiritual, rather than political, alternatives to the capitalist system.
Annie now began to write for the Fabians. This new commitment - and her relationship with G.B.S. - deepened the split between Annie and Bradlaugh, who was an individualist and opposed to Socialism of any sort. While he would defend free speech at any cost, he was very cautious about encouraging working-class militancy.

Unemployment was a central issue of the time, and in 1887 some of the London unemployed started to hold protests in Trafalgar Square. Annie agreed to appear as a speaker at a meeting on 13 November. The police tried to stop the assembly. Fighting broke out, and troops were called. Many were hurt, one man died, and hundreds were arrested. Annie offered herself for arrest, but the police refused to take the bait.

The events created a great sensation, and the newspapers dubbed it ‘Bloody Sunday’. Annie was widely blamed - or credited - for it. She threw herself into organising legal aid for the jailed workers and support for their families. Bradlaugh finally broke with her because he felt she should have asked his advice before going ahead with the meeting.

Socialists saw the trade unions as the first real signs of working people’s ability to organise and fight for themselves. Until now, trade unions had been for skilled workers - men with a craft that might take years to acquire and which gave them at least a little security. The Socialists wanted to bring both unskilled men and women into unions to fight for better pay and conditions.

Her most notable victory in this period was perhaps her involvement in the London matchgirls strike of 1888. Annie was drawn into this first really important battle of the ‘New Unionism’ by Herbert Burrows, a young socialist with whom she was for a time in love. He had made contact with workers at Bryant and May’s match factory in Bow, London, who were mainly young women. They were very poorly paid. They were also prey to horrendous industrial illnesses, like the bone-rotting Phossy jaw, which were caused by the chemicals used in match manufacture. Some of the match workers asked for help from Burrows and Annie in setting up a union.

Annie met the women and set up a committee, which led the women into a strike for better pay and conditions. The action won enormous public support. Annie led demonstrations by ‘match-girls’. They were cheered in the streets, and prominent churchmen wrote in their support. In just over a week they forced the firm to improve pay and conditions. Annie then helped them to set up a proper union and a social centre.

At the time, the matchstick industry was an immensely powerful lobby, since electric light was not yet widely available, and matches were essential for lighting candles, oil lamps, gas lights and so on. (Only a few years earlier in 1872, lobbyists from the match industry had persuaded the British government to change its planned tax policy.) Besant's campaign was the first time anyone had successfully challenged the match manufacturers on a major issue, and was seen as a landmark victory of the early years of British Socialism.

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Dr. Allamah Iqbal

Dr. Allamah Iqbal
After `Ghalib' had left the world and signed his name on the chair of poetry, few believed that there would ever be another poet of his level again. When the sun went down for Urdu poetry for a while, it rose in a small city, many miles away from Delhi, the center for Urdu poetry then. Sir Doctor Muhammad Allamah Iqbal, son of a Kashmiri merchant Sheikh Natthu and Begum Imam Bibi, was born on February 22, 1873 in Sialkot. Iqbal started a revolution, with which ushered a new era in Urdu poetry. We count Iqbal for inheriting the throne after `Ghalib'. A small fire was lit in the age of darkness and will keep shining as long as the world will last.


The facts of Iqbal's life can be briefly stated. He finished his early education in Sialkot and migrated to Lahore in 1895 for higher studies. In Sialkot he was lucky to have as his teacher Shamsul-Ulema Mir Hasan, a great Oriental scholar. This great man did not take long to recognize the perspicacity of his young pupil's intellect, and encouraged him in every possible way. At Lahore, Iqbal came under the influence of Sir Thomas Arnold. Sir Thomas Arnold's company introduced him to all that is best and most noble in Western thought, and at the same time initiated him into the modern methods of criticism. Iqbal graduated from the Government College, Lahore , in 1897, with English Literature, Philosophy and Arabic. In 1899, Iqbal took his M.A. degree in Philosophy. As advised by Sir Thomas Arnold, Iqbal went to Europe for higher studies in 1905 and got his Doctorate in Philosophy from Munich University in 1908 . Iqbal also qualified for the Bar in this interim. The Governor of Punjab, impressed by Iqbal's poem on the death of Queen Victoria, conferred knighthood upon him in 1922.

In Europe, Iqbal began to see the larger horizon of things and to move in spacious realms. He stayed there for three years, and these years played a great part in the development of his thought. It was not a period of deeds but one of preparation. His outlook on life underwent two important changes about this time: he got a n utter dislike for narrow and selfish nationalism which was the root cause of most political troubles in Europe, and his admiration for a life of action and struggle became more pronounced.

One simply cannot set a definition on Iqbal, as he was able to convert everything in poetry. There is no subject he hasn't debated upon in his poetry: Politics, life, love, religion, philosophy, literature, West, East, countries, legends, history, etc. The list is longer as one goes deeper and deeper in Iqbal's poetry - not least discovering that Iqbal beheld the true meaning of poetry, whereas his ambitions and abilities to move the masses were yet still indiscussable subjects. There was never any doubt why he got the title: "Shayer-e-Mashrik" - the Poet of the East.

To the Indian nationalist he appears a fervent nationalist who wrote, `Of all the countries in the world, the best is our Hindustan' (sarey jahan se achcha Hindustan hamara), exhorted Hindus and Muslims to come together, build new shrines where they could worship together and who regarded every speck of dust of his country as divine. Iqbal exhorted the peasantry to rise against its oppressors, uproot the mansions of the rich and set fire to crops which did not provide sustenance for them.



It could be said that Iqbal sang in many voices: he was a nationalist as well as an internationalist, a Marxist revolutionary as well as a supporter of traditional Muslim values and a pan-Islamist. Whatever he wrote was born of passion and executed with the skill of a master craftsman. Few poets of the world have been able to cram so much erudition and philosophy in verse; and fewer still use words both as colors on an artist's palette to paint pictures as well as deploy them as notes of a lute to create music. He was fired by a creative zeal which could only be explained as divinely inspired. Three years in Europe (1905-1908) brought about a complete reversal in his beliefs. The world became real; life had a purpose to serve; latent in every man was a superman who could be roused to his full height by ceaseless striving to create a better world. This post-European phase has been designed as Iqbal's philosophy of khudi. As used by Iqbal what comes closest to khudi is assertive will-power imbued with moral values. This is apparent from these oft-quoted lines:
Endow your will with such power
That at every turn of fate it so be
That God Himself asks of His slave
'What is it that pleases thee?'

What exactly did Iqbal want human beings to strive for? Obviously towards some kind of perfection. But he does not care to spell it out in any detail. It would appear that for man ceaseless striving was not to be for material gains in this world or with an eye on rewards in life hereafter. Thus to Iqbal a man who inherits wealth without having striven for it is worse than a beggar, while a poor man who works for the good of humanity is truly rich. Iqbal writes:

In man's crusade of life these weapons has he:
Conviction that his cause is just;
Resolution to strive till eternity;
Compassion that embraces all humanity.

However, Iqbal did not accept the Hindu belief in predestination and assured man that he could be the master of his fate and make the world what he wanted it to be:
'Tis how we act that makes our lives; We can make it heaven, we can make it hell. In the clay of which we are made Neither light nor darkness (of evil) dwells.

Iqbal would have had little patience with the current obsession with meditation (transcendental or otherwise) to induce peace of mind, because he believed that anything worthwhile only came out of a ceaselessly agitated mind:

May God bring a storm in your life;
The sea of your life is placid, its waves devoid of tumult.

In the introduction to his Persian work, Asrar-i-khudi ('Secrets of the Self'), Iqbal writes: 'Personality is a state of tension and can continue only if the state is maintained.' What was true of the individual Iqbal believed to be equally true of races and communities. According to him the real sign of vitality in races is that their fortunes change everyday:

In every age this alone marks a vibrant race
That every morn and eve its fortunes change.

So far as Iqbal was concerned, from now onwards there was complete accord in his thought, the goal was clear and the future lines for his work were well-defined. The task that Iqbal had set himself was gigantic and lesser people would have quailed at the immensity of the mission which involved shaking millions of people out of moral inertia that had been paralyzing their spirits for centuries. He flung a challenge to the forces of reaction, inertia, and stupor in unmistakable terms, and never faltered in his mission.

Think of thy country, O thoughtless! Trouble is brewing,
In heavens there are designs for thy ruin.
See that which is happening and that which is to happen,
What is there in the stories of olden times?
If you fail to understand this, you will be exterminated, O people of India!
Even your story will not be preserved in the annals of the world!

It is ironic how beautifully these words apply to every Indian today and tomorrow. There is no doubt that Iqbal fought for freedom with his words: a freedom that started with self-realization and finished with ceaseless striving.

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