While devotees are taking a holy dip in the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, preparations for the Republic Day parade in Delhi are in full swing. Words like Hindu Sanatan Republic Day and secularism are being searched a lot on Google search. Meanwhile, Dainik Jagran spoke to the great grandson of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Read what Netaji thought about religion…
The great hero of the freedom struggle, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, along with being a staunch follower of Hinduism, also respected all religions equally. Netaji’s great grandson Chandra Kumar Bose shared a memoir related to him and said, “When Netaji was in Singapore with his Azad Hind Fauj in 1944, he was invited to visit their temple by the Chettiar community of South Indian origin living there.
The head priest of the temple had told Netaji to come to the temple with only the officers of the Hindu community involved in the Azad Hind Fauj. On this, Netaji had told him, “There is no Hindu officer in his army. All are Indian officers. If you allow me to come to the temple with all your Indian officers, only then will I accept your invitation.”
Hearing Netaji’s answer, the head priest was impressed and he allowed him to come to the temple with all the officers.
After this, Netaji went to the temple with people of different religions including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains who were part of the Azad Hind Fauj. All of them were welcomed with a tilak on their foreheads. Netaji gave the message of communal unity in his speech there.
‘He is just an Indian, not of any religion’
Chandra Kumar Bose further said, ‘On coming out of the temple, Netaji wiped off the tilak on his forehead. When asked the reason for this, he said that inside the temple he was a Hindu. After coming out, he became an Indian. In the freedom struggle, he is just an Indian, not of any religion.
The great-grandson said- ‘Netaji was a great devotee of Maa Kali. He used to worship at Dakshineshwar Kali Temple all night. He considered Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivekananda as his spiritual gurus. However, their ideology was different. He considered the observance of religion and its conduct as a personal matter, so he never brought it into the field of freedom struggle and politics. He maintained the same discipline in Azad Hind Fauj as well.
Azad Hind Fauj had one kitchen for everyone
Netaji’s great grandson told- “While the British Army used to have separate kitchens for soldiers belonging to all religions including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians. Netaji had kept a single kitchen for everyone in Azad Hind Fauj. Food was cooked there for everyone and everyone used to sit together and eat.
Netaji always used to say that the 60,000 soldiers of Azad Hind Fauj are only and only Indians. He did not form his army on the basis of religion nor did he give preference to people of any community in it. He included only those people in his army who were ready to die for freedom.”
Why did he make the rule of two rotis for the family?
The great grandson revealed another interesting fact about Netaji and said that food has always been the weakness of the Bose family. The people of our family used to spoil their health by eating too much, so as a guardian, Netaji had made a rule that everyone would get only two rotis with vegetables or meat-fish for dinner. Due to his busy schedule, Netaji was not able to have lunch with the family, but the entire Bose family used to have dinner together.
He was in favour of joint family
Netaji was a strong supporter of joint family, because he understood the power of unity. He spent his childhood with his seven brothers and six sisters in a house on Elgin Road in Kolkata, which is today known as ‘Netaji Bhavan’. Later he came to live in the house of his elder brother Sharat Chandra Bose. There also the whole family lived together.
Complete Family Man
Netaji’s great grandson says that Netaji is known as a radical freedom fighter, but he was also a complete family man and was completely devoted to his family. He was very close to the younger members of the family. Despite being very busy, he used to take out time to play with them. No matter where Netaji was in the country, he used to write letters to the family members regularly from there.
