When Nehru and Bose split over Gandhi

Future on BoseNehrursquos shouldersThe bonds between the two had grown stronger and they could see themselves as confregraveres in the left wing of the Congress The British government in India noted this the home secretary observed on 21 February 1929 lsquoIf the experience of the Calcutta Congress is any guide the decision of future policy appears to be almost entirely with the younger men notably Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Babu Subhas Chandra Bose and on their intentions and activities future developments may be expected largely to dependrsquoAn undated archival image of Netaji Bose top left and Pandit Nehru standing on the steps in a jacketSigning off with loveLetters from Subhas to Jawaharlal from this phase of their lives have two features worth noting For one thing many of them have personal queries For example in one letter he asks lsquoDo you hear from Indu regularly How is she It must be very trying for her being all alone in Switzerlandrsquo The other aspect is even more revealing In the letter he wrote on 30 June 1936 his signoff to Jawaharlal is not merely the previously used and more conventional lsquoYours affectionatelyrsquo but the word lsquoLoversquo is added This continues till February 1939 when the word lsquoLoversquo at the end disappears There were genuine expressions of camaraderie between the two On 19 October 1938 he told Jawaharlal lsquoYou cannot imagine how I have missed you all these monthsrsquoPhoto from 1946 of Mahatma Gandhi right talking with Jawaharlal Nehru leftWhy Subhas Bose became bitter While Subhas was trying to sort out his differences with Gandhi he wrote a long letter mdash twentyseven typed pages mdash to Jawaharlal at the end of March This missive is crucial for understanding how fast their relationship was deteriorating In the first paragraph of this letter Subhas wrote lsquoI find that for some time past you have developed tremendous dislike for me I say this because I find that you take up enthusiastically every possible point against me what could be said in my favour you ignorersquo What followed in the rest of the letter were illustrations of this point Subhas said that since he had come out of prison in 1937 he had treated Jawaharlal with lsquothe utmost regard and consideration in private life and in publicrsquo He had looked upon Jawaharlal as lsquopolitically an elder brother and leader and have often sought your advicersquo But Jawaharlalrsquos response to such adviceseeking had been lsquovague and noncommittalrsquo The letter went on to become a tirade against Jawaharlal picking on various recent incidents or statements in the course of which Subhas felt he had been treated badly or misrepresented or ignored by his political elder brother The tone was distinctly personal and bitterIndian leader Mahatma Gandhi speaks with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose president of the Indian National Congress in Haripura during a political meeting The two men were the most prominent leaders of the Indian Independence movement against the British rule PicsAFPNehrursquos rebuttalThe temperamental differences between Subhas and Jawaharlal was nowhere better revealed than in the two books they wrote during 1935ndash36 mdash The Indian Struggle and An Autobiography One strident sure and assertive the other lowkey understated and perhaps more gracious Subhasrsquos stridency occasionally appeared to Jawaharlal to be tasteless Subhasrsquos campaign to get himself reelected he could not accept from his heart He informed Subhas of this in the most gracious of terms lsquoI felt all along that you were far too keen on reelection Politically there was nothing wrong in it and you were perfectly entitled to desire reelection and to work for it But it did distress me for I felt that you had a big enough position to be above this kind of thingrsquoExcerpted with permission from Nehru amp Bose Parallel Lives by Rudrangshu Mukherjee Penguin Books India Rs 599 Available at leading bookstoresThe broken friendshipIn the immediate aftermath of Tripuri and while he was in the midst of his intense exchange of letters and telegrams with Gandhi Subhas had written to one of his nephews lsquoNobody has done more harm to me personally and to our cause in this crisis than Pandit Nehru If he had been with us we would have had a majority Even his neutrality would have probably given us a majority But he was with the Old Guard at Tripuri His open propaganda against me also has done me more harm than the activities of the twelve stalwartsrsquoLoyalty to GandhiIt was Jawaharlalrsquos personal devotion to Gandhi that Subhas did not understand or did not appreciate Subhas did not allow any sentiment or personal feelings to come between him and his aspiration to make his country free Even the news of his motherrsquos death did not make him stop his work when he was preparing for battle in Southeast AsiaHe did not hesitate to leave behind his wife and his daughter in Europe knowing that he may not see them ever again The personal was secondary to him the political was paramountThus it was exasperating for Subhas to see again and again Jawaharlal differing with Gandhi but pulling back at the last moment from an open break This made him lash out at Jawaharlal on occasion Subhas believed that he and Jawaharlal could make history together But Jawaharlal could not see his destiny without Gandhi This was the limiting point of their relationship