Subhash Chandra Bose wasn't given due credit for India's Independence, and the entire recognition had been placed at the doors of Gandhi and Nehru, said Maj. Gen. GD Bakshi, Kargil war veteran and prolific television commentator.
Bakshi was speaking on Sunday while launching his three books — Kalki Tu Kaha Hai', a book about the life of Swami Prannvanand, Gandhi or Bose - Who got India her Freedom, and a book of poetry titled Freedom is an Eagle - Poems from an Outpost'. He was accompanied by Indian American author Rajiv Malhotra, and Minister of State for External Affairs and former Chief of Army Staff Gen. VK Singh.
Bakshi said he unearthed a clear trail of documentary evidence that established that the British left India solely because of the violence generated by the Indian National Army (INA) trials and the mutiny by the Royal Indian Navy.
"They panicked because Bose and INA had shaken the loyalty of Indian soldiers towards the Raj. There were just 40,000 white British troops in India, and 25 lakh combat-hardened Indian soldiers who were demobilised after the war. This arithmetic meant field marshalls Wavell and Auchinleck — the viceroy and army chief in India — realised it was the end of the Raj," he said.
"Very few people know that the INA had a strength of 60,000, of which some 26,000 were killed in action. Do we call such a struggle non-violent?" Bakshi asked.
Bakshi and Malhotra engaged in a riveting discussion over the former's book on Bose. Bakshi said the shabby treatment received by INA soldiers at the hands of the new dispensation in independent India revealed the country had not shaken off the psychological shackles of slavery.
Who Is Gen. Bakshi
Gen. GD Bakshi is a combat veteran from the Kargil war, who has authored 25 books. He is also a prolific commentator on television and the editor of a defence magazine.
