Some other foreign agents
By Justice Katju
Many people described me as a ‘controversial’ judge.
Since I was not sure what exactly the word ‘controversial’ meant, I searched many thesauruses and dictionaries, and was bewildered to find it had over a 100 meanings.
https://www.thephilox.com/the-controversial-judge-by-justice-katju-part-1
This motivated me to start writing a series of articles on the topic, the first four which have been published online, as given below :
https://justicekatju.com/the-controversial-judge-2e4066a69b93
https://thephilox.com/appeal-to-dalits-and-obcs-to-demand-end-of-caste-reservations-by-justice-katju
https://thephilox.com/90percent-indians-are-fools-by-justice-katju-3rd-part
https://thephilox.com/the-british-agent-gandhi-by-justice-katju-4th-part
Now in this 5th article in the series I shall deal with some other Indians who have been hero worshipped, glorified, extolled, venerated, lauded and deified, though they were in fact foreign agents. Since I have already written in detail about them giving my reasons, I will only briefly state my views about them, and for details the readers can see the links of my online articles.
1. The Japanese agent Subhas Chandra Bose
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose
Bose was in his youth patriotic, and joined the freedom struggle, after qualifying for the ICS. However, he later became ambitious, and after Gandhi forced him to resign the Presidentship of the Congress party ( after the Haripura Congress in 1938 ), he went to Germany to seek Hitler’s help to fight the British ( on the theory that an enemy’s enemy is one’s friend ). When that did not work out, he went to Japan, with the same motive, but in fact became a Japanese agent.:
I hold Bengalis in high respect. They are a highly intelligent, highly cultured people, with great contributions in literature, science, philosophy,social reforms, etc
Unfortunately, many of them have some blind spots. It is diifficult to talk rationally with many Bengalis about some personalities whom they have converted into icons or holy cows, e.g. Tagore or Subhas Chandra Bose. Even the slightest criticism of these persons invokes a torrent or barrage of invectives and vituperations.
I remember when I was a Judge of Allahabad High Court I was sitting with some other Judges, one of whom was a Bengali, at the house of one of my colleagues. I mentioned my view that Subhas Chandra Bose was a Japanese agent. This so infuriated the Bengali Judge that he started shouting and raving almost like a madman, and so I quickly apologized so as not to break up the party.
But why should Bengalis go crazy if someone rationally criticizes Tagore and Bose ? Are they the private property of Bengalis.?
Some time back I read in the newspapers that Mamata Banerjee had decided to throw open the state government’s files on ‘ Netaji ‘.
In my opinion this was just a diversionary populist measure to divert attention from the real problems of Bengalis ( and other Indians ) of poverty, unemployment, healthcare, price rise, malnourishment, etc.
In my opinion it is high time for Bengalis ( and other Indians ) to make a rational assessment of this ‘hero’ or ‘ national icon ‘ ( as Mamata described him ).
When in Germany, Bose not only hobnobbed with Hitler but even with Himmler, two of the most evil men in history, ( their photographs can be seen on the internet ) responsible for sending millions to gas chambers. He wanted to organize the Indian soldiers captured by the Germans, to fight along with the Nazis. But when Hitler showed no interest, Bose went to Japan and raised his ragtag ‘Azad Hind Fauj ‘ to fight with Japanese support against the British army.
In my opinion Bose was a highly ambitious person, and he became a Japanese agent because neither Gandhi nor Hitler had given him any ‘ bhaav ‘, so he thought that the only alternative left was to ally with Japan.
The Japanese fascists used Bose in their fight against the British, but the moment his utility was over they would probably have bumped him off.
Does anybody think that the Japanese fascist imperialists would have given freedom to India if they had defeated the British ? No, they would have made India their colony ( as they made Korea, Manchuria and other parts of China, Vietnam,etc ) and looted us. If we resisted, the Japanese would assuredly have massacred our people, as they did to the people of Shanghai, Nanking, etc ( see on Youtube visual accounts of these massacres ).
If Bose was a great freedom fighter, why did he give up the fight against the British the moment the Japanese surrendered in 1945? He should have carried on a guerilla war against the British, the way the Chinese Eighth Route Army fought against the Japanese. In guerilla war you fight with the weapons of the enemy, by snatching them from him. The fact that he did not do so shows that there was nothing in the man. First he tried to become an agent of the Nazis, but they rebuffed him. Then he became an agent of the Japanese, who accepted him as their loyal lackey.
Some people support Bose’s alliance with the Japanese by saying that an enemy’s enemy is one’s friend. In the real, practical, world, this maxim cannot be of universal application. One can understand alliance with Japan if there was a possibility that such an alliance could have benefited us and given us real freedom. But there was no such possibilty. Even if the Japanese, with I.N.A. support had defeated the British and conquered India, they would never have given us freedom, but converted India into their colony and looted us. The very nature of the then fascism prevailing in Japan makes this evident.
My assessment of Bose is that he was an over ambitious, confused person, who to satisfy his ambition and ego was prepared even to ally with the devil, like a Faust dealing with Mephistopheles. It is high time Bengalis ( and others ) realize this
2. The British agent Tagore
I regard Sharad Chandra Chattopadhyaya as the greatest prose writer of the Indian subcontinent. By his novels, short stories and other writings he launched a powerful attack against the caste system, women’s oppression, and other aspects of feudalism. In fact he was taking literature in a revolutionary direction ( see his novel ‘Pather Dabi’ ), and this so scared the British rulers of India that to counter him and divert literature towards nonsensical mysticism and spiriualism, they built up Tagore, through Yeats, and got him the Nobel Prize.
Many Bengalis become hysterical if one speaks againsr Tagore or Subhas Chandra Bose, and it is sometimes impossible to talk rationally with them about ‘Netaji’ and Tagore.
Are Subhas Chandra Bose and Tagore the private property of Bengalis ? Can no one criticize them in their presence ? If Bengalis regard them as public figures, not the private property of Bengalis, then the public surely has the right to assess and criticize them.
I have expressed my views about Bose and Tagore on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in and I do not intend to repeat them in detail.
I regard Tagore as a British stooge who was promoted by Yeats and used by the British to divert literature from the revolutionary direction Sharad Chandra Chattopadhyaya was taking it ( see his novel ‘ Pather Dabi’, which was banned by the British. At one time the price of one copy was the same as that of a Mauser pistol ).
In my article ‘ The Role of Art and Literature ‘ on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in I have explained that there are broadly two theories of art and literature, one is called ‘Art for art’s sake’, and the other is called ‘ Art for social purpose ‘. In a poor country like India only the second theory is acceptable. Tagore belonged broadly to the school of ‘ Art for Art’s sake’, propagating spiritualism and mystical nonsense ( see Tagore’s poems ‘Gitanjali’, ‘Agni beena bajao tumi kemon kore’, ‘Klanti’ etc ) and Sharad Chandra to the school of ‘ Art for social purpose’. The British were scared of the writings of Sharad Chandra, and so they promoted their stooge Tagore., who mainly propagated spiritualism and mysticism by his writings, which is nonsense and a diversionary tactic in a country with massive poverty, unemployment, hunger, lack of healthcare etc
http://justicekatju.blogspot.com/2012/02/role-of-art-literature-and-media.html
3. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
Many people praise Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, but the truth is that he was a British agent. I have explained this in my article given below in great detail, so there is no need to further elaborate
http://justicekatju.blogspot.com/2016/05/an-assessment-of-sir-syed-ahmed-khan.html
4. ‘Veer’ Savarkar
Many people have praised Savarkar as a great freedom fighter, but what is the truth about him ?
The truth is that many nationalists during British rule were arrested by the British, and given long jail sentences. In jail the British authorities would give them an offer : either collaborate with us, in which case we will free you, or rot in jail for the rest of your life.
Most of them became collaborators, including Savarkar.
Savarkar was a nationalist only till 1910 when he was arrested, and given two life sentences.
After serving over 10 years in jail, the British evidently made the offer of collaboration, which Savarkar accepted. On coming out of jail he started preaching Hindu communalism, and became a British agent, serving the British policy of divide and rule.
Savarkar as president of the Hindu Mahasabha, during the Second World War, advanced the slogan “Hinduize all Politics and Militarize Hindudom”, he decided to support the British war effort in India seeking military training for the Hindus.
When the Congress launched the Quit India movement in 1942, Savarkar criticised it and asked Hindus to stay active in the war effort and not disobey the government, He urged the Hindus to enlist in the armed forces to learn the “arts of war”, but this appeal was made selectively to Hindus.
Can this man be respected and praised as a freedom fighter ?
The real veers were Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen ( Masterda ), Chandrashekhar Azad, Bismil, Ashfaqulla, Rajguru, Khudiram Bose, etc who were mostly hanged by the British. What was so ‘veer’ about Savarkar ? He had become a British agent after 1910.
See also the articles below
https://scroll.in/article/808709/the-hollow-myth-of-veer-savarkar
5 Periyar, the British agent
EV Ramasami, known as Periyar, is praised by many, particularly in Tamilnadu, but in fact he was a British agent, as explained in my article below
https://www.facebook.com/justicekatju/posts/960018770705336/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAvQ6TIk9jg
6 The British agent Allama Iqbal
Iqbal was no doubt a very good Urdu poet, and he was secular and a nationalist in his youth when he wrote the poem ‘Saare jahaan se achcha Hindustan hamaara’ in 1904.
However, he later became a shameless British agent, who wrote the poems ‘Shikwa’ and ‘Jawab-e-Shikwa’ which preached pan-Islamic nonsense, and he propagated the two nation theory, as explained below
http://justicekatju.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-truth-about-allama-iqbal-1877-1938.html
7. The British agent Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya
Bankim Chandra is praised for his book ‘Anand Math’, but here is the truth about him and the novel
http://justicekatju.blogspot.com/2016/06/bankim-chandra-chattopadhyaya-1838-1894.html
Bankim Chandra hated Muslims, calling them ‘yavans’ and wanted British rule to continue
8 The British agent Aurobindo
A typical modus operandi of British authorities during British rule was this : when they spotted an Indian who made fiery speeches or wrote fiery articles against British rule they would arrest him on trumped up charges, manufacture evidence and get the accused sentenced to long periods in jail through their biased judges.
In jail the person would be given harsh treatment, solitary confinement, beatings, etc. This would usually ‘ soften up ‘ the detenue, and he would emerge as a tame person, often as a secret British agent after a secret deal with the British authorities
This happened with many persons—M.N.Roy, Aurobindo Ghose, Veer Savarkar and Bal Gangadhar Tilak
In 1908 a bomb blast killed a British barrister’s wife and daughter in Alipore in Calcutta. In the Alipore Bomb case Khudiram Bose was hanged, while Prafulla Chaki committed suicide when cornered.
Aurobindo, who was a fiery revolutionary before this incident, was arrested for planning this incident on trumped up charges, and sentenced to jail. When he came out of jail he was no longer a revolutionary but had become a spiritualist, preaching nonsense like ‘ Integral Yoga ‘ ( see Life Divine ), and shifted to Pondicherry where he established his ‘ashram’
9. The British agent Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, was a fiery person who said ‘ Swaraj is my birthright and I will have it ‘. He praised Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki, who threw bombs on some Britishers, in his newspaper, and for this was tried for sedition and sentenced to 6 years imprisonment. When he came out of jail, he had mellowed, and was no longer the same man. He gave up the demand for Swaraj, and it seems he had struck some deal with the British authorities
Tilak, is hailed by many as a great freedom fighter of India.
I regret I have a different opinion, and I know I will again have to face a torrent of invectives, abuses and vituperations for exressing my views. But that does not matter. The truth must be told in the national interest. The people of India have been deceived enough.
I submit that Tilak was an obscurantist, propagandist of militant Hinduism, and therefore objectively a British agent, like Gandhi, since his ideology, statements and actions furthered the British policy of divide and rule.
Consider the facts :
1. In 1894 he transformed household worship of the Hindu god Ganesh into a grand public event in many parts of Maharashtra. The festival organizers would urge Hindus to protect cows, and boycott participation in Muharram, which they had been doing for decades. Similarly,in 1895 he organized Shivaji festivals. Thus he injected religion into politics, like Gandhi, and thereby served the British policy of divide and rule.
2.When in 1891 the British introduced the Age of Consent Bill to raise the minimum age of marriage from 10 to 12 years, Tilak strongly opposed it, saying it is against Hinduism.
3.When in late 1896 there was an epidemic of plague from Bombay to Pune, and the British authorities wanted to fumigate all houses to destroy the plague bacteria, Tilak strongly opposed it as he said it would violate purdah of Hindu women.
4. Tilak wrote obscurantist nonsensical theories like that saying that the original home of Aryans was in the Arctic
5. After his 6 years in jail in, he became an open British stooge, supporting recruitment for the British army in the First World War, supporting the Montague Chelmsford ‘Reforms’, 1919 etc
Tilak’s supporters cite his statement ‘Swaraj ‘( freedom) is my birthright, and I will have it ‘, and they say that if he was a British agent why did the British keep him in jail ?
My answer is : I have called him and Gandhi as objectively British agents, not subjectively. By the term ‘objectively’ I mean that he may not be getting any payment from the British, and may not even be conscious of the fact that he is serving British interests, but objectively his deeds and statements served British interests..
Gandhi was also kept in jail by the British, though he was objectively a British agent. Though normally both Gandhi and Tilak served British interests, sometimes they said things which alarmed the British, e.g. Gandhi’s call for Quit India in 1942 when the British were fighting a life and death struggle against the Germans during the Second World War, or when Tilak issued strong statements supporting Praful Chaki and Khudiram Bose who had thrown bombs on some Britishers. It was then that they were imprisoned by the Britishers.
10. The Congress leaders of 1947
I regard all these, including Gandhi, Nehru, Patel etc as British agents as they shamelessly agreed to the British swindle called Partition of India, on the basis of the bogus two nation theory, which was one of the greatest tragedies in the history of our country, resulting in half a million brutal deaths, millions displaced, and other horrors ( see the short stories of Manto ) whose ill effects are being felt even today
