Forward bloc

Subhash Chandra Bose in Congress

Early days
Bose was born into a prosperous Bengali family in India, in 1897. Coming from an educated and
privileged background, like Nehru, he too had studied in Cambridge, and had the opportunity to
pursue a comfortable life, with a career in the Indian civil service (ICS).

Instead, Bose resigned from ICS, and joined the Indian National Congress in 1921. After the death of
his mentor CR Das in 1925, Bose became the most popular leader of Bengal.

Bose was imprisoned in Mandalay during 1924-27, and contracted Tuberculosis during it. He was
released on health grounds.

In 1927, at the age of 30, he became general secretary of the Congress party. In late December 1928,
Bose organised the Annual Meeting of the Congress in Calcutta. His most memorable role was as
General Officer Commanding (GOC) Bengal Volunteer Corps. Author Nirad Chaudhuri wrote about
the meeting:

Nevertheless, by the late 1920s, Bose and Nehru, two “Young Turks” had become youth icons.

One such young man, Bhagat Singh, wrote an article in July 1928 titled “Naye netaon ke alag-alag
vichaar” (‘Varied thoughts of new leaders’, in Hindi) in which he compared Nehru and Bose and
hailed them as great patriots and rising stars of the freedom movement. Although Bhagat Singh
asked the youth of Punjab to follow Nehru, his article is a reliable indicator of growing charisma of
both Nehru and Bose.

Relationship with Nehru

As a leftist himself, Bose was not only politically, ideologically close to Jawaharlal Nehru, but he also
had a very good personal relationship with the Nehru family. He had great reverence for Motilal
Nehru – a close associate of his mentor CR Das. Both Jawaharlal Nehru and Bose were modernists
who had similar views on women’s empowerment and industrialisation of India.

Bose had faced several health issues with his fight against Tuberculosis. He was sent to a sanatorium
at Bhowali in UP. As his condition worsened, the British offered to release him, provided he
proceeded straight to Europe. Bose stayed in Vienna during 1933-36.

During the 1930’s, while Jawaharlal was in prison in India, Subhas travelled from Vienna to
Badenweiler to be with Kamala Nehru, who was also suffering from TB. He remained there till
Jawaharlal arrived after being released from prison. When Kamala Nehru died, Subhas was there to
help Jawaharlal and his daughter Indira (then 19) with the funeral arrangements. When Jawaharlal
told Subhas that he was intending to set up a foreign affairs department in the Congress, the latter
was pleased since it was entirely in consonance with his views. [1]
Subhas returned to India in May 1936 and was soon arrested. Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the
Congress President, gave a country-wide call to observe May 10, 1936 to put pressure on the British
authorities to release him. Jawaharlal’s second consecutive term was coming to end in 1937 and a
suitable successor had to be found. As the masses were solidly behind Bose, Gandhiji with his
foresight, decided to back the candidature of Bose. Though the rightist lobby led by Sardar Patel
opposed him tooth and nail, the Mahatma supported hi and declared that

Dispute with Sardar Patel

While Bose was ideologically opposed to the “rightist” Vallabhbhai Patel, [3] he was personally and
politically close to the latter’s elder brother Vithalbhai Patel. Vithalbhai and Bose had met in a
sanatorium in Vienna where both were convalescing in 1933. When Gandhiji suspended the civil
disobedience movement, they issued a strong worded joint statement, the Patel-Bose manifesto,
calling for a new radical leadership of the Independence movement. (Vienna, May 1933):

Vithalbhai had become so fond of Bose that he willed a portion of his fortune to him to be spent for
the “political uplift of India and for publicity work on behalf of India’s cause in other countries”, just
before his death in Oct 1933. But the will was challenged by Vithalbhai’s brother, Vallabhbhai Patel,
and after a bitter court case, Bose didn’t receive a penny.

Gandhi was responsible for Bose’s exit from Congress

This allegation tries to blame Gandhi personal dislike for Bose’s exit from Congress.

During the late 30’s-40s Congress was composed of both right wing and left wing leaders, sticking
together under the leadership of Gandhi. It was the 3 Ps – Patel, Pant and Prasad, who represented
the right wing. Nehru was a leftist, Bose even more so.

As noted above, soon after his exit from Congress, Bose formed the Forward Bloc in April 1939. A
few months later, in August 1939 he launched a paper of the same name. In the first edition of his
paper by the same name, in a lead article titled “Why Forward Bloc” Bose himself blamed the Right
Wing of the congress for his untenable position as Congress president. Another lead article “Our
critics” reiterates the same point two weeks later.

The correspondence between Gandhi and Bose during the period after the re-election as president
shows that Bose’s main problem was the CWC composition, and GB Pant’s resistance in letting the
president have a dominant say about it.

We can certainly say that Gandhi did not take Bose’s side. Afterall, he had opposed the Bose re-
election too. However, his biggest opponents, as Bose himself spells out, was not Gandhi, but the
right wing of congress.

Soon after his departure, Bose also wrote to Nehru that he expected more open support from him
and was disappointed that it didn’t come. Later Bose lamented that
It is worth pointing out that even the other leftists in the congress, like Congress Socialist Party (CSP),
the socialist caucus of Congress led by JP Narayan also remained neutral in this conflict overall.
According to Bose himself, the Pant resolution would have been defeated if the CSP had opposed it
in the open session. J.P. Narayan stated that although the CSP was essentially supporting Bose’s
leadership, they were not willing to risk the unity of the Congress.

Bose deplored Gandhi’s pacifism; Gandhi disagreed with Bose’s confrontations with the Raj,
including the violent revolutionary actions of the Bengal Volunteers. However, they still had a degree
of mutual respect for each other. On July 6, 1944 in his speech broadcast by Azad Hind Radio from
Singapore, Bose began by seeking blessings from Gandhi for the war he was fighting. It was he who,
for the first time, addressed Gandhi as the ‘Father of the Nation’.

Rise of forward bloc

Subhash Chandra Bose established the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB). When Gandhi made every
attempt to ensure that Bose, who had defeated Gandhi’s nominee in the 1939 election, was unable
to work as Congress President, Bose resigned and founded AIFB to consolidate all the leftist forces of
Indian politics through Forward Bloc. Bose, the ‘prince among patriots’, would tirelessly fight for
Indian independence till his death in 1945.\

What did Forward Bloc stand for?

In April 1939, Subhash Chandra Bose left the Congress party, and on 3 May 1939 he established the
“Forward Bloc” of the Indian National Congress. This formation was announced in a public rally at
Calcutta.

He said that those who are joining the new party would never accept the British rule and must sign
the pledge form with their blood. Seventeen young girls were the first to sign the pledge form. Bose
became the president of the Forward Bloc and S.S. Cavesheer its vice-president.

The aim of the party was to bring all the leftist elements of the Congress party in the newly founded
Forward Bloc. It stood for complete independence of India and intended to carry on the anti-
imperialist struggle till the goal of liberation was achieved. The party wanted social ownership and
control of both means of production and distribution.

It also stood for application of principles of equality and social justice, which in Bose’s view ought to
be the basis of the new order in free India. The Bloc strongly favoured linguistic and cultural
autonomy for all sections of Indian society. Another objective of the party was to make and develop
India as a thoroughly modern state.

It stood for scientific large-scale production so that there was economic regeneration in the country.
Forward Bloc advocated freedom of religious worship for all.
OBJECTIVES OF THE FORWARD BLOC
 Liberation of India with support of peasants, youth and other organisations.
 After attaining Independence, Forward Bloc would work for establishment of a Socialist State
through:
a) Reorganization of agriculture and industry on socialist terms.
b) Abolition of Zamindari system
c) Introduction of a new monetary and credit system.

Why couldn’t Bose and Gandhi work together?

Subhas Chandra Bose's political views were in support of complete freedom for India at the earliest,
whereas most of the Congress Committee wanted it in phases, through a dominion status. Most
importantly, the radical political views of Bose clashed regularly with the moderate ideology of
Mahatma Gandhi.

The first crack in the relationship between Gandhi and Bose appeared when all the leaders were
seated with the Simon Commission (1927). While others were discussing a dominion status for India,
Bose famously shouted: “Bharat shall be free, the only question is when.”

This provoked a rare public display of anger from the Mahatma. After this incident, there many
ambivalent statements were made by both Gandhi and Bose, where they criticized the methods but
not the person. The fact that Bose was inspired by Bal Gangadhar Tilak (radical) and Gandhi was into
the tradition of Gopal Krishna Gokhale (moderate) became much clearer at this point of time.

In December 1928, the Congress session was held in Kolkata and Gandhi proposed a resolution that
called upon the British to grant dominion status to India within two years. After some time Gandhi
brokered a further compromise by reducing the time given from two years to one. Jawaharlal Nehru
voted for the new resolution, while Subhash Bose told his supporters that he would not oppose the
resolution, and abstained from voting himself. The All India Congress Committee voted 118 to 45 in
its favour.

In the First Round Table Conference chaired by King George, the Congress was not invited. In the
Second Round Table Conference (1931) however, Gandhi was invited as the sole Congress
representative. Gandhi attended the conference with Sarojini Naidu and turned it into a minority
rights issue with Ambedkar, instead of representing the larger goal of freedom. Bose was
disappointed, to say the least, on two fronts - Gandhi's stand on minority issues and his failure to
speak boldly for freedom.

After this let-down, a dejected Bose visited many European countries to understand the political
movements taking roots there. He was in poor health for some time. He met fascist leader Mussolini
in Italy. He got married to Emilie Schenkl, an Austrian, in 1937. He would soon leave her behind in
wartime Europe to return to India to provide one final push for independence.

When did the split happen?

“Taking all things into consideration, I am of opinion that you should at once form your own Cabinet
fully representing your views. Formulate your program definitely and put it before the forthcoming
A. I. C. C. If the Committee accepts the program all will be plain-sailing and you should be enabled to
prosecute it unhampered by the minority. If on the other hand your program is not accepted you
should resign and let the committee choose it president. And you will be free to educate the country
along your lines. I tender this advice irrespective of Pandit pant's resolution”. ~ Gandhi’s letter to
Bose (4 April 1939)

Bose’s popularity was probably next only to Gandhi’s when he was the president of the Indian
National Congress (INC) during 1938-39. However, Gandhi started becoming wary of Bose due to the
latter’s willingness to adopt militant strategies as part of the freedom struggle.

But more acutely, it were the rightists in the Congress such as Sardar Patel, G D Birla, G B Pant and
Rajendra Prasad who began displaying fierce opposition to Bose because he had emerged as a strong
leftist pillar in the Congress whose charisma and dynamic leadership were attracting many followers
among Congress members and Indians at large.

While Nehru too was charismatic and ideologically on the same side as Bose, he, unlike Bose, was
not someone who would easily take an independent stand against Gandhi.

When Bose was re-elected Congress president for the second term in 1939 defeating Gandhi’s
candidate Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, he was opposed tooth and nail by the rightist group led by Sardar
Patel and G B Pant who formally challenged Bose in a resolution put forth by Pant.

Gandhi’s statement “Sitaramaiah’s defeat is my defeat”helped only to convey his support for Patel
and co. Nehru either did not take a stand or spoke too mutely in support of Bose. Gandhi, in his reply
to a letter from Bose, wrote, “The views you express seem to be so diametrically opposed to those of
the others and my own that I do not see any possibility of bridging them.”

Under intense pressure, Bose stepped down but was left utterly disappointed. Later, in one of the
letters to his wife Emilie Schenkl, Bose expressed dismay that the rightist leaders of the Congress had
influenced Gandhi against him. Bose also wrote to Nehru that he expected more open support from
him and was disappointed that it didn’t come. Bose later lamented that it “will be tragic for me if I
succeed in winning the confidence of other people but failed to win the confidence of India’s
greatest man (Gandhi).”

Bose went on to form the Forward Bloc as a faction within the INC aimed at consolidating the
political left.

Bose was considered a fierce and uncompromising patriot even by some of his rivals in the Congress.
The respect for the unflinching dedication of Bose to set his motherland free from British rule cut
across party lines.
The Congress tricolour and the Muslim League green flag flew together for the last time during the
mutiny of the Indian navy in Bombay unleashed in 1946 partly at anger within the Navy at the trial of
Indian National Army (INA) officers, led by Bose before his death, by the British.

Gandhi himself wrote that "Bose's patriotism is second to none", and he was moved to proclaim
after Bose's death in a plane crash (1945) that he was a "prince among patriots" — a reference, in
particular, to Bose's achievement in integrating women and men from all the regions and religions of
India in the INA.

Bose wanted freedom for India at the earliest opportunity, and to some extent, he didn't care who
he had to approach for assistance.

Where did AIFB head towards?

A year after its foundation, on 20–22 June 1940, the Forward Bloc held its first All India Conference
in Nagpur. The conference declared the Forward Bloc to be a socialist political party, and the date of
22 June is considered as the founding date of the party by the Forward Bloc itself.

The conference passed a resolution titled 'All Power to the Indian People', urging militant action for
struggle against British colonial rule. Subhash Chandra Bose was elected as the president of the
party.

Soon thereafter, on 2 July, Bose was arrested and detained in Presidency Jail, Calcutta. In January
1941 he escaped from house arrest, and clandestinely went into exile. He travelled to the Soviet
Union via Afghanistan, seeking Soviet support for the Indian independence struggle. Stalin declined
Bose's request, and he then travelled to Germany. In Berlin he set up the Free India Centre, and
rallied the Indian Legion.

In August 1942 the British authorities banned the Forward Bloc. Its offices around the country were
ransacked. In 1943 Bose was transported to Asia, where he took over the leadership of the Indian
National Army (INA). During the final phase of the war the INA fought alongside the Japanese against
the British army.

Inside India, local activists of the Forward Bloc continued the anti-British activities without central
co-ordination. For example, in Bihar members were involved in the Azad Dasta resistance groups,
and distributed propaganda in support of Bose and INA. They did not have, however, any organic
link either with Bose nor the INA. Forward Bloc was left leaderless – Bose was fighting for India from
outside India.
The Bloc held its Second All India Conference in Arrah, Bihar on 12–14 January 1947. S.S. Cavesheer
was elected president and Sheel Bhadra Yagee was elected general secretary. The party assumed the
name 'All India Forward Bloc'.

The conference denounced the understanding between the Congress and the British government for
the Independence of India, and called upon the Forward Bloc members present in the Constituent
Assembly to withdraw from it.

Subsequently, a national council was held in Bauria, West Bengal, which reaffirmed the demand of
boycotting the Constituent Assembly as well as issuing a decree that Bloc members of state
legislatures would resign.

The AIFB, along with its organization, the All India Agragami Kisan Sabha, protested against the anti-
peasants policies of the Congress government. The AIFB organized strikes, rallies, conventions,
picketing and dharnas against the increasing number of farmer suicides in the country and even
against increasing oppressive policies of the government towards the peasants.

From then on, AIFB has been an active political party in West Bengal, achieving (at best) modest
electoral achievements.

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