Mother India

Subhash Chandra Bose (1897–1945), popularly known as 'Netaji', was one of India's most iconic nationalist leaders. Educated at Calcutta and Cambridge, he resigned from the prestigious Indian Civil Service (ICS) because he believed the best way to serve India was to actively oppose British rule. This chapter is a series of deeply personal, spiritually charged letters written with 'rare sensitivity' by a young Subhash to his mother, Prabhavati Devi, from Cuttack during Durga Puja.

The critique of Puja pomp and sincere devotion

Written on the final day of Durga Puja, the letter opens with Subhash imagining his mother at their country home, engrossed in the worship of the Goddess. While Cuttack celebrates with immense pomp and ceremony, he feels a deep emptiness and a 'pang' in his heart. He argues that true, sublime worship needs no expensive decorations, loud music or grand pageantry, for pomp and devotion are fundamentally incompatible.

Sincere worship, he believes, must come from invoking the Divine with a pure heart, complete sincerity and total love; when love and devotion replace outward show, worship becomes the most sublime thing in the world. As Immersion Day (Visarjan) approaches, he laments being stuck in Cuttack, pining away, and promises to send his respectful 'pronams' to his family, wishing them spiritual peace despite his physical absence.

India as God's beloved land

Subhash passionately describes India as 'God's beloved land'. He argues it is the land of Saviours: whenever society has fallen into sin, God has taken human form and been born in this sacred land to destroy evil, establish righteousness and restore truth. He notes that India is blessed with extreme and magnificent seasons, the hottest summer, the severest winter, the heaviest monsoon and the most comforting autumn and spring.

He paints a vivid picture of the sacred rivers: the pure Godavari winding eternally to the sea in the Deccan, and the grand Ganges carrying away the physical and spiritual filth of the world, on whose banks wise yogis gather at morning prayers with half-closed eyes, chanting mantras that echo through air sweetened by burning sandalwood and incense.

The anguish over India's deplorable state

Despite these blessings, Subhash's heart bleeds at the miserable condition of his fellow Indians. He asks his mother: 'Mother, is India only your mother? No, she is the mother of all Indians. If every Indian is her son, do not the sorrows of your sons make you cry out in agony?'

Refusing to believe that a mother can be heartless, he wonders how Mother India can remain unmoved while her children suffer hunger, jealousy, selfishness, bigotry and rampant sin. He laments that the beautiful land of India has been turned into a 'veritable Hell' by the moral decay of its people.

The call to sacrifice and awakening

Subhash fiercely attacks the educated youth of his generation, accusing them of deep stupor and lethargy, content to sleep away their lives 'playing with non-essentials', petty jobs and personal comforts, while turning a deaf ear to the wailings of their motherland. He asks how anyone can sit with folded arms and watch this destruction, and whether Mother India has not a single selfless son ready to give up personal interests and dedicate his whole life to her cause.

He declares that the time has come to shake off laziness, rise from the stupor and plunge into action for the country. He ends the letter with a highly emotional, prophetic question to his mother, asking whether her own son is finally ready to make the ultimate, supreme sacrifice for Mother India.