A big question: What made Britishers leave India in 1947?
- In the meeting between british MPs and Sir Clement Attlee in Feb 1946,
The british MP said:
"There are two alternative ways of meeting this common desire
a) that we should arrange to get out
b) that we should wait to be driven out,
In regard to (b) the loyalty of Indian Army is open to question; the INA have become National heroes..."
- Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in an interview to BBC in 1955 said:
"I don't know how Mr Attlee suddenly agreed to give India Independence...
The national army that was raised by Subhas Chandra Bose...
The british had been ruling the country in the firm belief that whatever may happen
in the country or whatever the politicians do, they will never be able to change the loyalty of soldiers. That was one prop on which they were carrying on the administration. And that was completely dashed to pieces.
They found that soldiers could be seduced to form a party- a battalion to blow off the Britishers."
- Lt Gen S K Sinha made an observation in 1976:
"There was considerable sympathy for the INA within the army...It is true that fear of another 1857 had begun to haunt the british.
PV Chakraborty (Governor of Bengal in 1956), ASKED Clement Attlee (former British PM & who was responsible for India’s freedom)
"The Quit India Movement of Gandhi practically died out long before 1947 & there was nothing in the Indian situation at that time, which made it
necessary for the British to leave India in a hurry. Why then did they do so?”
In reply, Attlee cited several reasons, the most important of which were I.N.A. activities of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, which weakened the very foundation of the British Empire in India and
the RIN Mutiny which made the British realise that the Indian armed forces could no longer be trusted to prop up the British.
He also asked about the extent of Gandhi’s influence upon the british to leave India?
Mr. Attlee’s lips winded in smile and uttered slowly, “Minimal”.
Some Rare pics of Bose
Pic 1: Netaji at the house of Sri badrudeen kapasi at Bangkok, Thailand.
Pic 2: Netaji (right) with japanese foreign minister Mr. Mamori Shigemitsu in Tokyo.
- Not just introduction of Hinduism to western world, but he became so influential, people wanted to hear more from him that he gave many speeches after that
- In one of his speeches, he openly criticized Christianity.
- On 20th September, 1893, he gave his 4th speech, he was not scheduled to speak that day but audience saw Vivekananda in the gallery and asked him to deliver a lecture, as one of the speaker was absent.
- He said:
"Christians must always be ready for good criticism, & I hardly think that you will mind if I make a little criticism.
You Christians,who are so fond of sending out missionaries to save soul of the heathen - why do you not try to save their bodies from starvation?
Swami Vivekananda on September 11, 1893, at the first World’s Parliament of Religions, introduced Hinduism to America.
Presenting you a part of his speech:
Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and
cordial welcome which you have given us.
I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world,
I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.
I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of
On the day of death - 23 March 1931: 1. Mehta (lawyer of Bhagat Singh) on meeting with Rajguru was taken aback by his relaxed & carefree attitude,even in the face of imminent death.
2. Everybody felt that Rajguru was nervous at the sight of imminent death.
3. Shiv Verma (one of his colleagues) asked him whether he was scared of death to which Rajguru said that “I am, like you, proud of what I have accomplished. I have come to realize this truth only after challenging death. If we are able to show even a glimpse.....
...of the freedom to our fellow nationals by sacrificing our lives, they would be able to walk on that path by themselves. This death, then, would be blessing for us.”