What possibly could have happened had Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose returned to India after the Second World War?
It's a question I often try to find the answer of. Nobody knows for certain whether Subhash died in the plane crash in 1945. Till now there is no proof that he died in the plane crash. On the contrary, it seems the successive governments have been deliberately trying to conceal some facts that are still unknown.
I, for one, believe that Bose did not die in the plane crash. But if what I believe is right, then I can't say why he did not return to his country after independence.
But let us try to guess what turn history would have taken had he returned to India after the World War.
I have read the great leader's biography and from what I have understood from his personality, I can say India would not have been divided. Subhash had the potential to prevent partition of India. In case, he would have been in the scene, there would have been no country as the one we today know as Pakistan.
Subhash and Nehru were friends, but, I think that, Subhash, in the post independence period, would have been closer to Sardar Patel than Nehru for ideological reasons. Unlike Nehru Patel was not a man living in a dreamland. So was Subhash. Patel had warned Nehru against the Chinese intentions years before the Chinese aggrression in 1962. If Subhash had been the Prime Minister of India, I am sure, he would have understood the significance of Patel's timely warning. He would have prepared the army to counter any eventuality. The Sino- Indian war would not have taken place and Tibet would not have lost its independence. It would have continued as the buffer state between China and India. Our army would have been better prepared than what it is now and today we would not have been facing threats on our borders.
Another important thing that could have happened is that India would have now been secular in true sense of the term. Both Patel and Subhash had the capability to make the country secular without introducing the word 'secular' in the constitution and without resorting to appeasement of any community.
Under the leadership of great visionaries like Subhash and Patel no reigion of the country would have been left feeling ignored and so underdeveloped or undeveloped. Consequently there would not have been emergence of reigional parties.
All this is a part of what I think. And every time I think on the imaginary issue, I reach the conclusion that Subhash and Patel would have better leaders of our country.