Exposed Pseudo-Nationalism

When comrades shed false tears on the insult to martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle, know that they are merely playing to the galleries. Ironically, for Indian communists, they do not realise that the galleries are empty and there are no takers for their theatrics any longer.

When communists speak of the sanctity of the Independence Day Address, these are words meant to cover up their collaborationist past. It was also a past in which their daily staple was the abuse of revolutionaries and leaders of the freedom movement.

Some examples from Kerala will be relevant here. Let us start with a recent one, which proved that even decades after independence, the essential mindset of Indian communists has not altered when it comes to assessing the role and legacy of the leaders of the freedom movement.

The teacher’s handbook for class four, prepared by the CPIM-led Kerala government’s State Council of Education Research and Training, stated that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had “fled” to Germany, fearing the British. The interpretation of Netaji’s “Great Escape” was deliberately distorted to suit the core communist view of his legacy, that of his being an escapist and lackey of the Japanese.

Kerala continues to see excesses committed by the communist government against those who as much as voice support for a national cause. In early September 2025, 27 RSS Swayamsevaks were booked in Kerala after they had designed a pookkalam - floral patterns arranged and decorated on Onam, in the premises of the Sree Parthasarathy Temple at Kollam. The pookkalam had “Operation Sindoor” written with flowers, a flex with Chatrapati Shivaji’s portrait and the saffron flag were also displayed. Citing a Kerala High Court order which banned the depiction of political symbols and flags within a 100-metre radius of the temple, the state police foisted concocted cases on the Swayamsevaks. For communists, Chatrapati Shivaji, his saffron flag and Operation Sindoor are all “political” symbols. They do not see these as symbolising India’s strategic acumen, battle prowess and self-reliance. They want us to forget episodes which instil in us pride, resilience and determination. It is almost as if they prefer pushing the Pakistan agenda in India.

The attitude of the Indian communists to the Quit India Movement, towards freedom fighters and towards leaders such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and others has now come out of the closet. It is hardly surprising that they continue to insist on saying that he “fled” the British because he feared them.

In his authoritative study, “History of the Communist Movement in Kerala”, historian E Balakrishnan reminds us how communist poet and playwright Cherukad (1914-1976), had composed a poem against Subhas Bose that was carried by the Deshabhimani Weekly on 8 August, 1943, where he described Netaji as “That Rascal Is Not Our Leader: He Is the Boot-Licker of the Japanese.” Cherukad’s poem with abuses for Netaji was meant to be sung by cadres participating in anti-Japanese rallies organised by communists.”

Balakrishnan writes that the communists knew very well that ‘helping the British government directly would be counter-productive. So, the direct means of anti-Japanese resistance was adopted instead. Since the “Japanese were not available in India for offering resistance, Subhas Chandra Bose” and his followers and admirers were victimised. Their “attack against Subhas Bose was particularly virulent.”

Balakrishnan also records P Krishna Pillai, one of the founding members of the CPI, then secretary of the CPI’s Kerala Committee, for instance, writing in the Deshabhimani, on 4 October 1942, spoke of Subhas Bose as a “base fellow” who has “sold himself to the Japanese”, a “most detestable traitor trying to enslave this country to the Japanese.”

Veteran historian MGS Narayanan (1932-1925) writes in his introduction to Balakrishnan’s work that communist leaders like EMS Namboodiripad (1909-1998), “specialised” in the “art of pseudo-psychological theorising while supporting diametrically opposite positions.” Without batting an eyelid, they “used the dirtiest slang words against Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose, and the leaders of the Congress in Kerala like K Kelappan (1889-1971) in the party’s propaganda literature.”

P Parameswaran (1927-2020), thought-leader, RSS Pracharak and a prolific author from Kerala, writes how communists “claiming to follow Gandhiji,” denounced “him in the most uncharitable terms” and “while eulogising revolution, they betrayed the greatest revolutionary, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and showered him with the choicest abuses without decency or decorum.”

Despite his erudition and propensity to break traditions, EMS Namboodiripad had a peculiar weakness for Islamists. In 1993, for instance, while campaigning for the by-election to the Ottapalam Lok Sabha constituency (Alathur Lok Sabha constituency since 2009), EMS had equated radical Islamist Abdul Nasser Madhani to Mahatma Gandhi, arguing that Madhani was using Islam for a noble societal cause just like the Mahatma, who spoke of “Ram Rajya” for liberating India. This was classic EMS in his “pseudo-psychological theorising mode”, pandering to the worst kind of communal mindset. In 1998, Madhani was found to have been involved in the Coimbatore serial blasts and the 2008 Bangalore serial blasts.

In fact, argues MGS, “the communists of Kerala were busy building up their power base with the help of the British in the immediate pre-independence period since 1942, and they made a serious bid to sabotage the advent of freedom in the period from 1946 to 1948 by promoting sporadic acts of terrorism in North Malabar and Travancore. When they failed in this attempt, they were prepared to make a successful bid for power through elections by joining hands with the separatist communal forces like the Muslim League…”

Balakrishnan tells us that by August 1946, the militancy of the communists became “violent, cruel and inhuman” and the “inherent inhumanity of communist bellicosity during August 1946 was seen in the attitude shown to communal riots.” Communists had been “cooperating with the Muslim League and had been supporting the League demand for Pakistan”, and in that connection, the communists in Kerala, like their colleagues in other parts of the country, “decided to cooperate with the League in the observance” of the Muslim League’s Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946. In Malabar, communists “did everything to incite Moplahs for an open revolt” with EMS writing “leaflets inciting” them to revolt.

In 1942, RSS Swayamsevaks, scattered across India, were working, both covertly and overtly, in trying to carry forward the Quit India momentum. That episode and aspect require a separate look. One example would suffice for the present discussion. Ranga Hari, one of those rare authorities on the history and evolution of RSS, in his biography of Sri Guruji, reminds us of Aruna Asaf Ali’s (1909-1996) (née Ganguly) reminiscences of 1942, when she was underground evading the British police.

In an interview she gave to the Hindi daily Hindusthan in 1967, Aruna Asaf Ali recalled how educationist, social leader and RSS Prant Sanghchaalak of Delhi, Lala Hansraj, had sheltered the young Aruna in Delhi, in his house for 10-15 days. “I was underground in 1942 agitation. Delhi Sanghchaalak Lala Hansraj provided me refuge in his house for 10-15 days and arranged for my complete safety. He saw to it that nobody got information about my stay at his house…” The bold Aruna had hoisted the Congress flag at the midnight meet in Mumbai on 9 August 1942, when Mahatma Gandhi announced the Quit India movement. She went underground, successfully evading arrest till 1946, when she resurfaced. Countless Swayamsevaks supported the Quit India call in a thousand ways, while communists exerted themselves over time to foil the movement.

After 11 years of Narendra Modi and 12 consecutive Independence Day addresses by the PM, communists and their megaphones have been compelled to at least start pretending that India’s Independence Day and not the “Long March” or “May Day” is an occasion that they need to recognise, observe and try to follow, if not commemorate.

Views expressed are personal. The writer is a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC), BJP, and the Chairman of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation