| Subhas Chandra Bose
was no believer in 'mono-causal determinant of the course
of history'. He had a preference for samanway, i.e, synthesis
between spirituality and material progress, between nationalism
and internationalism, between communism and fascism. He
identified some common points between communism and fascism,
for example, supremacy of the state over the individual,
political technique of party rule as a principle of governance,
ruthless suppression of all dissenting minorities, belief
in planned industrial reconstruction of the economy. "These
common traits", he believed, "will form the
basis of the new synthesis", which he called Samyavada.
He was sure that it would be India's task to work out
this new synthesis of a new variety of socialism. (The
Indian Struggle: 1920-42). This was his view in 1934,
which he revised later.
In a January 1938 interview with R.P
Dutt, leader of the Communist Party of Great Britain,
Bose said that the synthesis between communism and fascism
was not a happy one. "The naked nature of aggressive
nationalism practiced by the Fascists is to be condemned
because it is anti-people, anti-democratic and anti-human",
he said.
In 1938, Bose said that India would
struggle for "freedom, democracy and socialism"
as part of a worldwide struggle for these ideals. (Speech
at the reception meeting in his honour at Pancras Town
Hall, London, January 11, 1938).
In his presidential address to the Haripura
session of the Indian National Congress (1938), Subhas
Chandra Bose said: "Eradication of poverty, illiteracy
and disease can happen only along socialist lines".
He advocated radical land reforms, including abolition
of landlordism and waiver of agricultural loans to put
the agriculture sector back on rails, and to thereby,
help increase productivity.
He also called for industrialisation
under state ownership and control, and the formation
of a Planning Commission to streamline the growth and
expansion of large-scale and cottage industries. He
said: "The state, on the advice of a Planning Commission,
will have to adopt a comprehensive scheme for gradually
socialising our entire agricultural and industrial system
in the spheres of both production and distribution".
Countering the arguments of the followers of Gandhiji
against modern industrialism, Bose said: "However
much we may dislike modern industrialism and condemn
the evils which follow it, we cannot go back to the
pre-industrial era, even if we so desire. It is well,
therefore, that we should reconcile ourselves to industrialisation
and devise means to minimise it, and at the same time,
explore the possibilities of reviving cottage industries
where ever it is possible."
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