Pipi thankyou for your comment. It is great to know that someone has read what I had to say. Firstly no one asked the British at the time what was instrumental in their leaving India. Gandhi undoubtedly had a great part to play but we do not know the value of armed resistance. Almost every family in Bengal lost someone. It was not just Bose but people like Khudiram, Binoy, Badal, Dinesh, Masterda and many others who might have made the British decidedly unwelcome. Calcutta used to be the capital of the Raj at one time but the British shifted to Delhi which has had a long history of welcoming conquerors and enemies of India. Mohd. bin Tuglak, Nader Shah, the Moguls to name a few. Unfortunately the school curriculum today teaches only about Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad thus changing history.
General Cariappa is reputed to have asked for only 24 hours to liberate Kashmir but Nehru chose to go to the UN. It might have something to do with Lady Pamela but let us move on. We had Panchsheel with China and recognised their hold on Tibet only for them to attack us. They still occupy about 50000 sq. miles today. There was a war with the Pakis ( forget the year ) when we fought with outdated arms against Patton tanks. Little Gnat airplanes against F14s. We won because of the sheer bravery and scrifice of our troops. We were sitting on the banks of the Ichogil Canal lookin at Lahore. Lal Bahadur Shastri gave it all away at Tashkent for nothing. In 1971, 95000 Paki soldiers surrendered to India terrified of being captured by the Bangladeshis. Indira Gandhi released them for nothing. Today's Bangladeshis are probably illegitimate children of Paki rapes and hate India. Remember these people believe in 'eye for an eye' stuff and probably see us as weak and contemptible. What do you think?