The Warrior and the Saint 141including Nehru and Patel, who from their different ideological stand-
points increasingly evinced scant respect for the expression of cultural
difference. Bose, from the beginning, believed that India’s future de-
pended on ensuring the dignity of all minorities: multiple identities
were not an obstacle to achieving an overarching national unity.
If Indians were prepared to fight for freedom, Bose was convinced
that it would come in the foreseeable future. In anticipation of the win-
ning of in de pen dence, he outlined, in the course of his Haripura ad-
dress, his “long- period program for a Free India.” The “first prob lem to
tackle,” he believed, was the “increasing population.”^9 He was the first
among the front- ranking po lit i cal leaders of India to advocate a policy
of population control. The previous year, he had commented to the
young doctor Sita Dharmavir: “What you wrote about the babies inter-
ested me greatly. I also think that Indians bring too many babies into
the world, and all for what? To die because few of them grow up as
adults. That brings us to the question of population control, which is
absolutely essential for India. Mahatma Gandhi says self- control is very
good indeed, if people will oblige him by being so reasonable.”^10 At
Haripura, he did not want to get into “the theoretical question as to
whether India is over- populated or not.” He simply thought it “desir-
able to restrict our population until we are able to feed, clothe and edu-
cate those who already exist.” This was an issue that he wanted to make
the focus of public attention and an educational campaign.^11
So far as “reconstruction” after colonial rule was concerned, the
“principal prob lem” would be “how to eradicate poverty from our
country.” That would “require a radical reform of our land system, in-
cluding the abolition of landlordism.” The drying up of rural credit
during the Depression de cade had compounded the prob lem of peas-
ant debt. “Agricultural indebtedness,” in Bose’s view, would “have to be
liquidated and provision made for cheap credit for the rural popula-
tion.” There were limits, however, to focusing on agriculture. In order
to “solve the economic prob lem,” agricultural improvement would “not
be enough” and an ambitious plan for state- led industrial development
would have to be crafted. “However much we may dislike modern in-
dustrialism and condemn the evils which follow in its train,” Bose de-
clared, alluding to Gandhi’s concerns, “we cannot go back to the pre-