Bose – The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist

Title: Bose – The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist
Author: Chandrachur Ghose
Publisher: Penguin Viking, 2022 (First)
ISBN: 9780670096008
Pages: 714

Just as various rivers flow into the bosom of the sea, various political strategies and movements vied with each other for driving the British out and achieve independence for India. Violence was the earliest thread in liberation’s fabric that germinated straight from defensive measures against the establishment of the British empire, continued through the 1857 revolt and then channeled into political assassinations. After the amalgamation of India to the Queen’s domain in 1858, constitutionalism was the second channel of national aspiration. Then came Gandhi with the third alternative of nonviolent mass uprising. When India became free at last, it was due to the combined effort of all the three forms, but the British transferred power to the Gandhian faction who had public support and at the same time was readily amenable to British persuasions. When they sat down after 1947 to write the story of how India became free, all those outside the pale of Congress were left out or marginalized. The contributions of Subhas Chandra Bose to the freedom struggle are often condensed into a few lines whereas entire books can be made to bring out his single-minded efforts. This book is a good chronicle of the Bengali leader who was disillusioned with Congress and left the country to fight for her freedom seeking help from the oppressor’s enemies. Chandrachur Ghose is an author, researcher and commentator on history. He is one of the founders of the pressure group ‘Mission Netaji’ that has been the moving force behind the declassification of secret documents related to Netaji. His activism led to the declassification of over 10,000 pages in 2010.

A good snapshot of Netaji’s pre-political years is presented in the book. He did not join the coveted Indian Civil Service (ICS) even though he came on top in the examination and instead plunged into political work under Chittaranjan Das. He was elected the CEO of Calcutta Corporation but was arrested and incarcerated in Mandalay jail for three years suspected for having links to violent elements. He was practically exiled to Europe for several years in the 1930s. On return, he was selected as the president of the Indian National Congress. When his re-election bid was opposed by Gandhi, a poll was conducted and Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Gandhi’s nominee, by 1580 votes against 1377 in 1939. As the Gandhian lobby made his life impossible as the party president, Bose resigned. He was soon arrested again and confined to house arrest. In a daring escape, he fled to Germany which was at war with Britain. Disappointed at not getting much support from Hitler and Mussolini, Bose moved to Southeast Asia which was conquered by Japan. He constituted a national army using Indian prisoners of war and fought to liberate India. This was at the fag end of World War II but the axis powers soon fell in battle. It is believed that Bose died in a plane crash on his way seeking to open a new front with a possible alliance with Russia.

The book conspicuously highlights Bose’s falling out with Gandhi and his methods. Bose quickly realized the ineffectiveness of boycotting legislatures as part of the Gandhian civil disobedience program. Gandhi’s action plan for constructive work involved Charkha, the manual spinning wheel, which Bose found to be impractical and obsolete. C R Das and Bose stood for the party entering legislative councils. When Gandhi obstinately blocked the move, they formed a new front within the Congress called the Swarajya party. When Bose was arrested, Gandhi attributed it to his political work condoning violence and did not even pass a resolution seeking his release. He was let free after three years in a Burmese jail on health grounds. When his brother Sarat Bose asked for guidance on how he could be freed, Gandhi recommended the spinning wheel as the ‘sovereign remedy’. Gandhi often suspended at his will the civil disobedience campaigns which were running at full steam. At this point, Bose remarked that Gandhi was ‘an old useless piece of furniture who had done good service in his time, but was an obstacle then’ (p.207). Bose opposed sending Gandhi alone to the Round Table Conference as the sole representative of the Congress. Sending more people with him would not have been of any help either as his blind followers would not question him and he would not heed the advice of those who were not his orthodox followers. Watching Gandhi obstruct his work as party president, Bose accused him of having grown into the role of a permanent super-president.

After examining Bose’s interactions with Gandhi, the author proceeds to analyse how Nehru fared with him. Jawaharlal Nehru always remained close to the power centre that was Gandhi in contrast to Bose who worked his way up. Both were rising youth icons and represented the left-wing element in the country. On many occasions Nehru’s initial reaction was in support of Bose, but after Gandhi clarified his stand, Nehru did not hesitate to make a volte-face. In fact, he openly confessed in his letters that he could not oppose Gandhi beyond a certain point. When faced with a difficult choice, Nehru would be non-aligned. This so irritated Bose that he confided to socialist leader Minoo Masani that Nehru was an opportunist who thought about his own position first and only then about anything else. However, he maintained a good personal relationship with Bose. Both leaders extended and received the hospitality of the other during visits to Allahabad and Calcutta. Nehru’s ideas on foreign relations never rose above the wishful thinking of an idealist teenager. Bose then advised Nehru that foreign policy is a realistic affair to be determined largely from the point of view of a nation’s self-interest. He even admonished that ‘frothy sentiment and pious platitudes’ do not make foreign policy (p.296). Congress politics was riddled with factional feuds even then. Bose wrote that ‘Congress politics has become so unreal that no sincere person can be satisfied with it’ (p.81).

It is seen that even though Congress was occupied in organizing campaigns against the British, it did not have any clear idea about what to fight for and its leaders were clueless about the arrival of complete independence. In the 1920s, they demanded dominion status within the empire. After a decade, the British were almost willing to grant it, but then Congress jumped a step further and wanted complete independence (purna Swaraj). There was no timeframe in their mind on when to achieve this. Satyamurti, a prominent Congress leader from the South, came out in 1938 with a demand to fully Indianize the army in the next 25 years – that is, by 1963! In his 1938 Haripura address, Bose enunciated the principle behind the rise and fall of empires. He surmised that empires collapse after reaching the zenith of prosperity and warned that the fate of the British empire would be no different. This claim anticipated several decades at the minimum, but with hindsight we see that this observation was made just nine years before independence. So it is likely that an economically devastated Britain had had no choice other than to offer independence after the War and it was the Congress leaders who were surprised the most at the decision.

The book also includes a clear depiction of some personal traits of Bose that dent his stature as a great leader. Though he professed to be on the side of the political left, he was often accused of pandering to the interests of the upper middle class to which he belonged. There was also a touch of megalomania in him. Everywhere he went, large crowds were arranged to greet him at the railway station and to line up on both sides of the road showering flower petals. He wanted to be treated like a commander. Bose often found himself in the middle of factional politics and the way he dealt with his opponents usually turned to highhanded and undemocratic. Bose’s workers disrupted meetings of rivals and physically assaulted their leaders. This included Gandhi too. On one occasion, a shoe was hurled at Gandhi which narrowly missed him and hit his secretary Mahadev Desai who was standing nearby. Bose also indulged in opportunistic politics. Even though he opposed Gandhi’s constitutionalism, he took up positions of power in Calcutta Corporation. He tried alliances with the Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League when it suited him. Allegations of financial impropriety were also levelled against him by opponents. Bose presented a will made by Vithalbhai Patel (Sardar Patel’s brother) after he died in Europe under the care of Bose. The will bequeathed a large sum of money to Bose and his association for political work. Vallabhbhai Patel challenged the propriety of the will in a court of law and had it quashed.

Bose’s claim to everlasting fame as a freedom fighter hinges on his daring escape from captivity and military fight against the British with the help of Axis powers. Bose first approached Hitler, but his disdainful approach to India made him dither in declaring open support. The racist in Hitler was more comfortable with India under the yoke of a white nation. Hitler was also keen not to antagonize Britain by helping Bose as he hoped to mend fences with them after successfully concluding Germany’s conquest of Russia. Japan’s storming success in Southeast Asia provided Bose with an opportunity to attack British India from Burma. Earlier, he was planning to attack from Afghanistan with German help. He arrived in Singapore in a submarine and assumed leadership of the newly constituted Indian National Army (INA). But it was the moment when Japanese fortunes were turning for the worse. Moreover, Bose wanted to direct military operations by himself even though he was not trained for it. He overruled veteran Japanese commanders. He refused to split the ill-equipped INA troops into small groups and embed them with larger Japanese units. He further insisted that they will fight only as a group under the command of Indian officers. There were ego clashes with the Japanese too. Disputes on minor questions like who would salute first when an INA and Japanese officer of equal rank met each other frequently arose. After discussions at highest levels, it was decided to salute simultaneously. Bose also vetoed the Japanese plan to bomb Calcutta. In the end, the INA and Japanese troops were thoroughly trounced. But the INA captured the imagination of the Indian youth in displaying a valiant alternative in fighting the British as compared to the effeminate and ineffective Gandhian satyagraha.

The book is rather subdued on the last days of Bose. He did not want to surrender at any cost. His final plan was to go to Manchuria which was under Russian occupation and seek help from them. The outcome was highly doubtful but he wanted to try. The author is silent on whether Bose boarded the plane or what happened to it. The mystery is still unresolved. The suspense is aggravated by another incident in 1942 when a plane carrying four INA men crashed, driving Gandhi to write to Bose’s family condoling his ‘death’! However, his absence in India after the War was undoubtedly a relief not only to the British but to many national leaders as well. INA trials and the Naval Mutiny aggravated this irritation. The violence in the mutiny was unprecedented with 228 killed in police and military firings and 1046 injured. This made it plain to the British that they could no longer trust the loyalty of Indian troops in any clash involving nationalist sentiments. This finally turned the tables and forced Attlee to offer complete independence.

As a part of maintaining the political balance, the book includes several cartoons published in the Jugantar daily, all of which are highly critical of Bose. It also hints at the ideological tussle between the national poet Tagore and politico-cultural nationalists represented by C R Das and Bose. Tagore was accused of harbouring shallow internationalism in life and literature which was not sincere and did not reflect the fundamental truth in nationalism. The book also contains a chapter on Bose’s doubtful marriage to Emilie Schenkl, his Austrian secretary. It is likely that Bose secretly married her and had a daughter, but his family cold-shouldered the women’s move to get recognized as such. The book is somewhat large at 714 pages. Its essence can be deemed to be the negation of what Pandit Nehru asserted from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 16, 1947 when he said that ‘India achieved freedom under the brilliant leadership and guidance of Mahatma Gandhi’. This book’s spirit declares that this claim is in fact a myth.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star