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25/04/2016 The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence | Freepress Journal
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The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence— By T R RAMACHANDRAN | Apr 16, 2016 03:03 pm
With access to diaries, notes, photographs and privatecorrespondence, this book, written by a member of theBose family, brings to light previously unpublishedmaterial on Netaji and Sarat Chandra Bose.
The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence: An Insi
der’s Account Madhuri Bose Publisher: Sage Publications Pages: 265; Price: Rs 750
The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence: An Insider’s Account – by Madhuri Bose, the grand-daughter ofSarat Bose and grand niece of Subhas Bose, provides some fresh insight about this country’s freedommovement in particular the role of the formidable Bose brothers. It is the extraordinary brothers who gaveup their joys, comforts and lives for the freedom and unity of India. It sheds light on the earnest e‴㐸orts ofSarat, elder brother of Subhas, to preserve a single Bengal in the subcontinent’s east, even if partition in thewest was unavoidable. The clandestine network of Subhas in Kolkata included friends who were able tosmuggle for his inspection an entire dossier of 㠹㔮les that the British-run police kept on him.
For an entire week in the summer of 1949 Subhas and his nephew Amiya Nath poured over the 㠹㔮les secretlybrought to their Elgin Road residence from the intelligence headquarters and returned discreetly to theirshelves at dawn. The information in these 㠹㔮les facilitated Subhas to make his famous get away from housearrest in January 1941 and 㠹㔮nd his way to Afghanistan and Germany. There have been di‴㐸erences betweenthe Bose brothers and Mahatma Gandhi who was opposed to the use of the gun or the bomb for libertythough neither the Bose brothers nor the Father of the Nation could tolerate India’s inferiority orsubjugation. Sarat’s gallant e‴㐸ort in May 1947 for a United Bengal unattached to either India or Pakistanforms part of the book.
The country’s 㠹㔮rst Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel were opposed to it as were manyothers. This inevitably raises the question if Gandhi had continued to support Sarad’s bid, would one havebeen witness to a United Bengal? At the same time the Mahatma’s proposal for a Jinnah led government inDelhi to avoid partition in April 1947 was rejected by the Congress. The author observed as the afternoonshadows lengthened on a crisp Calcutta’s winter day on January 16, 1941, the ‘Prince of Vagabonds’ (asobriquet ascribed to Subhas and Sarat) was making his 㠹㔮nal preparation to escape from his home.
A day later Subhas had slipped away by car, train and on foot and made his way from eastern to north andnorthwest India to Kabul in Afghanistan. He eventually arrived in Berlin in early April 1941 by air fromMoscow. A carefully planned scheme in league with brother Sarat, and involving a handful of other closefamily members enabled Subhash deceive the cordon or watching British agents and embark on what hesaw as the next and 㠹㔮nal phase of the Indian struggle, this time by force of arms from outside India. Fromthe time of his arrival in Berlin Subhas spent his time seeking to build and empower an Indian legion, whichwould 㠹㔮ght alongside German troops to prepare for an eventual attack on British India from the West. His growing disillusionment with the Hitler led German regime’s reluctance to support Indian independencebecame evident.
He demanded on several occasions, including during his brief meeting with Hitler himself that certainobjectionable remarks about India in ‘Mein Kampf’ be removed. That did not happen. Subhas has always
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25/04/2016 The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence | Freepress Journal
http://www.freepressjournal.in/thebosebrothersandindianindependence/827222 2/5
been favourably disposed towards the Soviets towhom he had hoped to turn for assistance in anarmed struggle against British imperialism. InAugust 1941 Subhas residing in Berlin in theheart of the Third Reich wrote to the GermanForeign minister J von Ribbentrop that ‘themarch of the German troops towards the Eastwill be regarded as the approach not of a friendbut of an enemy’.
Subhas had persuaded the German authoritiesthat it made more sense for him to play a leadrole in the Indian independence e‴㐸ort by forceof arms in Asia and in alliance with the Japanese.The message reaching Germans fromcounterparts in Japan was the desirability ofSubhas in the Asia/Paci㠹㔮c theatre of war. He wasbeing called upon to lead e‴㐸orts in therejuvenation of an INA formed earlier by Tokyobased Indian revolutionary Rash Behari Bose,but now 㘴′oundering. Thus it transpired thatfrom eighth February 1943, Subhas undertook aperilous voyage from Europe to Southeast Asiaby submarine in the midst of a world war. Hemanaged to reach Tokyo from where heproceeded to Singapore.
With the support of the Japanese government hewas able to form the Provisional Government of Azad Hind Force on 21 October 1943 in Singapore. Theclarion call for independence and freedom now boomed from Singapore, Tokyo and Rangoon as well as thejungles of Southeast Asia: to the British – an uncompromising demand to leave India; to his countrymen andwomen – stay united, freedom is coming; and to the soldiers of INA – Chalo Delhi! Under Subhas the INAproved to be a revelation in its own right, defeated in battle by circumstances and superior forces, butdestined to be a critical factor in Britian’s 㠹㔮nal realisation – even after victory in a world war that India could
no longer be the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of their Empire.
It will remain one of the great unknown of history, whatmight have happened if Subhas himself had been able toful㠹㔮l his vision of leading the INA back to India whether invictory or defeat. To be certain he would have continuedthe 㠹㔮ght against the vivisection of the subcontinent, and hisreappearance may have given new life to the ‘tired old men’who accepted partition as the price for power.
The British were forced to recognise that they had lost theallegiance of the British Indian Armed Forces and could nolonger hold on to India. The story of the air crash in whichSubhas died is contested to this day. It is hardly surprisingmany believe that it was yet another ruse for him to slipaway once again, this time to link up with the forces of thevictorious Soviet Union in Manchuria. If further clarity hasto be brought on this matter, then Madhuri Bose maintainsthe answers will need to be found in as yet unreleasedarchival material in Britain, Russia, the United States, Japan,and India itself. There is one certainty that the 㘴′ame ofSubhash “has not died and will not die. He will continue to㠹㔮re the imagination and inspire the generations to come.”
The seeds of Gandhi’s ‘Quit India’ movement of August1942, seemed to belatedly recognise the broad position of
the Bose brothers. Sarat was to spend almost the next four years in jails in India mostly in Coonoor in TamilNadu. Sarat did rejoin the Congress but Amiya was later to rue his own role in de㘴′ecting his father from themore radical and even revolutionary alternatives bubbling just beneath the surface at that time. He took upthe challenge of reabsorption of the erstwhile Subhas led INA into Indian life and politics and propagation oftheir hitherto blacked out exploits.
Sarat found life challenging on personal family matters. Emille Schenkl, an Austrian by birth who worked forSubhash in Europe on and o‴㐸 as his secretary since mid 1934, had written to him on 12 March 1946. Sheexplained that she and Subhas had married in Berlin January 1942 and a daughter Anita had been born tothem in November of that year. Giving the character of the child at three, Emille wrote she is a very goodsoul, resembles her father completely and being very pious likes to pray. Even though she is a baby she hasher own faults of course as everybody else. Sarat welcomed them into the Bose family.
25/04/2016 The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence | Freepress Journal
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