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A mighty force in the Indian political history, Subash Chandra Bose with his forceful personality, radical approach and vigorous campaign against the British rule to procure freedom of India, both in India and abroad, exerted a profound influence in the first half of the 20th century. As, evidenced by a long series of writings on him, he has been a popular subject with writers and scholars. Consequently, almost all chapters of his life, career and political ideology have been explored and recorded. Yet, amazingly, one chapter being "the deeply controversial moment in Indian history" has been largely ignored or idealised. Hence, the current book — primarily a discourse on Bose’s contentious association with Hitler and Nazi Germany during the momentous Second World War — assumes significance.
However, this well-argued historical narrative is panoramic in scope. With clinical analysis, it adds to our appreciation of the icon of ultra-nationalism who with his relentless crusade moulded the current of anti-British movement, culminating in the cherished freedom of India, yet who for his radically different political approach from his contemporaries and emotional and extreme beliefs and actions became "the most controversial president of Indian National Congress". Besides, illustrating the interplay between the life story of Bose and national and world history, the book also makes a reappraisal of history of the Second World War. Hence, this profound book will definitely appeal to those interested in the past. And it may capture the attention of the other readers as an analytical and penetrative biography of the "most prominent, popular and progressive Indian politician of 1930s". As, referring to the grand commemoration of 100th birth anniversary of Bose, the writer lays emphasis on the renewed interest in life and works of Bose, ascribing it to "the search for new heroes" for "the side effects of disillusionment with the Nehru-Gandhi legacy and the revolt against the non-aligned, socialist and secular vision they had imposed on what was now a more centrist, capitalist yet assertive and fundamentalist India". The forcible argument is really thought provoking! However, the keynotes of Bosian politics — "ends justify means", "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and "now or never, always all or nothing" — were in total contrast to Gandhian ideology, which he tirelessly denounced. Strangely enough, while he himself derograted Gandhi for his pacifist beliefs "as a useless piece of furniture", foreigner’s criticism of Gandhi was unacceptable to him since he held Gandhi as a "political symbol of India and perceived any insult to him as one to the wider nation too" So, clearly, an idiosyncratic, paradoxical yet moving nationalism was peculiar to "the defiant figure of Indian nationalism". The writer also underlines how some of Bose’s failings — fanciful notions, overconfidence, extremist ambitions and one dimensional, chauvinistic mindset – were behind his being at loggerheads with his colleagues, his unfulfilled plans, his failure to penetrate into the hidden imperialist designs of the Nazi towards India, his wrongful and untimely presence in Berlin, and his questionable insensitivity to the victims of the racist and genocidal regime. "Had Bose chosen a moderate path akin to that of his less temperamental colleagues such as Azad and Nehru and remained in India he would have played an important role even a possibility decisive one `85 his fundamental mistake was being on the wrong side of history", the writer argues cogently. Besides Bose, the narrative revolves around the Nazi Germany of the Second World War. Expounding Bose’s encounters with Hitler and other officials of the Nazi regime, exposing Hitler’s diplomatic manoeuvre, dictatorial behaviour, his ideological gaps and some temperamental commonalities with Bose, the nitty-gritty of domestic and foreign policy of Nazi regime, the text illuminates. Finally, the exhaustive, diligent research into the ambiguity of involvement of Bose, "the nationalist politician", with Hitler and Nazi regime, interspersed with notes about leading personalities of the times, elucidating political strategies and simulations of the Second World War, is informative, illuminating and stimulating.
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Though Bose’s alliance
with an "aggressive, expansionist and brutal regime" was due
to his disillusionment with Gandhian tools of attaining freedom,
desperate bid to gather foreign support against British imperialism in
India, misconceived notions about German abilities and an obsessional
urge to oust the British from India by hook or crook, to employ one
imperialist force to overthrow the other was apparently
"wrongful". Hence, "can a man who collaborated with the
Nazis be celebrated as heroic and progressive figure?" The multiple
implications of this loaded question, the author penetrates into.