I don't usually buy books from airport bookstalls - browsing at those stores and ordering online saves quite a packet! But this slim volume, by a TOI journalist no less, seemed a good way to fill up the couple of hours flight, and I was not disappointed!
Many in my generation, especially Bengalis, may be aware of at least the bare facts about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The same cannot definitively be said, however, about the next generation, who may be ignorant of the facts or (especially for the millennials and after) just couldn't care. For the latter readers, this book may be a revelation.
But it's no less fascinating for older readers like myself to read about the happenings in the pre-independence era and shortly thereafter. Suffice to say, the book doesn't show any of the leading lights of the era in great light, showing them up for the mere mortals that they were instead of the saints they were sometimes made out to be, out of political compulsions and to mobilize the multitudes. It's especially galling to learn about the role of leading lights of Congress party in the pre-independence era (not mere conjectures but supported by exhaustive references to historical documents), including certain gentlemen named MK Gandhi and JN Nehru amongst a host of others, in thwarting the moves of Bose who had been democratically elected by Congress workers as its president. How Bose, despite being an astute political leader of the masses and a superb administrator, was gradually sidelined from Congress is a study in perfidy!
The portions of the book dealing with Netaji's efforts to meet world leaders including Hitler, his military campaigns and eventual defeat by British Indian forces in North East India are probably more well-known. The extent to which he was chummy with certain Japanese ministers and generals, though, is a bit surprising. His apparent decision to 'surrender' to Soviet Union forces by entering Russia seems to have been based on a kind of miscalculation, probably leading to his long incarceration in Gulags as the book imputes.
The conduct of Nehru, other leaders and 'loyal' bureaucrats post-independence towards finding out and suppressing from public eyes any bit of news about Netaji again reek of utter paranoia, across decades. Even the 'philosopher' Radhakrishnan, later to become the second President of India, doesn't seem to absolve himself too well, as he seems to have actively participated in the suppression efforts. Again, all this is based on official correspondence and the like, thus imparting a modicum of authenticity to the author's narrative. Besides proceedings of the two Commissions of Enquiry, the conduct of some former INA leading lights (apparently ingratiated with governmental efforts, for personal gain) is called into question.
Whether Netaji returned to India (and how), and whether he stayed near Ayodhya as Gumnami Baba, may unfortunately never be known, even if the handwritten notes left behind by the Baba are scrutinized in great detail. And govt. officials still seem to be stonewalling any efforts to make public certain important papers in govt. possession, on grounds of international relations (besides discouraging, much less supporting, any efforts by individuals or societies to access Russian KGB records to throw more light on Netaji's supposed stay in then USSR).
A lament for a great patriot treated most unfairly by petty-minded politicians all through - an apt lesson on the price to be paid for uprightness!
Many in my generation, especially Bengalis, may be aware of at least the bare facts about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The same cannot definitively be said, however, about the next generation, who may be ignorant of the facts or (especially for the millennials and after) just couldn't care. For the latter readers, this book may be a revelation.
But it's no less fascinating for older readers like myself to read about the happenings in the pre-independence era and shortly thereafter. Suffice to say, the book doesn't show any of the leading lights of the era in great light, showing them up for the mere mortals that they were instead of the saints they were sometimes made out to be, out of political compulsions and to mobilize the multitudes. It's especially galling to learn about the role of leading lights of Congress party in the pre-independence era (not mere conjectures but supported by exhaustive references to historical documents), including certain gentlemen named MK Gandhi and JN Nehru amongst a host of others, in thwarting the moves of Bose who had been democratically elected by Congress workers as its president. How Bose, despite being an astute political leader of the masses and a superb administrator, was gradually sidelined from Congress is a study in perfidy!
The portions of the book dealing with Netaji's efforts to meet world leaders including Hitler, his military campaigns and eventual defeat by British Indian forces in North East India are probably more well-known. The extent to which he was chummy with certain Japanese ministers and generals, though, is a bit surprising. His apparent decision to 'surrender' to Soviet Union forces by entering Russia seems to have been based on a kind of miscalculation, probably leading to his long incarceration in Gulags as the book imputes.
The conduct of Nehru, other leaders and 'loyal' bureaucrats post-independence towards finding out and suppressing from public eyes any bit of news about Netaji again reek of utter paranoia, across decades. Even the 'philosopher' Radhakrishnan, later to become the second President of India, doesn't seem to absolve himself too well, as he seems to have actively participated in the suppression efforts. Again, all this is based on official correspondence and the like, thus imparting a modicum of authenticity to the author's narrative. Besides proceedings of the two Commissions of Enquiry, the conduct of some former INA leading lights (apparently ingratiated with governmental efforts, for personal gain) is called into question.
Whether Netaji returned to India (and how), and whether he stayed near Ayodhya as Gumnami Baba, may unfortunately never be known, even if the handwritten notes left behind by the Baba are scrutinized in great detail. And govt. officials still seem to be stonewalling any efforts to make public certain important papers in govt. possession, on grounds of international relations (besides discouraging, much less supporting, any efforts by individuals or societies to access Russian KGB records to throw more light on Netaji's supposed stay in then USSR).
A lament for a great patriot treated most unfairly by petty-minded politicians all through - an apt lesson on the price to be paid for uprightness!