Orient BlackSwan

About the BookAbout the Author

Between his resignation as Congress President in Calcutta on 29 April 1939 and his escape from his Elgin Road home on the night of 16-17 January 1941, Subbas Chandra Bose provided India with an alternative leadership in place of the old guard represented by the Gandhian High Command. His altemative was based on a commitment to anti-imperialism and future socialism. This volume brings together the writings and speeches of a crucial phase in Bose's political life immediately prior to his emergence as the Netaji of lndia's army of liberation. The themes dealt with here include the role of the left within the Indian independence movement, the Second World War as a conflict between rival imperialisms, and the need for Hindu–Muslim unity and Congress–Muslim League understanding.

Sisir Kumar Bose (1920–2000) founded the Netaji Research Bureau in 1957 and was its guiding spirit until his death in 2000. A participant in the Indian freedom struggle, he was imprisoned by the British in the Lahore Fort, Red Fort and Lyallpur Jail. In the post-independence period he played a key role in preserving the best traditions of the anti-colonial movement and making possible the writing of its history. He authored and edited biographies, memoirs, monographs and research papers on Netaji's life and times. One of India's best pediatricians, he was Director and later President of the Institute of Child Health, Calcutta. Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author of several books on the economic, social and political history of modern South Asia.