Gigantic waves crashed against the German U-Boat, as two men stood quietly on the deck, amid the turbulence and the deafening roar. The captain emphatically advised the bespectacled man against leaving the safety of the vessel to board a Japanese submarine, anchored a kilometre away. Any closer, the two vessels would have collided, as the sea heaved and churned under roiling skies.
“I haven’t come all this way,” replied Subhas Chandra Bose, “just to go back.” He stepped into the raft with his secretary, daring nature to do its worst. He could not even swim. The captain watched anxiously as they crossed the perilous stretch, disappearing behind mountainous waves and then reappearing, until the frail craft docked with the Japanese submarine.
The first part of the epic undersea voyage, avoiding allied aircraft and warships and lasting two and a half months, half way around the world from Germany, had ended off the coast of Madagascar. From there Bose headed to Sabang, a group of islands off Sumatra. He then flew to Tokyo, landing there on May 16, 1943.
This episode from Bose: An Indian Samurai, penned by Maj Gen GD Bakshi (Knowledge World), defines the iconic leader at his most resolute, who virtually moved heaven and earth to free his country from the British yoke, against inconceivable odds, including an army of fifth column and the treachery of double agents. The Bose that emerges is a larger than life, yet entirely believable character, who always rebounds from the gravest of setbacks with a sense of incurable optimism and extraordinary reserves of willpower. He commands respect and authority wherever he goes.
Bakshi’s book is the latest addition to the growing body of literature on the subject; but one which critically evaluates his role as a military commander and his leadership of the Indian National Army (INA). Bakshi describes Bose as a Samurai, the kind of warrior who chooses death and finds safety under the edge of the enemy’s sword. Based on 10 years of exhaustive research and military insights, the author demolishes many myths and misconceptions surrounding one of the most charismatic leaders of our freedom movement.
Bakshi avers that Bose’s exemplary leadership and mesmeric hold not only inspired a fierce loyalty among his military cadres, but also imbued them with a patriotic fervour that transcended their religious and linguistic identities. They acted as a single entity, motivated by national pride and a spirit of sacrifice. A contention also seconded by none other than Bose’s trusted military aide and later envoy to Canada, the late Col Mahboob Ahmed. He had told The Illustrated Weekly of India in an interview that had he had 100 lives, he would have willingly sacrificed every one of them for the sake of his beloved leader.
This explains why the INA, trained by the redoubtable SS military units, fought the British to the bitter end as a disciplined and cohesive force, in spite of heavy casualties, privation, starvation, bereft of supplies, air or artillery support. Similar conditions are known to have caused the disintegration of entire armies, as history affirms, adds Bakshi. No wonder then the British commanders preferred Indian soldiery for prolonged campaigns, rather than their exhausted British counterparts. Bose’s Muslim subordinates SM Hussein, IJ Kiani, RM Arshad, Shaukat Malik and Tejjamul Hussain, all lieutenant colonels, served him and the national cause unquestioningly. They commanded as many as five out of the six INA formations, including the vital Intelligence Directorate.
Britain, having defeated the INA on the threshold of its victory against Germany, overplayed its hand by placing nine of Bose’s officers on trial at the Delhi Red Fort. The gesture, designed to humiliate Indians, backfired and proved to be its undoing. Mass protests broke out all over the country. People seethed in indignation, which police firing failed to quell. But even more disconcerting to the rulers were the 2.5 million conscripts, the backbone of their army, who looked upon the 26,000 slain INA soldiers as martyrs and role models, sharing the same heritage and nativity.
Subsequently, INA’s sacrifices inspired 20,000 sailors of Royal Indian Navy to mutiny on board 78 ships and 20 shore establishments. They forced their British superiors to utter Jai Hind and hoist the Indian Tricolour. The opposing sides even exchanged several rounds of artillery and small arms fire. These events had a cascading effect. Revolts engulfed the Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) and finally the British-Indian Army units at Jabalpur, developments which rattled the Empire. They could now no longer take the loyalty of the Indian soldiers for granted.
In her book India at War, Yasmin Khan, associate professor of history at Oxford University, supports the view: “The elation greeting the released (INA) prisoners would have been unthinkable in 1939...Nobody would have anticipated in Mahatma Gandhi’s India that it would be military men who would soon be in the vanguard of nationalism...By 1946 Gandhi was barely heeded by a new generation of protesters who were angry, strident and determined to achieve independence. The hero was Subhas Chandra Bose and their battle cry was “Blood is calling to blood.”
In a supreme irony, these developments marked a vanquished Bose’s virtually defeat of the World War II victor by forcing it to give up its crown jewel, India. A fact corroborated by none other than Clement Attlee, who had signed the instrument of accession as the British prime minister. He categorically told the then Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, PB Chakraborthy, during a visit to India in 1956, that Bose and his INA were the principal factors that brought the curtains down on the Empire, writes Gen Bakshi.
The reviewer is a senior journalist and strategic affairs columnist