Bose: The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist

by Chandrachur Ghose

'A comprehensive and gripping narrative'---Vikram Sampath, author, historian and Fellow of Royal Historical Society

'A must-read'---Sandeep Unnithan, managing editor, India Today

There are not many Indian heroes whose lives have been as dramatic and adventurous as that of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. That, however, is an assessment of his life based on what is widely known about him. These often revolve around his resignation from the Indian Civil Service, joining the freedom movement, to be exiled twice for over seven years, throwing a challenge to the Gandhian leadership in the Congress, taking up an extremist position against the British Raj, evading the famed intelligence network to travel to Europe and then to Southeast Asia, forming two Governments and raising two armies and then disappearing into the unknown. All this in a span of just two decades.

Now, new information throws light on Bose's intense political activities surrounding the revolutionary groups in Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra and United Provinces, his efforts to bridge the increasing communal divide and his influence among the splintered political landscape; his outlook and relations with women; his plunge into the depths of spirituality; his penchant for covert operations and his efforts to engineer a rebellion among the Indian armed forces. With this new information, what appeared to be dramatic now becomes more intense with plots and subplots under one man's single-minded focus on freeing the motherland and envisioning its development in a new era.

Furthermore, one of the most sensitive issues that have prevented political parties and successive governments from talking much about Bose is his joining the Axis camp. While Jawaharlal Nehru and other prominent Congress leaders publicly denounced the move, the Communist Party of India went on to a prolonged vilification campaign. Sardar Patel issued instruction to Congress leaders to defend the INA soldiers without eulogizing their leader.

Was Bose really a Nazi sympathiser? Knowing very well about the strong public opinion that existed among the political leadership and the intelligentsia in India against Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and imperial Japan, why did he risk his own political image by allying with the Axis powers?

Pacey, thought-provoking and absolutely unputdownable, Bose: The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist will open a window to many hitherto untold and unknown stories of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Genres: History, Biography, India, Nonfiction, Politics, Indian Literature

732 pages, Hardcover

First published February 21, 2022

Reviews

[Nishu Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not only about the life of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, but also the real history of Indian freedom struggle. Everyone must read this book!

[Darshan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indeed one of the most comprehensive books on, the inconvenient nationalist, His Majesty's Opponent, S C Bose, who faught against British Imperialism and colonialism in India. Contribution of SC bose and INA is much ignored in our history books, even Attlee confessed that uprising of INA and RIN was one of the main resons why Britishers were keen to left India as soon as war got over.... A brilliant work by author.

[Aditya Kulkarni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. The author has researched in depth and presented a comprehensive biography of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose - one of the greatest icons in modern Indian history. What I would have liked more is if the author covered more part of Netaji's involvement with the INA rather than his involvement in the Congress Party. I felt that the coverage given to Netaji in Congress is far more and could have been truncated. That part seemed needlessly elaborate and a bit dry to read. Had that not been the case, I would have given this book a full 5-star rating.

[Priyadarshi Mukherjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author, at some point in the book, states the following for Subhas Chandra Bose:

``He refused to stand behind any particular 'ism' at this point. No 'ism' (he referred to anarchism, socialism, communism, Bolshevism, syndicalism, republicanism, constitutional monarchy, and fascism) was adequate to lift humanity out of misery unless individual characters were strengthened. Indians, he said, had every quality except tenacity of purpose- what was needed, therefore, was the ability to sacrifice everything for the sake of an idea.''

This very description makes this book stand from the numerous books on Netaji written till date. In this book, through extensive research, the author has documented the entire life of S. C. Bose without any sort of bias or convenience. This unique approach, in a subtle way, also justifies the very name of the book, i.e., untold story of an INCONVENIENT Nationalist.

[Sajith Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just as various rivers flow into the bosom of the sea, various political strategies and movements vied with each other for driving the British out and achieve independence for India. Violence was the earliest thread in liberation’s fabric that germinated straight from defensive measures against the establishment of the British empire, continued through the 1857 revolt and then channeled into political assassinations. After the amalgamation of India to the Queen’s domain in 1858, constitutionalism was the second channel of national aspiration. Then came Gandhi with the third alternative of nonviolent mass uprising. When India became free at last, it was due to the combined effort of all the three forms, but the British transferred power to the Gandhian faction who had public support and at the same time was readily amenable to British persuasions. When they sat down after 1947 to write the story of how India became free, all those outside the pale of Congress were left out or marginalized. The contributions of Subhas Chandra Bose to the freedom struggle are often condensed into a few lines whereas entire books can be made to bring out his single-minded efforts. This book is a good chronicle of the Bengali leader who was disillusioned with Congress and left the country to fight for her freedom seeking help from the oppressor’s enemies. Chandrachur Ghose is an author, researcher and commentator on history. He is one of the founders of the pressure group ‘Mission Netaji’ that has been the moving force behind the declassification of secret documents related to Netaji. His activism led to the declassification of over 10,000 pages in 2010.

A good snapshot of Netaji’s pre-political years is presented in the book. He did not join the coveted Indian Civil Service (ICS) even though he came on top in the examination and instead plunged into political work under Chittaranjan Das. He was elected the CEO of Calcutta Corporation but was arrested and incarcerated in Mandalay jail for three years suspected for having links to violent elements. He was practically exiled to Europe for several years in the 1930s. On return, he was selected as the president of the Indian National Congress. When his re-election bid was opposed by Gandhi, a poll was conducted and Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Gandhi’s nominee, by 1580 votes against 1377 in 1939. As the Gandhian lobby made his life impossible as the party president, Bose resigned. He was soon arrested again and confined to house arrest. In a daring escape, he fled to Germany which was at war with Britain. Disappointed at not getting much support from Hitler and Mussolini, Bose moved to Southeast Asia which was conquered by Japan. He constituted a national army using Indian prisoners of war and fought to liberate India. This was at the fag end of World War II but the axis powers soon fell in battle. It is believed that Bose died in a plane crash on his way seeking to open a new front with a possible alliance with Russia.

The book conspicuously highlights Bose’s falling out with Gandhi and his methods. Bose quickly realized the ineffectiveness of boycotting legislatures as part of the Gandhian civil disobedience program. Gandhi’s action plan for constructive work involved Charkha, the manual spinning wheel, which Bose found to be impractical and obsolete. C R Das and Bose stood for the party entering legislative councils. When Gandhi obstinately blocked the move, they formed a new front within the Congress called the Swarajya party. When Bose was arrested, Gandhi attributed it to his political work condoning violence and did not even pass a resolution seeking his release. He was let free after three years in a Burmese jail on health grounds. When his brother Sarat Bose asked for guidance on how he could be freed, Gandhi recommended the spinning wheel as the ‘sovereign remedy’. Gandhi often suspended at his will the civil disobedience campaigns which were running at full steam. At this point, Bose remarked that Gandhi was ‘an old useless piece of furniture who had done good service in his time, but was an obstacle then’ (p.207). Bose opposed sending Gandhi alone to the Round Table Conference as the sole representative of the Congress. Sending more people with him would not have been of any help either as his blind followers would not question him and he would not heed the advice of those who were not his orthodox followers. Watching Gandhi obstruct his work as party president, Bose accused him of having grown into the role of a permanent super-president.

After examining Bose’s interactions with Gandhi, the author proceeds to analyse how Nehru fared with him. Jawaharlal Nehru always remained close to the power centre that was Gandhi in contrast to Bose who worked his way up. Both were rising youth icons and represented the left-wing element in the country. On many occasions Nehru’s initial reaction was in support of Bose, but after Gandhi clarified his stand, Nehru did not hesitate to make a volte-face. In fact, he openly confessed in his letters that he could not oppose Gandhi beyond a certain point. When faced with a difficult choice, Nehru would be non-aligned. This so irritated Bose that he confided to socialist leader Minoo Masani that Nehru was an opportunist who thought about his own position first and only then about anything else. However, he maintained a good personal relationship with Bose. Both leaders extended and received the hospitality of the other during visits to Allahabad and Calcutta. Nehru’s ideas on foreign relations never rose above the wishful thinking of an idealist teenager. Bose then advised Nehru that foreign policy is a realistic affair to be determined largely from the point of view of a nation’s self-interest. He even admonished that ‘frothy sentiment and pious platitudes’ do not make foreign policy (p.296). Congress politics was riddled with factional feuds even then. Bose wrote that ‘Congress politics has become so unreal that no sincere person can be satisfied with it’ (p.81).

It is seen that even though Congress was occupied in organizing campaigns against the British, it did not have any clear idea about what to fight for and its leaders were clueless about the arrival of complete independence. In the 1920s, they demanded dominion status within the empire. After a decade, the British were almost willing to grant it, but then Congress jumped a step further and wanted complete independence (purna Swaraj). There was no timeframe in their mind on when to achieve this. Satyamurti, a prominent Congress leader from the South, came out in 1938 with a demand to fully Indianize the army in the next 25 years – that is, by 1963! In his 1938 Haripura address, Bose enunciated the principle behind the rise and fall of empires. He surmised that empires collapse after reaching the zenith of prosperity and warned that the fate of the British empire would be no different. This claim anticipated several decades at the minimum, but with hindsight we see that this observation was made just nine years before independence. So it is likely that an economically devastated Britain had had no choice other than to offer independence after the War and it was the Congress leaders who were surprised the most at the decision.

The book also includes a clear depiction of some personal traits of Bose that dent his stature as a great leader. Though he professed to be on the side of the political left, he was often accused of pandering to the interests of the upper middle class to which he belonged. There was also a touch of megalomania in him. Everywhere he went, large crowds were arranged to greet him at the railway station and to line up on both sides of the road showering flower petals. He wanted to be treated like a commander. Bose often found himself in the middle of factional politics and the way he dealt with his opponents usually turned to highhanded and undemocratic. Bose’s workers disrupted meetings of rivals and physically assaulted their leaders. This included Gandhi too. On one occasion, a shoe was hurled at Gandhi which narrowly missed him and hit his secretary Mahadev Desai who was standing nearby. Bose also indulged in opportunistic politics. Even though he opposed Gandhi’s constitutionalism, he took up positions of power in Calcutta Corporation. He tried alliances with the Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League when it suited him. Allegations of financial impropriety were also levelled against him by opponents. Bose presented a will made by Vithalbhai Patel (Sardar Patel’s brother) after he died in Europe under the care of Bose. The will bequeathed a large sum of money to Bose and his association for political work. Vallabhbhai Patel challenged the propriety of the will in a court of law and had it quashed.

Bose’s claim to everlasting fame as a freedom fighter hinges on his daring escape from captivity and military fight against the British with the help of Axis powers. Bose first approached Hitler, but his disdainful approach to India made him dither in declaring open support. The racist in Hitler was more comfortable with India under the yoke of a white nation. Hitler was also keen not to antagonize Britain by helping Bose as he hoped to mend fences with them after successfully concluding Germany’s conquest of Russia. Japan’s storming success in Southeast Asia provided Bose with an opportunity to attack British India from Burma. Earlier, he was planning to attack from Afghanistan with German help. He arrived in Singapore in a submarine and assumed leadership of the newly constituted Indian National Army (INA). But it was the moment when Japanese fortunes were turning for the worse. Moreover, Bose wanted to direct military operations by himself even though he was not trained for it. He overruled veteran Japanese commanders. He refused to split the ill-equipped INA troops into small groups and embed them with larger Japanese units. He further insisted that they will fight only as a group under the command of Indian officers. There were ego clashes with the Japanese too. Disputes on minor questions like who would salute first when an INA and Japanese officer of equal rank met each other frequently arose. After discussions at highest levels, it was decided to salute simultaneously. Bose also vetoed the Japanese plan to bomb Calcutta. In the end, the INA and Japanese troops were thoroughly trounced. But the INA captured the imagination of the Indian youth in displaying a valiant alternative in fighting the British as compared to the effeminate and ineffective Gandhian satyagraha.

The book is rather subdued on the last days of Bose. He did not want to surrender at any cost. His final plan was to go to Manchuria which was under Russian occupation and seek help from them. The outcome was highly doubtful but he wanted to try. The author is silent on whether Bose boarded the plane or what happened to it. The mystery is still unresolved. The suspense is aggravated by another incident in 1942 when a plane carrying four INA men crashed, driving Gandhi to write to Bose’s family condoling his ‘death’! However, his absence in India after the War was undoubtedly a relief not only to the British but to many national leaders as well. INA trials and the Naval Mutiny aggravated this irritation. The violence in the mutiny was unprecedented with 228 killed in police and military firings and 1046 injured. This made it plain to the British that they could no longer trust the loyalty of Indian troops in any clash involving nationalist sentiments. This finally turned the tables and forced Attlee to offer complete independence.

As a part of maintaining the political balance, the book includes several cartoons published in the Jugantar daily, all of which are highly critical of Bose. It also hints at the ideological tussle between the national poet Tagore and politico-cultural nationalists represented by C R Das and Bose. Tagore was accused of harbouring shallow internationalism in life and literature which was not sincere and did not reflect the fundamental truth in nationalism. The book also contains a chapter on Bose’s doubtful marriage to Emilie Schenkl, his Austrian secretary. It is likely that Bose secretly married her and had a daughter, but his family cold-shouldered the women’s move to get recognized as such. The book is somewhat large at 714 pages. Its essence can be deemed to be the negation of what Pandit Nehru asserted from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 16, 1947 when he said that ‘India achieved freedom under the brilliant leadership and guidance of Mahatma Gandhi’. This book’s spirit declares that this claim is in fact a myth.

The book is recommended

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chandrachur Ghose’s Bose: The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist is a book that refuses to be content with the neat, almost hagiographic outlines that have often framed Subhas Chandra Bose in Indian historical discourse. Instead, it attempts to situate Bose within a dense web of political realities, personal contradictions, and inconvenient truths, the kind that resist the temptation of easy myth-making.

It is, in a sense, a biography about a man whose very life has been the battleground for competing narratives: a patriot to some, a dangerous adventurist to others, and to the British establishment of his time, a destabilising force whose political agility and charisma made him uniquely difficult to neutralise.

Ghose’s project is ambitious, not least because Bose has been written about exhaustively in the past seventy-five years. From Leonard Gordon’s meticulously researched Brothers Against the Raj, which focused on the sibling dynamic between Subhas and Sarat Bose, to Mihir Bose’s more accessible and journalistically paced The Lost Hero, and Sugata Bose’s His Majesty’s Opponent, which took pains to present a globally contextualised portrait, there is a vast historiographical terrain to navigate. Ghose’s contribution is not simply to retell the familiar episodes — the INA, the wartime alliances, the death mystery — but to delve into the deeper record, often in uncomfortable places, to interrogate received wisdom.

The early chapters work to strip away a certain romanticism that has attached itself to Bose’s public persona. Ghose is unafraid to explore the political frictions between Bose and the Indian National Congress, including his ideological divergence from Gandhi.

This is not new territory — Gordon and Mihir Bose both detail the erosion of the Gandhi–Bose relationship — but Ghose invests these sections with an evidentiary density that feels both precise and illuminating.

Drawing from newly examined archival material, he highlights not just the clash of methods but the clash of temperaments: Gandhi’s patience and moral theatre versus Bose’s impatience for action and suspicion of symbolic politics untethered from concrete results.

One of the most compelling qualities of the book is how it resists a linear, triumphalist arc. Ghose acknowledges Bose’s strategic misjudgements — especially in foreign alliances — without diminishing his political daring.

In contrast to Sugata Bose’s more forgiving reading of Bose’s engagement with the Axis powers, Chandrachur Ghose takes a firmer line on the moral and strategic risks inherent in courting fascist regimes. Yet he also takes care to contextualise those choices within the desperate geopolitical constraints facing anti-colonial leaders during World War II, a point that Mihir Bose treats more narratively and Gordon approaches with academic detachment.

Where the book distinguishes itself is in its willingness to linger on moments of political liminality — the months and even years when Bose was neither in the Congress mainstream nor in the wartime headlines.

Ghose shows him as a tireless networker, often improvising, sometimes miscalculating, but always moving with a clear-eyed understanding that India’s freedom struggle could not be waged solely from within the colonial legal framework.

Here, the comparative weight against Leonard Gordon is notable: Gordon’s Bose is deeply embedded in family and personal networks, the intimate conflicts and loyalties of the Bose brothers; Ghose’s Bose is more of a solitary political operator, whose alliances — with socialists, radicals, and sometimes outright opportunists — were often transactional, aimed at keeping multiple pathways to independence alive.

The prose carries a quiet authority, never lapsing into the purple flourishes that can mar nationalist biographies. There is a commitment to letting the record speak, but also a certain narrative pace that keeps the book from becoming purely archival.

For readers accustomed to the clipped storytelling of Mihir Bose, this will feel more layered and demanding, closer in spirit to Leonard Gordon’s scholarly patience but more politically pointed. Ghose is not shy about confronting moments where Bose’s strategic vision collided with the harsh realities of international diplomacy, particularly in his dealings with Japan and Germany. These sections are handled with a historian’s caution and a storyteller’s instinct for framing stakes.

The book also benefits from Ghose’s attention to the broader currents shaping Bose’s choices. The global rise of authoritarian politics in the 1930s, the ideological fractures within the Indian nationalist movement, and the tactical compromises forced by wartime urgency are all treated not as background but as active forces shaping events. In this, Ghose surpasses Mihir Bose’s more individual-centred narrative and even rivals Sugata Bose’s global contextualisation, albeit with a sharper critical edge.

The handling of the INA period is particularly deft. Ghose acknowledges the symbolic power of the Indian National Army but resists the temptation to inflate its military significance. His account situates the INA within the moral economy of anti-colonial struggle — a body whose greatest contribution may have been psychological rather than strategic.

This is where the comparison to Leonard Gordon becomes most telling: where Gordon’s focus remains on the political undercurrents and familial dramas, Ghose integrates the INA episode into a wider frame of wartime politics, showing both its inspiration and its limitations.

In the later chapters, Ghose turns to the contested question of Bose’s death with the same even-handedness that marks the rest of the book. The so-called “mystery” has been the lifeblood of popular Bose narratives, often to the detriment of more substantive political analysis.

Ghose does not indulge in sensationalism, nor does he entirely dismiss the alternative theories. Instead, he situates the controversy within the politics of memory and the uses of nationalist icons in post-independence India. This approach contrasts with Mihir Bose’s more speculative tone and Sugata Bose’s avoidance of deep engagement with the death question.

One of the book’s thematic through-lines is the “inconvenience” of Bose to multiple constituencies — the British colonial state, the Congress establishment, and later, the Indian Republic itself. Ghose makes the case that Bose’s ideological restlessness, his refusal to fit neatly into the Gandhian or Nehruvian template, rendered him politically awkward to memorialise.

Leonard Gordon touches on this obliquely in Brothers Against the Raj when he notes how Sarat Bose’s postwar politics made the family a continuing irritant to Nehru’s Congress; Ghose expands that insight to Subhas himself, arguing that the selective remembrance of Bose — INA parades and wartime heroism foregrounded, ideological heterodoxy backgrounded — has allowed the state to domesticate a figure who was, in life, resistant to domestication.

The comparative element is instructive here. Mihir Bose’s The Lost Hero was one of the first major works to push back against the neat packaging of Bose as a mere romantic nationalist, but its journalistic style sometimes traded analytical depth for narrative flow.

Leonard Gordon’s work, rich in detail and personal correspondence, remains unmatched in mapping Bose’s interpersonal and family-political matrix, yet it does not always reach the broader political synthesis Ghose attempts. Sugata Bose’s biography, while authoritative and widely praised, is arguably more protective of its subject’s legacy. Ghose positions himself differently: willing to risk making Bose less saintly in order to make him more historically real.

There is also a subtle but important shift in tone that separates Ghose’s work from earlier biographers. His analysis carries an implicit warning about the dangers of political sanitisation.

In an era where historical figures are increasingly pressed into service for contemporary ideological battles, Ghose’s Bose emerges not as a fixed symbol but as a disruptive presence, one that challenges easy alignments. This is where the book’s title earns its keep: “inconvenient” is not just a description of Bose’s relationship with the British Empire, but also his ongoing discomfort to the neat moral geographies of post-independence political culture.

Ghose’s engagement with primary sources is rigorous, and his deployment of them avoids the archival data-dump trap. He selects documents that illuminate rather than overwhelm. The result is a work that, while accessible to a general reader, never condescends.

Readers accustomed to the brisk pace of Mihir Bose may find this a slower read, but the reward lies in the density of insight. Like Gordon, Ghose trusts the reader to sit with complexity.

Perhaps the book’s greatest strength is its capacity to hold contradictions without collapsing them into easy resolutions. Bose is, by turns, principled and pragmatic, visionary and flawed, radical in his anti-colonialism yet willing to court alliances that troubled even his own supporters.

Ghose does not attempt to resolve these contradictions; instead, he allows them to stand as part of the historical reality. This, more than any singular revelation, is what makes the book feel both intellectually honest and narratively satisfying.

The expanded comparative view also underscores how biographers bring their own political and intellectual commitments to the subject. Mihir Bose, writing in the 1980s, framed Bose’s life with an eye toward reclaiming him for a mainstream nationalist pantheon, pushing back against Congress marginalisation. Leonard Gordon, writing with the meticulousness of an academic historian, was more concerned with mapping networks of influence and motivation. Sugata Bose sought to restore Bose’s place in a global anti-colonial narrative.

Chandrachur Ghose, writing in the present moment, brings an additional imperative: to test the durability of nationalist myths against the friction of inconvenient facts.

In the end, Bose: The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist is not the definitive Bose biography — perhaps no single book can be — but it is one of the most important to appear in recent years precisely because it refuses to settle for a consoling version of the past.

It asks the reader to live with the discomfort that history, like politics, is rarely tidy, and that the heroes we inherit are often more complicated than the icons we make of them. For a figure as fiercely contested as Subhas Chandra Bose, that is perhaps the highest service a historian can perform.

To Chandrachur Ghose, I can only offer my admiration. You have taken on a subject ringed with partisanship, myth, and political baggage, and have approached it with the clarity, discipline, and courage it deserves.

You have given us not just a portrait of Bose, but a meditation on the uses and abuses of history itself. For that, as both a reader and a citizen, I thank you.

May this book continue to spark the kind of conversations that keep our historical imagination honest, restless, and alive.

[Kishan Mallya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author chandrachur Ghose’s meticulous research on S C Bose life can be seen in this book. Book gives insight on lesser known facts on Netajis personal , spiritual ,political life and his immense contribution to India’s independence. Must read if you are interested in history.

[Ranga · Rating 4 out of 5]

"

Jawaharlal declared that "India has achieved freedom under the brilliant leadership and guidance of Mahatma Gandhi".....The myth that was created seventy-five years ago remains the official version of events in India to this day.

"

A product of extensive research and analysis by the author, this book is especially for those who, like me, didn't understand the sudden interest in Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the barrage of hate against Gandhi/ Nehru taken up by social media (or at least didn't want to simply go with the herd).

The most interesting aspect of this book is how the sequence of events in Netaji's life shape the way he begins to think, and which lead to his transformation from a staunch Gandhian to his biggest critic, one of the only ones in the Indian independence movement at that time to question Gandhi's preachings. The discussions and resolutions thereof taken up within the Congress factions, the express and implicit acts of the Congress leadership, and their dealing with various events during the independence movement sheds light on the impracticality of the Gandhians, and the role of Netaji in fearlessly voicing out criticism. Further, instances of British Imperialist forces constantly checking Netaji's moves, the interest taken up by the international community during multiple European tours of his, and the merciless propoganda employed against him by Indians even within the country in order to protect the Gandhian worldview which ceased to achieve tangible results, weave a continuing narrative of the importance of Netaji in shaping the independence movement. The book delves deep into Gandhianism, the provision Dominian status accepted by Gandhi and the subsequent heated exchange involving Netaji, revolutionaries, Communism, Socialism, the ideal of non-violence, the role, structure and functioning of the Indian National Congress during the movement, the domestic politics played on both communal and ideological bases, the approach of Indians to foreign aid, the formation and function of the Indian National Army/ Azad Hind Fauj, and the restricted mentality of the Congress leadership throughout the movement.

A great chunk of this book was filled with unnecessary details and specifics which aren't of much use to the reader;the important developments alone could have been retained. The length of the book and the amount of details it tries to push into the reader is very uncomfortable and was irritating at times. But that said, by the end of this book, your blood will likely boil realising the nonsense that is being fed to students through history textbooks, and the deep flaws in the narratives that go on in society regarding our independence.

[Ashwin Palnitkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must-read book to understand Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The book explains a lot more than what is given in school textbooks about India's independence struggle. It clearly depicts how Azad Hind Fauj played a very very important role in India's freedom. It also describes how popular Netaji was (even within Congress) and the efforts put in by him to liberate India.

[Himanshu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps none of the freedom fighter has evoked so much of awe, respect and enigma as Netaji. Till date there is no concrete clarity on what happened to him. Did he perish in the fateful plane crash ? Was he the reclusive Gumnami Baba ? Was he present in Tashkent when Shastri jee died ? Let me clarify even this book does not give any new insights on this. It does not even talk about these points at all. So if your intent is to know about this , you may refer to other books. Infact this may very well be the big drawback of this book in my opinion.

The book covers too much on his life as a local administrator in WB with reduced coverage to his INA days. However his days as administrator were really an eye opener as I was not aware of those facets of Netaji's personality. Some revelations which really surprised me were the animosity towards Netaji of other reputed leaders like Patel. I had read about Netaji not having very cordial terms with Savarkar in the book by Vikram Sampath. The same was confirmed here which is a pity as both these giants had such lofty vision of how the India of future should look like.

All in all a good book covering some lesser known aspects of Netaji's life but I take back one start because it misses out on his INA days , his martial journey which was quite exciting.

[Sankhadip Chakraborty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading. It is a great book but certain points are lacking analysis. I wonder whether that is due to the lack of available information.

[Shikhar Amar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among the myriad ideologies of his time, Subhas Chandra Bose was a nationalist at heart. He represented a convergence of the spiritual and intellectual currents of Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, and Sri Aurobindo, embodying the soul of the Bengal Renaissance that helped ignite India’s national consciousness. He devoted his entire life to the cause of a free India.

Seeing the limitations and decline of peaceful nationalist movements, he turned towards the path of armed struggle, determined to fight the sword with the sword. He believed India would not be truly free unless it had an army of its own. He therefore aligned with the Axis powers: Japan and Germany, and sought support from the Soviet Union primarily out of strategic necessity rather than ideological affinity, aiming to build an army that would prove Indians could fight for their own liberation.

The Red Fort INA trials ignited a new spark of rebellion within the ranks of the Indian armed forces, and the spirit of resistance spread across the army, navy, and air force. For the first time since the Revolt of 1857, the British could no longer fully trust the Indian military as a reliable collaborator in sustaining their rule, and this mounting pressure contributed to their decision to leave India. Such was the monumental contribution of Subhas Chandra Bose, a legacy that deserves far more than a passing mention in the footnotes of history.

And today, India has finally recognized his monumental contribution by installing his statue at India Gate, standing in a salute: just as he would have saluted the Indian National Army, the Indian Republic, and the Republic Day parades to come.​

[Ankur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in India, we often saw portraits of Netaji on walls of schools and government offices. However, our understanding of his story and contributions was limited. We knew that he formed an army to fight the British, but the details remained vague. This book provides a deep insight into his life's political work and its repercussions. For instance, it underscores the significance of the Red Fort trials and their role in India's independence.

Subhash Chandra Bose was a prodigious student, a natural-born leader, and an incredibly versatile politician, revolutionary, and negotiator. His daring escape from India under British rule is a an adventure that probably deserves its own book or film. His ideas were progressive, seemingly ahead of their time. And, he stands out among his peers for his unwavering dedication to India's independence, free from any specific ideology.

His single-minded determination was nothing short of awe-inspiring. It is no wonder that he touched the hearts of the nation, as he energized people not only through his words but also through his actions. The book does a great job telling an engaging story of the ultimate Indian patriot.

[Rushikesh Apte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A FABULOUS book by Mr. Chandrachur Ghose. Hei s one of the founders of the pressure group Mission Netaji. His activism led to the declassification of over ten thousand pages in 2010 regarding Netaji.

One-of-a-kind book that immerses you in Netaji's ideas, valour, mystery, and sacrifices... To be honest, Netaji's spirit pervades this book, and mentioning him will give you shivers. Despite having a life full of luxury, he chose a life of struggle for India!



Nothing at all, except that there is a little too much election-related, political information that may or may not be essential.



This book, on the other hand, is fantastic.

[Girish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much thanks to the author for writing the book 'Bose'.
Lucky to have it in my lifetime.
Other books are either unfulfilling or laded with propoganda. But this book is just enough and indispensable to Netaji's legacy

Taught me enormously about Bose & his role in India's Independence.
Till date, was unaware of the effects of INA trails and inspiration of RIN mutiny but thanks to this book, now I know the answers.

Plus now I am well aware of how Congress post 1937 focussed mainly on suppressing possibilities of Bose becoming a national leader and bigger than Gandhi.

This is a gem of my library.

[Tathagata · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very objective and neutral account of events in Netaji's life, of Subhash Bose becoming Netaji. This is a must read to really understand the impact of the Indian National Army (INA) on India getting independence from British rule in 1947. This historical fact is not included in our history text books.
This account if Netaji's life and work does not dwell in speculations, just plain facts with references to back up. This makes the presentation of the biography very believable and convincing and the readers can make up their own opinion on the impact of Bose in India's freedom struggle.

[Ajay Bhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an eye opener in terms of highlighting a more unbiased backstory of the Indian freedom struggle & Subhas Bose's role in it. The chronology was great up to the 3rd last chapter. Here, I was expecting something on Netaji's (apparent) death and its backstory. However, the author skips to the part on the repercussions of the INA & it's contribition to India's Independence. Not that this wasn't important, but this omission of Netaji's last days was a negative for me. But overall, I would recommend reading this book if you have the time and patience for it.

[Aman Srivastava · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a man! What a legacy!
I don't really believe in 'what if' scenarios, so keeping that aside, I am really happy that the war to claim his legacy never really started in Indian Politics as the book clearly demonstrates how Subhas was at loggerheads with each idealogy prevalent in India. This book is a comprehensive study of all you want to know about this great man.

[Siddharth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive review that does not speculate on the death of Subhash Bose but truly celebrates his uncompromising and rare patriotism. Had he lived and returned, India would have been different, would it have been better, perhaps not so.

[Aryan Chanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great hero got a horrific life

A section of people of Bharat never gave him true respect and honor which he deserved. I did not have any expectations from Leftists and Congres, but I had a expectations from BJP or Hindu party; they are also no difference. Very SAD!!

[Arunava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insights into the life and works of one of the most mystical heroes of Indian history.

[Syed · Rating 5 out of 5]

untitled emperor. must read.