Exile in Europe 97—developed a warm relationship with Subhas. Emilie had a gentle,
cheerful, straightforward, and unselfish nature, which Subhas found
appealing. He came to respect her strength of will and affectionately
called her “Baghini,” meaning “Tigress” in Bengali. “He started it,” Emi-
lie stated categorically about the romantic turn in their relationship.
Their intimacy grew as they spent time together in Austria and Czecho-
slovakia from mid- 1934 to March 1936.^31
During the summer of 1934, Bose worked hard at his manuscript in
his Vienna apartment. He did not have easy access to relevant books
and papers, and consequently had to rely greatly on his memory of
events. He either dictated or wrote in longhand, and Emilie typed up
the pages. “I am getting on with my work,” he wrote to Naomi Vetter in
mid- August, “but do not feel sat is fied with the quality of the stuff I am
producing.”^32 He was still unwell, and had to choose between going to
Karlsbad in Czechoslovakia for a cure or trying a gallbladder operation
in Vienna. He went with his unfin ished manuscript to Karlsbad in early
September, accompanied by Emilie, and stayed at the Kurhaus Königin
Alexandra. He was worried about the looming deadline of Septem-
ber 30 given by his publisher, but managed to meet it with the help of
Emilie and the thermal waters in the spa town. Emperor Charles IV
had founded Karlsbad in 1349, and the resort became famous for the
healing properties of its sixteen hot mineral springs. What made the
place especially attractive to Subhas were “the lovely walks leading up
to all the surrounding hill- tops.”^33
Bose’s manuscript was shaping up to be a major study of the move-
ment for in de pen dence in which he himself was a leading par tic i pant.
It provided a lucid, analytical narrative of the freedom struggle, from
the gathering clouds of the noncooperation and Khilafat movements
of 1920 to the stormy civil disobedience and revolutionary campaigns
of the early 1930s. The dramatic story of the po lit i cal upheavals during
the interwar period was enriched by Bose’s own re flections on key
themes in Indian his tory and a finely etched assessment of Mahatma
Gandhi’s role in it. In assessing the phenomenon that was Gandhi, he
had fulsome praise for the Mahatma’s “single- hearted devotion, his re-
lentless will and his indefatigable labor.” He was critical, however, of
Gandhi’s inability to comprehend the character of his opponents or to