The Warrior and the Saint 143
cause of India alone but of humanity as well. India freed means hu-
manity saved.”^15
Bose’s performance at Haripura was a triumph. Clad in the tradi-
tional spotless white Bengali dhoti and punjabi made of khadi, and
swathed in a white Kashmiri shawl with a delicate embroidered border,
he exuded con fi dence and impressed ev ery one with his quiet authority.
On formal occasions, he donned a white Gandhi cap. At Badgastein he
had told A. K. Chettiar that he did not smile on demand when asked to
pose for the camera; at Haripura he smiled spontaneously. When he
asked the poor and obscure to come forward with their poverty and
obscurity for the ser vice of the motherland, they heard a voice of sin-
cerity and were ready to respond.^16 Bose and the ordinary foot soldiers
of the Indian struggle carried the message of freedom from Haripura
across the subcontinent. After leaving Haripura on February 23, Bose’s
first crowded stop was the great metropolis on India’s west coast, where
he paused for about ten days. “Bombay gave me a mag nifi cent recep-
tion,” he reported happily to Emilie.^17 For the rest of the year, Bose was
constantly on the move, traversing the country by train and plane. The
Congress Working Committee usually met ev ery couple of months in
Wardha, for Gandhi’s con ve nience. The Congress’s permanent secre-
tariat, run by J. B. Kripalani, was located in Allahabad, Nehru’s home-
town. Bose was based in Calcutta, but the whole of India was his po lit-
i cal stage.
Bose’s international stature at this time was high. He was well known
on the continent of Europe and in Ireland, and had impressed his in-
terlocutors in En gland on the eve of taking up the Congress presidency.
He had never visited the United States, though he appeared on the
cover of Time magazine on March 7, 1938. Below his garlanded form,
which was photographed in color, ran a caption quoting from his
speech: “Britain has ruined India economically, po lit i cally, culturally
and spiritually.” The story, titled “Chariot of Freedom,” struck a rather
supercilious tone in discussing both Gandhi and Bose. “Alumnus Bose”
of Cambridge University was so impressed reading an appeal by “Saint
Gandhi,” Time reported, that he had given up his civil ser vice post sev-
enteen years before and had spent most of his time in jail. Upon his
release from jail, he had made a “clearly seditious” speech to an audi-