1
A Flaming Sword Forever Unsheathed
The enemy has already drawn the sword. He must, therefore, be
fought with the sword.
—subhas chandra bose, 1943“Indian nationalists are working day and night to build up Bose as the
‘George Washington’ of India,” the New York Times reported on Febru-
ary 8, 1946. “This is particularly true of the revolutionary element in
the Congress party, which spares no efforts to eulogize Bose, create a
‘Bose legend’ and wrap his sayings and beliefs in sanctity.”^1
The admiration for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who had crossed
swords with the forces of British imperialism during the Second World
War, was rampant in India. Reverence for Bose was not limited to the
radical elements of the Indian National Congress, who were clamoring
for in de pen dence from British rule. Mahatma Gandhi best captured
the sig nifi cance of the armed struggle for freedom that unfolded from
1943 to 1945. The court-martial of some leading of fi cers at Delhi’s Red
Fort had just transmitted the story of the Indian National Army and its
Netaji (“revered leader,” as Bose had come to be called) to ev ery Indian
home. “The whole country has been roused,” Gandhi observed, “and
even the regular forces have been stirred into a new po lit i cal conscious-
ness and have begun to think in terms of in de pen dence.”^2 The man
whom Bose had been the first to hail as the “Father of Our Nation”
now regarded his rebellious “son” as a prince among pa tri ots. “Netaji’s