The Warrior and the Saint 153Austrian exile was cause for a mea sure of wistfulness. He wrote regu-
larly to Emilie on trains as he traveled across the subcontinent. He re-
peated in a series of letters that he thought of her day and night. The
more personal comments and endearments for his “Liebling” tended to
be in German, tucked away inside letters written in En glish. “I feel
completely lonely all the time,” he wrote from Wardha on October 17,
1938, “even though I work hard day and night.” On December 26, 1938,
he was in Bombay, but surely could not forget Badgastein. “Today is
your birthday,” he wrote to Emilie. “I wish you all the best in the world
and pray that you may have happiness and peace in the ser vice of
mankind—as well as the fulfillment of your heart’s desires.”^39
While Bose was in the foreground of Indian nationalist politics,
Emilie and his love for her were relegated to the background. There
was never any question of priorities for the man. Indian in de pen dence
came first. Only after that could Bose pursue his own emotional long-
ings. By December 1938, he reported to Emilie the possibility of an
impending po lit i cal crisis.The Parting of the WaysIn late November and early December 1938, Bose had been touring the
United Provinces, Punjab, and Sind. “It is doubtful if I shall be re-
elected President for the coming year,” he wrote to Emilie during a
night halt in Jodhpur on December 6, 1938, as he flew from Karachi to
Calcutta. “Many people,” he explained, “are jealous of me.”^40 Besides the
personal factor, Bose’s po lit i cal program of uncompromising anticolo-
nialism and socialist reconstruction of free India placed him at odds
with Gandhi and the majority of his colleagues on the Working Com-
mittee. Led by Vallabhbhai Patel, they found him too aggressive and
arrogant. He was obstinate about rejecting the federal part of the 1935
Act in its entirety, and completely stubborn in opposing any compro-
mise with the British raj. So the Congress right wing vehemently op-
posed his reelection as Congress president. Rabindranath Tagore wrote
to Gandhi and Nehru urging them to reelect Subhas Chandra Bose. As
Tagore saw it, there were only two “modernists” among the Congress
leaders: Nehru and Bose. Since Nehru was serving as the chairman of