His Majesty\'s Opponent. Subhas Chandra Bose and India\'s Struggle Against Empire

The Warrior and the Saint 169

ing to invoke from the type of state power that instilled fear and doubt

in the minds of friends and foes alike. As part of his speech on the oc-

casion, he recited a Bengali prayer he had composed in the Swadeshi

era during the antipartition movement of 1905:

The Bengalis’ faith, the Bengalis’ hope,

The Bengalis’ work, the Bengalis’ language,

Bless them with truth, O Lord.

The Bengalis’ heart, the Bengalis’ mind,

All the brothers and sisters in Bengali homes,

May they be one, O Lord.

After a short pause he said, “And let this word be added: may Bengal’s

arm lend strength to India’s arm, may Bengal’s message make India’s

message come true.”^77

As poetry and pa tri ot ism mingled in Calcutta, war clouds were gather-
ing over Europe. A week before the outbreak of hostilities, Bose wrote
that “if war broke out between Germany and Poland the sympathy of
the Indian people would be with the Poles.” But he then asked: “What-
ever our subjective reactions in this international con flict may be, what
are we to do as a nation?” He wanted the Congress to emulate the prac-
tice of Europe’s national cabinets in wartime and establish a composite
rather than a homogeneous Congress Working Committee. Bose was
clear about the role of the national leadership in the event of war:

Great Britain and her apologists are now talking of self- determination

for the Poles and if she goes to war, she will do so with the word “Self-

determination” on her lips. Is not this the time to remind our British

rulers that east of the Suez Canal there is a land inhabited by an ancient

and cultured people who have been deprived of their birthright of lib-

erty and have been groaning under the British yoke? And is not this the

time to tell the British people and their Government that those who are

slaves at home cannot fight for the freedom of others?