14 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
Many in India coped with the tragedy of Subhas Chandra Bose by
denying his death. As he became shrouded in myth and mystery, a
great deal was lost—namely, a genuine un der stand ing of who he was
as a human being and of his place in his tory. Yet the life was, in im por-
tant ways, greater than the legend and certainly as fascinating. The
more rationally minded accepted the reality of his mortal end, but they
understandably chose to concentrate on celebrating the birth of this
deathless hero. During his lifetime, Bose himself was apt to forget his
own birthday. He was not permitted to do so on January 23, 1945, his
forty- eighth, when much to his embarrassment he had to acquiesce
in using the occasion to raise funds for the Indian National Army. He
had told the or ga nizers that he was “frankly against the celebration of
his own birthday” and urged them to “concentrate on and popularize
ideas and ideals and not personalities.”^31 Yet he was not present after
the war to prevent his own deification by devotees who cast his image
according to their own fancies. His human qualities and the forces that
impelled his mission became immersed in the mystical haze created
around him. The tradition of observing his birth anniversary in India
as a popular festival began in his absence in 1946 and continues to this
day, with the blowing of conch shells and the bursting of firecrackers
minutes after midday to mark the moment of his arrival. Seven days
before being assassinated on January 30, 1948, Gandhi had been “very
glad” to take note of Subhas’s birthday, even though he “generally did
not remember such dates” and “the deceased pa tri ot believed in vio-
lence,” while Gandhi himself was wedded to nonviolence. Subhas, ac-
cording to the Mahatma, “knew no provincialism nor communal dif-
ferences” and “had in his brave army men and women drawn from all
over India without distinction and evoked affection and loyalty, which
very few have been able to evoke.”^32 Bose was born on January 23, in
the year 1897—the high noon of the Raj. He would devote his life to
ensuring that the sun fi nally did set on the British Empire.