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

Dreams of Youth 47

“Unity of Culture,” lamenting the boycott of educational institutions
and what he saw as an attempt to isolate India from the global circula-
tion of ideas.
On Mahatma Gandhi’s advice, Subhas hastened by train to Calcutta
in order to report for duty to Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, the tow-
ering Congress leader from Bengal, with whom he had corresponded
from Cambridge. C. R. Das had harbored initial doubts about Gandhi’s
strategy, but accepted the path of noncooperation once he saw that a
majority in the Congress party favored it. The Deshbandhu (“Friend of
the Country”) was away on tour in the rural interior of the province,
and so Subhas had to wait. He settled down to live with his elder
brother Sarat, sister- in- law Bivabati, and their children in a rented
house at 38/1 Elgin Road, adjacent to his father’s house at 38/2. Having
renounced the civil ser vice, Subhas relied on the unstinting fi nan cial
and emotional support provided by Sarat. As soon as C. R. Das re-
turned to Calcutta, Subhas called on him. Unlike Bose, Das had failed
the ICS examination but had been later successfully called to the bar at
the Inner Temple in London. If there was one quality that distinguished
Das, it was his magnanimity. He had given up his princely income as a
leading barrister in the Calcutta High Court to devote himself full- time
to the noncooperation movement. A peer of Gandhi, he connected well
with young people and with youthful aspirations. Speaking with Das,
Subhas felt that “here was a man who knew what he was about.” By the
end of the conversation, Subhas “had found a leader” and “meant to
follow him.”^3

In Quest of Swaraj

At its annual session in December 1920, the Indian National Congress

had declared its goal: swaraj (“self- rule”), to be achieved by “all peace-

ful and legitimate means.” In Gandhi’s defi ni tion, swaraj meant “Self-

Government within the empire, if possible—and outside, if necessary.”

He combined the negative value of ahimsa (“nonviolence”) with the

positive value of satyagraha—a righ teous mass po lit i cal campaign—to

offer a novel method of resistance against British rule. The program