4 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
among us will live to see India free.” “Whether we live or die,” the leader
asserted, “that is of no consequence. The only thing that matters, the
only truth, is that India shall be free.”^7
When the sun rose next morning over Singapore harbor, it was the
“proudest day” in Bose’s life. On July 5, 1943, he appeared looking re-
splendent in a simple khaki military uniform on the balcony of Singa-
pore’s green- domed municipal building, flanked by its majestic Corin-
thian columns. The soldiers of the Indian National Army stood in
serried ranks in front of him on the padang, the expanse of green, that
stretched from the steps of the city hall toward the sea. It had pleased
Providence, their supreme commander told them, for him to be able to
announce to the whole world that India’s army of liberation had come
into being. “George Washington of America could fight and win free-
dom,” he told the vanguard of India’s struggle, “because he had his
army. Garibaldi could liberate Italy, because he had his armed volun-
teers behind him.” History had taught him the lesson of the inexorable
decline and fall of empires. He and the pioneers of the Indian National
Army (INA) were standing on what had been once a bulwark, now re-
duced to a graveyard, of the mighty British Empire. “How many of us
will individually survive this war of freedom,” he said in a somber
warning, “I do not know. But I do know this: that we shall ultimately
win, and our task will not end until our surviving heroes hold the vic-
tory parade on another graveyard of the British Empire—the Lal Qila,
or “Red Fortress,” of ancient Delhi.”^8
Bose gave his soldiers the slogan “Chalo Delhi” (“On to Delhi”),
reminiscent of the 1857 rebellion in India, when Indian soldiers had
revolted against the British under the banner of the last Mughal em-
peror. He introduced the inspiring national greeting “Jai Hind” (“Vic-
tory to India”). From the millions of Indian civilians in Southeast Asia,
he called for “total mobilization for a total war”—not to aid the Axis
powers against the Allies, but to wage the struggle against the British
raj. In return for such mobilization of men and women, money and
resources, he promised “a real second front for the Indian struggle.”^9
On September 26, 1943, a ceremonial parade and prayers were held in
Rangoon, at the tomb of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar,
to signal the INA’s determination to march to the Red Fort of Delhi. He