176 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
solving a prob lem well nigh insoluble to many. Great achievements are
often born out of small beginnings.^96Bose met Jinnah in Bombay, to see if an un der stand ing could be reached
on a broader basis. The Muslim League leader reportedly told the Con-
gress rebel that he needed to take control of the Indian National Con-
gress before he could effect a Hindu- Muslim settlement.^97
In May 1940, as Britain suf fered reverses in the war, Bose noted that
the prob lem of “fight ing British Imperialism” was likely in the future to
give way to the more pressing prob lem of “internal unity and consoli-
dation.” “There is today dark uncertainty before us as to our future
fate,” he wrote. “But all this will vanish in no time, if we can achieve
two things—unity among Congressmen and a Hindu- Muslim settle-
ment.”^98 Bose saw no prospect of an enslaved India coming to the res-
cue of Britain. “India,” he asserted, “has first to save herself. And she
can save herself only if the Hindus and Muslims put forward a joint
demand for a provisional national government to whom all powers
should be immediately transferred.” Only after India was “strong
enough to save herself ” could she “lend a helping hand to other friendly
countries.” He wondered if the Congress and the Muslim League could
agree on this issue of presenting a joint Hindu- Muslim demand to the
colonial masters.^99 He felt that India, at this critical moment, needed
Deshbandhu Chitta Ranjan Das’s “unbounded love which made him a
friend of the people and which drew the Muslims and the backward
classes so close to him.”^100
Subhas Chandra Bose provided his most elaborate statement on the
duty of anti- imperialists in the context of the “war between rival Impe-
rialisms” in his address at Nagpur, as president of the second All- India
Forward Bloc Conference, in June 1940. He stressed the need for na-
tional unity and solidarity. “National unity,” he declared, “will presup-
pose unity within the Congress on the basis of a dynamic program of
struggle and at the same time unity between the Congress and other
or ga ni za tions like the Muslim League.” He called upon all parties to
join together in establishing a citizens’ defense corps aimed at preserv-
ing internal peace, harmony, and goodwill. Defense of subjugated India
against any foreign power should concern the government only, and