6
One Man and a World at War
This is the technique of the soul. The individual must die, so that
the nation may live. Today I must die, so that India may live and
may win freedom and glory.
—subhas chandra bose, “My Political Testament,” November 26,
1940
When the Battle of Britain was raging over London in 1940, India’s co-
lonial masters had their most uncompromising opponent safely behind
bars in the Presidency Jail of Calcutta. Having resigned the Congress
presidency, Subhas Chandra Bose was calling for a final showdown
with the British raj. His concern for Hindu- Muslim unity led him to
launch a movement urging that the Holwell Monument be removed
from the public square in front of the seat of the British government in
Bengal. The monument commemorated the legend of the Black Hole
of Calcutta, where British prisoners- of- war allegedly died in cramped
conditions—a legend that Hindus and Muslims alike considered a slur
on the honor of Nawab Siraj- ud- daula, the last in de pen dent king of
Bengal, whom Robert Clive had defeated at Plassey in 1757.^1 On July 2,
1940, the day before he was to lead the civil disobedience campaign in
the streets of Calcutta, Bose was arrested under the Defence of India
Rules and charged with two counts of sedition. The fury of the result-
ing agitation by both Hindus and Muslims alike forced the government
to dismantle the monument and discreetly remove it from public view.
But that was a small price to pay if Subhas Chandra Bose and his in-