One Man and a World at War 183ity for the consequences of force- feeding the ailing prisoner. On De-
cember 6, Viceroy Linlithgow informed the secretary of state for India
in London that he expected Bose to be out of action for three weeks;
afterward, they could rearrest him by implementing a “cat and mouse”
policy devised by the governor of Bengal.^5 “If he resorts to hunger
strike again,” Herbert blithely wrote to Linlithgow on December 11,
“the present ‘cat and mouse’ policy will be continued, and its employ-
ment will serve both to render him innocuous and to make him realize
that nothing is to be gained from a series of fasts.”^6
On December 5, a frail and exhausted Subhas had been transported
by stretcher to his three- story ancestral home at 38/2 Elgin Road.
Janaki Nath Bose had died in 1934, and Subhas was lodged in his fa-
ther’s erstwhile bedroom on the middle floor near the front of the
house. But Janaki’s grand four- poster bed remained vacant, as Subhas
preferred to sleep on a cot. The room was airy and bright; it had seven
large windows on three sides, with traditional glass- and- wood shutters.
In addition to oil paintings of family elders and a picture of the divine
mother Kali, Subhas adorned the walls with some photographs taken
in his favorite Austrian hill resort, Badgastein.^7 A tiger- skin prayer mat
was spread in one corner on the marble floor. A low wooden bookcase
held the Bhagavad Gita. Subhas’s elderly mother, Prabhabati, lived in
the adjoining room, although since her husband’s death the connecting
door was kept shut. A niece, Ila, had a room on the same floor and
helped to take care of her uncle while he recuperated. Several other
members of the extended Bose family lived on the upper floor of the
house, which was constantly abuzz with a curious mixture of domestic
and po lit i cal activity.
The government’s “cat and mouse” policy required enveloping 38/2
Elgin Road with a ring of security, while at the same time penetrating
its inner recesses. Herbert was at pains to explain that the government
“did not intend to withdraw either the order under section 26 of the
Defence of India Rules, or the two cases at present pending.” Subhas
was “neither in custody nor on bail.” He would be rearrested soon—all
the government had done was to “suspend temporarily the order for
his detention.”^8 In addition to stationing plainclothes policemen out-
side to keep a close watch on the house, the government engaged at