192 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
Bose to Kabul. Bhagat Ram, under the assumed name “Rahmat Khan,”
would be taking his deaf- mute elder relative Ziauddin to the shrine at
Adda Sharif, in an attempt to cure him of his af flic tion. Abad Khan
taught Ziauddin how to drink water from a kandoli and partake of
food from a common plate with his fellow Pathans. With a new set of
clothes, complete with the local headgear, Subhas Chandra Bose fully
looked the part but had to be careful not to utter a word.^22
January 26 was observed all over the country as India’s Inde pen-
dence Day. On that day in 1930, by the side of the River Ravi in La-
hore, the Indian National Congress had ceremonially made a pledge to
strive for purna swaraj, or “complete in de pen dence.” On the morning
of January 26, 1941, Muhammad Ziauddin and Rahmat Khan set off
from Peshawar with Muhammad Shah and an Afridi guide, in a car
arranged by Abad Khan. Muhammad Shah returned after dropping
them off about half a mile from the ac tual border. By the afternoon of
Inde pen dence Day, Subhas Chandra Bose had crossed the territorial
limits of Britain’s Indian empire and begun his trek across the rugged
terrain of the tribal territories beyond the North- West Frontier. The
travelers negotiated this dif fi cult route—involving strenuous climbs—
during the day, and accepted tribal hospitality in remote villages for
the first two nights. They traveled mostly on foot and occasionally rode
on a mule, which once slipped on a snowy downward path, leaving
its rider bruised but not badly injured. It was well past midnight on
January 27–28 when they reached the first village in Afghanistan. At
that point, the tribal guide was sent back. The next morning, Ziauddin
and Rahmat Khan continued their journey toward the Afghan cap ital.
Eventually they reached the Peshawar- Kabul highway, near the village
of Garhdi. The travelers managed to hitch a ride on a truck loaded with
tea- chests, and arrived in Jalalabad late on the night of January 28. The
next day they visited the shrine in Adda Sharif, near Jalalabad, and
made contact with a po lit i cal associate, Haji Muhammad Amin. On
January 30 they started out toward Kabul in a tonga, then switched to a
truck, reaching the checkpoint at Bud Khak the next morning. Another
tonga ride brought them to Kabul late on the morning of January 31,
1941.^23
Meanwhile, in Calcutta, a drama was enacted at Bose’s Elgin Road