206 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
Yet perseverance in adversity was a quality that Subhas Chandra
Bose possessed in full mea sure. He gradually shook off the deep de-
pression that had descended on him on June 22. With the help of In-
dian exiles—including students—in various parts of Europe, he set up
a Free India Center; and from among Indian soldiers, he raised an In-
dian legion. He sought out talented young Indians who, though of dif-
ferent ideological persuasions, were all committed to the goal of India’s
freedom, and he asked them to join him in crafting in microcosm the
future free India of his dreams. Indians of many religious and linguis-
tic backgrounds—A. C. N. Nambiar, Abid Hasan, N. G. Swamy, N. G.
Ganpuley, K. M. Bhatt, M. R. Vyas, P. B. Sharma, Pramode Sengupta,
J. K. Banerji, A. M. Sultan, Habibur Rahman, and Girija Mookerjee—
were drawn into the movement by Bose’s magnetic pull.
“Where is Nambiar?” Subhas had asked Emilie as soon as she joined
him in Berlin in April 1941. The staunchly anti- Nazi Arathil Candeth
Narayanan Nambiar, from Kerala, had been a close friend since 1933.
After being arrested by the Nazi government in 1933, he had relocated
to Prague, where he helped Bose strengthen Indo- Czech ties. The Mu-
nich Pact of 1938 and the ensuing German occupation of Czechoslova-
kia in March 1939 forced him to leave Prague for Paris. In mid- 1941
Bose tracked him down in Foix, France, where Nambiar was living qui-
etly with his newfound love, Madame de Saussure. In August they met
in Paris, and Bose tried to persuade Nambiar to join him in Berlin. He
laid out three possible out comes of the war. He was worried about an
outright German victory, and hoped that an un der stand ing with Italy
on the winning side might be to India’s bene fit. If the Allies and the
Axis powers fought each other to a draw or a truce, Nehru and he
working together could improve the terms for India. If Germany was
defeated, he would still have advanced the cause of Indian in de pen-
dence internationally. Nambiar’s ideological qualms and personal life
stood in the way of an immediate move to Berlin. But eventually, in
January 1942, Nambiar came to Berlin and took charge at the Free In-
dia Center as Bose’s deputy.^12
N. G. Swami of Tamil Nadu and Abid Hasan of Hyderabad had
joined much earlier, in August 1941. Swami had come to the attention
of Bose in 1934, when he made strong protests from Vienna against the