224 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
the Congress- led movements since 1921, he was disappointed not to be
at home with his people in 1942. There was wistfulness in his tone
when he promised that it would “not be long before” he was at their
side again. On August 17, 1942, he correctly noted that British colonial
rule had been forced to rest on its ultimate coercive foundation:
The whole world now sees that the velvet glove, which ordinarily hides
the mailed fist of Britain, has now been cast away and brute force—
naked and unashamed—rules over India. Behind the thick screen of
gas, underneath the heavy blows of police batons, amid the continual
whistle of bullets and the angry de fi ance of the injured and the dying—
the soul of India asks—“Where are the four freedoms?” The words float
over the seven seas to all corners of the globe—but Washington does
not reply. After a pause, the soul of India asks again—“Where is the
Atlantic Charter, which guaranteed to ev ery nation its own Govern-
ment?” This time Downing Street and White House reply simultane-
ously—‘That Charter was not meant for India.’^52In his broadcasts, Bose made a distinction between the American peo-
ple and their government. “We thankfully recognize the fact,” he said,
“that a large section of the American people have sympathy for Indian
in de pen dence, but unfortunately they are powerless to in flu ence their
own Government. So far as American of fi cial policy towards India is
concerned, it is as imperialistic as that of Britain.”^53
Despite his support for Gandhi, Bose knew that the Congress- led
movement of 1942 had failed to inspire all of India’s religious commu-
nities and regional peoples. He therefore called upon the “pro gres sive
elements” of the Muslim League, the Majlis- i- Ahrar, the Jamiat- ul-
Ulema, the Azad Muslim League, the Akali Dal, and, last but not the
least, the Krishak Praja party of Bengal to form a broad- based pa tri otic
front. He also underlined the key role of the peasantry in the guerrilla
war being waged by mostly unarmed rebels in India.^54 Bose may have
wondered in August 1942 whether he had made a mistake in traveling
to Germany in 1941, but the last thing he wanted was to have been
locked away in prison and thus have wasted the opportunity presented
by the war. He was also convinced that the quest for Indian freedom