The Terrible Price of Freedom 227another Indian po lit i cal activist, Iqbal Shedai, who was based in Italy.
Shedai’s “Radio Himalaya” sided with the All- India Muslim League,
rather than with the Indian National Congress. In April 1942, the Ital-
ians had permitted him to form the Centro Militare India and to raise
a small military force of about 350 soldiers, drawn from prisoners- of-
war in transit camps. Shedai was an irritant to Bose. He accused Bose
of harboring a nest of communists in the heart of Nazi Germany. Bose,
for his part, was certain that Shedai’s operation would implode. He was
proved right when the Centro Militare India had to be disbanded after
a mutiny in November 1942.^59
Meanwhile, Bose’s Indian Legion was gathering strength under Ger-
man auspices. At first, Bose insisted that it could be deployed only in or
near India against British forces. On the eve of the battle of El Alamein,
he changed tactics and suggested sending it to take part in the fight to
take Alexandria from British imperial control. Rommel, who was disin-
clined to mix politics with military matters, turned down the offer.
Bose was adamant that the Indians would never battle against the So-
viet Union on the Eastern Front. During his time in Europe, the Indian
Legion received training but did not take part in any military action.
After his departure, Nambiar would successfully keep the legion away
from deployment in the East. In late 1943 and 1944, it fought on the
French coast against the Allied landings.^60
While waiting for his travel plans to materialize, Bose kept himself
busy thinking and writing about the postwar reconstruction of free
India. In an essay titled “Free India and Her Problems,” published in
the Free India Center’s bilingual monthly journal Azad Hind in Au-
gust 1942, Bose wrote that it would be “wrong to dogmatize from now
about the form of the future Indian state.” He did say, however, that
to begin with there would be “a strong Central Government” and “a
well- or ga nized, disciplined all- India party.” The state would “guarantee
complete religious and cultural freedom for individuals and groups.”
“When the new regime is stabilized and the state- machinery begins to
function smoothly,” he explained, “power will be decentralized and the
provincial governments will be given more responsibility.”^61 In addition
to Bose’s own speeches and articles, Azad Hind, edited by Pandit K. A.
Bhatta, carried quite fascinating articles about India’s future, written by