 The
Alternative Leadership
Note by Sisir K Bose & Sugata Bose
Between his resignation as Congress president in Calcutta on April
29, 1939 and his escape from his Elgin Road home on the night of 16-17
January 1941, Subhas Chandra Bose tried to give the Indian people
an alternative leadership at the national level in place of the old
guard represented by the Gandhian High Command. This alternative was
based on a commitment to uncompromising anti-imperialism in the contemporary
phase of Indian politics and undiluted socialism once freedom was
won.
Volume 10 of his Collected Works brings together
the writings and speeches of this crucial phase in Bose's political
life immediately prior to his emergence as the Netaji of India's
army of liberation. The themes dealt with in his articles and speeches
include the role of the left within the Indian independence movement,
the Second World War as a conflict between rival imperialisms, and
the need for Hindu-Muslim unity and Congress-Muslim League understanding
in presenting a joint national demand to the British. Among the
letters is his 'political testament' written just before undertaking
a fast-unto-death in prison in November 1940, a set of candid letters
from prison to his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose giving his assessment
of the moral failings of the Congress leadership and his final correspondence
with Mahatma Gandhi in the month before his escape.
When Bose wrote to Gandhi on December 23, 1940 offering
cooperation in any future movement, he had finalised plans for his
escape from India. 'You are irrepressible,' Bapu replied to Subhas
on December 29, 1940, 'whether ill or well. Do get well before going
in for fireworks.'
By this time Subhas Chandra Bose had already completed
preparations for his fireworks and was simply waiting for the right
moment to light the fuse.
This volume will be of interest to all those interested
in modern South Asian history and international ties in the twentieth
century.
Edited by: Sisir K. Bose & Sugata Bose
Published by: Netaji Research Bureau,
Calcutta
Oxford
University Press, Delhi
1998
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