Unknown letters of Subhas in Madhuri Bose’s new book

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family is planning a  series of events leading upto the declassification of secret files on Jan 23, 2016, promised by India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. One of the most anticipated events will be the release of London based Madhuri Bose’s book, The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence: An Insider’s Account, published by Sage.

The book chronicles the role of Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose in the Indian freedom struggle, drawing from first-hand accounts of her father Amiya Nath Bose, Netaji’s nephew. Madhuri Bose — grand neice of Subhas Chandra Bose — is  a human rights advocate and writer who lives in the UK.

The unpublished letters penned by Netaji and Sarat Chandra Bose in the book — are mostly drawn from Bose’s father Amiya Nath Bose’s personal collection. 

“There are unknown documents in the book which will add to the history of India’s freedom struggle, hidden from masses till now,” said Abhijit Ray, Sarat Chandra Bose’s grandson.

The letters depict how and when his father and uncle were under detention away from Calcutta. It did not interrupt their nurturing of the Amiya the boy, and later the young man. “Amiya was truly inspired by his father and uncle, and throughout his life sought to live up to their ideals and aspirations,” says Madhuri in her book to be released in Kolkata on December 20.

In another chapter, Madhuri recounts the train of events that sees Subhas jailed in faraway Mandalay Jail in Burma from January 1925 to May 1927. “In this chapter, the reader gets to look inside the mind of young Subhas who, while in Mandalay Jail, wrote what he called Pebbles on the Seashore, a collection of ‘stray thoughts’. 

The chapter also includes a series of reflections which he jotted down in a notebook while held in Berhampore Jail, prior to being moved to Mandalay,” she says in the book.

In another chapter, Bose Brothers and Gandhi: Parting of the Ways - Madhuri Bose writes about the growing political and ideological rift between Gandhi and the Bose Brothers, leading Sarat to refer to an inevitable ‘parting of the ways’ and Gandhi himself to say, ‘We must sail in different boats.’ 

“An unpublished letter from Mahatma Gandhi written to Sarat Chandra Bose  is also an attraction of the book. Gandhi’s views on the Partition can be found here”, Chandra Kumar Bose, Netaji’s grandnephew said. 

Madhuri Bose said, “The British Raj both admired and feared the Bose Brothers. Both were of outstanding intellect, highly-principled and fearless in the face of adversity.”