Netaji in Europe
Netaji In Europe
I was looking for material on Subhash Chandra Bose's work and the Indian Legion in Europe in 1942, and was very happy to be pointed to this book. Having read it, I have mixed feelings. I think the best way to describe is that it is outstanding for both the wrong and the right reasons.
Coming to the wrong reasons first: the book starts off on the wrong note in the second line of Chapter 1. Bose is described as a Kshatriya - he was a Kayastha. At one point the author states that the Indian National Army played a role in the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. These bloopers are a bit disappointing given that the introduction has a literature survey in which works are described as "scientific" and the implication is that this book, being extracted from a Ph.D thesis belongs to the scientfic category. From a larger perspective, there is complete disarray and mayhem when it comes to timelines. The narrative switches from Schedai (a rival of Bose's) back to Bose, from his departure for Japan in 1943 to the formation of the Indian Legion in 1942. Almost every second page seems to have jumps in time and space that do not make sense. I explained this to myself as a case of a Ph.D. dissertation being too hastily converted to a book, without the right editorial effort. The lack of an index at the end is particularly surprising (in the Rupa edition that I have). Given the title of the book, there is a complete absence of any kind of emotional connect with Bose during his Indian Legion years. The real topic of the book is "India-Politics" (which makes sense for a doctoral dissertation) and not Netaji.
This still remains an extremely valuable work for quite a few reasons. First: the literature survey in the introduction brought many more relevant works to my notice. Unfortunately, most of them do not seem easily accessible to me, but that is a problem I can work on.
Most importantly, there were a few angles that the author brings up, and that I did have the faintest inkling about. For example, that Hitler refused permission for unequivocal Axis support of Indian independence because in 1941 , he didn't want to spoil the chances of coming to a peace agreement with Britain.
The story of Rudoph Hess's flight to Scotland, which I had not heard of, is very interesting. It has been covered by Der Spiegel and Smithsonian magazine, among many others.
I finally found interesting material on what I was looking for, the experiences of the Indian Legion, towards the end of the book. In summary: this could have been a gem of a book on a topic that has not been widely studied, and the raw material is all there, but it doesn't quite come together as well as it should.
I was looking for material on Subhash Chandra Bose's work and the Indian Legion in Europe in 1942, and was very happy to be pointed to this book. Having read it, I have mixed feelings. I think the best way to describe is that it is outstanding for both the wrong and the right reasons.
Coming to the wrong reasons first: the book starts off on the wrong note in the second line of Chapter 1. Bose is described as a Kshatriya - he was a Kayastha. At one point the author states that the Indian National Army played a role in the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. These bloopers are a bit disappointing given that the introduction has a literature survey in which works are described as "scientific" and the implication is that this book, being extracted from a Ph.D thesis belongs to the scientfic category. From a larger perspective, there is complete disarray and mayhem when it comes to timelines. The narrative switches from Schedai (a rival of Bose's) back to Bose, from his departure for Japan in 1943 to the formation of the Indian Legion in 1942. Almost every second page seems to have jumps in time and space that do not make sense. I explained this to myself as a case of a Ph.D. dissertation being too hastily converted to a book, without the right editorial effort. The lack of an index at the end is particularly surprising (in the Rupa edition that I have). Given the title of the book, there is a complete absence of any kind of emotional connect with Bose during his Indian Legion years. The real topic of the book is "India-Politics" (which makes sense for a doctoral dissertation) and not Netaji.
This still remains an extremely valuable work for quite a few reasons. First: the literature survey in the introduction brought many more relevant works to my notice. Unfortunately, most of them do not seem easily accessible to me, but that is a problem I can work on.
Most importantly, there were a few angles that the author brings up, and that I did have the faintest inkling about. For example, that Hitler refused permission for unequivocal Axis support of Indian independence because in 1941 , he didn't want to spoil the chances of coming to a peace agreement with Britain.
The story of Rudoph Hess's flight to Scotland, which I had not heard of, is very interesting. It has been covered by Der Spiegel and Smithsonian magazine, among many others.
I finally found interesting material on what I was looking for, the experiences of the Indian Legion, towards the end of the book. In summary: this could have been a gem of a book on a topic that has not been widely studied, and the raw material is all there, but it doesn't quite come together as well as it should.
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