Subhas Chandra Bose’s life is well covered in this 2022 biography by @chandrachurg, ‘Bose – The Untold Story of An Inconveinent Nationalist’. Some interesting excerpts: (1/29)
(1928): “Subhas explained.. how insulting the setting up of the (Simon) Commission had been would become clear if second Indians were sent to England to pass a judgement on whether the British were capable of self-government.” 2/29
“He also mentioned that there were two ways to obtain Swaraj – either by an armed uprising, or by means of an economic blockade. Since armed uprising was impossible for an unarmed nation, the latter was the only course open to the country.” 3/29
(1938) “Subhas emphasized that India had no enmity towards the British people. Having won freedom, there was ‘no reason why we should not enter in the most cordial relations’ with them.” 4/29
“In a free India, it was important to ensure the continuity of the Congress, because only an organization that won freedom for the country could ensure its reconstruction… the first task of the national government would be.. drawing up a comprehensive plan for reconstruction.”
“The free country, Subhas outlined, would be a multi-party democratic one, with a strong central government, ensuring local and cultural autonomy at the same time… a common language which ideally should be a mixture of Hindi and Urdu..” 6/29
(1939) “Minoo Masani: “ Nehru… When faced with a difficult choice, he would be non-aligned! Subhas Babu was quite cynical towards such an attitude and told us that Nehru was an opportunist who thought about his own position first and then about everything else.” 7/29
(Bose in a letter to Nehru): “You have charged me further with not clarifying my policy in national and international affairs. I think I have a policy, whether that policy be right or wrong… May I now ask what your policy is?” 8/29
“If we follow the present piecemeal, tinkering and nibbling policy, suspending the popular struggle in every other state, it will take us 250 years to obtain civil liberty and responsible government in the states. And after that we shall think of our Swaraj!” 9/29
"Foreign policy is a realistic affair to be determined largely from the point of view of a nation’s self-interest… what is your foreign policy, pray? Frothy sentiments & pious platitudes do not make foreign policy..” 10/29
(1939) “Gandhi had made his views clear… when he placed non-violence above the country’s independence.. “I cannot emphasize my belief more forcibly than by saying that I personally would not purchase my own country’s freedom by violence even if such a thing were a possibility.”
(Bose’s plans when he reached Germany in 1941): “he wants to set up an Indian government in Germany, visualizing as a model the Polish, etc, governments in exile. To form his government, he expects certain promises from the Axis Powers, which he wants to formulate in detail.”
“Besides propaganda actions the program furthermore includes the instigation of uprisings in India. As a final objective he has in mind the entry by the Axis Powers into India.." 13/29
"The Anglo-Indian army consisted of only 300,000 men, of which at most 70,000 were Englishmen. The major portion of the Indian elements was willing to defect at any time. An army of 100,000 men with modern equipment would be adequate to free India from English." 14/29
(1942) Nehru: “Hitler and Japan must go to hell. I shall fight them to the end and this is my policy. I shall fight Mr Subhas Bose and his party along with Japan if he comes to India. Mr Bose acted very wrongly through in good faith.” 15/29
“An agreement was reached between Berlin and Tokyo and mid-January 1943, on the arrangements for Subhas’s journey… a German U-180 submarine would carry Subhas halfway to Madagascar, where he would move to a Japanese U-boat I-29.” 16/29
(after 1945): “The mass upheaval of support for the INA soldiers and the adulation of Subhas compelled many leaders to change their wartime attitudes.. Jawaharlal, who led the Congress’ diatribe against Subhas.. mentioned him specially during his independence speech in 1947.”
“’Jai Hind’ was adopted as the national salutation, and Tagore’s ‘Jana Gana Mana’, which was selected by Subhas as India’s national anthem, received Jawaharlal’s approval. Subhas became ‘Netaji’ for all leaders, including Gandhi and Jawaharlal.” 18/29
“It was easy to misrepresent, lampoon and reduce Subhas to the image of a Nazi sympathizer with an authoritarian ambitions by the Western press, but that was not the case in India.” 19/29
“The formulation adopted by the Congress very early on was that of a brave but misguided patriot who fell from the high pedestal of the Gandhian soul of modern India.” 20/29
“Thus, in deference to his popularity, important occasions were celebrated and commemorative postal stamps were issued, but always calibrated with the caution that he would not take the centre stage or deflect the continued spotlight on the Nehru-Gandhi family.” 21/29
“Subhas’s associates and family members continued to be spied upon by the central and the state governments until the 1970s… The intelligence files, many of which deal with the search for a ‘dead Subhas’… are yet to be made public.” 22/29
(Bose about Gandhi’s plans for individual civil disobedience in 1940) “It is neither cooperation nor mass struggle. It pleases nobody and will lead us nowhere. And this campaign has nothing to do with Swaraj.” 23/29
“It can only bluff a certain section of our countrymen who are gullible into thinking that something effective is being done by Gandhiji… This latest phase of Gandhism with its sanctimonious hypocrisy… is sickening to a degree.” 24/29
“One is forced to wonder which is a greater menace to India’s political future – the British bureaucracy or the Gandhian hierarchy. Idealism that is devoid of realism and whose only content is a frothy sentimentalism… can never be fruitful of results.” 25/29
“Gandhism will land free India in a ditch – if free India is sought to be rebuilt on Gandhian, non-violent principles. India will then be offering a standing invitation to all predatory powers.” 26/29
“Gandhi’s epoch in India’s history came to an end in 1939. He has imparted political consciousness to the Indian masses... But he stands pledged to non-violence and passive resistance. With such methods you can never expel the British from India and can never win independence.”
Nehru in 1960: “It is true, I did let Subhas down. I did it because I had realized that, at that stage, whatever one’s views might be about the way India should develop, Gandhi was India. Anything which weakened Gandhi, weakened India.” 28/29
“So I subordinated myself to Gandhi, although I was in agreement with what Subhas was trying to do. I suppose it is right to say that I let him down. India had to become before either of us.” 29/29
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“What we are seeing today is the accelerating dissolution of the post-1945 world order. It isn’t merely that the old order’s foreign opponents have combined more effectively to disrupt it. The order’s defenders are flailing.” 1/7
“There are many reasons for the West’s poor performance. The current tranche of leaders for the most part can neither defend their countries from foreign foes nor defend the political status quo from populists at home.” 2/7
“The muddled thinking of a generation of policy elites, who foolishly supposed that geopolitical conflict had ended forever, left the West radically unprepared for resurgent opponents.” 3/7
“The China-India rivalry will likely persist due to fundamental disagreements and distrust over economic coercion, border aggression, Pakistan relations, and technology stacks.” 1/9
“Meanwhile, the US-India relationship is likely to stabilize and rebound due to a much deeper and more substantive defense partnership.” 2/9
“There remains an iron ceiling to the India-China relationship, which is shaped by behavioral and structural factors. Prime Minister Modi’s mending of fences with Xi at the SCO summit must not be interpreted as more than risk mitigation and opportunistic posturing.” 3/9
"Some pressures had been building within this system before Trump’s ascent. But particularly in his second term, Trump has switched the United States’ role from global insurer to extractor of profit." 1/10 foreignaffairs.com/united-states/…
"Instead of the insurer securing its clients against external threats, under the new regime, the threat against which insurance is sold comes as much from the insurer as from the global environment." 2/10
"The Trump administration promises to spare clients from its own assaults for a higher price than before. Trump has threatened to block access to American markets on a broad scale.." 3/10
“after a week-long visit to Washington… I came away with a strong sense that there are dramatically divergent views in New Delhi and DC on the state of the bilateral relationship, and that the strategic partnership is perhaps more fragile than ever.” 1/8
“While the sentiment in New Delhi is that Washington under President Trump has severely damaged the India-US strategic partnership for no credible or justifiable reason, the feeling in DC is that India has not done enough to save the relationship and has been slow to react..” 2/8
“Trump’s DC no longer sees India through the China prism and is more directly questioning what is it that India can give the US beyond the symbolism and “promises of future”.” 3/8
.@gideonrachman: “predictive pattern breaks down when it comes to Ukraine and Gaza. Among commentators — and even governments — you can find groups that are pro-Israel and pro-Ukraine; pro-Ukraine and pro-Palestine; pro-Russia and pro-Israel; and pro-Russia & pro-Palestine.” 1/7
“The “pro-Ukraine, pro-Israel” crowd closely correlate with the group once known as neoconservatives. They see both Ukraine and Israel as democracies under attack that deserve support.” 2/7
“Bernard Henri-Lévy, the French philosopher, is a passionate supporter of Ukraine and recently defended Israel against charges of genocide… Others who I would put in the pro-Ukraine, pro-Israel camp are the historian Niall Ferguson and the journalist Bari Weiss.” 3/7
FT editorial: “Even if US tariffs are eventually diluted, or annulled by the courts, India would be wise to diversify its trade links. Recent efforts to repair economic relations with China and to accelerate talks with the EU on a free trade agreement will help.” 1/7
“To strike meaningful deals, however, India will need to reduce its own protectionist barriers, which would also expose coddled industries to long-overdue competition.” 2/7
“The world’s most populous nation boasts a rapidly growing middle class, a large pool of Stem-trained workers and states with diverse industrial specialisms, from information technology in Karnataka to automotive manufacturing in Tamil Nadu.” 3/7