The softly spoken Pradip begins the conversation intentionally by telling me that one of the biggest lies put forward by British and Indian historians is that “India attained Independence through non-violent means”. It was this line that caught my attention a few days earlier when I heard him address an audience at the film screening of Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bose: the forgotten hero’. He continued: “The younger generation know his name but know nothing about his life or activities. These historians just want to put Subhash on the sidelines and make the point that he made no real difference to the freedom struggle.”

Growing up, Gandhi was the only name that I came across, mentioned now and again in history class and here and there by my mum when teaching me a moral lesson. Stories about his commitment to the path of ‘ahimsa’ (non-violence) and ‘satya’ (truth) were proudly held up as an example. Nehru and the politics of the Congress Party sprung up when my own curiosity started kicking in about the period of violent partition that my great grand-parents lived through and of which I knew nothing about. But Bose wasn’t a familiar name.

Pradip Bose, an Indian political commentator grew up with the living history of Subhash, sharing a roof in Calcutta as well as his radical political views: “I was naturally very profoundly influenced by him not because he was a relation but because of what he had done during the war with the Indian National Army (INA). It was very inspiring to see the impact of this on the post-war revolution in India.”

The INA was conceived by Mohan Singh, an Indian officer of the British Indian army, who with the help of the Japanese formed the first anti-British military wing, made-up with around 40,000 Indian prisoners of war in South East Asia. From July 1943, Subhash re-organised the army and fought with the Japanese army on the Indo-Burma front against the allies, taking the anti-imperialist struggle across national borders.

Pradip claims that the presence of the Indian National Army was hugely influential in the post-war freedom struggle: “It challenged the loyalty of Indians to the British Indian army and police service which had participated in the bloody repression of their fellow citizens. Even until 1942 the British had their support to brutally suppress uprisings but this changed after the war with Bose’s INA.”

Following the Japanese defeat and INA retreat, the government of British India decided to bring captured INA soldiers to trial on treason charges in the highly publicised Red Fort trials for their involvement in the South-East Asian attack. There was however a feverish public campaign within India hailing the men as “patriots and not traitors”. It created a nationalist upsurge uniting different regions from Ajmer to Punjab and across political spectrums e.g. the right wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to members of Jinnah’s Muslim League. The Director of the Indian Intelligence Bureau conceded: “There has seldom been a matter which has attracted so much Indian public interest, and it is safe to say, sympathy.” On November 21st 1945, a 16-year-old Pradip also took to the streets of Calcutta in one of the biggest demonstrations over the fate of INA soldiers. “Of course it was stopped, there was firing and one student died…. But there was a mood of defiance and I with thousands of others spent the whole night on the streets of Calcutta. It was the beginning of the post-war revolution.”

Given the widespread appeal of the INA and the impact it had upon the agitation for the British to quit India, why has Subhash been forgotten? During research into Subhash’s life to mark his centenary year and 50th anniversary of India’s Independence in 1997, Pradip wrote to John Major requesting to see documents held at the Indian records office. He was told that because of diplomatic sensitivity some files would not be de-classified for at least another 50 years. “There is a fear that releasing this information will effect friendly relations with other countries. Subhash’s relationship with the axis powers after the war was a huge issue; Nehru, the Indian and British government just didn’t know how to handle him.” To rid India of British rule Subhash urged the Congress party, leading the fight for Independence, to take advantage of Britain’s vulnerable position during the Second World War, an action rejected strongly by Gandhi as dishonourable.

A frustrated Bose went into exile travelling to Afghanistan, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to build up an armed resistance, creating a major antagonism with Indian and British leaders towards his “realpolitik”, a stance which Pradip defends.

“His strategy was that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. What’s wrong with Indian statesman using this? Britain disapproves of him for this but even they used it. Churchill was an avowed anti-communist but as soon as Germany attacked Russia he immediately sent his foreign secretary to create an Anglo-Russian alliance against Germany.”

It was also Subhash’s stark ideological differences with Gandhi, which is seen to play an important role in his invisibility. In contrast to the Gandhian philosophy “if someone slaps you on one cheek, offer them the other”, Bose believed that “if someone slaps you once slap them twice”. Despite his strong personal relationship with Gandhi he wrote in his book The Indian Struggle 1921-34 “under Mahatma’s leadership salvation of India will not be achieved”.

Controversially, Subhash’s nephew suggests that it is this committed attitude to freedom that would have made Bose a great statesman: “His revolutionary upsurge frightened the British government and equally the leaders of the Congress and Muslim League. Because they knew that in the new nationalism of Bose there is no ‘Hindu, Muslim or Sikh but everybody together as Indian. If he had taken the helm after the war it would have upset their political establishment and India wouldn’t have been partitioned. ”

Creating a national spirit that united across region, caste or religion and a determination to secure India’s freedom at whatever cost was a struggle shared by Bose and his fellow freedom fighters. Where the path of Subhash Chandra Bose diverged was his armed resistance movement, a blip on the non-violence mantra of his patriots. Does this justify being sidelined in the corridors of history? 60 years on - is it time to blow off the dust from Bose: The forgotten hero?

Pradip Bose is the author of Subhash Bose and India Today and Growing Up in India