Book Review :His Majesty's Opponent
"In this mortal world, everything perishes and will perish," Subhas Chandra Bose had written in 1940, "but ideas, ideals and dreams do not." As he prepared for a fast unto death, he was confident that the idea for which one individual was prepared to die would incarnate itself in a thousand lives.Subhas Chandra Bose, popularly known as Netaji, was undoubtedly the most intriguing and popular leader of the Indian freedom struggle. In His Majesty's Opponent Sugata Bose analyzes Netaji's life and legacy, tracing the intellectual impact of his years in Calcutta and Cambridge, the ideas and relationships that influenced him during his time in exile, and his ascent to the peak of nationalist politics. Using previously unpublished family archives, this account by Netaji's grand nephew not only documents Netaji's thoughts during his imprisonment and travels, but also illuminates the profundity of his struggle to unite the diversities of India - religious, economic, linguistic - into a single independent nation.
Divided in nine chapters combined with several priceless photographs, to outline the life immortal, this competent and definitive biography also focuses on an important phase of India's struggle for freedom - the internal politics of Congress, Netaji's differences with Mahatma Gandhi, formation of Forward Bloc, life in exile, formation of the Indian National Army, and an accepted death of a deathless leader. Although Sugata Bose has avoided the detailed reports of the various commissions set up by the Government of independent India to investigate the disappearance of Subhas Chandra Bose, which may feel misleading to a section of readers, the book is a truly remarkable biography, brilliantly written with a historian's dispassion. His Majesty's Opponent is a page turner that invokes the right kind of emotion for a life, who in spite of his accepted death in an 1945 Air crash is still the deathless hero in the minds of myriads.
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A remarkable biography of an extraordinary life. I had received the copy from MySmartPrice. Thank you Ranjan for giving me this opportunity. You can buy this book at amazon or at flipkart in case you live in India.
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Interesting choice of reviewing historical books...I am quite bored of all the blogs that seem to review only YA/Indie books. Following you by email. :-D
@ShailiThank you.
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