NehruandBose_ParallelLives

Rudrangshu Mukherjee NEHRU & BOSE Parallel Lives Contents Introduction 1 Growing Up 2 Baptism in Politics 3 Immersion in the Congress 4 Two Women and Two Books 5 Party Presidents 6 The End of the Friendship 7 Friendship Regained? Footnote Bibliography Acknowledgements Follow Penguin Copyright For Rebati and Tara Bhushan Mukherjee and Reyhan and S.B. (Mantu) Datta parallel affections, parallel influences Introduction Born in Calcutta five years after India’s independence, I was brought up in the shadow of Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose. One was the first prime minister of India, and during my childhood the most important public figure in the country. The other was the most revered icon in Bengal’s political pantheon. In public discourse and in informal conversations the two figures were often seen as rivals, and many Bengalis were convinced that Subhas, by far the greater man as many Bengalis believed, was deliberately eclipsed in national politics by Jawaharlal who always acted at the behest of Gandhi. But it was Subhas, his admirers averred, who ultimately brought freedom to India. As a child and as ......