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A LOVER OF LIGHT AMONG LUMINARIES : Dilip Kumar Roy had driven Bose out of the Congress, and could be held responsible for Bose's flight to Germany and ultimate death. But he now changed his attitude. He wrote about him in glowing terms, employing even the term Netaji, which, being an exact equivalent of Der Furer or Il Duce, revealed Bose's political affiliations, and said: 'Netaji's name is one to conjure with. His patriotism is second to none' ... 'His bravery shines through all his actions.' About the INA he declared: “The hypnotism of the INA has cast its spell on us.'
"Jawaharlal Nehru's championship of the INA was more unrestrained. But it was a greater paradox than Gandhi's. When Bose was on the borders of Assam, Nehru had declared that he would fight Bose if he came to India. He wholly changed his stance after the war, and, of course, it was noticed. When asked for an explanation, he gave a very unconvincing one.... He put on the barrister's gown which he had discarded for twenty-five
years and sat among the other defending advocates."65 Chaudhuri further adds:
"I had passed through all the phases of the Indian nationalist agitation from 1905 onwards, but never had I seen excitement and passion over the issue of political freedom which was greater than what I saw over the punishment of the officers of the INA.”66
(A) The Portrait
Subhas Chandra Bose, the man of outstanding vitality and courage happened to be a close friend of Dilip Roy. Both of them studied together at Presidency college, Calcutta and at Cambridge University, England. Dilip Roy paid his bosom friend a tribute from the bottom of his heart by publishing the book: The Subhash07 I Knew in 1946. Roy found from his first hand experience that Subhas Chandra was not cut out to be a politician. In fact, he was an idealistic activist and a mystic at heart, who lost his way because of his concern for the sad plight of his country and excessive confidence in his own strength. He suffered a great deal and sacrificed his life in the service of the motherland. Roy evaluates the importance of Subhas Chandra's contribution to independence struggle and brings out the portrait of a patriot who renounced all pleasures of life for a noble cause and passed the life of a roving soldier. But the portrait we discover here is not simply the portrait of a political leader known to the people from a distance. Dilip Roy has brought out more intimate image of the great idealist both as a man and a friend.
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