NETAJI: INDIA’S INDEPENDENCE AND BRITISH ARCHIVES - BOOKS IN INDIA

“Netaji: India’s Independence and British Archives” by Kalyan Kumar De is a book that has come some seven-odd decades late. Published by Garuda Prakashan(Web:https://garudabooks.com/netaji-indias-independence-and-british-archives), this book puts in black-and-white, for the first-time ever, the huge, and virtually singular, role Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army played in the British deciding to leave India. Of course, it suited the British, the colonisers, to keep the colonised in the dark about their plans. However, upon reading this book, the reader would definitely question as to why the establishment post-India did not give due credit to this hero and allowed Netaji to join the pantheon of India’s forgotten heroes. The book is based on primary archival evidence from the British archives (de-classified in 1971), in which those sitting in top echelons of the then British government – both in India and London – were feverishly, and with much concern, discussing the options on how to deal with the huge wave of sympathy for INA soldiers; especially, because the Army had become unreliable now. And, ultimately, they decided to leave India, finding no option viable. That was in March 1946. In bringing this book to the fore, Garuda Prakashan has stood true to its reputation of giving voice to the Indic platform and de-colonising the minds. The regularity with which it has come up with best-sellers in a short span of three years of its existence holds promise for the future of the Indic voices. “Saffron Swords” by Manoshi Sinha, “Thank You India” by Maria Wirth, “#Modi Again” by Aabhas Maldahiyar; besides “The Sarasvati Civilisation” by Maj Gen (retd) G D Bakshi and “Nehru’s Himalayan Blunders” by Justice (retd) S N Aggarwal have been books that have, at last, begun telling the story of the “native” in their own voice.