Letters To Emilie Schenkl 1934 1942

Not Many People Known About Bose`S Love For Emile Schenkl, His Austrian Wife. The Volume Includes 162 Letters Written Between 1934 And 1942 An Alos 18 Letters Of His Wife That Have Survived. Illuminate The Human And Emotional Aspects Of His Life.

Letters from an Indian nationalist to his Austrian wife.

The man whom Indian nationalists perceived as the ÒGeorge Washington of IndiaÓ and who was President of the Indian National Congress in 1938Ð1939 is a legendary figure. Called Netaji (ÒleaderÓ) by his countrymen, Subhas Chandra Bose struggled all his life to liberate his people from British rule and, in pursuit of that goal, raised and led the Indian National Army against Allied Forces during World War II. His patriotism, as Gandhi asserted, was second to none, but his actions aroused controversy in India and condemnation in the West. Now, in a definitive biography of the revered Indian nationalist, Sugata Bose deftly explores a charismatic personality whose public and private life encapsulated the contradictions of world history in the first half of the twentieth century. He brilliantly evokes Netaji's formation in the intellectual milieu of Calcutta and Cambridge, probes his thoughts and relations during years of exile, and analyzes his ascent to the peak of nationalist politics. Amidst riveting accounts of imprisonment and travels, we glimpse the profundity of his struggle: to unite Hindu and Muslim, men and women, and diverse linguistic groups within a single independent Indian nation. Finally, an authoritative account of his untimely death in a plane crash will put to rest rumors about the fate of this Òdeathless hero.Ó This epic of a life larger than its legend is both intimate, based on family archives, and global in significance. His Majesty's Opponent establishes Bose among the giants of Indian and world history.

History abounds with many heroes. The Indian freedom struggle had its own share of them. Subhas Chandra Bose fired the nation with patriotic fervour, very different in character to the non-violent approach preached by Gandhi. Truly an outsider to the movements of satyagraha and passive resistance that rapidly gained momentum, he made a valiant effort to galvanize the nation into action with evocative slogans such as – ‘Freedom is never given, it is taken' . . . 'Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azadi doonga'. JAI HIND – India's national greeting ? was the salutation coined by him to arouse nationalistic passion among the Indians. In what was unthinkable then, Bose dared to ally with the Nazis and the Japanese, and raised an indigenous army called Azad Hind Fauj to challenge the military might of the British Empire. Why then has Subhas Chandra Bose been largely marginalized as a footnote in the history of India's independence? Perhaps the mythical legends that continue to shroud both his personal life and political happenstance hold some answers. The Lost Hero – a thoroughly researched biography of Subhas Bose – delves into the life and times of this great man, with the hope that he is granted a befitting place in the annals of Indian history.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s relationship with his wife, Emilie Schenkl, is one of the least-known aspects of the leader’s life. They met in Vienna in June 1934, secretly married in December 1937 in Badgastein, a spa resort in Austria’s Salzburg province, and saw each other for the last time in Berlin in February 1943, two months after the birth in Vienna of their daughter Anita. From 1934 onwards, Subhas and Emilie corresponded continuously through letters whenever they were physically separated. Born in 1910 into a middle-class Austrian family of Vienna, Emilie Schenkl nurtured her husband’s memory and cultivated a deep attachment from afar to India all her life, until her death in 1996. She brought up their daughter on her own, working to support herself and Anita. Fiercely self-reliant and very private, Emilie lived a life of great dignity and quiet courage. Emilie was especially close to Netaji’s nephew Sisir Kumar Bose, whom she first met in Vienna in the late 1940s, and after his marriage in December 1955 she also formed a close friendship with his wife Krishna. Krishna knew Emilie personally from 1959 until Emilie’s death in 1996. This book, illustrated with forty-eight photographs from archives and family albums, is a unique record of Emilie’s life of fortitude and the love story of Emilie and Subhas.