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A comprehensive and gripping narrativeVikram Sampath author historian and Fellow of Royal Historical SocietyA mustreadSandeep Unnithan managing editor India TodayThere are not many Indian heroes whose lives have been as dramatic and adventurous as that of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose That however is an assessment of his life based on what is widely known about him These often revolve around his resignation from the Indian Civil Service joining the freedom movement to be exiled twice for over seven years throwing a challenge to the Gandhian leadership in the Congress taking up an extremist position against the British Raj evading the famed intelligence network to travel to Europe and then to Southeast Asia forming two Governments and raising two armies and then disappearing into the unknown All this in a span of just two decadesNow new information throws light on Boses intense political activities surrounding the revolutionary groups in Bengal Punjab Maharashtra and United Provinces his efforts to bridge the increasing communal divide and his influence among the splintered political landscape his outlook and relations with women his plunge into the depths of spirituality his penchant for covert operations and his efforts to engineer a rebellion among the Indian armed forces With this new information what appeared to be dramatic now becomes more intense with plots and subplots under one mans singleminded focus on freeing the motherland and envisioning its development in a new eraFurthermore one of the most sensitive issues that have prevented political parties and successive governments from talking much about Bose is his joining the Axis camp While Jawaharlal Nehru and other prominent Congress leaders publicly denounced the move the Communist Party of India went on to a prolonged vilification campaign Sardar Patel issued instruction to Congress leaders to defend the INA soldiers without eulogizing their leaderWas Bose really a Nazi sympathiser Knowing very well about the strong public opinion that existed among the political leadership and the intelligentsia in India against Nazi Germany Fascist Italy and imperial Japan why did he risk his own political image by allying with the Axis powersPacey thoughtprovoking and absolutely unputdownable Bose The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist will open a window to many hitherto untold and unknown stories of Netaji Subhas Chandra BoseProbably the first critical biography of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose till date