Brothers against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose.

by Leonard A. Gordon
Review by: John R. McLane
The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 51, No. 2 (May, 1992), pp. 421-422
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2058071 .
Accessed: 17/06/2014 07:13

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Association for Asian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of Asian Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.203 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:13:38 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 BOOK REVIEWS-SOUTH ASIA 421

especially Gautier). Aesthetic theory in a Hegel or Schiller does not emerge purely
out of the bourgeoisie's contemplation of its own world, as Terry Eagleton has it
in his new book, The Ideologyof the Aesthetic(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), but
indeed, in part, precisely through its confrontation with what was not of its own
world. Of this the Sdkuntala, as the author helps us to see, is a paradigmatic case.
S. POLLOCK
The Universityof Chicago

Brothersagainst the Raj. A Biographyof Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas

Chandra Bose. By LEONARD A. GORDON. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1990. 807 pp. $65.00 (cloth); $25.00 (paper).

Subhas Bose remains one of the most controversial figures in modern South
Asian history. He was a dominant force in the Bengali branch of the Indian National
Congressfrom 1927 on and spoke to a preferencein Bengal for violence over Gandhian
nonviolence. In 1938, he was elected president of- the Congress with the support
of M. K. Gandhi and then was re-elected in 1939 over Gandhi's opposition. Gandhi,
however, soon proved himself the shrewder politician and forced Subhas Bose to
resign as Congresspresident. During World War II, Bose evaded British surveillance
and fled to Nazi Germany and then to Japan and Southeast Asia to mobilize Indians
to revolt against colonial rule. As commander of the Indian National Army, he led
a division alongside the Japanese army in Burma during their retreat before British
forces in 1944-45. His activities in Japan and Asia did not demonstrably accelerate
the British departure, although his propaganda and military work did open him to
charges of collaborating with fascism.
Leonard Gordon's biography of Subhas Bose and his brother, Sarat, is unlikely
to be surpassed in its thoroughness and judiciousness. Gordon tracked down over
one hundred of Subhas'sacquaintances, including his Austrian widow and daughter,
in Bangladesh, Britain, Germany, India, Japan, and Malaysia, to learn more about
his mostly frustrating relations with German and Japanese officials. He argues that
Subhashad little interest in fascist ideas and techniques but ratherwas singlemindedly
fighting for India's independence in cooperation with whomever he thought would
assist. Ideologically, Subhas was not a fascist but a socialist, who gave rhetorical
support, although slight organizationaleffort, to workerand peasantaffairs.In domestic
Indian religious politics, Subhas and Sarat expected and acted as if Hindus had to
share power with Muslims. Living in a province with a Muslim majority, they
consideredthe exclusion of Muslims from government as undesirableand impossible.
With over six hundredpages of text, this book may daunt many readers.However
the Bose brothers were at the center of major events and in contact with key figures
whose significance Gordon explains in succinct paragraphs that will appeal to the
nonspecialist reader. The South Asian specialist may regret the fragmented character
of the analysis imposed by the chronological approach and the decision to cover
both brothers. The narrative-moves from Subhas to Sarat and back again. Sarat, the
lawyer who provided the Bose family with its income and was an important politician
in his own right, is shown to have had a devoted relationship with his younger
brother but not an intellectually or psychologically interesting one.
Early in the book, Gordon wrestles with Subhas's complex personality. Gordon
suggests that a childhood feeling of insignificance contributed to his rebelliousness
and ambivalence about authority. In any case, Subhas briefly left his remote father

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.203 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:13:38 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
422 THE JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES

to tour pilgrimage centers and look for a guru, and he participated in the beating
of one of his British professors. He drew heavily upon Hindu rather than British
models of thought. Thus, he disavowed sex and material pursuits and he identified
all women with the mother goddess, as if to remove them as sources of temptation.
Gordon has perceptive things to say about each of these matters, but these issues
are dropped and only briefly picked up again. Ultimately, Gordon seems not to be
deeply interested in the connection between Subhas's inner self and his public life.
Nevertheless, this study will be the beginning point for any person interested in
the Bose brothers.
JOHN R. McLANE
NorthwesternUniversity

The New CambridgeHistory of India: The Sikhs of the Punjab. By J. S.

GREWAL. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. xxv, 264
pp. $34.50.

J. S. Grewal's contribution to The New CambridgeHistoryof India is an excellent

single-volume history of the Sikhs. His is a history of a community delineated by
religion, which the author has skillfully placed within the complex historical context
of the Punjab. He sets the stage with an examination of the Turko-Afghan political
dominance in the fifteenth century and then follows with three chapters, which
proceed from the birth of Sikhism as a religion to the formation by 1708 of a
community, of the "Sikh Panth." Chapters 5 and 6 move through the creation of
the Sikh Kingdom to its annexation in 1849 by the British. The next two chapters
and a short epilogue contain Sikh developments within the new nation state of
India, bringing this history to a termination in 1989. Throughout, Grewal is careful
to examine a variety of dimensions of the Sikh experience: social, cultural, and
political, as well as the religious factors and their complex interrelations. Given the
limits on length imposed by this history series, his achievement is impressive and
is clearly the work of a mature scholar with a firm grasp of his subject.
Grewal writes from the perspective of Sikh "progress" that led to the creation
of the Sikh Panth, that is, from the dominant keshadharisection of that community.
He often uses two terms, "Sikh" and "Singh," interchangeably, thus demonstrating
his viewpoint that the "authentic" Sikhs are Singhs. He follows the development
of the "Sikh panth" and after independence increasingly employs the term "Akalis"
as a new grouping that comes to represent the totality of the Sikh community.
Grewal succeeds in covering multifaceted historical events and forces within the
length of this volume. At times, this broad approach, no doubt, forced numerous
choices as to what would be included and what excluded. For instance, in his discussion
of the period from 1849-1919 (pp. 128-55), Grewal does not discuss the differences
between the Amritsar Singh Sabha and the more radical and influential reformists
of the Lahore Singh Sabha movement.
The author himself sees as his most important contribution "That the present
volume takes into account the researchon Sikh history during the past two decades
may be regarded as the major claim upon the reader's attention" (p. xiii). In this
statement, Grewal underestimatesthe value of his publication. This is a fine volume,
carefully researched, well-written, and extensive in its coverage. By its thorough
examination of the Sikhs, and the internal and external forces that shaped their
community from the fifteenth to the late twentieth century, this single volume

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.203 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:13:38 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions