On Tuesday, a handful of octogenarian veterans from Mr. Bose’s Indian National Army, or Azad Hind Fauj, gathered at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, mingling with former Singapore President S.R. Nathan, among others. The occasion: the Southeast Asia release of “A Gentleman’s Word,” a book on the legacy of “Netaji,” as Mr. Bose was fondly called.
Subhas Chandra Bose, an Indian leader who fought against British rule, is widely acknowledged as one of the most important historical threads between Southeast Asia and India in the first half of the 20th century.
But he’s also a divisive figure, loved by many for leading an army which hastened Britain’s withdrawal from India but condemned by others for turning to Imperial Japan, one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century, to achieve that end. Full story
