Friend of Nehru and Bose
It was there that Subhas
Sugata Bose
W
here is Nambiar?, Subhas
Chandra Bose asked his wife
Emilie Schenkl on his arrival in
Europe in April 1941 after his great escape
from India. Bose tracked down his friend
Arathil Candeth Narayanan Nambiar in
Foix, France, and they met in Paris in
August 1941. Nambiar joined the Free
India Centre in Berlin as Boses deputy in
January 1942. Once Bose left on his sub-
marine voyage to Asia in February 1943,
Nambiar took charge of the Free India
Centre and the Indian Legion in Europe
for the remaining years of World War II
(S Bose 2011: 206, 227, 229). He suffered
incarceration and interrogation by the
British at the Wars end. Life came full
circle when Jawaharlal Nehru appointed
him as the first Ambassador of India to
the Federal Republic of Germany in
1955. A bridge between Bose and Nehru,
A C N Nambiar was a remarkable, if
somewhat elusive, anti-colonial revolu-
tionary in his own right.
Vappala Balachandran must be con-
gratulated for supplying a shaft of light
to illuminate a life in the shadows. The
author knew Nambiar only for the final six
years of his life, from 1980 to 1986. While
working on an intelligence assignment
in Europe under diplomatic cover, he met
Nambiar in Zurich and took care of the
elder statesmans needs under the instruc-
tion of Indira Gandhi. This was a social
responsibility entrusted to him, not part
of his official work. Nambiar had served
as the young Indiras guardian in Europe
during the 1930s and remained an avun-
cular if not a father figure for her until her
tragic assassination on 31 October 1984.
Balachandran continued to look after
Nambiar after he returned to India in
1984, until his death in 1986. His book is
based on a transcript of Nambiars dicta-
tions of his memoirs in 1985. He has also
used B R Nandas interview of Nambiar
conducted in 1972, British intelligence
records, Bombay Special Branch files and
Economic & Political Weekly EPW JUNE 24, 2017
book reviewS
A Life in Shadow: The Secret Story of ACN
NambiarA Forgotten Anti-Colonial Warrior by
Vappala Balachandran; New Delhi: the Lotus Collection (An
Imprint of Roli Books), 2016; pp 344, `695.
relevant secondary sources. The author
seems unaware of Nambiars fascinating
interview to Sisir Kumar Bose and Krishna
Bose at his flat on the Spiegelgasse in
Zurich in September 1971, a year before
the interview by Nanda, with rich details
of his work with Subhas Chandra Bose
that were described in Krishna Boses
book, Itihaser Sandhane (In Search of
History; 1972: 99102).
Expatriate Patriotism
Nambiar was born in Kadiroor village
near Tellicherry in Kerala on 2 June
1896, and spent his student days in
Madras. Balachandran has reconstructed
the story of his youth, especially his tu-
multuous and troubled marriage with
Suhasini Chattopadhyay, the youngest
sister of Sarojini Naidu and Virendranath
Chattopadhyay. Nambiar first travelled
to Europe in 1919 and was permanently
settled there from 1922 onwards. In 1924,
he shifted from London to Berlin, which
he found far more thrilling and excit-
ing (p 31). Berlin was the central di-
asporic space where Indian anti-colonial
revolutionaries congregated between the
two world wars, as Kris Manjapra has
shown in his brilliant book, Age of Entan-
glement (2014). Nambiar was a key figure
in this history of Indian expatriate patri-
otism in Europe from the 1920s to the
1940s. His name was well known in India
as the author of incisive articles on in-
ternational politics and culture in the
Hindu of Madras and the Forward of
Calcutta managed by Sarat Chandra Bose.
Soon after the Reichstag fire incident of
27 February 1933, Nambiar was expelled
from Nazi Germany and took up residence
vol liI nos 25 & 26
in Prague.
Chandra Bose met him when he arrived
from Vienna on 29 June 1933, for meetings
with Eduard Benes, foreign minister of
Czechoslovakia, and professor V Lesny of
the Oriental Institute in Prague. Bose re-
turned to Prague the following year for the
launch of the IndoCzechoslovak Friend-
ship Association on 4 May 1934, at the
Lobkowitz Palace. Nambiar played a key
role in helping Bose organise Indian stu-
dents and forge relationships with politi-
cians and intellectuals in Czechoslovakia
and other countries of central Europe.
Nambiar had met Nehru in 1927 (p 118).
He saw Indira for the first time in 1935
when she accompanied her gravely ill
mother Kamala to Vienna and Subhas
Chandra Bose received mother and
daughter at the station and later accom-
panied Kamala on her train journey up
to Prague. Nambiar was witness to the
meetings between Nehru and Bose in
1935 in Badenweiler where Kamala Nehru
received treatment for pulmonary tuber-
culosis at a sanatorium. Subhas was by
Jawaharlals side when Kamala died in
Lausanne on 28 February 1936 and
helped with the funeral arrangements
(S Bose 2011: 90, 10304, 107).
Nambiar visited Bose in Badgastein in
December 1937 and received him in Prague
in January 1938, when Bose met President
Benes. Nambiar was also on hand for
Jawaharlal and Indiras trip to Prague
later in 1938. In March 1939, Nambiar was
forced to flee Czechoslovakia when the
German army stormed into the country.
Forty years later, on 19 April 1979, he
wrote to Sisir Kumar Bose from Zurich:
I had with me in Prague round sixty letters of
your uncle written during his stay in Europe
when a new world war, so to say, was in the
offing. They were of historic interest, some,
carried too prophetic import. All these got lost
to me when I had to leave my flat in great hurry
in March 1939. My flat in Prague and all that it
contained I was not to see again. I also lost,
never to see again, a long and interesting letter I
got from your uncle in Foix (France) in the pe-
riod of the Second World War, as well as, a letter
I got from Tokyo somewhat later. (Oracle 2017)
Sisir had invited him to serve on the
editorial advisory board of the multi-
volume Collected Works of Netaji to be
published by the Netaji Research Bureau.
59
BOOK REVIEW

Nambiar did so until he passed away in
January 1986 and also promised to send
Sisir reports of some interesting talks
he had with Netaji (Oracle 2017).
Nambiar sent at least one such report
of his conversation with Subhas Chandra
Bose in Paris in August 1941. Over a
glass of dubonnet in a Parisian caf, Bose
explained to Nambiar three possible out-
comes of the war and the different ways
in which their wartime anti-colonial
activities could enhance the Indian cause
in each of these scenarios. Nambiar was
a better conversationalist than a writer
and had vividly narrated the experience
of this and his other meetings with Netaji
to Sisir Kumar Bose and Krishna Bose in
1971 (Nambiar 1982: 6162; K Bose 1972:
96113). Nambiar travelled by train with
Netaji, Abid Hasan and Alexander Werth
from Berlin to Kiel on 8 February 1943,
and saw Netaji and Abid Hasan off on their
submarine voyage in the early morning
hours of 9 February 1943. Netaji had been
insistent that the Indian Legion must not
be deployed against the Soviet Union on
the eastern front and that it would fight
only against Britain. Despite pressure
from the German authorities, Nambiar was
able to maintain Netajis position on this
crucial matter. Detachments of the Indian
Legion only saw action against Allied
landings in France during 1944 and 1945.
Balachandran has reproduced a fascinat-
ing letter from Nambiar addressed to
My dear Netaji on 12 January 1945,
which shows clearly that, despite his anti-
Nazi ideology, Nambiar was fully com-
mitted to the realpolitik of utilising the
international war crisis to fight for In-
dias freedom (pp 30407).
Netaji was a one-idea man: singly for
the independence of India, Nambiar had
said to Sisir Kumar Bose and Krishna Bose.
I think the only departure, he explained,
if one might use the word departure, was
his love for Miss Schenkl; otherwise he
was completely absorbed. He was deeply
in love with her, you see. In fact, it was
an enormous, intense love (Bose 1972;
Illustrated Weekly of India 1972). Subhas
and Emilies daughter Anita was born on
29 November 1942. Nambiar described
how he travelled to Vienna with Netaji in
December 1942 and was with Bose when
he first saw his daughter (Bose 1972: 104).
In 1947 Nehru learned from Abdul Hafiz
Akmut that Boses wife and daughter were
facing severe privation in post-war Vienna.
Nehru immediately wrote to Nambiar on
7 August 1947 to enquire about the facts
and said we shall naturally try to help
(pp 16768). Even though Emilie refused
help, Nehru made arrangements to sup-
port young Anitas education in the 1950s.
When Anita made her first visit to India in
December 1960, she stayed with the Prime
Minister in New Delhi. Balachandran
rightly dismisses the needless gossip
that Nehru did not care for Boses family
as quite incorrect (p 168).
In the autumn of 1948, Sarat Chandra
Bose and his family travelled through
Switzerland en route to Vienna where
they warmly welcomed Emilie and
Anita into the family. A C N Nambiar,
Sisir Kumar Bose writes in his memoir,
Uncle Subhass close associate in Germany
during the war, was waiting for us at the
railway station in Zurich when Uncle
Subhas and Pandit Nehru visited Europe,
Nambiar became very close and friendly
with both of them. He was fluent in German,
a most engaging conversationalist, and we
were charmed by him. (S K Bose 2016: 246)
Nambiar told the Boses about Netajis
difficult negotiations with Germany and
Italy during the war.
Nambiar himself had emerged from
detention with the help of his lifelong
friend Eva Geissler and was finding his feet
again in post-war Europe. In 1951, Nehru
offered him the post of High Commissioner
to Ceylon, which the Europhile Nambiar

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60 june 24, 2017 vol lii nos 25 & 26 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

refused. In 1954, he became ambassador
to Sweden and then, in 1955, Indias first
ambassador to the Federal Republic of
Germany. He was a highly capable diplo-
mat, but the Cold War context ensured
that he was not as successful as he might
have been in building ties between West
Germany and India. He was unable to per-
suade Nehru to issue an invitation to
Konrad Adenauer to visit India. Despite
Nambiars close friendship with Nehru,
there was another man from Kerala at the
time commanding a stronger influence on
the Prime Minister in the realm of foreign
policy. This was V K Krishna Menon. Nam-
biar formally retired from diplomatic ser-
vice in 1958, but his correspondence and
meetings with Nehru until their last
goodbye in March 1964 shed light on in-
ternational politics before and after the
SinoIndian war of 1962.
From Indu
Balachandrans book is strongest on the
period from 1980 to 1986 about which he
has personal knowledge. It is fascinating
to learn about the fostering care Indira
Gandhi showered on the octogenarian
Economic & Political Weekly EPW june 24, 2017
Nambiar. She took a detour from Gene-
va to Zurich in March 1981 just to say
hello to Nambiar. It is so long since we
have met, she wrote, and I have been
deeply concerned about the state of your
health (Appendix VII). The 18 letters
written to My dear Nanu by a loving
and affectionate Indu, reproduced by
Balachandran, are precious historical doc-
uments. They reveal Indiras grief at the
death of her younger son, her anguish at
being denied access to her grandson by
her younger daughter-in-law, and the
depth of her concern for the well-being of
someone who had been a father figure
since 1935. But, they also contain the Prime
Ministers candid assessments of the trou-
bles in Punjab and the new regional poli-
tics of Andhra Pradesh in the early 1980s.
The last letter, handwritten and dated
22 October 1984, reads as follows:
My dear Nanu,
It is nice to have you back in India. But please
dont think it is an imposition for you to drop
in at meal times when you feel like it, or at
any other time. If you let me know at what
time you have your meals, we can always
send something.
Affectionate greetings, Indu (Appendix VI)
vol lii nos 25 & 26
BOOK REVIEW
Indira Gandhis violent death within
two weeks of his return to India came as
a great shock to Nambiar. A dry letter
from Rajiv Gandhi addressing him as
Dear Nambiarji in response to his letter
of condolences upset him. Nambiar died
a lonely man in January 1986.
Deserves a Rightful Place
Balachandrans excellent book contains a
few avoidable errors of fact. For exam-
ple, Subhas Chandra Bose could not
have been walking with Vithalbhai Patel
in 1935 (p 144). Vithalbhai had died on
22 October 1933. Balachandran seems to
suggest Nambiar played a leading role at
the first meeting of the Free India Centre
in Berlin on 2 November 1941, where
resolutions were passed by Netaji formally
adopting Jai Hind as the national
greeting, Jana Gana Mana as the national
anthem, and Hindustani as the national
language (p 163). Nambiar arrived in
Berlin from France only in January 1942
and became Boses deputy from that
point onwards. The book needed a much
better system of citation of primary and
secondary sources.
61
BOOK REVIEW
Overall, Balachandran offers an astute
assessment of Nambiar. Had Netaji not
picked him for special tasks, he would
have been known only as a senior jour-
nalist stationed in Europe. He performed
these special tasks with dedication and
distinction. He acquitted himself with
credit when Nehru appointed him
Ambassador to the Federal Republic of
Germany. In October 2014, preposterous
reports appeared in the Indian media
describing Nambiar as a Soviet spy based
on a complete misunderstanding of a de-
classified intelligence file in the National
Archives of the UK. Nambiar had indeed
been part of a very public Indian delega-
tion to Moscow in the late 1920s that
62
included Sreenivasa Iyengar and called
on all of the top Soviet leaders. Balachan-
dran correctly concludes that Nambiar
was never recruited by any intelligence
agency (p 267). Unintended and will-
ful misreading of intelligence reports
alike, Balachandran cautions generally,
contribute to false, tendentious claims
and opportunistic politicking (p 272).
A unique link between Nehru and
Bose, A C N Nambiar fully deserves to be
rescued from obscurity and given his
rightful place in the history of Indian
anti-imperialism in Europe.
Sugata Bose (sbose@fas.harvard.edu) is
Gardiner Professor of History, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, US.
june 24, 2017
References
Bose, Krishna (1972): Itihaser Sandhane, Calcutta:
Ananda.
Bose, Sisir Kumar (2016): Subhas and Sarat: An Inti-
mate Memoir of the Bose Brothers, New Delhi:
Aleph.
Bose, Sugata (2011): His Majestys Opponent: Sub-
has Chandra Bose and Indias Struggle against
Empire, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press.
Illustrated Weekly of India (1972): Important Women
in Netajis Life, 13, 20 August.
Manjapra, Kris (2014): Age of Entanglement:
German and Indian Intellectuals across
Empire, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Nambiar, A C N (1982): A Memorable Meeting in
Paris with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose,
Vol 4, No 1, January.
Oracle (2017): A C N Nambiar to Sisir Kumar
Bose, letter dated 19 April 1979, Vol 39, No 1,
January.
vol lii nos 25 & 26 EPW Economic & Political Weekly