Right out of a spy thriller – that’s the best way to describe the life of the legendary Indian freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose, who in his passion to free India from British rule abandoned Gandhi for Hitler – and fell in love with a woman the Nazis would not let him marry.

Once a trusted ally of Gandhi, Bose abandoned the path of non-violent resistance and after 14 terms in British prisons fled to Germany, where Hitler’s Wehrmacht helped him equip and train a 3,500-man fighting force. The Indian national anthem and flag still in use today were created on German soil, and it was here, too, that Bose met the love of his life, Emilie Schenkl. Together they defied Nazi race laws, secretly marrying – and Emilie gave birth to Bose’s only daughter, Anita.

Bose himself did not live to see his dream of a free India realized, but despite his crucial political errors he is still celebrated alongside Gandhi and Nehru as a national hero. We speak with Bose’s contemporaries, trace his extra-ordinary journey through the minefields of wartime global politics and offer an unexpected glimpse at an at times Bizarre culture clash between the Indian Legion and their
Nazi hosts.
When the Nazis marched into Russia, Bose fled to Japan, and with 40,000 troops he launched an offensive over the Burmese-Indian border – only to suffer a crushing defeat.
His death a year later is still shrouded in mystery and rumours. Official reports claim he died in a fiery plane crash in Taiwan in 1945, but the latest Indian government commission has concluded that the plane crash never took place. Conspiracy theories that he was in fact held in a Soviet Gulag until the mid-1960s refuse to disappear.

Today, Bose is still celebrated in India – as is his daughter, Professor Anita Bose-Pfaff, who lives in Germany but is frequently honored in India as her father’s rightful spiritual heir. Together with her, we will examine her father’s past. There are many open questions in the life of one of the
most controversial personalities of the twentieth century.

In this exciting historical documentary we will trace his extraordinary path through the minefields of wartime global politics in search of the answers.

A CONTEXT TV Production

Production Consulting provided by Absolut Film-Management GmbH

Der indische Freiheitskämpfer Subhas Chandra Bose und die „Indische Legion“ – ein vergessenes Kapitel deutsch-indischer Geschichte.Sein Leben erinnert an einen Spionagethriller: Um sein Land von den Engländern zu befreien, flieht der einstige Vertraute Gandhis mitten im zweiten Weltkrieg um die halbe Welt – ausgerechnet nach Deutschland. Nach dem Motto „Der Feind meines Feindes ist mein Freund“ trifft er sich mit Adolf Hitler. Im Widerspruch zu den Rassengesetzen der Nazis heiratet er eine Österreicherin – nach hinduistischem Ritus.

Eine CONTEXT TV Production

Production Consulting durch Absolut Film-Management GmbH