The Hidden Patriot

Description

About the book

Calcutta, 1943. India, under the British Raj, is a virtual police state.

To maintain ‘order’, the Raj seeks out loyalists and cultivates them to keep an eye out for troublemakers.

Prof. Amal Ghosh, a well-known playwright and a darling of the British Raj, is being assessed as a potential collaborator and gets entangled in a labyrinth of lies and deception.

What misfortune would gravitate him towards anti-British activities inspired by Netaji Subhas and turn him into a suspect? How would Ghosh emerge unscathed to become a government minister post independence? And what damning discovery would he make about his past life?

The answers to these questions would be revealed in this journey of surveillance, self-realization and gratitude.

About the author

Prof. Subhadeep Banerjee was born and grew up in Calcutta, the cultural capital of India. He is very passionate about cinema and music. In particular, he is very fond of classic Hollywood movies dating back to 1940s and 50s era. He is inspired by the style of storytelling built around powerful central characters as depicted in those movies. Subhadeep is also deeply motivated by the exploits of freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in challenging the might of the British Empire and helping India secure her freedom from British rule and is very keen to learn the truth about the disappearance of Netaji post 18th August 1945. He feels that the various stories of revolutionary uprisings against the British Raj need to be told sufficiently for the present generation and posterity. Thus, he has embarked upon a new journey in the field of writing historical fiction about pre-independent India.
He is a scientist by training who did his MS in Chemistry from Cornell University followed by a PhD from University of Connecticut in 2011. He is an academic by profession and is employed as an associate professor of Chemistry at Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus since 2013. His other hobbies include playing guitar and enjoys a wide variety of musical genres ranging from classic rock, heavy metal to Bollywood numbers.