Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was born on 23 January, 1897 in Cuttack (Orissa) to Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati Devi. Netaji was the ninth child among eight brothers and six sisters. His father, Janakinath Bose, was an affluent and successful lawyer in Cuttack and received the title of "Rai Bahadur". He later became a member of the Bengal Legislative Council.

He passed his B.A. in Philosophy from the Presidency College in Calcutta. He was strongly influenced by Swami Vivekananda's teachings and was known for his patriotic zeal as a student. He also adored Vivekananda as his spiritual Guru. Subhash Chandra Bose was a very intelligent and sincere student but never had much interest in sports.

In 1916, Netaji reportedly beat and thrashed one of his British teachers E F Otten. The professor made a racist remark against the Indian students. As a result, Bose was expelled from the Presidency College and banished from Calcutta University. The incident brought Netaji in the list of rebel-Indians. In December 1921, Bose was arrested and imprisoned for organizing a boycott of the celebrations to mark the Prince of Wales's visit to India.

His father wanted Netaji to become a civil servant and therefore, sent him to England to appear for the Indian Civil Service Examination. Bose was placed fourth with highest marks in English. But his urge for participating in the freedom movement was intense that in April 1921, Bose resigned from the coveted Indian Civil Service and came back to India. Soon, he left home to become an active member of India's independence movement. He, later joined the Indian National Congress, and also elected as the president of the party.

People began to recognize Netaji by his name and associated him with the freedom movement. Netaji had emerged as a popular youth leader. He was admired for his great skills in organization development.

In 1928, a difference in the opinion between the old and new members surfaced. The young leaders, wanted a "complete self-rule and without any compromise". The senior leaders were in favor of the "dominion status for India within the British rule".

The differences were swelling between moderate Gandhi and aggressive Subhash Chandra Bose. Subhash Chandra Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, a presidential candidate, nominated by Gandhiji himself, but without any second thought he resigned from the party and formed the Forward Bloc in 1939.

During the Second World War in September, 1939, Subhash Chandra Bose decided to initiate a mass movement. He started uniting people from all over the country. There was a tremendous response to his call and the British promptly imprisoned him. In jail, he refused to accept food for around two weeks. When his health condition deteriorated, fearing violent reactions across the country, the authority put him under house-arrest.

During his house-arrest, in January, 1941, Netaji made a planned escape. He first went to Gomoh in Bihar and from there he went on to Peshawar (now, Pakistan). He finally reached Germany and met Hitler. Netaji had been living together with his wife Emilie Schenkl in Berlin. In 1943, Netaji left for south-east Asia and raised the army. The group was later named by Netaji, as the Indian National Army (INA).

During his sojourn to England, he met with the leaders of British Labor Party and political thinkers including Clement Attlee, Arthur Greenwood, Harold Laski, G.D.H. Cole, and Sir Stafford Cripps. Netaji also discussed with them about the future of India. It must also be noted that it was during the regime of the Labor Party (1945-1951), with Attlee as the Prime Minister, that India gained independence.

Although it was believed that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash, his body was never recovered. Too many theories have been put forward regarding his abrupt disappearance. The government of India set up a number of committees to investigate the case and come out with truth, none succeeded.


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