Subhas Chandra Bose, commonly known as Netaji, was born and brought up on January 23 1897, in Cuttack, Orissa. A true revolutionary, Netaji dedicated his life to free India from the Britishers in the 20th century. He was an influential personality in the Independence movement and even in the second World War where he flew with his own army and training officials. His quotes such as ‘It is blood alone that can pay the price of freedom’, ‘Life loses half its interest if there is no struggle if there are no risks to be taken’, are still relevant even in this modern world. Here is a compilation of Netaji’s life in pictures, especially in the political spectrum, which captures his valour and personality as it must have been.
Netaji was born in a wealthy family and studied in Presidency College, Calcutta. He was expelled from the university for ‘nationalist activist’. He later went to the Scottish Churches colleges where he graduated in 2017. In 1920 he passed the civil service examination, but in April 1921, after hearing of the nationalist turmoil in India, he resigned his candidacy and hurried back to India.
Bose was advised by Gandhi to work under Chitta Ranjan Das, a politician in Bengal. There Bose became a youth educator, journalist, and commandant of the Bengal Congress volunteers. He then joined the non-cooperation movement. Although his activity landed him jail. In 1924, he was appointed as the chief executive officer of Calcutta Municipal Corporation.
Bose was then deported to Burma due to his revolutionary movements. Released in 1927, he returned to find Bengal Congress affairs in disarray after the death of Das, and Bose was elected president of the Bengal Congress. Shortly thereafter he and Jawaharlal Nehru became the two general secretaries of the Indian National Congress. Together they represented the more militant, left-wing faction of the party against the more compromising, right-wing Gandhian faction.
Netaji’s confrontation with Gandhi accelerated as their ideologies over economic and political policies grew louder. Bose’s vindication came in 1939 when he defeated a Gandhian rival for re-election. Nonetheless, the “rebel president” felt bound to resign because of the lack of Gandhi’s support. He founded the Forward Bloc, hoping to rally radical elements, but was again incarcerated in July 1940.
His refusal to remain in prison at this critical period of India’s history was expressed in a determination to fast to death, which frightened the British government into releasing him. On January 26, 1941, though closely watched, he escaped from his Calcutta residence in disguise and, travelling via Kabul and Moscow, eventually reached Germany in April.
In Nazi Germany Bose came under the tutelage of a newly created Special Bureau for India, guided by Adam von Trott zu Solz. He and other Indians who had gathered in Berlin made regular broadcasts from the German-sponsored Azad Hind Radio beginning in January 1942, speaking in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and Pashto.
On July 4, after leaving Germany, he assumed leadership of the Indian Independence Movement in East Asia and proceeded, with Japanese aid and influence, to form a trained army of about 40,000 troops in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia.
In a stubborn battle, the mixed Indian and Japanese forces, lacking Japanese air support, were defeated and forced to retreat; the Indian National Army nevertheless for some time succeeded in maintaining its identity as a liberation army, based in Burma and then Indochina. With the defeat of Japan, however, Bose’s fortunes ended.
A few days after Japan’s announced surrender in August 1945, Bose, fleeing Southeast Asia, reportedly died in a Japanese hospital in Taiwan as a result of burn injuries from a plane crash.
Subhas Chandra Bose reportedly died in a Japanese hospital in Taiwan from burn injuries on August 18, 1945, as a result of a plane crash while fleeing Southeast Asia, days after World War II ended with the surrender of Japan (which had been supporting Bose and his liberation army).
Netaji was born in a wealthy family and studied in Presidency College, Calcutta. He was expelled from the university for ‘nationalist activist’. He later went to the Scottish Churches colleges where he graduated in 2017. In 1920 he passed the civil service examination, but in April 1921, after hearing of the nationalist turmoil in India, he resigned his candidacy and hurried back to India.
