Remembering heroes of Indian Independence: Subhash Chandra Bose

New Delhi: Subhash Chandra Bose was one of India's greatest freedom fighters. He was the founder of the Indian National Army, popularly known as 'Azad Hind Fauj'. He was born on 23 January, 1897 in Cuttack (Odisha) to Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati Devi. Janakinath Bose was one of the successful lawyers in Cuttack and received the title of "Rai Bahadur". He, later became a member of the Bengal Legislative Council. Subhash Chandra Bose passed his B.A. in Philosophy from 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 born rebel and he never tolerated injustice. It is said that he once beat a European professor and was punished for it. In December 1921, Bose was arrested and imprisoned for organizing a boycott of the celebrations to mark the Prince of Wales' visit to India. Subhash Chandra Bose believed in the saying ‘Sword for Sword' in the fight against British. His most famous slogan was "Give me blood and I will give you freedom". Another famous quote was Dilli Chalo ("On to Delhi)!" Jai Hind, or, "Glory to India!" was another slogan used by him and later adopted by the Government of India and the Indian Armed Forces. He was elected as President of the India National Congress at the Tripura session but as he could not agree with the views of Gandhiji he resigned from the presidentship of the Indian National Congress and founded the All India Forward Bloc in 1939. In September, 1939, the Second World Was broke out. In July, 1940 Subhash Chandra Bose was arrested by the British government along with many other Congress leaders under the Defence of India Rules. Subhash Chandra Bose undertook a fast unto death in the prison against continued detention. He was released but was kept under house arrest in his residence with round-the-clock vigil. Bose nevertheless escaped in January 1941 and reached Berlin in April 1941 travelling through Peshawar, Kabul and Moscow. His purpose in going to Berlin was to enlist the help and support of Adolf Hitler for the freedom struggle in India. That was not easy. Bose submitted a memorandum explaining his cause to the German dictator Adolf Hitler. But it was only the fiery personality of Bose and his unwavering conviction of purpose that ultimately made Hitler to agree to his proposal. Bose established a Free India Centre in November 1941. This centre gave birth to Azad Hind Movement. Bose received the title “Netaji” during this time. Netaji with the help and cooperation of Indian youth and prisoners of war in Germany raised the ‘Indian Legion' a national militia to struggle for India's freedom. He christened the Legion as “Azad Hind Fauz”. The Legion was trained by the German Army in various fields of war. Leaving the command of Azad Hind Fauz in the hands of A.C.N. Nambiar, Netaji left Germany on his onward journey to Japan. He covered 25,000 kms by sea. He was warmly received in Japan and was declared the head of the Indian army, which consisted of about 40,000 soldiers from Singapore and other eastern regions. These soldiers were united by another great revolutionary Rash Behari Bose. Rash Behari handed the soldiers over to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Netaji Bose called it the Indian National Army (INA) and a government by the name "Azad Hind Government" was declared on 21st of October 1943. INA freed the Andaman and Nicobar islands from the British and were renamed as Swaraj and Shaheed islands. The Azad Hind government started functioning. Army leadership, administration and communications were managed by Indians only. Subhash Brigade, Azad Brigade and Gandhi Brigade were formed. INA marched through Burma and occupied Cox's Bazaar town on the Indian border. A touching scene ensued when the solders entered their 'free' motherland. Some lay down and kissed, some placed pieces of Mother earth on their heads, others wept. They were now inside India and were determined to drive out the British. Delhi Chalo (Let's march to Delhi) was the war cry. Bose's effort, however, was shortlived; in 1945 the British army first halted and then reversed the Japanese offensive in the battle of Manipur, beginning the successful part of the Burma Campaign. The INA was driven down the Malay Peninsula, and surrendered with the recapture of Singapore.It was reported that Bose died soon thereafter from severe burns received after attempting to escape in an overloaded Japanese plane which crashed in Taiwan. This version is however disputed, with some supporters believing that Bose was captured by Soviet forces. The trials of INA soldiers at Red Fort, Delhi, in late 1945 caused a huge public response in India.Although it was believed that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash, his body was never recovered.Japan however says, his ashes have been preserved in an urn at the Renkoji temple. Several commissions of inquiry were set up but none of them were able to unravel the truth about Netaji's disappearance or death.Read More......Remembering India's first war of Independence: Revolt of 1857Remembering heroes of Indian Independence: Frontier GandhiRemembering India's freedom fighters: Lala Lajpat RaiUnsung heroes of Indian independence: Know more about Udham SinghKnow more about Khudiram Bose the unsung hero of Indian IndependenceRemembering India's freedom fighters: Shaheed Bhagat Singh