It is imperative that we take a look back at the brilliant career of great patriot Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose when the country is celebrating Parakram Diwas on January 23.
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was born to Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati Devi in Cuttack, Orissa, on January 23, 1897. Subhash was the tenth child in a family of eight brothers and six sisters. His father, Janakinath Bose, had the title of “Rai Bahadur” and was a wealthy and prominent lawyer in Cuttack. Subhash Chandra Bose graduated from the Presidency College in Calcutta with a B.A. in philosophy.
Swami Vivekananda’s teachings had a significant impact on him, and as a young man, he was well-known for his zeal for his country. He passed the civil service test, but because of a strong desire to participate in the liberation fight, he resigned from the prestigious Indian Civil Service in April 1921 and returned to India. Bose was detained and jailed in December 1921 for planning a boycott of the events honouring the Prince of Wales’s visit to India. Chittaranjan Das was recognised as Bose’s political mentor. He was the publisher of the journal “Forward,” the founder of the daily “Swaraj,” and the CEO of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation during Chittaranjan Das’s tenure as mayor. The old and new members of the Congress disagreed in 1928 at the Guwahati Session of the Congress. The senior leaders supported “India’s dominion status within the British authority,” while the younger leaders favoured “full self-governance and without any compromise.”
Subhash Chandra Bose decided to leave the party in 1939 due to growing and irreparable conflicts between Bose and Gandhi. Later that year, he founded the Forward Bloc. Bose fiercely disagreed with Congress’s choice to aid the British during World War II. Bose pleaded with Indians for their enthusiastic engagement to start a mass movement. When he declared, “Give me blood, and I will give you freedom,” there was a tremendous response, and the British quickly imprisoned him. He announced a hunger strike while in custody. Because of his declining health and their concern for violent outbursts, they freed him but placed him under home arrest.
Subhash made a prearranged getaway in January 1941 and took a detour through Peshawar to get to Berlin, Germany. It was in Berlin where a plan was hatched to assassinate him. Prof. O’Halpin highlighted a plot to assassinate Bose in a speech he gave in 2005 at the Netaji Research Bureau, sponsored by his descendants. An authority on British intelligence, he said that records from the Special Operations (SO) group reveal that Bose’s murder was ordered on March 7, 1941, when British officials believed he was travelling through the Middle East to meet Adolf Hitler.
He received the complete backing of the Germans in his endeavours, and he also won Japan’s support. After making an adventurous voyage back east, he eventually arrived in Japan, where he led a command of more than 40,000 men recruited from Singapore and other south-east Asian countries. He commanded his force, which he referred to as the “Indian National Army” (INA), in capturing the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from the British and renaming them Shaheed and Swaraj Islands. In the territories taken, the Azad Hind Government had begun to run things. The INA, also known as the Azad Hind Fauj, sailed into India on March 18, 1944, crossed the Burmese border and landed on Indian soil.
However, one thing is sure the fake death certificate was issued by the Japanese. Even the plane crash theory has been completely negated. The time has come to research and know the truth about Subhash Chandra Bose’s later years. That will be the biggest tribute to the great nationalist.
