"Patriot of Patriots", is what Gandhiji described of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Subhash Chandra Bose was one of the most influential and charismatic leader of pre-Independence India .

His life was full of mystery and adventure and indeed his death has been a major issue and creates controversy from time to time.

Here we will try to look at some of the events of his life and salute this great man, whose contribution to the Indian freedom movement is immense.

Childhood & Early life of Netaji

Netaji Subhash Chandra was born on January 23rd 1897 in Cuttack (in present day Orissa) as the ninth child among fourteen, of Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati devi.

Rai Bahadur Jankinath Bose was a public lawyer by profession. He was a public prosecutor in Cuttak and later became a member of the Bengal Legislative Council.

The family of Subhash Chandra Bose was a large one consisting of eight brothers and six sisters.

At school, he was always serious, reserved and did not take much interest in sports. The sadhus and pilgrims visiting Puri, the famous shrine near his place, fascinated him.

He was an intelligent kid and stood second in the School examination and took admission in Presidency college, Calcutta.

An interesting episode came in this college in 1916. Here he beat an English professor because of his racist attitude towards Indians. As a result he was expelled from the college.

But his father refused to admit him to another college. Over the course of time he got readmitted in the same University in philosophy.

He passed with flying colours and achieved first class Honours in philosophy.

Recognising his son's intellect, his father was determined that Bose should become a high ranking Indian Civil Servicet (ICS). So he sent him to England for further studies.

In 1920, Bose passed the Civil Service open examination and stood fourth overall with the highest marks in English.

But by this time the Jalianwala Baug massacre had taken place which had disturbed him greatly. Even though he passed the ICS, he was not interested in serving the Britishers.

At this time Gandhiji had established himself as a leader of the masses. Like many others Bose was also influenced by Gandhiji. So he went to Gandhiji and offered himself to work for the Indian National Congress. Gandhiji was not able to turn down this humble request and sent him to Calcutta to work under Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das.

During the period 1921-25 he was mainly involved in the activities around Calcutta and was arrested on numerous occasions.

In Dec 1921, Bose organised a boycott of the celebrations to mark the Prince of Wales's visit to India. This led to his being imprisoned.

Later he was again imprisoned along with Deshbandhu and the two lived together in jail, where Bose served his leader humbly, even cooking his food. From this time Bose considered Deshbandhu as his Guru.

Netaji In Germany During WW II

Initially Bose wanted to go to Russia, but in the end he reached Germany, because the Russians were not very interested in Indian Independence.

Bose was welcome in Germany, although the news of his arrival there was kept a secret for some time for political reasons. The German Foreign Office, which was assigned the primary responsibility of dealing with Bose and taking care of him, had been well informed of the background and political status of the Indian leader through its pre-war Consulate-General at Calcutta and also by its representative in Kabul.

Bose himself, naturally somewhat impatient for getting into action soon after his arrival in Berlin, submitted a memorandum to the German government on 9th April 1941 which outlined a plan for co-operation between the Axis powers and India. Among other things, it called for the setting up of a "Free India Government" in Europe, preferably in Berlin; establishment of a Free India broadcasting station calling upon the Indian people to assert their independence and rise up in revolt against the British authorities; underground work in Afghanistan involving independent tribal territories lying between Afghanistan and India and within India itself for fostering and aiding the revolution; provision of finances by Germany in the form of a loan to the Free India government-in-exile; and deployment of German military contingents to smash the British army in India.

In a supplementary memorandum bearing the same date, Bose requested that an early pronouncement be made regarding the freedom of India and the Arab countries.

It is significant to note that the memorandum did not mention the need for formation of an Indian legion. Evidently the idea of recruiting the Indian prisoners of war for the purpose of establishing a nucleus of an Indian national army did not occur to him during his early days in Berlin.

At that time the German government was in the process of formulating its own plan for dealing with Subhash Chandra Bose in the best possible manner. The Foreign Office felt itself inadequate to discharge this awesome responsibility without referring the whole matter to Hitler. While this issue was being considered at the highest level of the government, Bose's own requests made it far too complicated and involved to be resolved at an early date.

There was a long wait for Bose, during which period he often tended to become frustrated. Nevertheless, through several sympathetic officers of the Foreign Office, he continued to press his requests and put forth new ideas.

Finally, after months of waiting and many moments of disappointment often bordering on despair for Bose, Germany agreed to give him unconditional and all-out help.

The two immediate results of this decision were the establishment of a Free India Center and inauguration of a Free India Radio, both beginning their operations in November 1941. These two organisations played vital and significant roles in projecting Bose's increasing activities in Germany. The German government put at Bose's disposal adequate funds to run these two organizations, and he was allowed complete freedom to run them the way he liked at his own discretion.

In its first official meeting on 2 November 1941, the Free India Center adopted some historical resolutions that would serve as guidelines for the entire movement in subsequent months and years in Europe and Asia.
First, Jai Hind or Victory to India, would be the official form of salutation; secondly, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's famous patriotic song "Jana Gana Mana" was to be the national anthem for the free India Bose was fighting for; thirdly, in a multilingual state like India, the most widely-spoken language, Hindustani, was to be the national language.

During this period both the BBC and Writer, acting like the mouthpieces of the British government, declared that Netaji had died.

In November 1941, Azad Hind Radio (or the Free India Radio) opened its program with an announcing speech by Netaji himself, which, in fact, was a disclosure of his identity that had been kept officially secret for so long. He said " I am Subhash Chandra Bose who is still alive and talking to you". During this broadcast he called Gandhiji as the father of the nation. This message sent shockwave through the British because they did not want to loose India at that crucial stage of the war.

Netaji with Japan during WW II

On 15 February 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese army advancing southward from the Malayan peninsula. Two days later, in an impressive ceremony held at Farrar Park in the heart of the town, [British] Indian troops were handed over to the Japanese as prisoners-of-war by their commanding officer, Colonel Hunt.

Major Fujiwara took them over on behalf of the victorious Japanese, and then announced that he was handing them over to Captain Mohan Singh of the Indian contingents, who should be obeyed by them as their Supreme Commander. Mohan Singh then spoke to the Indian POWs, expressing his intention of raising an Indian national army out of them to fight for India's freedom. He held a preliminary discussion with some prominent Indians in Malay and Burma in a meeting in Singapore on 9 and 10 March, which was attended by Rashbihari Bose, a veteran Indian revolutionary exile living in Japan for the last quarter of a century.

Bose then called a conference in Tokyo, which was held 28-30 March. The delegates representing several East and Southeast Asian countries present at the conference decided to form the Indian Independence League to organize an Indian independence movement in East Asia. Bose was recognized as head of the organization.

The conference further resolved that "military action against the British in India will be taken only by the INA and under Indian command, together with such military, naval and air cooperation and assistance as may be requested from the Japanese by the Council of Action" and further, "after the liberation of India, the framing of the future constitution of India will be left entirely to the representatives of the people of India."

On 15 June 1942, a conference opened in Bangkok with over a hundred delegates of the IIL [Indian Independence League] attending from all over Asia. By the close of the nine-day conference a resolution was unanimously adopted setting forth the policies of the independence movement in East Asia.

The IIL was proclaimed the organization to work for India's freedom; the Indian National Army was declared the military arm of the movement with Mohan Singh as the Commander-in-chief and Rashbehari Bose was elected president of the Council of Action. It was further decided that Singapore would be the headquarters of the IIL.

Netaji had stated in a message to the conference that his personal experience had convinced him that Japan, Italy and Germany were sworn enemies of British imperialism; yet, independence could come only through the efforts of Indians themselves. India's freedom would mean the rout of British imperialism. The Indian National Army was officially inaugurated in September 1942.

Unfortunately, at this point distrust began to grow within the Indian group against Rasbihari Bose's leadership. Some thought that having been long associated with Japan, he gave precedence to the Japanese interests over Indian interests. According to Japanese records:

Some even thought that he was just the protégé of the Japanese, and that the latter were exploiting Indians for their own ends. Such resentment finally resulted in a revolt of a group of leaders headed by Captain Mohan Singh within the INA in November 1942. As a consequence, Mohan Singh and his associate, Colonel Gill, were both arrested by the Japanese and the Indian Army was disbanded. However, in 1943 a new Indian Army was organized, put under the command of Lt. Col. Bhonsle, who held this post until the final dissolution of the army.

Describing the revived INA. Joyce Lebra writes:

On 15 February 1943, the INA was reorganized and former ranks and badges revived. The Director of the Military Bureau, Lieutenant-Colonel Bhonsle, was clearly placed under the authority of the IIL to avoid any repetition of IIL-ANA rivalry. Under Bhonsle was Lt. Col. Shah Nawaz Khan as Chief of General Staff, Major P.K. Sahgal as Military Secretary; Major Habibur Rahman as commandant of the Officers' Training School; and Lt. Col. A.C. Chatterji, and later Major A.D. Jahangir, as head of enlightenment and culture. Apart from this policy-forming body was the Army itself, under the command of Lt. Col. M.Z. Kiani. This was the organization which held the INA together until the arrival of Subhash Chandra Bose from Berlin, six months later.

In February, the Japanese military officer Iwakuro had called a meeting of about three hundred officers of the INA at Bidadri camp in Singapore and spoke to them about the advisability of joining the army, but with no effect. According to Ghosh, "Later on, in a 'heart-to-heart talk' with some officers, it emerged that a large number of officers and men would be willing to continue in the INA on the express condition that Netaji would be coming to Singapore."

Netaji & Gandhiji

While Gandhiji advocated non-violence and talks with the British, Netaji was of the opinion that there should be no compromise with the British and that every means should be used to free India.

In spite of that Gandhiji and Netaji were extremely fond of each other.Netaji started his political life by going to Gandhiji, who directed him to work under Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das.

He resigned from the post of the INC president only because of the opposition of Gandhiji.