Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is a Noble selfless fighter against Imperialism and is a legendary figure in India even today. Subhas Chandra Bose was born on January 23, 1897. His father was Rai Bahadur Janakinath Bose, a prominent lawyer of Cuttack, Orissa. His mother was Prabhavati Bose, a remarkable example of Indian womanhood. Later, the world came to know him as Netaji. After completing his early studies at the European Protestant Collegiate School in Cuttack, he came to Calcutta to study at Presidency College in 1913. He completed his graduation with a first class in philosophy. He left India for England in 1919 to appear for the civil services examination. He was declared 4th in order of merit for the exam conducted in 1920. He was disturbed by the Jalianwallah Bagh massacre. So he left the apprenticeship of civil services midway in 1921. Thus he resigned and returned to India on the call of Chittaranjan Das.
Subhash Chandra Bose was very much influenced by the Mahatma Gandhi. So he joined the Congress party and even became President of Congress party in 1938 and 1939. He believed in the complete unconditional independence of India. The Congress party believed in achieving freedom in phases through Dominion status. He had ideological differences with Gandhiji. He was not happy with the Gandhi-Irwin pact. He believed that Gandhiji’s policy of achieving independence through non-violence doesn’t work. Subhash Chandra Bose formed a separate political party called ” The All India Forward Block” and continued to call for the complete independence of India from the British rule.
He felt that young militant groups could be molded into a military arm of the freedom movement and used to further the cause. He formed the ” Azad Hindu Fauz” or ” Indian National Army” to fight the Britishers. Gandhiji opposed this ideology because it directly conflicted with his policy of ahimsa (non-violence). The British Government in India perceived Subhash as a potential source of danger and had him arrested without any charge on October 25, 1924. He was sent to Alipore Jail, Calcutta and in January 25, 1925 transferred to Mandalay. He was arrested 14 times by the British Government in his fight for achieving the complete freedom for India. He is well known for ” Give me Blood and I will give you freedom.”
Subhash was one of the few politicians who sought and worked towards Hindu-Muslim unity on the basis of respect of each community’s rights. Subhash, being a man of ideals, believed in independence from the social evil of religious discord.
In 1941, when the British learned that Bose had sought the support of the Axis Powers, they ordered their agents to intercept and kill Bose before he reached Germany. A recently declassified intelligence document refers to a top-secret instruction to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) of British intelligence to murder Bose.
The decision was extraordinary, unusual and rare, and it seemed that the British took Bose much more seriously than many had thought. In fact, the plan to liquidate Bose has few parallels, and appears to be a last desperate measure against a man whose uncompromising radicalism had seriously worried the leadership of the British Empire.
Officially, Bose was declared to have died in a plane crash over Taiwan, while flying to Tokyo on 18 August 1945. However his body was never recovered and many theories have been put forward concerning his possible survival. One such claim is that Bose actually died in Siberia, while in Soviet captivity. Several committees have been set up by the Government of India to probe into this matter.
In May 1956, a four-man Indian team (known as the Shah Nawaz Committee) visited Japan to probe the circumstances of Bose’s alleged death. The Indian government did not then request assistance from the government of Taiwan in the matter, citing their lack of diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
However, the Inquiry Commission under Justice Mukherjee, which investigated the Bose disappearance mystery in the period 1999-2005, did approach the Taiwanese government and obtained information from the Taiwan Government that no plane carrying Bose had ever crashed in Taipei. The Mukherjee Commission also received a report originating from the US State Department, supporting the claim of the Taiwan Government that no such air crash took place during that time frame. There are theories of political effort to classify information on the death mystery. In fact, according to some, Nehru did not wish to unveil the mystery behind Bose’s disappearance and led to the rumour about hushing of some important documents. The Mukherjee Commission submitted its report to the Indian Government on November 8, 2005. The report was tabled in Parliament on May 17, 2006. The probe said in its report that Bose did not die in the plane crash and the ashes kept at Renkoji temple do not belong to him . However, the Indian Government rejected the findings of the Commission.
Unfortunately he didn’t get the due recognition as National Leader for his selfless efforts and is overshadowed by Mahatma Gandhi for achieving independence of India.
Courtesy: Various Websites information.
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