Subhas Chandra Bose also known as Netaji ,his political views were in support of complete freedom for India with a classless society and state socialism at the earliest, whereas most of the Congress Committee wanted it in phases, through a Dominion status. [1]
Even though Bose and Mahatma Gandhi had differing ideologies, the latter called Bose the "Patriot of Patriots" in 1942. Bose admired Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and called him Bapu, recognising his importance as a symbol of Indian nationalism and giving him political expediency as told by Bose to Rash Behari Bose; called him "The Father of Our Nation" in a radio broadcast from Rangoon in 1944, in which he stated, "I am convinced that if we do desire freedom we must be prepared to wade through blood", [2] a statement somewhat at odds with Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence. Thus, although they shared the goal of an independent India, by 1939 the two had become divided over the strategy to achieve Indian Independence, and to some degree the form which the post-Independence state should take: Gandhi was hostile to industrialisation, while Bose saw it as the only route to making India strong and self-sufficient (in this he may have been influenced, like many other Indian intellectuals of the time, by reports of the success of the Soviet five-year plans). Jawaharlal Nehru disagreed with Gandhi on this point as well, though not over the tactics of protest.
During the mid-1930s Bose travelled in Europe, visiting Indian students and European politicians, including Benito Mussolini. In this period, he also researched and wrote the first part of his book The Indian Struggle. The book contains Bose's evaluation of Gandhi's role and contribution to the independence struggle, his own vision for an Independent India and his approach to politics. In the book, Bose was critical of Gandhi accusing the Mahatma of being too soft and almost naive in his dealings with the colonial regime and who with his status quoism had become "the best policeman the Britisher had in India". Bose also predicted a left-wing revolt in the Indian National Congress that would give rise to a new political party with a "clear ideology, program and plan of action" that would among other things "stand for the interests of the masses", advocate the complete independence of the Indian people, advocate a federal India with a strong central government and support land reforms, state planning and a system of Panchayats.
Bose was accused of collaborating with the Axis, after he fled to Germany in 1941 and offered Hitler an alliance. He criticized the British during World War II, saying that while Britain was fighting for the freedom of the European nations under Nazi control, it would not grant independence to its own colonies, including India. In 1937 he published an article attacking Japanese imperialism in the Far East, although he betrayed some admiration for other aspects of the Japanese regime. [3]
Bose's earlier correspondence (prior to 1939) also reflects his deep disapproval of the racist practices of and annulment of democratic institutions in Nazi Germany. [4] He also, however, expressed admiration for the authoritarian methods (though not the racial ideologies) which he saw in Italy and Germany during the 1930s, and thought they could be used in building an independent India. [5] Nevertheless, Bose's tenure as Congress Party President (1938–39) did not reflect any particular anti-democratic or authoritarian attributes. Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Anton Pelinka and Leonard Gordon have remarked that Bose's skills were best illustrated at the negotiating table, rather than on the battlefield.
At the Tripura Congress session of 1939, he demanded giving the British Government a six-month deadline for granting independence and of launching a mass civil disobedience movement if it failed to do so. He believed that "... the country was internally more ripe for a revolution than ever before and that the coming international crisis would give India an opportunity for achieving her emancipation, which is rare in human history." [6]
Bose's judgment in allying with the Japanese has been questioned, as many argue [7] that he would have been unable to ensure an independent India had he ridden to power on Japanese bayonets, and was in danger of becoming a puppet ruler similar to the fate that befell Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor of Manchuria. In 1943 Rash Behari Bose had urged this on him during his last visit to Subhas Bose in Singapore, pointing out that the Japanese had claimed right of conquest in Manchuria and would do so in India, while Quit India had shown that this would not be accepted by the Indian Nation. [8]
Nevertheless, given the Indian National Army's (INA) overwhelming dependence on Japanese military support, he would have been in a weak position. Bose also seems to have ignored the appalling treatment meted out by the Japanese to the Asian inhabitants of the lands they conquered as part of the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity sphere, which included the forcible recruitment of labour from the overseas Indian population to build projects such as the Burma Railway, and massacres of Malayan Chinese in Singapore where he spent most of the war. [9]
Bose has been branded as a fascist in some quarters.[ who? ] Others believe that Bose had clearly expressed his belief that democracy was the best option for India. [10] [ dubious ]
Had either of the alliances he forged during the war resulted in Indian independence in the manner he envisaged, it would have been at the cost of an Allied defeat in the Second World War, a price that some Indians would argue is too high: Gandhi himself, in the immediate aftermath of the war, said that Bose had been "foolish in imagining, that by allying himself with the Japanese and the Germans, who were not only aggressive Powers, but also dangerous Powers, he could get Indian freedom". [11] The alternative of non-violent protest within India espoused by Gandhi and the rest of Congress ultimately led to British withdrawal, albeit at the expense of the partition of the country along communal lines. Even before 1939, Congress had secured political concessions from the British in the form of elected provincial assemblies, and an agreement that the British taxpayer would foot the bill for Indian re-armament. [12] Although it was rejected by Congress at the time, the 1942 Cripps mission's offer of full independence after the war could be considered the point at which the British departure became inevitable. [13] Britain's weakness after the war, and domestic political pressure on the Labour Government also made British withdrawal more likely. Publicly at least, Bose never believed that this would happen unless they were driven out by force: as late as 1944, three years prior to independence, he announced that "I am honestly convinced that the British Government will never recognise India's demand for independence." [14]
Nirad Chaudhuri considered it a backhanded tribute to Bose that the Congress tricolour and the Muslim League green flag flew together for the last time during the mutiny of the Indian navy in Bombay unleashed in 1946 partly at anger within the Navy at the trial of INA officers by the British. [15]
Judith Brown argues that the Mutiny of the Indian Navy was a minor factor in the British decision to leave compared to domestic political pressure, American hostility to any continuation of the Raj, and the breakdown of almost all networks of support and collaboration brought about by thirty years of Congress agitation. By 1946 over 50% of the members of the Indian Civil Service were Indians, and even Churchill recognised that the offer of independence made by the Cripps Mission in 1942 could not now be withdrawn. [16] In this interpretation concerns over the loyalty of the military were only one factor among many amid the general breakdown in authority: nor, it could be argued, did all this necessarily stem from the activities of Bose and the INA. The prospect of communalism infecting the armed forces worried the British just as much. [17]
Bose was considered a patriot even by some of his rivals in the Congress. Gandhi himself wrote that Bose's "... patriotism is second to none", [18] and he was moved to proclaim after Bose's death that he was a "prince among patriots"—a reference, in particular, to Bose's achievement in integrating women and men from all the regions and religions of India in the Indian National Army. [19] Bose wanted freedom for India at the earliest opportunity, and to some extent, he didn't care who he had to approach for assistance. [5]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link); A. M. Nair (1985). An Indian Freedom Fighter in Japan. New Delhi. p. 230.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)By 1946 the British knew their network of Indian allies in their various services was a fast-weakening support and instrument of their rule. The strains of war, the prospect of transferred power, and the communal conflict had eroded efficiency and morale, and now threatened ultimately loyalty to the raj itself. Wavell was in no doubt that he was not only presiding over an imperial edifice which must be dismantled or collapse. He was also head of a government whose very mechanisms for daily administration were breaking down. In September he argued that simply on administrative grounds the raj could not last more than 18 months, and looking back over 1946 he noted in late October, 'Our time in India is limited and our power to control events is almost gone. We have only prestige and previous momentum to trade on, and they will not last long.Quoted from page 326.
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The Indian National Army was a collaborationist armed unit of Indian collaborators that fought under the command of the Japanese Empire. It was founded by Mohan Singh on 1 September 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II.
Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and military failure. The honorific Netaji was first applied to Bose in Germany in early 1942—by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin. It is now used throughout India.
The Provisional Government of Free India or, more simply, Azad Hind, was a short-lived Japanese-supported provisional government in India. It was established in Japanese occupied Singapore during World War II in October 1943 and has been considered a puppet state of the Empire of Japan.
Azad Hind Radio was a radio service that was started under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose 1942 to encourage Indians to fight against the British. Though initially based in Nazi Germany, its headquarters were shifted to Japanese occupied Singapore following the course of the war in Southeast Asia. After Netaji's departure to Southeast Asia, the German operations were continued by A.C.N. Nambiar, the head of the Indian Legion in Nazi Germany and later ambassador of the Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind in Germany.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero is a 2004 Indian epic biographical war film, written and directed by Shyam Benegal. The film starred an ensemble cast of Sachin Khedekar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajit Kapur, Arif Zakaria, and Divya Dutta, among others. The film depicts the life of the Indian Independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose in Nazi Germany: 1941–1943, and In Japanese-occupied Asia 1943–1945, and the events leading to the formation of Azad Hind Fauj.
Sugata Bose is an Indian historian and politician who has taught and worked in the United States since the mid-1980s. His fields of study are South Asian and Indian Ocean history. Bose taught at Tufts University until 2001, when he accepted the Gardiner Chair of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University. Bose is also the director of the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata, India, a research center and archives devoted to the life and work of Bose's great uncle, the Indian nationalist, Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose is the author most recently of His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire (2011) and A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (2006).
Sarat Chandra Bose was an Indian barrister and independence activist.
Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose died on 18 August 1945 from third-degree burns sustained after the bomber in which he was being transported as a guest of Lieutenant General Tsunamasa Shidei of the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army crashed upon take off from the airport in Taihoku, Japanese-occupied Formosa, now Taipei, Taiwan. The chief pilot, copilot, and General Shidei were instantly killed.
The Indian Legion, officially the Free India Legion or 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment, was a military unit raised during the Second World War initially as part of the German Army and later the Waffen-SS from August 1944. Intended to serve as a liberation force for British-ruled India, it was made up of Indian prisoners of war and expatriates in Europe. Due to its origins in the Indian independence movement, it was known also as the "Tiger Legion", and the "Azad Hind Fauj". As part of the Waffen-SS it was known as the Indian Volunteer Legion of the Waffen-SS.
Shah Nawaz Khan was an Indian politician who served as an officer in the Indian National Army (INA) during World War II. He was profoundly influenced by Subhas Chandra Bose's speeches asking POWs to join the Indian National Army and to fight for a free India, Khan led the army into North-Eastern India, seizing Kohima and Imphal which were held briefly by the INA under the authority of the Japanese. In December 1944, Shah Nawaz Khan was appointed Commander of the 1st Division at Mandalay. After the war, he was tried, convicted for treason, and sentenced to death in a public court-martial carried out by the British Indian Army. The sentence was commuted by the Commander-in-chief of the Indian Army following unrest and protests in India. After the trial, Khan declared that he would henceforth follow the path of non-violence espoused by Mahatama Gandhi and joined the Congress party. Having successfully contested the first Lok Sabha in 1952 from Meerut, Khan had an illustrious parliamentary career. He was elected four times to the Lok Sabha from Meerut constituency in 1951, 1957, 1962 and 1971. He lost in the 1967 and 1977 Lok Sabha election from Meerut.
Anita Bose Pfaff is an Austrian-born economist, who has previously been a professor at the University of Augsburg as well as a politician in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She is the daughter of Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945) and his wife Emilie Schenkl.
Anuj Dhar is an Indian conspiracy theorist, author and former journalist. He has published several books around the locus of death of Subhas Chandra Bose that propound theories about his living for several years after the purported plane crash, thus contradicting the current consensus. Dhar is also the founder-trustee of a not for profit organisation, Mission Netaji, which campaigns for the declassification of documents concerning Bose.
Major General Mohammed Zaman Kiani was an officer of the British Indian Army who later joined the Indian National Army (INA), led by Subhas Chandra Bose, and commanded its 1st Division.
K. P. Keshava Menon (1884?–?) was an Indian lawyer and a leading Indian independence activist from Kerala who was a key proponent of the formation of the Indian Independence League (IIL) and a lawyer for the Indian National Army (INA).
The First Indian National Army was the Indian National Army as it existed between February and December 1942. It was formed with Japanese aid and support after the Fall of Singapore and consisted of approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 Indian prisoners of war who were captured either during the Malayan campaign or surrendered at Singapore. It was formally proclaimed in April 1942 and declared the subordinate military wing of the Indian Independence League in June that year. The unit was formed by Mohan Singh. The unit was dissolved in December 1942 after apprehensions of Japanese motives with regards to the INA led to disagreements and distrust between Mohan Singh and INA leadership on one hand, and the League's leadership, most notably Rash Behari Bose. Later on, the leadership of the Indian National Army was handed to Subhas Chandra Bose. A large number of the INAs initial volunteers, however, later went on to join the INA in its second incarnation under Subhas Chandra Bose.
The Indian National Council was an organisation founded in December 1941 in Bangkok by Indian Nationalists residing in Thailand. The organisation was founded from the Thai-Bharat Cultural Lodge on 22 December 1941. The founding president of the Council was Swami Satyananda Puri, along with Debnath Das as the founding secretary. Along with the Indian Independence League, it came to be one of the two prominent Indian associations that corresponded with I Fujiwara's F Kikan on the scopes of Japanese assistance to the Indian movement.
The Indian Struggle, 1920–1942 is a two-part book by the Indian nationalist leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose that covers the 1920–1942 history of the Indian independence movement to end British imperial rule over India. Banned in India by the British colonial government, The Indian Struggle was published in the country only in 1948 after India became independent. The book analyses a period of the Indian independence struggle from the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movements of the early 1920s to the Quit India and Azad Hind movements of the early 1940s.
Netaji is a Bengali biographical soap opera on the life of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose that premiered on 14 January 2019 and aired on Bengali GEC Zee Bangla. Based majorly on Udyata Kharga Subhash by Achintya Kumar Sengupta and produced by Surinder Films, the series stars Abhishek Bose in the eponymous role, with Basabdatta Chatterjee, marking her comeback on television, Dhruvajyoti Sarkar, Kaushik Chakraborty, Sriparna Roy, Debopriyo Sarkar, Sohan Bandopadhyay, Fahim Mirza appearing in other recurring roles. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the shooting of the series was stalled. It was rumoured that along with Karunamoyee Rani Rashmoni, this series will be axed the channel. Putting rest to such rumours, the shooting started from June 11 and new episodes started to air from June 15, 2020.
Sisir Kumar Bose was an Indian freedom fighter, pediatrician and legislator. He was the son of Indian nationalist leader Sarat Chandra Bose, nephew of Indian freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose and husband of former Member of Parliament Krishna Bose (1930–2020).
Gumnaami is a 2019 Indian Bengali-language mystery film based on the true events directed by Srijit Mukherji, which deals with the mystery of Netaji's death, based on the Mukherjee Commission hearings and the book Conundrum written by Anuj Dhar and Chandrachur Ghose. It has been produced by Shrikant Mohta, Pranay Ranjan, and Mahendra Soni under the banner of Shree Venkatesh Films. Prosenjit Chatterjee plays the roles of Subhas Chandra Bose and Gumnaami Baba.