India's most known freedom fighter, infact the world's most famous advocate of peace and Non Violence is undoubtedly MK Gandhi and people around the globe recognise Jawaharlal Nehru as next in the list. This is primarily because Gandhiji loved Nehru as a son more than his four biological sons and also because Nehru represented India for its first 17 years as its First Prime Minister. One person was close to becoming this, however they could not be close enough as they competed, ironically his idealogies were so similar to Nehru's and both wanted to make a Socialist Nation after its independence, but the latter could not live long enough to do that and he was Subhas Chandra Bose.
He was born on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack. He was the younger brother of Sarat Chandrabose. His mother was pious Hindu, so was he. He loved his motherland above himself, his mother, and god. He used to tell his mother that it was on that chunk of land that god set his foot so many times to rid the world of evil and establish Dharma. His father loved Bose so much that he was protective and too cautious when it came to him. This father tried to stop Bose from writing the Civil Services Examination because it was so called 'unconventional' job. Bose went to London and prepared for it. He expected that he had not met his expectations, but the reality was that the reality was beyond expectations. He stood third in the whole of mainland UK and India. He topped in several subjects including Sanskrit. Soon after he joined he returned back to India as a response to a call from a man who shared Bose's first love, Chittaranjan Das.
Chittaranjan Das resembled Gopal Krishna Gokhale in a very interesting aspect. India received Gandhi in 1915 after a call from Gokhale and it got Bose in 1921 after a call from CR Das, the former from South Africa, and the latter from England. After coming to India, he emerged as a national leader, though he started out as the man of Bengal, enjoying the favouritism of CR Das and Gurudev Tagore himself. He worked as the mayor of Calcutta representing the Swaraj Party. He went to the Mandalay jail just like Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Fast forwarding a little, we see Subhas Chandrabose as the sword of Mahatma Gandhi. The biggest part of his life was the Haripura session of 1938. As an associate of Nehru, he presided the Indian National Congress. Here he gave highly radical speeches speaking of a socialist model which Gandhiji himself was against. He put nation before himself and openly proclaimed that independence was his sole goal. For a pacifist like Gandhi, India was only a part of humanity so there was a clear tension within the congress. After the session within a few months in 1939, Subhas Chandrabose found himself contesting another election for the Tripuri session after requests from several of his supporters. Senior Congress members requested Abul Kalam Azad to contest but he kept away from this affair keeping in mind the problems that would arise within the Congress. So, Pattabhi Sitaramayya from Andhra contested against Bose and Bose won again. Bose became the 52 nd president of the Congress and this event in his life changed him.
Part II continues in the next article.....
Part II of my earlier article.....
Subhas Chandrabose lost all support from within the party, so he went on to establish the Forward bloc, an organisation with radical ideas. The activities of the bloc upset everybody, including the British Police force. So, Bose was arrested. Here he suffered with sickness so he was set free. He was nearly helpless and he took a life-changing decision, one that no one would prefer. He met his nephew Sisir Kumar Bose and traveled to the frontiers of India. There he picked the name 'Ziaduddin Muhammed' and entered Afghanistan whose immediate neighbour was the USSR. USSR had signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, that had just started World War II. He decided to join hands with the Axis, and their leader, the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. From Afghanistan's Italian embassy, he was led into Moscow, then into Rome of Italy, also an Axis Power. There, he was called Orlando Mazzotta. Once in Rome, he found himself in mainland Europe. He finally reached Germany.
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| Bose as Orlando Mazzotta |
There he met the Indian British Soldiers and tried to join them into the Indian legion. He also met Adolf Hitler who only agreed with his ambition but offered no support. He also met Heinrich Himmler, who admired him and his religion. However, it was proved to be of no use. For the last time in his life, he met his wife Emilie Shenkl and their new-born daughter, Anita Bose. In 1943, he boarded the U-boat (German submarine) U-180 and with the Indian legion traveled to Far Asia, a major Axis stronghold. His original plan was to take a Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, and Christian along with him in his U-boat. It was captained by Werner Musemberg. Due to spatial constraints, he took his closest companion Abid Hasan with him. His U-boat stopped in Madagascar, where he switched to another submarine which took him all the way to Singapore, that had fallen to Japanese control.
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Bose with Captain
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He then met Hideki Tojo, of Germany who offered help to the Legion. South East Asia was advantageous to Bose in several ways. It was under Japanese influence. It had just been liberated from British forces, so there was clear opposition towards the British. The people could be convinced easily, one reason being the number if Indians who had left their native land as emigrants. He requested Indians to work for their nation and the legion grew into an army and it was the right time to revive the Indian National Army, which had been founded by Mohan Singh. In this Army, he named brigades after Congress leaders, Gandhi, Nehru, and Azad. He wanted women to participate in his struggle for freedom. So he created a 'Rani of Jhansi' regiment captained by Captain Lakshmi Sehagal.
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Captain Lakshmi and Bose
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| Abid Hasan |
He went to Burma after it won independence from the British. There he planned to give his army a legitimate status and to do that he made the unimaginable true, and the impossible possible. He created the 'Provisional Government of India' and a cabinet for it. He worked just one night and made the inaugural speech of his cabinet. However staying up in nights was not new to him. All he required were a peg of scotch, some cigarettes, many papers and books. In fact, Abid Hasan once said that he could say how long Bose had stayed up by counting the number of cigarette stubs.
He chose Tagore's Jana Gana Mana as its National Anthem. He adopted the flag of the INC, dropped the Charkha, and replaced it with a pouncing tiger, symbolizing Tipu Sultan, the tiger of Mysore. Western Media called him a 'Fascist', a word that he hated. What they actually meant was his aggressive nature. The irony here was the fact that the government did not have a territory to boast of and yet, both Japan and Germany recognised the Provisional government as a legitimate body. To give it a territory, Japan gave Bose charge of Andaman.
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| flag |
Bose, with the slogan 'Chalo Delhi' aimed to march towards Delhi and uproot the Union Jack and establish Bharat supremacy. However, their forces were stopped near North Eastern India. Though he could relaunch the failed operations, the WWII that ended prevented him from making further plans. He found no point in Staying outside India, so he boarded the plane towards his motherland and it crashed in Taipei. India lost one of its bravest and greatest sons.
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