A
PROJECT REPORT
ON
Subhash Chandra Bose
FOR
History
Prepared By:
NISHANTA SHARMA
ROLL NO.: 2912
SECTION: B
HOUSE: DHANSIRI
Acknowledgements
Throughout the writing of this report, I have received a great deal of support and
assistance. I would first like to thank my class teacher, Mr. Sanjay Sharma, whose
knowledge and teachings was invaluable in the formulating of the report in particular. I
would like to acknowledge my colleagues especially Mr. Rohit & Mr. Saurav for their
wonderful collaboration. You supported me greatly and were always willing to help me. I
would particularly like to single out r for exception support. In addition, I would like to
thank my parents for their wise counsel and sympathetic ear. You are always there for me.
Finally, there are my friends, who were of great support in deliberating over our problems
and findings, as well as providing happy distraction to rest my mind outside of my report.
NISHANTA SHARMA
ROLL NO.: 2912
SECTION: B
HOUSE: DHANSIRI
SCHOOL: THE ASSAM VALLEY SCHOOL
Contents
1 EARLY FREEDOM STRUGGLE .......................................................... 3
2 DIFFERENCES WITH GANDHI ........................................................... 6
3 BREAK WITH THE CONGRESS ........................................................ 8
4 ESCAPE AND YEARS IN GERMANY ................................................... 10
5 THE INA –REVIVING THE INA ........................................................ 12
6 LAST DAYS AND DEATH .............................................................. 14
7 REPUTATION ........................................................................... 16
8 CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING THE DEATH ........................................ 17
1 Early Freedom Struggle
A Picture of Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhash Chandra Bose remains a key figure as far as the history of India’s independence
struggle against the British is concerned. Bose decided to chart his own path towards
India’s independence in spite of knowing how hard it was going to be.
Bose, also known affectionately as Netaji, became part of the Indian struggle for
independence when he joined the Civil Disobedience Movement that was being led by
Mahatma Gandhi. Though, he had been successful at the-then Indian Civil Services (ICS)
examinations, Bose chose to fight for the freedom of the country. Later on, he also became
an active member of the Indian National Congress (INC). In 1938 and 1939, he was also
chosen as the party president. However, he resigned from his post in 1940 and formed the
Forward Block.
He was held under house arrest by the British because of how he had been opposing their
rule. However, he left the country secretly in 1941 and traveled westwards through
Afghanistan to Europe where he sought assistance in his struggle against the British from
Russians and Germans. He visited Japan in 1943 where the royal administration said yes
to his appeal for help. It was here that he formed the Indian National Army with Indian war
prisoners who had served with the British Indian army. It was also in October 1943 that he
formed a provisional government, one that had been recognized by the Axis Powers during
the Second World War.
Apart from the fact that he tried to be different, much like the revolutionary extremist
freedom fighters of the day, and kept up the spirit of fiery leadership in that critical period of
India’s history, there are also several other ways in which he made his own contribution to
his motherland’s freedom struggle. The assault by the INA, no matter how short-lived it
was, was an important factor that eventually contributed to the British decision to stop their
operations and shift back to their own land. This in the end did pave the way for India’s
independence.
After he was banished to Europe by the British, Bose set up contacts between various
European countries and India that may not have existed earlier. He espoused concrete
economic planning and showed the way himself. It also needs to be remembered that it
was him who set up the Rani Laxmi Bai Fauj, the women’s wing of INA (Azad Hind Fauj).
At a time when the British were bleeding the country dry with help from certain insiders it
was his series of radio broadcasts from Berlin that at least attempted to keep the spirits of
the country up.
Netaji, without a shadow of a doubt, remains one of the most key figures in the history of
India’s independence. He played a crucial role in freeing the country from the clutches of
200 years of British rule in his own inimitable way, much like the other leading lights of the
day such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Till the last day of his life as an
active freedom fighter he kept the spirit of fighting the British – even at the time of his death
he was planning to migrate to Russia and find a new way to combat the British – and it is
this persistence and patriotic fervor that needs to be respected more than anything else.
2 Differences with Gandhi
Gandhiji and netaji both person had different mind set ,they adopted different methods .
Gandhiji was a moderate ,he adopted doctrine of non violence ,started satyagrha for the
rights of people,even when britishers began opposing it in harsh way and after the
jallianwala bagh massacre Gandhiji started civil.disobedience movement.
Here u see Gandhiji never used violent and extreme methods to oppose the britishers .His
methods were little.weak and would have took a long time in gaining independence but the
1942 quit India movement was one of the best for achieving independence in fast pace.
Subhas Chandra bose on.the other side.was.a extremetist. His idea was to gain
independence by fighting against the britishers ,he wanted Indian citizens to raise
arms .When the WW2 started Gandhiji wanted to.compromise but netaji wanted to take the
advantage of the bad condition of the britishers.Atlast netaji started asking for help from
germany ,italy ,japan ,singapore he even started motivating the Indians in foreign. State to
participate ,hitler and mussolini agreed to help.He made women regiments recruiting
women in army .He asked japan to get Indians free from andaman prisons and army wing
of 40,000 men and with many japnese soldiers they attacked the britishers.Though they
lost that battle due to german lost the battle against russia.and US dropped atom bomb so
japannese soldier surrendered.But it had a great impact and britishers left India.Britishers
admitted that they left India due to bose and not due to Gandhiji.
Gandhiji with his ahimsa taught the entire world a new tool to fight your mighty enemy. It is
unparalleled in world history that a country of 500 million people fought peacefully to throw
out a group of just 0.2 Million Britishers. I have a few friends in the Middle East who are in
awe and admiration for Gandhiji. They have seen only violence as a mean to get their
rights. A Jordanian friend of mine, Mazen, had asked me once as to how it was possible
for a lean poor man to lead a mental revolution? In short, we were proud of our freedom
that we earned in an innovative and admirable way.
Move over to Bose. Many British colonies fought the British and earned their freedom.
America was one. They earned it in less than 15 years. They did not ask for their rights but
just fought to drive them out. It started in 1765 and almost over in 1776. We took almost
100 years (starting from the Sepoy Mutiny or Indian war of Independence - I in 1857).
Bose, given his aggressive means and strategic alliances would have achieved it much
earlier.
3 Break With the Congress
Netaji was primarily inspired by his mentor Chittaranjan Das, who had earlier quit the
Congress party, due to differences with Gandhiji over the No Council Entry policy, and
formed the Swaraj Party along with Motilal Nehru. C.R.Das, Motilal Nehru, N.C.Kelkar
were among the Congress members, who opposed Gandhiji’s suspension of the Non
Cooperation movement in 1923, over the Chauri Chaura incident, creating a division
between them and those who supported Gandhiji’s decision. Subash Chandra Bose, along
with Vithalbai Patel was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the tactics of the Congress
Party, with both of them favoring an increasingly militant and aggresive approach.
He had his own doubts on the utility of the Khadi movement. As he had stated earlier,
while it was helpful for masses, existing at a subsistence level, once they cross that stage,
they seek more gainful employment.
Netaji believed that more mass participation in the freedom movement was possible, only if
the issues that directly concerned them were taken up along with the cause for freedom.
Netaji spoke in a language that reached out to the youth of the times, he knew and
understood their feelings much more than some of the worthies in the party.
The major difference that caused a split between Netaji and the Gandhi faction in the
Congress, was the approach towards total boycott. Netaji felt that with the mood of the
nation, totally for a boycott, it made no sense to enter the Councils, it was the best time to
exert pressure on the British. He believed it made no use, for Indians to go to the Round
Table conference unless, they were given full powers. He quoted the example of the pact
between Britain and South Africa, where the former had to agree to accept the S.African
constitution in full, with no changes, which is what he sought too. He wondered why the
British had to send in the European Chambers of Commerce, Ruling Chiefs etc, when this
was clearly a matter to be worked out between the British Govt and the Indian
representatives.
The differences between him and Gandhiji were too deep, and when Netaji won the
election to the post of President at the 1939 Tripura Congress, Gandhiji took it as his own
defeat. And with some deft manipulations by Gandhi’s clique, Netaji was forced to resign
from the Presidentship post. It was a poignant moment, when Netaji suffering from fever,
came on a stretcher to submit his resignation at the venue, and to replace whom, a man
called Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, who was pretty much a Gandhiji’s yes man.
4 Escape and Years in Germany
Bose's arrest and subsequent release set the scene for his escape to Germany,
via Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. A few days before his escape, he sought solitude
and, on this pretext, avoided meeting British guards and grew a beard.
Supporters of the Aga Khan III helped him across the border into Afghanistan where he
was met by an Abwehr unit posing as a party of road construction engineers from
the Organization Todt who then aided his passage across Afghanistan via Kabul to the
border with Soviet Russia.
In Germany, he was attached to the Special Bureau for India which was responsible for
broadcasting on the German-sponsored Azad Hind Radio. He founded the Free India
Center in Berlin, and created the Indian Legion (consisting of some 4500 soldiers) out of
Indian prisoners of war who had previously fought for the British in North Africa prior to
their capture by Axis forces.
In all, 3,000 Indian prisoners of war signed up for the Free India Legion. But instead of
being delighted, Bose was worried. A left-wing admirer of Russia, he was devastated when
Hitler's tanks rolled across the Soviet border. Matters were worsened by the fact that the
now-retreating German army would be in no position to offer him help in driving the British
from India. When he met Hitler in May 1942, his suspicions were confirmed, and he came
to believe that the Nazi leader was more interested in using his men to win propaganda
victories than military ones. So, in February 1943, Bose turned his back on his legionnaires
and slipped secretly away aboard a submarine bound for Japan. This left the men he had
recruited leaderless and demoralised in Germany.
Bose lived in Berlin from 1941 until 1943. During his earlier visit to Germany in 1934, he
had met Emilie Schenkl, the daughter of an Austrian veterinarian whom he married in
1937.
5 The INA –Reviving the INA
The Indian National Army was an armed force formed by Indian nationalist Rash Behari
Bose in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. Its aim was to secure Indian
independence from British rule. It formed an alliance with the Empire of Japan in the
latter's campaign in the Southeast Asian theatre of WWII.
The army was first formed in 1942 under Rash Behari Bose, Mohan Singh, by Indian
PoWs of the British-Indian Army captured by Japan in the Malayan campaign and at
Singapore. This first INA collapsed and was disbanded in December that year after
differences between the INA leadership and the Japanese military over its role in Japan's
war in Asia.
Rash Behari Bose handed over INA to Subhas Chandra Bose It was revived under the
leadership of Subhash Chandra Bose after his arrival in Southeast Asia in 1943.
Under Bose's leadership, the INA drew ex-prisoners and thousands of civilian volunteers
from the Indian expatriate population in Malaya (present-day Malaysia) and Burma.[6] This
second INA fought along with the Imperial Japanese Army against the British
and Commonwealth forces in the campaigns in Burma, in Imphal and at Kohima, and later
against the successful Burma Campaign of the Allies.[7][8]
After the INA's initial formation in 1942, there was concern in the British-Indian Army that
further Indian troops would defect. This led to a reporting ban and a propaganda campaign
The end of the war saw a large number of the troops repatriated to India where some
faced trials for treason. These trials became a galvanising point in the Indian
Independence movement.
The legacy of the INA is controversial. It was associated with Imperial Japan and the
other Axis powers, and accusations were levelled against INA troops of being involved and
complicit in Japanese war crimes.
6 Last Days and Death
During the last week of April 1945, Subhas Chandra Bose along with his senior Indian
National Army (INA) officers, several hundred enlisted INA men, and nearly hundred
women from the INA's Rani of Jhansi Regiment left Rangoon by road for Moulmein in
Burma.
A year and a half earlier, 16,000 INA men and 100 women had entered Burma
from Malaya. The remaining nine tenths were either killed in action, died from malnutrition
or injuries after the battles of Imphal and Kohima. Others were captured by the British,
turned themselves in, or simply disappeared. Bose stayed in Bangkok for a month, where
soon after his arrival he heard the news of Germany's surrender on May 8. Bose spent the
next two months between June and July 1945 in Singapore, [11] and in both places
attempted to raise funds for billeting his soldiers or rehabilitating them if they chose to
return to civilian life, which most of the women did. In his nightly radio broadcasts, Bose
spoke with increasing virulence against Gandhi, who had been released from jail in 1944,
and was engaged in talks with British administrators, envoys and Muslim
League leaders.[13] Some senior INA officers began to feel frustrated or disillusioned with
Bose and to prepare quietly for the arrival of the British and its consequences.[13]
Finally, on 16 August, after being informed of the unconditional surrender of Japan, Bose
decided to leave for Saigon along with a handful of his aides.
The last airplane journeys of Subhas Chandra Bose. Paths of completed flights are shown
in blue. On 16 August 1945, he left Singapore for Bangkok, Siam (now Thailand). On either
the 16th itself or on the 17th morning, he flew from Bangkok to Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh
City. On the 17 August afternoon, he flew from Saigon to Tourane, French Indo-China,
now Da Nang, Vietnam. Early next morning at 5 AM, he left Tourane for Taihoku, Formosa,
now Taipei, Taiwan. At 2:30 PM on 18 August, he left for Dairen, Manchukuo, now Dalian,
China, but his plane crashed shortly after take off, and Bose died within a few hours in a
Japanese military hospital. Had the crash not occurred the plane would have dropped off
Bose at Dairen and proceeded to Tokyo along a flight path shown in red.
7 Reputation
His decision to pick up arms, when everything else wasn't working, was extremely
courageous.
Mahatma Gandhi called him the 'patriot of patriots' which is a high honour especially
coming from someone who was opposed to his ideologies. This honor was not
unwarranted as Bose really did commit fully to the cause of Indian Independence. There
was no sacrifice that he didn’t make for his nation. To this day he is one of the most
patriotic figures to inspire thousands of young men and women.
For the first time, we took the fight to the Britishers and we would have won had Japan not
been weakened during that time.
Netaji's diplomacy strikes a cord with me because it was actually effective and didn't
take ages to work.
When Bose realized that the British would have to be pushed hard to leave India, he
decided that his enemy’s enemy was his friend and visited Germany and Japan to get their
support. This doesn’t necessarily mean that he condoned the Nazi ideology but rather that
he was willing to use whatever aid he could get in order to bring freedom to India.
8 Controversies surrounding the death
The following legends are famous for controversies regarding the Netaji’s Death
Immediate post-war legends
Subhas Chandra Bose's exploits had become legendary long before his physical death in
August 1945. From the time he had escaped house arrest in Calcutta in 1940, rumours
had been rife in India about whether or not he was alive, and if the latter, where he was
and what he was doing.[30] His appearance in faraway Germany in 1941 created a sense of
mystery about his activities. With Congress leaders in jail in the wake of the Quit India
Resolution in August 1942 and the Indian public starved for political news, Bose's radio
broadcasts from Berlin charting radical plans for India's liberation during a time when the
star of Germany was still rising and that of Britain was at its lowest, made him an object of
adulation among many in India and southeast Asia. During his two years in Germany,
according to historian Romain Hayes, "If Bose gradually obtained respect in Berlin, in
Tokyo he earned fervent admiration and was seen very much as an 'Indian samurai'. Thus
it was that when Bose appeared in Southeast Asia in July 1943, brought mysteriously on
German and Japanese submarines, he was already a figure of mythical size and reach.
After Bose's death, Bose's other lieutenants, who were to have accompanied him to
Manchuria, but were left behind on the tarmac in Saigon, never saw a body. [33]There were
no photographs taken of the injured or deceased Bose, neither was a death certificate
issued.[33] According to historian Leonard A. Gordon,
For these two reasons, when news of Bose's death was reported, many in the INA refused
to believe it and were able to transmit their disbelief to a wider public. The source of the
widespread skepticism in the INA might have been Bose's senior officer J. R. Bhonsle.
Enduring legends
In the 1950s, stories appeared in which Bose had become a sadhu, or Hindu renunciant.
The best-known and most intricate of the renunciant tales of Subhas Bose, and one which,
according to historian Leonard A. Gordon, may "properly be called a myth," was told in the
early 1960s. Some associates of Bose, from two decades before, had formed an
organization, the "Subhasbadi Janata", to promote this story in which Bose was now the
chief sadhu of an ashram (or hermitage) in Shaulmari (also Shoulmari) in North
Bengal.[35] The Janata brought out published material, including several newspapers and
magazines. Of these, some were long lived and some short, but all, by their number,
attempted to create the illusion of the story's newsworthiness. [35] The chief sadhu himself
vigorously denied being Bose. Several intimates of Bose, including some politicians, who
met with the sadhu, supported the denials Even so, the Subhasbadi Janata was able to
create an elaborate chronology of Bose's post-war activities
According to this chronology, after his return to India, Bose returned to the vocation of his
youth: he became a Hindu renunciant. He attended unseen Gandhi's cremation in Delhi in
early February 1948; walked across and around India several times; became a yogi at a
Shiva temple in Bareilly in north central India from 1956 to 1959; became a practitioner of
herbal medicine and effected several cures, including one of tuberculosis; and established
the Shaulmari Ashram in 1959, taking the religious name Srimat Saradanandaji
Others stories appeared, spun by the Janata and by others. Bose was still in the Soviet
Union or the People's Republic of China; attended the Indian prime minister Jawaharlal
Nehru's cremation in 1964, but, this time, neglecting to disallow a Janata-published
newspaper to photograph him; and gave notice to the Janta of his return to Calcutta, for
which several much publicized rallies were organized.[38] Bose did not appear
The Janata eventually broke up, its reputation marred by successive non-appearances of
its protagonist. The real sadhu of Shaulmari, who continued to deny he was Bose, died in
1977.
