Overview
This chapter studies the life of Subhas Chandra Bose, the Netaji, and the Indian National Army through which he tried to free India by arms from outside during the Second World War. Bose has a special place in an Odisha textbook because he was born in Cuttack in 1897 and educated at the Ravenshaw Collegiate School; his early life belongs to the history of the province. The chapter follows him from Cuttack to Calcutta and Cambridge, through his resignation from the Indian Civil Service, his apprenticeship under C. R. Das, his years in British jails, his mayoralty of Calcutta, his two terms as Congress president and the quarrel with Gandhi at Tripuri that led to the Forward Bloc. It then narrates the great escape of January 1941, the years in Germany, the submarine voyage to Asia, the origins of the Indian National Army under Mohan Singh and Rash Behari Bose, and Netaji's leadership of the Azad Hind Fauj and the Provisional Government of Free India from 1943, with the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, the campaign to Imphal and Kohima, the retreat and his reported death in August 1945. It ends with the INA trials at the Red Fort, the naval mutiny of 1946 and an assessment of how the INA hastened Indian independence, together with a comparison of the methods of Bose and Gandhi.
Learning Objectives
- Narrate the early life and education of Subhas Chandra Bose, including his years in Cuttack.
- Explain why Bose resigned from the Indian Civil Service and how he entered politics under C. R. Das.
- Describe Bose's role in the Congress from 1921 to 1939, including his presidency and the Tripuri crisis.
- Explain the differences between Bose and Gandhi on the methods of winning freedom.
- Recount the great escape of 1941 and Bose's activities in Germany and his journey to Asia.
- Trace the origin of the Indian National Army under Mohan Singh and its reorganisation under Bose.
- Describe the Provisional Government of Azad Hind, the Rani of Jhansi Regiment and the Imphal campaign.
- Explain the INA trials and the naval mutiny of 1946 and assess the contribution of Bose and the INA to Indian independence.
Topics in this chapter
14 topics · tap a topic title to jump straight to it.
Birth and boyhood in Cuttack
Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23 January 1897 at Cuttack, in the house on Oriya Bazar that is now the Netaji Birthplace Museum. His father, Janakinath Bose, a Bengali from Kodalia near Calcutta, was a leading advocate of the Cuttack bar and later a government pleader and a member of the Bengal Legislative Council, who was given the title of Rai Bahadur and afterwards gave it up in protest against British policy. His mother, Prabhavati Devi, was a devout and strong-willed woman. Subhas was the ninth of fourteen children; his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose became his closest companion in politics.
Cuttack in the 1890s was a small provincial town on the Mahanadi, the headquarters of the Orissa Division of the Bengal Presidency, with a mixed population of Odias, Bengalis and Muslims. Subhas's first school was the Protestant European School (later the Stewart School), run by the Baptist mission, where the medium was English and the pupils largely Anglo-Indian; he stayed there from 1902 to 1909 and learnt the language perfectly but felt, as he later wrote, that he was being cut off from his own people. In 1909 he moved to the Ravenshaw Collegiate School, the leading Indian school of the town, where the headmaster, Beni Madhab Das, a man of character and a nationalist, became the first great influence on his life. Here he studied Sanskrit and Bengali, read the Odia and Bengali poets and came into contact with the ideas of Indian nationalism.
At Ravenshaw Collegiate School Subhas passed through a religious and moral crisis. He read the works of Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa at the age of fifteen, and their message of service, self-sacrifice and the strength of India's spiritual heritage seized him completely. He practised meditation, formed a group of friends devoted to the service of the poor, nursed cholera patients in the villages around Cuttack during an epidemic and even ran away for a time in search of a guru. He passed the Matriculation examination of Calcutta University in 1913, standing second in the whole of Bengal and Orissa, a remarkable result for a boy from a small-town school.
Cuttack thus gave Subhas Bose his schooling, his first teacher of nationalism, his encounter with Vivekananda and his first experience of serving the poor. Odisha has always counted him as its own; the birthplace is a museum, the road is named for him, and his birthday, 23 January, is celebrated in the town with special pride.
- Janakinath Bose gave up the title Rai Bahadur in 1930 in protest against the repression of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- At about fifteen, Subhas nursed cholera patients in the villages near Cuttack with a band of friends, an early sign of the service ideal he took from Vivekananda.
- Matriculation 1913: second in the Calcutta University list among tens of thousands of candidates from Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
- Born 23 January 1897, Cuttack; Protestant European School 1902-09; Ravenshaw Collegiate School 1909-13; Matriculation 1913 (second position).
Calcutta, Cambridge and the Indian Civil Service
In 1913 Subhas joined Presidency College, Calcutta, the foremost college of the Bengal Presidency, to study philosophy. Calcutta was then the centre of revolutionary nationalism, and the young man from Cuttack was drawn into student politics. In February 1916 an English professor of history, E. F. Oaten, who had made insulting remarks about Indians and manhandled students, was assaulted by a group of students on the staircase of the college; Subhas, as a leader of the students, was held responsible and expelled from the college and rusticated from the University. He returned to Cuttack for a year, a disgrace in the eyes of the family but, as he saw it, the first occasion on which he had stood up for the self-respect of his countrymen.
In 1917 he was allowed to join the Scottish Church College, from which he took his B.A. in philosophy with first-class honours in 1919, and he also joined the University unit of the Indian Territorial Force to learn soldiering, a taste that never left him. His father, anxious to settle him, sent him to England in September 1919 to compete for the Indian Civil Service, the highest career then open to an Indian. He entered Fitzwilliam Hall, Cambridge, prepared for the examination in eight months and in 1920 stood fourth in the open competition, a brilliant success. He was also placed in the Moral Sciences Tripos of Cambridge University.
Then came the decision that made his life. Bose could not reconcile himself to serving the government that had perpetrated the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and against which Gandhi had just launched Non-Cooperation. He wrote to his brother Sarat that a man who wished to serve his country could not do so as a member of the bureaucracy that ruled it, and that the illustrious example of Aurobindo Ghosh, who had given up the ICS, was before him. On 22 April 1921, against the advice of his family and of his friends, he resigned from the ICS, one of the very few Indians ever to reject the service after passing it. He wrote to Edwin Montagu, the Secretary of State, that he wished to devote himself to the cause of his country.
He returned to India in July 1921 and went straight to Bombay to meet Gandhi, who was then at the height of the Non-Cooperation Movement. The meeting disappointed him: Gandhi's answers to his questions about how non-cooperation would actually bring Swaraj within a year seemed to him vague. Gandhi sent him to C. R. Das in Calcutta, and in Das, the lawyer who had given up a princely practice, Subhas found his political guru. The difference in temperament that this first meeting revealed, Gandhi's faith and Bose's demand for a plan, was to run through the whole of their relationship.
- The Oaten affair, February 1916: Bose was expelled from Presidency College; he later called it the turning point at which he learnt to stand up for his people's self-respect.
- ICS 1920: fourth in the open competition after eight months' preparation; resignation on 22 April 1921 in a letter to the Secretary of State.
- First meeting with Gandhi, July 1921, at Mani Bhavan, Bombay: Bose asked for a concrete plan for Swaraj in one year and did not get one; Gandhi directed him to C. R. Das.
- Presidency College 1913-16 (expelled); Scottish Church College B.A. 1919; Cambridge 1919-21; ICS fourth 1920; resigned 22 April 1921.
Under C. R. Das: the making of a leader, 1921-1925
Chittaranjan Das, the Deshbandhu, was the greatest political figure of Bengal and the leader who taught Subhas Bose the practice of politics. Bose became his lieutenant in the Non-Cooperation Movement, the principal of the National College that Das founded in Calcutta for students who had left government institutions, the organiser of the Congress volunteers and the publicity officer of the Bengal Congress. When the Prince of Wales visited Calcutta in December 1921 Bose organised the boycott so effectively that the streets were deserted; he was arrested with Das and served his first term of six months in jail.
The withdrawal of Non-Cooperation after Chauri Chaura in February 1922 shocked Bose as it did Das; he thought it a national calamity, and this was the origin of his distrust of Gandhi's methods. When Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party in 1923 to enter the councils, Bose went with them. He edited the party's newspaper Banglar Katha and, when the Swarajists captured the Calcutta Corporation in 1924 and Das became Mayor, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation at the age of twenty-seven. He set about making the Corporation a national institution: khadi uniforms for staff, free primary schools, milk for children, night schools, roads named after national leaders, and relief for the poor.
The government, which suspected him of links with the revolutionaries of Bengal, arrested him in October 1924 under the Bengal Ordinance and deported him without trial to Mandalay jail in Burma, where Tilak had been held. He spent over two years there, reading, writing and falling seriously ill with tuberculosis. It was in Mandalay that he received the news of the death of C. R. Das on 16 June 1925, a blow from which Bengal politics never fully recovered, and from which Subhas emerged as Das's political heir. He was released in May 1927 on grounds of health.
From Das Bose learnt three things: that a leader must be a man of action and organisation, not only of ideas; that the Congress must fight for the masses and the workers, not only for the middle class; and that Hindu-Muslim unity must be built through concrete pacts, such as Das's Bengal Pact of 1923 that offered Muslims a fair share of jobs and seats. He also took from Das the conviction that Bengal had its own contribution to make to the national movement and that Gandhi's methods were not the only ones.
- December 1921: the boycott of the Prince of Wales in Calcutta organised by Bose was so complete that the Prince passed through empty streets; Bose and Das were jailed.
- Chief Executive Officer of Calcutta Corporation, 1924, at 27: introduced khadi uniforms, free primary schools and relief for the poor.
- Mandalay jail, October 1924 to May 1927: over two years' detention without trial under the Bengal Ordinance.
Bose in the Congress, 1927-1938
Released in 1927, Bose became the president of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee and, with Jawaharlal Nehru, the leader of the younger, radical wing of the national Congress. At the Calcutta Congress of 1928 the two of them opposed the Nehru Report's goal of Dominion Status and demanded complete independence; Bose moved the amendment, which was defeated, but the pressure led to the one-year ultimatum and to Purna Swaraj at Lahore in 1929. In 1928 Bose also organised the Bengal Volunteers, a uniformed corps of which he was the General Officer Commanding, to parade at the Calcutta session, a sign of his belief in discipline and military bearing. He was elected president of the All-India Trade Union Congress in 1929 and of the All-India Youth Congress, and threw himself into the labour and student movements.
During the Civil Disobedience Movement he was arrested in January 1930, released, elected Mayor of Calcutta in August 1930 while in jail, and arrested again in 1931 and 1932. He was ill with tuberculosis, and in 1933 the government released him on condition that he leave India for treatment. He spent the years 1933 to 1936 in Europe, mainly in Vienna, meeting political leaders, studying the organisation of states, writing his book The Indian Struggle (1935), which the British banned in India, and making contact with Indian communities abroad. In Vienna he met Emilie Schenkl, who became his secretary and later his wife. He also met Mussolini and formed the view, which Nehru did not share, that India's freedom might be won with help from the enemies of Britain.
He returned to India in April 1936 and was at once arrested, and was released only in March 1937. His popularity was now so great that in 1938 the Congress elected him president unanimously, and he presided over the Haripura session in Gujarat in February 1938 in a procession of fifty-one bullock carts. His presidential address called for the industrialisation of India through state planning; he set up the National Planning Committee under Jawaharlal Nehru, the ancestor of the Planning Commission of independent India; he pressed the Congress to support the Prajamandal movements in the princely states, including those of Odisha; and he opposed the federal part of the Government of India Act 1935, which would have given the princes a permanent place in the central legislature.
By the end of 1938 the clouds of war were gathering in Europe, and Bose was convinced that the coming war was India's opportunity to force the British out by an ultimatum. Gandhi and the older leaders of the Working Committee believed that the country was not ready and that the Congress must not weaken itself by a split. The conflict came to a head in the election for the presidency of 1939.
- Calcutta 1928: Bose's amendment for complete independence was defeated by 1,350 to 973 votes, but the demand became Congress policy a year later.
- The Indian Struggle (1935), written in Vienna, was banned in India by the British until 1947.
- Haripura 1938: Bose set up the National Planning Committee with Nehru as chairman, the origin of India's planned economy.
- Congress president: Haripura, February 1938 (unopposed); Tripuri, March 1939 (elected against Sitaramayya); resigned April 1939.
The Tripuri crisis and the Forward Bloc, 1939-1940
In January 1939 Bose decided to stand for a second term as Congress president, against the wishes of Gandhi and most of the Working Committee, who put up Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya of Andhra as their candidate. Bose campaigned on the demand that the Congress give Britain a six-month ultimatum for independence, backed by the threat of mass struggle, and that it reject any compromise on the federal scheme. On 29 January 1939 he won by 1,580 votes to 1,377, the first and only time a Congress president was elected against Gandhi's wishes. Gandhi announced that Sitaramayya's defeat was his own, and twelve of the fifteen members of the Working Committee resigned.
The Tripuri session (near Jabalpur) in March 1939 was held in an atmosphere of crisis. Bose was seriously ill and was carried to the pandal on a stretcher. Govind Ballabh Pant moved a resolution reaffirming faith in Gandhi's leadership and asking Bose to form his Working Committee in accordance with Gandhi's wishes. It was carried. Bose thus found himself president without the power to choose his own executive. Weeks of correspondence with Gandhi and Nehru brought no compromise; Gandhi would not name a committee and Bose would not accept one imposed on him. On 29 April 1939, at the Calcutta meeting of the AICC, Bose resigned, and Rajendra Prasad was elected president in his place.
On 3 May 1939 Bose announced the formation of the Forward Bloc within the Congress, to rally the radical and left elements behind a programme of immediate struggle, socialism and planned industrialisation. The Working Committee responded in August 1939 by removing him from the presidency of the Bengal Congress and disqualifying him from any elective Congress office for three years. The Forward Bloc held its first conference at Nagpur in June 1940 and passed a resolution calling for an all-out struggle for independence; its organ was the weekly Forward Bloc.
When the war began in September 1939 Bose demanded that the Congress launch a mass movement at once, holding that Britain's difficulty was India's opportunity. The Congress, as the previous chapter showed, chose the resignation of ministries and later the limited Individual Satyagraha. Bose led his own agitations in Bengal, including a campaign in July 1940 for the removal of the Holwell Monument in Calcutta, a memorial to the Black Hole of 1756 that Indians regarded as an insult; he was arrested on 2 July 1940 under the Defence of India Act. In prison he began a hunger strike on 29 November 1940, declaring that he would rather die than remain in jail while India was in chains; fearing his death, the government released him on 5 December 1940 and kept him under close watch at his house at 38/2 Elgin Road, Calcutta. From that house he vanished.
- Presidential election, 29 January 1939: Bose 1,580, Sitaramayya 1,377, a majority of 203 delegates from the Provincial Congress Committees.
- Pant resolution at Tripuri, March 1939: the Working Committee to be formed according to Gandhi's wishes, which made Bose's position impossible.
- Forward Bloc founded 3 May 1939; Bose disqualified from Congress office for three years in August 1939; Holwell Monument agitation and arrest 2 July 1940; hunger strike and release December 1940.
Bose and Gandhi: two roads to freedom
The examiner often asks the student to compare the ideas of Subhas Bose and Gandhi, and the comparison must be fair to both. The two men respected each other; it was Bose who first called Gandhi the Father of the Nation, in a broadcast from Rangoon on 6 July 1944, and Gandhi called Bose the patriot of patriots. But they differed on means.
On violence. Gandhi held that non-violence was an absolute principle and that a freedom won by arms would be worthless and would breed further violence. Bose held that non-violence was a tactic, useful for a mass movement but not a creed; he admired the revolutionaries of Bengal and believed that in the end freedom would have to be taken by force, since no empire had ever surrendered voluntarily.
On the war. Gandhi refused to embarrass Britain when she was in danger and launched only the limited Individual Satyagraha of 1940; Bose held that Britain's difficulty was India's opportunity and that the war must be used to strike, if necessary with the help of Britain's enemies. Gandhi's Quit India of 1942 was a partial acceptance of Bose's logic.
On foreign help. Gandhi would accept no help from fascist powers, whose ideology he detested; Bose was willing to take help from Germany and Japan while insisting that he was no one's puppet, arguing that the enemy of the enemy could be used without being trusted.
On economics. Gandhi wanted a village-centred economy of charkha and cottage industries; Bose wanted rapid industrialisation through state planning on the Soviet model, and founded the National Planning Committee.
On organisation. Gandhi believed in moral persuasion and a loose mass movement; Bose believed in discipline, uniforms, a party of the vanguard and, in the end, an army.
On religion. Both were religious men, Gandhi a Vaishnava reformer, Bose a follower of Vivekananda, but Bose kept religion out of politics and made the INA a model of Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity, with Urdu-Hindustani in the Roman script as its language and Jai Hind as its greeting.
The two roads met in 1945-46: it was Gandhi's mass movement that made British rule impossible to continue, and it was the INA trials, the memory of Bose and the naval mutiny that made the British fear for the loyalty of their army. Independent India honoured both: Gandhi as the Father of the Nation, Bose as Netaji.
| Issue | Gandhi | Bose |
| Non-violence | A creed | A tactic |
| The war | No embarrassment to Britain in danger | Britain's difficulty is India's opportunity |
| Foreign help | Refused | Accepted from the Axis |
| Economy | Village and charkha | Planned industry |
| Method | Satyagraha | Discipline, ultimatum, army |
- Bose's Rangoon broadcast of 6 July 1944: 'Father of our Nation, in this holy war for India's liberation, we ask for your blessings and good wishes.'
- Gandhi on Bose after 1945: he called him the prince among patriots and praised the INA's communal unity, while repeating his disapproval of armed struggle.
- The INA's language policy: commands in Hindustani written in Roman script so that Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs from every province could follow them.
The great escape and the years in Germany, 1941-1943
Under police watch at his Elgin Road house, Bose planned his escape with his nephew Sisir Kumar Bose and a few trusted friends. He let it be known that he had entered religious seclusion and would see no one. On the night of 16-17 January 1941, disguised as a Muslim insurance agent named Mohammad Ziauddin, with a beard and a fez, he slipped out of the house, was driven by Sisir to Gomoh railway station in Bihar, and took the Frontier Mail to Peshawar. There Forward Bloc and Kirti Kisan contacts, Mian Akbar Shah and Bhagat Ram Talwar, took him across the tribal territory into Afghanistan, on foot and by mule, Bose posing as a deaf and dumb Pathan. In Kabul he waited for weeks, then with the help of the Italian legation left on 18 March 1941 with an Italian passport in the name of Orlando Mazzotta, travelling through Soviet territory by train to Moscow and by air to Berlin, where he arrived on 2 April 1941. The British discovered the escape only on 27 January, and the Calcutta press announced it to an astonished India.
In Germany Bose set up the Free India Centre (Azad Hind office) in Berlin in November 1941, chose the tricolour as its flag, the leaping tiger as its emblem, Jai Hind as its greeting, Tagore's Jana Gana Mana as its national anthem and Hindustani as its language, and started the Azad Hind Radio, which broadcast to India in several languages. It was here that his followers first called him Netaji. From Indian prisoners of war taken by Rommel in North Africa he raised the Indian Legion (Freies Indien Legion) of about 3,000 men in the German army, intended for a march on India through the Caucasus. He met Hitler on 29 May 1942 and found him unwilling to make any declaration on Indian independence; Bose was disgusted by Hitler's contempt for Indians in Mein Kampf and was never a believer in Nazi ideology, but he used what Germany offered.
By the end of 1942 it was clear that Germany would not reach India; the German army had been stopped at Stalingrad, and Japan, which had conquered Burma, was at India's gate. The Japanese and the Indian Independence League in Asia asked for Bose. On 8 February 1943 he left Kiel in the German submarine U-180 with his aide Abid Hasan; off Madagascar on 26-28 April 1943 he was transferred in a rubber dinghy in rough seas to the Japanese submarine I-29, the only civilian transfer between two submarines in the war; he reached Sabang in Sumatra on 6 May and Tokyo on 16 May 1943. There he met the Japanese Prime Minister Tojo, who declared in the Japanese Diet that Japan would help India's independence, and on 2 July 1943 Bose landed at Singapore, where the second half of his story began.
- The disguise: Mohammad Ziauddin, insurance agent, on the night of 16-17 January 1941; then a deaf-mute Pathan through the tribal areas; then Orlando Mazzotta, Italian diplomat, from Kabul to Berlin.
- The Indian Legion in Germany numbered about 3,000 by 1942, drawn from prisoners of war captured in North Africa.
- The submarine voyage: U-180 from Kiel 8 February 1943; transfer to I-29 off Madagascar 26-28 April 1943; Tokyo 16 May 1943; Singapore 2 July 1943.
- Escape route: Calcutta (17 January 1941) → Gomoh → Peshawar → Kabul → Moscow → Berlin (2 April 1941) → by submarine to Sumatra (May 1943) → Tokyo → Singapore (2 July 1943).
The origin of the Indian National Army: Mohan Singh and Rash Behari Bose
The Indian National Army existed before Bose reached Asia, and the student must know its two founders.
When the Japanese swept through Malaya in December 1941 and January 1942, tens of thousands of Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army were taken prisoner. A Japanese intelligence officer, Major Fujiwara Iwaichi, had been instructed to win over the Indians, and at Jitra in northern Malaya in December 1941 he met Captain Mohan Singh of the 1/14th Punjab Regiment, who had been captured. Mohan Singh agreed to raise an Indian army from the prisoners to fight for India's freedom alongside Japan, on condition that it would be an ally, not a tool. After the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, about 45,000 Indian prisoners were assembled at Farrer Park on 17 February, handed over by the British to the Japanese and by the Japanese to Mohan Singh, who appealed to them to join. By the end of 1942 about 40,000 had volunteered, and the first INA (Azad Hind Fauj) was formally raised on 1 September 1942 with Mohan Singh as its General Officer Commanding.
Meanwhile the Indian civilians of South-East Asia had been organised by Rash Behari Bose, the veteran revolutionary of the Delhi bomb case of 1912 and the Ghadar conspiracy of 1915, who had lived in Japan since 1915, married a Japanese woman and become a Japanese citizen. He founded the Indian Independence League (IIL) at a conference in Tokyo in March 1942 and a larger one at Bangkok in June 1942, which resolved that the INA would be the army of the League and that the League would seek Subhas Chandra Bose as its leader. The Bangkok resolutions also demanded that Japan recognise Indian independence and treat the INA as an allied army.
The first INA soon ran into trouble. Mohan Singh and the Council of Action of the League suspected that the Japanese wanted to use the INA as a propaganda force and a fifth column rather than a real army, and that they would not commit themselves to Indian independence; Japanese officers treated Indian officers with contempt, and Mohan Singh feared that the INA might be sent into battle piecemeal under Japanese command. In December 1942 he ordered the INA to be dissolved if the Japanese did not accept its conditions; the Japanese arrested him on 29 December 1942 and the first INA was disbanded, though its soldiers remained in the camps.
Rash Behari Bose kept the League alive through the crisis and insisted that only Subhas Bose could revive the army. Many soldiers, among them Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, waited for Netaji. When Subhas arrived at Singapore on 2 July 1943, Rash Behari Bose, at a mass meeting at the Cathay building on 4 July 1943, handed over to him the presidency of the League and the leadership of the movement, saying that his own work was done. He died in Tokyo in January 1945.
- Farrer Park, Singapore, 17 February 1942: about 45,000 Indian prisoners were addressed by Fujiwara and Mohan Singh; the majority eventually volunteered for the INA.
- Rash Behari Bose: threw the bomb at Viceroy Hardinge in Delhi in 1912, escaped to Japan in 1915, founded the Indian Independence League in 1942 and handed it to Subhas Bose on 4 July 1943.
- Mohan Singh's conditions: the INA to be an allied army with its own command, and Japan to declare for Indian independence; when refused, he ordered its dissolution and was arrested on 29 December 1942.
- First INA: Fujiwara-Mohan Singh agreement December 1941 → Farrer Park 17 February 1942 → Bangkok conference June 1942 → INA raised 1 September 1942 → dissolved December 1942.
Netaji takes command: the Azad Hind Fauj, 1943
On 5 July 1943, in front of the Municipal Building in Singapore, Subhas Chandra Bose reviewed the reorganised Azad Hind Fauj and gave it his call to arms: Chalo Delhi, on to Delhi. He told the soldiers that they were the first army of free India, that they would fight with the enemy's blood and their own, and that the road to Delhi was the road to freedom. On 25 August 1943 he formally assumed the supreme command of the INA. He took the military title of Supreme Commander and, from the men, the name Netaji.
Bose rebuilt the army on new foundations. It was to be an allied army, with its own officers and its own chain of command, not a Japanese auxiliary; he obtained from Tojo an agreement that Japanese liaison officers would not command Indian troops. He recruited not only prisoners of war but also civilians from the two million Indians of Malaya, Burma, Thailand and Indo-China, Tamil plantation labourers as much as Punjabi soldiers, and raised the strength to about 50,000, organised in three divisions. The 1st Division under Mohammad Zaman Kiani had the Gandhi, Nehru and Azad brigades (regiments), named to show that the INA claimed the heritage of the national movement, together with the picked Subhas Brigade under Shah Nawaz Khan. The INA also had special services, a medical corps, an intelligence group and an officers' training school.
The Rani of Jhansi Regiment was the INA's most remarkable creation: a regiment of women, the first in Asia, raised in October 1943 under Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan (later Lakshmi Sahgal), a young doctor of Singapore, with about 1,000 volunteers, mostly Tamil girls from the plantations of Malaya, trained in arms and nursing. It was named after the queen who had died fighting the British in 1858. Bose insisted that the women of India must share in the struggle as they had in 1857.
The army's spirit was its unity. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs messed together, an unheard-of thing in the British Indian Army with its caste and community kitchens; the greeting was Jai Hind; the marching song was Kadam kadam badhaye ja; the words of command were in Hindustani; and the motto was Ittehad, Itmad, Qurbani (unity, faith, sacrifice). Bose collected money from the Indian community in millions; wealthy merchants gave their fortunes, and poor labourers their savings, to the Azad Hind Bank and the war chest, and Bose toured the whole of South-East Asia addressing crowds of tens of thousands.
The Japanese found him a difficult ally. He refused to let the INA be broken up into small units, refused Japanese command of Indian troops and refused to let the INA be used for propaganda alone. He was, as he said, Japan's ally and not its servant, and the Japanese, who needed the Indian community and the propaganda value of an Indian army, accepted his conditions for the campaign of 1944.
- Singapore, 5 July 1943: the review of the INA and the call Chalo Delhi; 25 August 1943 Bose assumed supreme command.
- The Rani of Jhansi Regiment, October 1943, under Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan: about 1,000 women, trained in arms and nursing, the first women's regiment in Asia.
- Motto: Ittehad, Itmad, Qurbani (unity, faith, sacrifice); greeting Jai Hind; song Kadam kadam badhaye ja; brigades named Gandhi, Nehru, Azad and Subhas.
- INA under Bose: about 50,000 in three divisions; 1st Division with Gandhi, Nehru, Azad and Subhas brigades; Rani of Jhansi Regiment for women.
The Provisional Government of Azad Hind
On 21 October 1943, at the Cathay Cinema in Singapore, Subhas Chandra Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India (Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind). He was its Head of State, Prime Minister, Minister of War and Minister of Foreign Affairs; the cabinet included Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan (Women's Organisation), S. A. Ayer (Publicity and Propaganda), A. C. Chatterji (Finance), and the military commanders Aziz Ahmed, N. S. Bhagat, J. K. Bhonsle, Gulzara Singh, M. Z. Kiani, A. D. Loganathan, Ehsan Qadir and Shah Nawaz Khan, with Rash Behari Bose as supreme adviser. Bose took the oath in Hindustani, breaking down as he swore to continue the war of liberation till the last, and the hall echoed with Jai Hind.
The Provisional Government was meant to give the INA the standing of the army of a state, not a rebel force. It had its own flag, the tricolour with the leaping tiger; its own anthem, Subh Sukh Chain, a Hindustani version of Jana Gana Mana; its own currency and postage stamps, prepared though little used; its own Azad Hind Bank; and its own courts for INA personnel. Within a few days it was recognised by nine governments: Japan, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Burma, Thailand, the Philippines, Manchukuo and the Nanking government of China; Eamon de Valera of Ireland sent congratulations.
On 23 October 1943 the Provisional Government declared war on Britain and the United States. In November 1943 Bose attended the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo as an observer, where Tojo announced that Japan would hand over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, occupied by Japan since March 1942, to the Provisional Government. On 29 December 1943 Bose visited Port Blair, hoisted the tricolour and renamed the islands Shaheed (martyr) and Swaraj (self-rule), the first Indian territory under an Indian government since 1857, though in practice the Japanese navy kept control and the appointed Chief Commissioner, A. D. Loganathan, had little power.
In January 1944 the headquarters of the Provisional Government and the INA moved to Rangoon, nearer the Indian frontier, to prepare for the march on India. Bose issued a series of proclamations to the people of India promising that the INA came as liberators, not conquerors, that the property of Indians would be protected, and that the Provisional Government would hand over power to a national government elected by the people as soon as India was free. He also organised the Azad Hind Dal, a civil administration corps to govern liberated territory behind the advancing army.
The Provisional Government was the first Indian government in the twentieth century to declare itself sovereign, to have its own army and to be recognised by other states, and its declaration of war made the INA soldiers, in Bose's eyes, lawful combatants of a belligerent state, an argument that was central to their defence at the Red Fort trials of 1945.
- Cabinet of 21 October 1943: Bose (Head of State, PM, War, Foreign Affairs), Lakshmi Swaminathan (Women), S. A. Ayer (Publicity), A. C. Chatterji (Finance), and eight military members; Rash Behari Bose as adviser.
- Recognition by Japan, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Burma, Thailand, the Philippines, Manchukuo and Nanking China, nine states in all.
- Port Blair, 29 December 1943: the tricolour hoisted and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands renamed Shaheed and Swaraj.
- Provisional Government of Azad Hind: proclaimed 21 October 1943, Singapore; declared war on Britain and the USA 23 October 1943; moved to Rangoon January 1944.
The march on India: Imphal and Kohima, 1944
The INA's campaign was tied to the Japanese offensive of 1944, Operation U-Go, whose object was to capture Imphal, the capital of Manipur, and Kohima in the Naga Hills, and so to cut the road to the Assam airfields from which the Allies supplied China. Bose wanted the INA to lead the advance and to raise the Indian population and the Indian soldiers of the British army against the Raj as it advanced; the Japanese, doubtful of its fighting value, gave it a secondary role, but about 8,000 INA troops took part.
The Subhas Brigade under Shah Nawaz Khan crossed into the Arakan and Chin Hills in early 1944, and the Gandhi Brigade under Inayat Kiani, the Azad Brigade under Gulzara Singh and the Bahadur Group of guerrillas took part in the advance on Imphal. On 18 March 1944 the INA crossed the Indian frontier. On 14 April 1944 Colonel Shaukat Ali Malik of the Bahadur Group hoisted the tricolour at Moirang, a small town on the Loktak lake south of Imphal, the first place in India to be liberated by the INA; a memorial and museum now mark the spot. Units of the INA reached the outskirts of Imphal and the Kohima ridge, and in the villages of Manipur the people welcomed them.
Then the campaign failed. The British-Indian 14th Army under General Slim, forewarned and supplied by air, held Imphal and Kohima through April and May in some of the bitterest fighting of the war. The Japanese, who had counted on capturing British supplies, had none of their own; the monsoon broke in late May, turning the tracks into rivers of mud; the Allies controlled the air; malaria, dysentery and starvation destroyed the Japanese and Indian columns. The INA soldiers, poorly armed and supplied, fought and starved beside the Japanese; the Gandhi Brigade held its ground at Palel until ordered back. In July 1944 the Japanese ordered a general retreat, and the INA fell back through the hills into Burma, losing many more men to disease and hunger than to enemy fire.
The retreat of 1944-45 was a disaster. The Allies reoccupied Burma; Mandalay fell in March 1945 and Rangoon on 3 May 1945. Some INA units fought rearguard actions; some surrendered; some deserted. Bose refused to leave until the last, and walked with the retreating troops and the Rani of Jhansi Regiment from Rangoon to Bangkok in April-May 1945, about 300 miles, sharing their hardship. About 26,000 INA soldiers were taken prisoner by the British in 1945 and shipped to India for interrogation, and the INA, as a fighting force, was finished.
Militarily the INA had failed. It had never been large enough or well enough armed to fight the 14th Army, and it had been tied to a Japanese offensive that was itself doomed. But it had crossed the frontier, planted the flag on Indian soil at Moirang and shown that Indian soldiers would fight the British for India's freedom, and this was the memory that shook the Raj in 1945.
- 18 March 1944: the INA crossed the Indo-Burma frontier; 14 April 1944: the tricolour hoisted at Moirang in Manipur, the first Indian town liberated by the INA.
- The Gandhi Brigade fought at Palel near Imphal in May 1944 and held its ground until ordered to retreat in July.
- The retreat: Bose walked with the Rani of Jhansi Regiment about 300 miles from Rangoon to Bangkok in April-May 1945 rather than fly to safety.
- Imphal campaign: INA crosses frontier 18 March 1944 → Moirang flag 14 April 1944 → Japanese retreat ordered July 1944 → Rangoon falls to the Allies 3 May 1945.
The last journey and the mystery of Netaji's death
Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 after the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bose was in Singapore and then Bangkok. He announced to the INA that the fight was not over, that India's freedom was near and that Japan's defeat did not mean India's defeat; he ordered the INA to surrender to the British in an orderly way and distributed the funds of the Provisional Government. He himself decided to go to Manchuria, hoping to reach the Soviet Union, which he expected soon to fall out with Britain, and there to continue the struggle.
On 17 August 1945 he flew from Bangkok to Saigon and, with his aide Colonel Habibur Rahman, boarded a Japanese heavy bomber for Dairen in Manchuria by way of Formosa (Taiwan). On 18 August 1945, shortly after taking off from the airfield at Taihoku (Taipei), the aircraft crashed and burst into flames. According to Habibur Rahman and the Japanese officers, Bose was terribly burnt, was carried to a military hospital and died the same night; his body was cremated at Taihoku and the ashes were taken to Tokyo, where they are kept at the Renkoji temple. Tokyo Radio announced his death on 23 August 1945.
India refused to believe it. No photograph of the body was produced, the Japanese records were inconsistent, and the news came from an enemy radio at the moment of defeat; Gandhi himself doubted it for a time. Rumours that Netaji was alive in Russia, in China or in India as a sadhu persisted for decades. The Government of India appointed the Shah Nawaz Committee (1956), the Khosla Commission (1970-74) and the Mukherjee Commission (1999-2005) to inquire; the first two accepted the air crash, the third doubted it, and the government rejected the third. Files declassified in 2016 support the crash. For the student the settled position is that Bose died at Taihoku on 18 August 1945, but the belief in his survival is itself a part of history, a measure of what he meant to the people.
The Indian Legion in Germany surrendered to the Allies in 1945 and its men were sent home. The Indian Independence League was dissolved. The INA prisoners, about 26,000, were brought to India, screened by the British into 'whites' (misled), 'greys' and 'blacks' (committed), and the last group was chosen for trial. The story of Bose seemed to have ended in defeat; in fact its most powerful effect on India was about to begin.
- Taihoku, 18 August 1945: the bomber carrying Bose and Habibur Rahman crashed on take-off; Tokyo Radio announced his death on 23 August; ashes at Renkoji temple, Tokyo.
- Three inquiries: Shah Nawaz Committee 1956 and Khosla Commission 1970-74 accepted the crash; Mukherjee Commission 2005 doubted it and was rejected by the government.
- British screening of INA prisoners in 1945: whites, greys and blacks, with the blacks, the most committed, selected for court martial.
The INA trials and the naval mutiny, 1945-46
The British decided to court-martial the INA officers for waging war against the King, and chose to hold the first trial in the Red Fort at Delhi, the seat of the last Mughal emperor, beginning on 5 November 1945. The first three accused were chosen, perhaps carelessly, to be a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh: Captain Shah Nawaz Khan, Captain Prem Kumar Sahgal and Lieutenant Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon. The choice turned the trial into a symbol of Indian unity against the Raj.
The Congress, which had opposed Bose's methods, now took up the INA cause. It formed an INA Defence Committee with the finest lawyers of India: Bhulabhai Desai as the leading counsel, with Tej Bahadur Sapru, Jawaharlal Nehru (who put on his barrister's gown after twenty-five years), Asaf Ali and Kailash Nath Katju. Desai argued that the INA was the army of a properly constituted government, the Provisional Government of Azad Hind, recognised by nine states, which had declared war on Britain, and that its soldiers were therefore lawful belligerents under international law and not traitors; the men had fought in uniform, under their own flag and officers, and had treated prisoners according to the laws of war.
Outside the court the country rose. INA Day was observed on 12 November 1945 and INA Week from 5 to 11 November; there were meetings, processions, strikes and collections in every city; students in Calcutta clashed with the police in November 1945 and February 1946, and dozens were killed; the Muslim League, the Sikhs and the Communists all joined the demand for release; and, most alarming to the British, Indian soldiers of the regular army sent money to the defence fund and attended INA meetings. The Commander-in-Chief, General Auchinleck, reported that the army could not be relied on to act against the INA prisoners.
On 31 December 1945 the court found the three officers guilty and sentenced them to transportation for life; on 3 January 1946 Auchinleck remitted the sentences and released them, keeping only the cashiering and forfeiture of pay. The later trials were confined to charges of brutality, and by the spring of 1946 the trials were abandoned.
The final proof of the INA's effect came on 18 February 1946, when the ratings of the Royal Indian Navy at Bombay mutinied over bad food and racial insults, hoisted the tricolour, the League flag and the red flag together on their ships, and demanded the release of the INA prisoners and of all political prisoners. The mutiny spread to 78 ships and 20 shore establishments and to Karachi, Calcutta and Madras, and Bombay's workers struck in sympathy; it was ended on 23 February 1946 by Vallabhbhai Patel's persuasion. The same weeks saw strikes in the Royal Indian Air Force and unrest in the army. Prime Minister Attlee's announcement of the Cabinet Mission on 19 February 1946 came in the middle of the mutiny.
- The first trial: Shah Nawaz Khan (Muslim), Prem Sahgal (Hindu), Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon (Sikh), 5 November to 31 December 1945, Red Fort, Delhi.
- Bhulabhai Desai's argument: the INA was the army of a recognised belligerent government, so its soldiers were lawful combatants, not rebels.
- Naval mutiny, 18-23 February 1946: 78 ships and 20 shore establishments, about 20,000 ratings; ended by Patel's intervention.
- Red Fort trial 5 November to 31 December 1945 → sentences remitted 3 January 1946 → naval mutiny 18-23 February 1946 → Cabinet Mission announced 19 February 1946.
Assessment: Netaji's contribution to Indian independence
Subhas Chandra Bose did not live to see India free, and his army never reached Delhi; yet historians agree that he and the INA hastened independence, and a student should be able to explain how.
The loyalty of the army was shaken. The British ruled India with an Indian army of two million men. The INA showed that Indian soldiers would fight for India against the British when given a leader and a flag, and the response of the regular army to the Red Fort trials, followed by the naval mutiny, convinced the British that they could no longer rely on the sword arm of the Raj. Attlee later said that the INA and the mutiny were among the main reasons for the decision to leave India quickly.
National unity. The INA was a living example of Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity at a time when the country was dividing on communal lines, and the trials of a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh united every party, including the Muslim League, in a single demand.
The awakening of 1945-46. The INA agitation, coming after the exhaustion of Quit India, gave the national movement a new surge that carried it through the elections of 1946 and the negotiations with the Cabinet Mission from a position of strength.
The place of women. The Rani of Jhansi Regiment showed that women could be soldiers and made Lakshmi Sahgal a national figure.
Ideas for the future. Bose's insistence on planning and industrialisation was adopted in independent India's Five-Year Plans; the greeting Jai Hind became the national salutation; the INA's anthem became the tune of the national anthem's official version; and the Andaman experiment, the flag at Moirang and the Red Fort trial became part of the nation's memory. The Government of India honoured him with the title Netaji and his birthday, 23 January, is observed as Parakram Diwas.
Criticisms. Bose's alliance with Germany and Japan, powers whose crimes were immense, has been criticised, though he was never a fascist in ideology and insisted on Indian independence of action; the INA's military weakness is undeniable; and his quarrel with the Congress in 1939 divided the movement at a critical time.
For Odisha Bose is the greatest son of Cuttack: born in the town, schooled at Ravenshaw Collegiate School under Beni Madhab Das, first drawn to service among the cholera patients of its villages. The Netaji Birthplace Museum at Oriya Bazar preserves his home, the Netaji Bus Stand and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose bridge carry his name, and the people of Odisha share with Bengal the pride of having formed the boy who became the leader of the Azad Hind Fauj.
- Attlee's admission: asked in 1956 why Britain left India in 1947, he pointed to the erosion of the loyalty of the Indian army caused by the INA and the naval mutiny.
- Jai Hind, the INA greeting, became the salutation of the Indian armed forces and of the Prime Minister's Independence Day address.
- Netaji Birthplace Museum, Oriya Bazar, Cuttack: the house where Bose was born on 23 January 1897, opened as a museum in 2007.
Key Concepts
- Netaji
- The title, meaning respected leader, given to Subhas Chandra Bose by his followers in Germany in 1942 and used throughout the INA and India.
- Ravenshaw Collegiate School
- The school at Cuttack where Bose studied from 1909 to 1913 under headmaster Beni Madhab Das and first encountered nationalism and Vivekananda.
- Oaten affair
- The assault on Professor E. F. Oaten at Presidency College in 1916 for insulting Indians, for which Bose was expelled from the college.
- Indian Civil Service resignation
- Bose's decision of 22 April 1921 to give up the ICS, in which he had stood fourth, in order to serve the national movement.
- Mandalay detention
- Bose's imprisonment without trial in Burma from October 1924 to May 1927 under the Bengal Ordinance on suspicion of revolutionary links.
- Haripura session
- The Congress session of February 1938 at which Bose presided and established the National Planning Committee under Nehru.
- Tripuri crisis
- The conflict of March 1939 after Bose defeated Gandhi's candidate Sitaramayya, when the Pant resolution forced him to resign the presidency.
- Forward Bloc
- The party founded by Bose on 3 May 1939 within the Congress to rally the left for immediate struggle, socialism and planned industry.
- The great escape
- Bose's flight from house arrest in Calcutta on 17 January 1941 disguised as Mohammad Ziauddin, through Peshawar and Kabul to Berlin.
- Free India Centre
- The Azad Hind office founded by Bose in Berlin in November 1941, with the tricolour, Jai Hind, Jana Gana Mana and the Azad Hind Radio.
- Indian Legion
- The force of about 3,000 Indian prisoners of war raised by Bose in the German army in 1941-42.
- Indian Independence League
- The organisation of Indians in South-East Asia founded by Rash Behari Bose in 1942 at Tokyo and Bangkok, whose army was the INA.
- First INA
- The Azad Hind Fauj raised by Captain Mohan Singh from Indian prisoners of war in Malaya on 1 September 1942 and dissolved in December 1942 over disputes with the Japanese.
- Azad Hind Fauj
- The Indian National Army as reorganised under Bose from July 1943, about 50,000 strong, with the call Chalo Delhi.
- Rani of Jhansi Regiment
- The women's regiment of the INA raised in October 1943 under Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan, the first in Asia.
- Provisional Government of Azad Hind
- The government of free India proclaimed by Bose at Singapore on 21 October 1943, recognised by nine states, which declared war on Britain and the USA.
- Shaheed and Swaraj
- The names given by Bose to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands when the tricolour was hoisted at Port Blair on 29 December 1943.
- Moirang
- The town in Manipur where the INA hoisted the tricolour on 14 April 1944, the first Indian soil liberated by the INA.
- Red Fort trials
- The court martial of Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon at Delhi from November 1945, defended by Bhulabhai Desai and Nehru, which roused the whole country.
- Royal Indian Navy mutiny
- The rising of naval ratings at Bombay from 18 to 23 February 1946 demanding the release of INA prisoners, which showed the British that the armed forces were no longer reliable.
End-of-Chapter Trial Paper & Test Questions
Topic-wise questions to test your understanding of every concept in this chapter.
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Describe the early life and education of Subhas Chandra Bose in Cuttack. / कटक में सुभाष चंद्र बोस के प्रारंभिक जीवन और शिक्षा का वर्णन कीजिए।
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Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23 January 1897 at Cuttack, where his father Janakinath Bose, a Bengali from near Calcutta, was a leading advocate and later government pleader; his mother was Prabhavati Devi and he was the ninth of fourteen children. He first attended the Protestant European School run by the Baptist mission from 1902 to 1909, where he learnt English well but felt cut off from his own people. In 1909 he joined the Ravenshaw Collegiate School, whose headmaster Beni Madhab Das, a nationalist of strong character, became the first great influence on him; there he studied Sanskrit and Bengali and read the Indian poets. At about fifteen he read Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna, whose message of service and self-sacrifice seized him; he practised meditation, formed a group of friends to serve the poor, nursed cholera patients in the villages near Cuttack and even went away in search of a guru. In 1913 he passed the Matriculation examination of Calcutta University standing second in all Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and left for Presidency College. Cuttack thus gave him his schooling, his first teacher of nationalism and his ideal of service, and his birthplace at Oriya Bazar is now a museum. / सुभाष चंद्र बोस का जन्म 23 जनवरी 1897 को कटक में हुआ, जहाँ उनके पिता जानकीनाथ बोस, कलकत्ता के पास के बंगाली, एक अग्रणी वकील और बाद में सरकारी वकील थे; उनकी माता प्रभावती देवी थीं और वे चौदह संतानों में नौवें थे। उन्होंने पहले 1902 से 1909 तक बैपटिस्ट मिशन द्वारा संचालित प्रोटेस्टेंट यूरोपियन स्कूल में पढ़ाई की, जहाँ उन्होंने अंग्रेज़ी अच्छी सीखी परन्तु स्वयं को अपने लोगों से कटा हुआ महसूस किया। 1909 में वे रेवेनशॉ कॉलेजिएट स्कूल में गए, जिसके प्रधानाध्यापक बेनी माधव दास, दृढ़ चरित्र के राष्ट्रवादी, उन पर पहला बड़ा प्रभाव बने; वहाँ उन्होंने संस्कृत और बंगला पढ़ी और भारतीय कवियों को पढ़ा। लगभग पंद्रह वर्ष की आयु में उन्होंने स्वामी विवेकानंद और रामकृष्ण को पढ़ा, जिनके सेवा और आत्मत्याग के संदेश ने उन्हें पूरी तरह जकड़ लिया; उन्होंने ध्यान का अभ्यास किया, गरीबों की सेवा के लिए मित्रों का समूह बनाया, कटक के निकट गाँवों में हैजे के रोगियों की सेवा की और गुरु की खोज में घर से भी चले गए। 1913 में उन्होंने कलकत्ता विश्वविद्यालय की मैट्रिक परीक्षा पूरे बंगाल, बिहार और उड़ीसा में दूसरे स्थान पर उत्तीर्ण की और प्रेसीडेंसी कॉलेज चले गए। इस प्रकार कटक ने उन्हें उनकी शिक्षा, राष्ट्रवाद का पहला शिक्षक और सेवा का आदर्श दिया, और ओड़िया बाज़ार में उनका जन्मस्थान अब एक संग्रहालय है।
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Why did Subhas Chandra Bose resign from the Indian Civil Service? / सुभाष चंद्र बोस ने भारतीय सिविल सेवा से त्यागपत्र क्यों दिया?
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Bose went to England in 1919 at his father's wish, entered Fitzwilliam Hall at Cambridge, and in 1920 stood fourth in the open competition for the Indian Civil Service after only eight months' preparation, the most coveted career open to an Indian. But he could not reconcile himself to serving the government that had carried out the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and against which Gandhi had just launched the Non-Cooperation Movement. He wrote to his brother Sarat that a man who wished to serve his country could not do so as a member of the bureaucracy that ruled it, and that the example of Aurobindo Ghosh, who had rejected the ICS, was before him; the best way to end a system was not to become part of it. Against the advice of his family and friends, he resigned on 22 April 1921 in a letter to the Secretary of State, Edwin Montagu, saying that he wished to devote himself to the cause of his country, and returned to India in July 1921 to join the movement under C. R. Das. He was one of the very few Indians ever to reject the service after passing it, and the sacrifice made him a hero to the youth of Bengal. / बोस 1919 में अपने पिता की इच्छा से इंग्लैंड गए, कैम्ब्रिज के फ़िट्ज़विलियम हॉल में प्रवेश लिया, और 1920 में केवल आठ महीने की तैयारी के बाद भारतीय सिविल सेवा की खुली प्रतियोगिता में चौथा स्थान प्राप्त किया, जो किसी भारतीय के लिए सबसे प्रतिष्ठित करियर था। परन्तु वे उस सरकार की सेवा से समझौता नहीं कर सके जिसने जलियाँवाला बाग हत्याकांड किया था और जिसके विरुद्ध गांधीजी ने अभी असहयोग आंदोलन आरम्भ किया था। उन्होंने अपने भाई शरत को लिखा कि जो व्यक्ति देश की सेवा करना चाहता है वह उस पर शासन करने वाली नौकरशाही का सदस्य रहकर ऐसा नहीं कर सकता, और आईसीएस को ठुकराने वाले अरविंद घोष का उदाहरण उनके सामने था; किसी व्यवस्था को समाप्त करने का सबसे अच्छा तरीका उसका भाग बनना नहीं है। परिवार और मित्रों की सलाह के विरुद्ध उन्होंने 22 अप्रैल 1921 को भारत-सचिव एडविन मांटेग्यू को पत्र लिखकर त्यागपत्र दिया, यह कहते हुए कि वे स्वयं को देश की सेवा में समर्पित करना चाहते हैं, और जुलाई 1921 में सी. आर. दास के नेतृत्व में आंदोलन में शामिल होने भारत लौटे। वे उन बहुत कम भारतीयों में से थे जिन्होंने उत्तीर्ण होने के बाद इस सेवा को ठुकराया, और इस त्याग ने उन्हें बंगाल के युवाओं का नायक बना दिया।
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What was the Tripuri crisis and how did it lead to the formation of the Forward Bloc? / त्रिपुरी संकट क्या था और इसने फ़ॉरवर्ड ब्लॉक के गठन को कैसे जन्म दिया?
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In January 1939 Bose stood for a second term as Congress president against the wishes of Gandhi and the Working Committee, who backed Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya, campaigning for a six-month ultimatum to Britain backed by mass struggle and against any compromise on the federal scheme. On 29 January 1939 he won by 1,580 votes to 1,377, the only time a president was elected against Gandhi's wishes; Gandhi called Sitaramayya's defeat his own, and twelve members of the Working Committee resigned. At the Tripuri session in March 1939, which Bose attended on a stretcher because of illness, Govind Ballabh Pant moved a resolution reaffirming faith in Gandhi and directing Bose to form his Working Committee according to Gandhi's wishes, and it was carried. Bose was thus a president without power to choose his executive; weeks of correspondence with Gandhi produced no compromise, and on 29 April 1939 he resigned, Rajendra Prasad taking his place. On 3 May 1939 he founded the Forward Bloc within the Congress to rally the left for immediate struggle, socialism and planned industrialisation; in August 1939 the Working Committee removed him from the Bengal presidency and barred him from Congress office for three years, and the Forward Bloc became his own vehicle for the agitations of 1939-40. / जनवरी 1939 में बोस गांधीजी और कार्यसमिति की इच्छा के विरुद्ध, जिन्होंने डॉ. पट्टाभि सीतारमैया का समर्थन किया, कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष पद के दूसरे कार्यकाल के लिए खड़े हुए, जन-संघर्ष के समर्थन से ब्रिटेन को छह महीने का अल्टीमेटम देने और संघीय योजना पर किसी समझौते के विरोध के मुद्दे पर। 29 जनवरी 1939 को वे 1,580 के मुकाबले 1,377 मतों से जीते, एकमात्र अवसर जब कोई अध्यक्ष गांधीजी की इच्छा के विरुद्ध चुना गया; गांधीजी ने सीतारमैया की हार को अपनी हार कहा, और कार्यसमिति के बारह सदस्यों ने त्यागपत्र दिया। मार्च 1939 के त्रिपुरी अधिवेशन में, जिसमें बोस बीमारी के कारण स्ट्रेचर पर आए, गोविंद बल्लभ पंत ने गांधीजी में आस्था दोहराने और बोस को गांधीजी की इच्छानुसार कार्यसमिति बनाने का निर्देश देने वाला प्रस्ताव रखा, जो पारित हुआ। इस प्रकार बोस अपनी कार्यकारिणी चुनने की शक्ति से रहित अध्यक्ष थे; गांधीजी से हफ़्तों के पत्राचार से कोई समझौता नहीं हुआ, और 29 अप्रैल 1939 को उन्होंने त्यागपत्र दिया, राजेन्द्र प्रसाद ने उनका स्थान लिया। 3 मई 1939 को उन्होंने तत्काल संघर्ष, समाजवाद और नियोजित औद्योगीकरण के लिए वामपंथ को एकजुट करने हेतु कांग्रेस के भीतर फ़ॉरवर्ड ब्लॉक की स्थापना की; अगस्त 1939 में कार्यसमिति ने उन्हें बंगाल अध्यक्ष पद से हटाया और तीन वर्ष के लिए कांग्रेस पदों से वंचित किया, और फ़ॉरवर्ड ब्लॉक 1939-40 के आंदोलनों के लिए उनका अपना माध्यम बना।
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How did Subhas Chandra Bose escape from India in 1941 and what did he do in Germany? / 1941 में सुभाष चंद्र बोस भारत से कैसे निकले और उन्होंने जर्मनी में क्या किया?
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Released from jail in December 1940 after a hunger strike, Bose was kept under police watch at his Elgin Road house in Calcutta. Pretending to have entered religious seclusion, he slipped out on the night of 16-17 January 1941 disguised as a Muslim insurance agent, Mohammad Ziauddin, was driven by his nephew Sisir Bose to Gomoh station in Bihar, took the Frontier Mail to Peshawar, and was guided by Forward Bloc and Kirti Kisan contacts, Mian Akbar Shah and Bhagat Ram Talwar, across the tribal territory into Afghanistan posing as a deaf-mute Pathan. From Kabul, with an Italian passport in the name of Orlando Mazzotta, he travelled through Moscow to Berlin, arriving on 2 April 1941. In Germany he founded the Free India Centre in November 1941 with the tricolour, the greeting Jai Hind, Jana Gana Mana as anthem and Hindustani as language, started the Azad Hind Radio broadcasting to India, and raised the Indian Legion of about 3,000 men from Indian prisoners of war captured in North Africa. His followers there first called him Netaji. He met Hitler in May 1942 but got no declaration on Indian independence, and when it became clear that Germany could not reach India while Japan stood at its border, he left Kiel by submarine in February 1943 for Asia. / दिसंबर 1940 में भूख हड़ताल के बाद जेल से छूटे बोस को कलकत्ता में उनके एल्गिन रोड घर पर पुलिस निगरानी में रखा गया। धार्मिक एकांतवास का बहाना बनाकर वे 16-17 जनवरी 1941 की रात एक मुस्लिम बीमा एजेंट मोहम्मद ज़ियाउद्दीन के वेश में चुपचाप निकले, उनके भतीजे शिशिर बोस उन्हें कार से बिहार के गोमो स्टेशन ले गए, वहाँ से फ्रंटियर मेल से पेशावर पहुँचे, और फ़ॉरवर्ड ब्लॉक तथा कीर्ति किसान के संपर्कों मियाँ अकबर शाह और भगत राम तलवार ने उन्हें गूँगे-बहरे पठान के वेश में कबायली क्षेत्र से अफ़ग़ानिस्तान पहुँचाया। काबुल से ओरलांडो मज़ोटा के नाम के इतालवी पासपोर्ट पर वे मास्को होते हुए बर्लिन गए, जहाँ 2 अप्रैल 1941 को पहुँचे। जर्मनी में उन्होंने नवंबर 1941 में तिरंगे, जय हिंद अभिवादन, जन गण मन राष्ट्रगान और हिंदुस्तानी भाषा के साथ फ्री इंडिया सेंटर की स्थापना की, भारत को प्रसारण करने वाला आज़ाद हिंद रेडियो शुरू किया, और उत्तरी अफ्रीका में पकड़े गए भारतीय युद्धबंदियों से लगभग 3,000 सैनिकों की इंडियन लीजन खड़ी की। वहाँ उनके अनुयायियों ने उन्हें पहली बार नेताजी कहा। मई 1942 में वे हिटलर से मिले परन्तु भारतीय स्वतंत्रता पर कोई घोषणा नहीं मिली, और जब स्पष्ट हो गया कि जर्मनी भारत तक नहीं पहुँच सकता जबकि जापान उसकी सीमा पर है, तो वे फ़रवरी 1943 में कील से पनडुब्बी द्वारा एशिया के लिए निकले।
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Trace the origin of the Indian National Army before the arrival of Subhas Chandra Bose. / सुभाष चंद्र बोस के आगमन से पहले भारतीय राष्ट्रीय सेना की उत्पत्ति का वर्णन कीजिए।
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The INA was born from the Japanese conquest of Malaya. In December 1941 the Japanese intelligence officer Major Fujiwara met Captain Mohan Singh of the 1/14th Punjab Regiment, captured at Jitra, and Mohan Singh agreed to raise an army from Indian prisoners to fight for India's freedom as an ally of Japan, not its tool. After Singapore fell on 15 February 1942, about 45,000 Indian prisoners were assembled at Farrer Park on 17 February, handed to Mohan Singh, and most volunteered; the first INA, the Azad Hind Fauj, was formally raised on 1 September 1942 with Mohan Singh as commander, about 40,000 strong. Meanwhile Rash Behari Bose, the revolutionary of the 1912 Delhi bomb case who had lived in Japan since 1915, founded the Indian Independence League at conferences in Tokyo in March 1942 and Bangkok in June 1942, which made the INA the army of the League and resolved to invite Subhas Bose as leader. The first INA collapsed in December 1942 when Mohan Singh, suspecting that Japan wished to use it as a propaganda force without committing itself to Indian independence, ordered its dissolution and was arrested on 29 December 1942. Rash Behari Bose kept the League alive until Subhas Bose arrived, and handed over its leadership to him at Singapore on 4 July 1943. / आईएनए का जन्म मलाया पर जापानी विजय से हुआ। दिसंबर 1941 में जापानी खुफिया अधिकारी मेजर फुजिवारा जित्रा में पकड़े गए 1/14वीं पंजाब रेजिमेंट के कैप्टन मोहन सिंह से मिले, और मोहन सिंह जापान के उपकरण नहीं बल्कि सहयोगी के रूप में भारत की स्वतंत्रता के लिए लड़ने हेतु भारतीय युद्धबंदियों से सेना खड़ी करने पर सहमत हुए। 15 फ़रवरी 1942 को सिंगापुर के पतन के बाद 17 फ़रवरी को फ़ैरर पार्क में लगभग 45,000 भारतीय बंदी एकत्र किए गए, मोहन सिंह को सौंपे गए, और अधिकांश स्वयंसेवक बने; पहली आईएनए, आज़ाद हिंद फ़ौज, औपचारिक रूप से 1 सितंबर 1942 को मोहन सिंह के नेतृत्व में लगभग 40,000 की संख्या में खड़ी हुई। इसी बीच 1912 के दिल्ली बम कांड के क्रांतिकारी रासबिहारी बोस ने, जो 1915 से जापान में रहते थे, मार्च 1942 में टोक्यो और जून 1942 में बैंकॉक के सम्मेलनों में इंडियन इंडिपेंडेंस लीग की स्थापना की, जिसने आईएनए को लीग की सेना बनाया और सुभाष बोस को नेता के रूप में आमंत्रित करने का संकल्प लिया। पहली आईएनए दिसंबर 1942 में तब बिखर गई जब मोहन सिंह ने, यह संदेह करते हुए कि जापान भारतीय स्वतंत्रता के प्रति प्रतिबद्ध हुए बिना इसे प्रचार-सेना के रूप में प्रयोग करना चाहता है, इसके विघटन का आदेश दिया और 29 दिसंबर 1942 को गिरफ्तार कर लिए गए। रासबिहारी बोस ने सुभाष बोस के आने तक लीग को जीवित रखा और 4 जुलाई 1943 को सिंगापुर में उसका नेतृत्व उन्हें सौंप दिया।
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Describe the Provisional Government of Azad Hind. / आज़ाद हिंद की अस्थायी सरकार का वर्णन कीजिए।
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On 21 October 1943 at the Cathay Cinema in Singapore Subhas Chandra Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India, with himself as Head of State, Prime Minister and Minister of War and Foreign Affairs, Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan in charge of women's organisation, S. A. Ayer of publicity, A. C. Chatterji of finance, eight military commanders including Shah Nawaz Khan as members, and Rash Behari Bose as supreme adviser; he took the oath in Hindustani to continue the war of liberation to the last. The government had its own flag with the leaping tiger, the anthem Subh Sukh Chain, currency and stamps, the Azad Hind Bank and courts, and within days was recognised by nine states, Japan, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Burma, Thailand, the Philippines, Manchukuo and Nanking China. On 23 October 1943 it declared war on Britain and the United States. At the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo in November Japan agreed to hand over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and on 29 December 1943 Bose hoisted the tricolour at Port Blair and renamed them Shaheed and Swaraj, though the Japanese navy kept real control. In January 1944 the government moved to Rangoon to prepare the march on India, promising to hand power to an elected national government once India was free. Its declaration of war was the basis of the argument at the Red Fort trials that INA soldiers were lawful belligerents. / 21 अक्टूबर 1943 को सिंगापुर के कैथे सिनेमा में सुभाष चंद्र बोस ने स्वतंत्र भारत की अस्थायी सरकार की घोषणा की, जिसमें वे स्वयं राष्ट्राध्यक्ष, प्रधानमंत्री और युद्ध तथा विदेश मंत्री थे, कैप्टन लक्ष्मी स्वामीनाथन महिला संगठन की, एस. ए. अय्यर प्रचार के, ए. सी. चटर्जी वित्त के प्रभारी, शाहनवाज़ ख़ान सहित आठ सैन्य कमांडर सदस्य, और रासबिहारी बोस सर्वोच्च सलाहकार थे; उन्होंने अंतिम क्षण तक मुक्ति-युद्ध जारी रखने की शपथ हिंदुस्तानी में ली। सरकार का अपना छलाँग लगाते बाघ वाला झंडा, राष्ट्रगान शुभ सुख चैन, मुद्रा और डाक टिकट, आज़ाद हिंद बैंक और न्यायालय थे, और कुछ ही दिनों में नौ राज्यों, जापान, जर्मनी, इटली, क्रोएशिया, बर्मा, थाईलैंड, फिलीपींस, मंचूकुओ और नानकिंग चीन ने उसे मान्यता दी। 23 अक्टूबर 1943 को इसने ब्रिटेन और अमेरिका के विरुद्ध युद्ध की घोषणा की। नवंबर में टोक्यो के वृहत्तर पूर्वी एशिया सम्मेलन में जापान अंडमान और निकोबार द्वीप सौंपने पर सहमत हुआ, और 29 दिसंबर 1943 को बोस ने पोर्ट ब्लेयर में तिरंगा फहराया और उन्हें शहीद और स्वराज नाम दिया, यद्यपि वास्तविक नियंत्रण जापानी नौसेना के पास रहा। जनवरी 1944 में सरकार भारत पर कूच की तैयारी के लिए रंगून चली गई, यह वादा करते हुए कि भारत के स्वतंत्र होते ही सत्ता निर्वाचित राष्ट्रीय सरकार को सौंप दी जाएगी। इसकी युद्ध-घोषणा लाल किले के मुकदमों में इस तर्क का आधार बनी कि आईएनए सैनिक वैध युद्धकर्ता थे।
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Why did the INA campaign at Imphal fail? / इम्फाल में आईएनए का अभियान क्यों विफल हुआ?
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The INA's march on India in 1944 was tied to the Japanese offensive Operation U-Go against Imphal and Kohima, and about 8,000 INA troops took part in a secondary role, crossing the frontier on 18 March 1944 and hoisting the flag at Moirang on 14 April. The campaign failed for several reasons. The British-Indian 14th Army under General Slim was forewarned, strongly entrenched and supplied by air, and held Imphal and Kohima through the bitter fighting of April and May. The Japanese had counted on capturing British supplies and had few of their own, so that when the advance stalled the troops starved. The Allies controlled the air, so that columns could not move by day. The monsoon broke at the end of May and turned the hill tracks into mud, while malaria, dysentery and hunger destroyed more men than bullets. The INA itself was poorly armed, short of artillery and transport, and dependent on the Japanese, who did not trust it with a leading role. In July 1944 the Japanese ordered a general retreat and the INA fell back into Burma with heavy losses, and the Allied reconquest of Burma in 1945, ending with the fall of Rangoon on 3 May, finished the INA as a fighting force. Its military failure did not prevent its political success in 1945-46. / 1944 में भारत पर आईएनए का कूच इम्फाल और कोहिमा के विरुद्ध जापानी आक्रमण ऑपरेशन यू-गो से जुड़ा था, और लगभग 8,000 आईएनए सैनिकों ने गौण भूमिका में भाग लिया, 18 मार्च 1944 को सीमा पार की और 14 अप्रैल को मोइरांग में झंडा फहराया। अभियान कई कारणों से विफल हुआ। जनरल स्लिम की ब्रिटिश-भारतीय 14वीं सेना को पहले से सूचना थी, वह मज़बूती से मोर्चाबंद और हवाई आपूर्ति से युक्त थी, और अप्रैल-मई की कड़ी लड़ाई में इम्फाल और कोहिमा पर डटी रही। जापानियों ने ब्रिटिश रसद पर कब्ज़े का भरोसा किया था और अपनी रसद कम थी, इसलिए बढ़त रुकते ही सैनिक भूखे मरने लगे। हवा पर मित्र राष्ट्रों का नियंत्रण था, जिससे टुकड़ियाँ दिन में चल नहीं सकती थीं। मई के अंत में मानसून टूटा और पहाड़ी रास्ते कीचड़ बन गए, जबकि मलेरिया, पेचिश और भूख ने गोलियों से अधिक सैनिक मारे। आईएनए स्वयं खराब हथियारों वाली, तोपखाने और परिवहन से रहित, और जापानियों पर निर्भर थी, जिन्होंने उसे अग्रणी भूमिका देने का भरोसा नहीं किया। जुलाई 1944 में जापानियों ने आम पीछे हटने का आदेश दिया और आईएनए भारी क्षति के साथ बर्मा लौटी, और 1945 में बर्मा पर मित्र राष्ट्रों की पुनर्विजय ने, जो 3 मई को रंगून के पतन के साथ समाप्त हुई, आईएनए को लड़ाकू शक्ति के रूप में समाप्त कर दिया। इसकी सैन्य विफलता ने 1945-46 में इसकी राजनीतिक सफलता को नहीं रोका।
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What was the effect of the INA trials on the Indian people and the British government? / आईएनए के मुकदमों का भारतीय जनता और ब्रिटिश सरकार पर क्या प्रभाव पड़ा?
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The British court-martialled the INA officers for waging war against the King, holding the first trial in the Red Fort at Delhi from 5 November 1945 and choosing as the accused a Muslim, Shah Nawaz Khan, a Hindu, Prem Sahgal, and a Sikh, Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, which turned the trial into a symbol of united India. The Congress, though it had opposed Bose's methods, formed an INA Defence Committee with Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Asaf Ali and Katju; Desai argued that the INA was the army of a recognised belligerent government and its men lawful combatants, not traitors. Outside, the country rose: INA Day and INA Week were observed, meetings and processions filled every city, students clashed with police in Calcutta with dozens killed, the Muslim League, the Sikhs and the Communists joined the demand for release, and serving Indian soldiers sent money to the defence fund. The Commander-in-Chief Auchinleck reported that the army could not be relied on against the INA. The court sentenced the three to transportation for life on 31 December 1945, but Auchinleck remitted the sentences on 3 January 1946 and the later trials were abandoned. The agitation flowed into the Royal Indian Navy mutiny of 18-23 February 1946, and the British concluded that their armed forces were no longer reliable and that they must leave India soon. / अंग्रेज़ों ने आईएनए अधिकारियों पर सम्राट के विरुद्ध युद्ध छेड़ने का कोर्ट मार्शल किया, पहला मुकदमा 5 नवंबर 1945 से दिल्ली के लाल किले में चलाया और अभियुक्तों के रूप में एक मुसलमान शाहनवाज़ ख़ान, एक हिंदू प्रेम सहगल और एक सिख गुरबख्श सिंह ढिल्लों को चुना, जिसने मुकदमे को एकजुट भारत का प्रतीक बना दिया। कांग्रेस ने, यद्यपि उसने बोस के तरीकों का विरोध किया था, भूलाभाई देसाई, तेज बहादुर सप्रू, जवाहरलाल नेहरू, आसफ़ अली और कैलाशनाथ काटजू के साथ आईएनए बचाव समिति बनाई; देसाई ने तर्क दिया कि आईएनए एक मान्यता प्राप्त युद्धरत सरकार की सेना थी और उसके सैनिक देशद्रोही नहीं, वैध युद्धकर्ता थे। बाहर देश उठ खड़ा हुआ: आईएनए दिवस और आईएनए सप्ताह मनाए गए, सभाओं और जुलूसों से हर शहर भर गया, कलकत्ता में विद्यार्थियों की पुलिस से झड़प में दर्जनों मारे गए, मुस्लिम लीग, सिखों और कम्युनिस्टों ने रिहाई की माँग में साथ दिया, और सेवारत भारतीय सैनिकों ने बचाव कोष में धन भेजा। सेनापति ऑकिनलेक ने सूचित किया कि आईएनए के विरुद्ध सेना पर भरोसा नहीं किया जा सकता। अदालत ने 31 दिसंबर 1945 को तीनों को आजीवन निर्वासन की सज़ा दी, परन्तु ऑकिनलेक ने 3 जनवरी 1946 को सज़ाएँ माफ़ कीं और बाद के मुकदमे छोड़ दिए गए। यह आंदोलन 18-23 फ़रवरी 1946 के शाही भारतीय नौसेना विद्रोह में बदल गया, और अंग्रेज़ों ने निष्कर्ष निकाला कि उनकी सशस्त्र सेनाएँ अब विश्वसनीय नहीं हैं और उन्हें शीघ्र भारत छोड़ना होगा।
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Compare the ideas of Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi on the means of winning freedom. / स्वतंत्रता प्राप्ति के साधनों पर सुभाष चंद्र बोस और महात्मा गांधी के विचारों की तुलना कीजिए।
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Bose and Gandhi shared the goal of complete independence and deep respect for each other; Bose first called Gandhi the Father of the Nation in a broadcast of 1944, and Gandhi called Bose the prince among patriots. But they differed on means. Gandhi held non-violence to be an absolute creed and believed that freedom won by arms would breed further violence; Bose regarded non-violence as a tactic and believed that no empire surrenders voluntarily, so that force would finally be needed. Gandhi refused to embarrass Britain in her hour of danger and launched only the limited Individual Satyagraha in 1940; Bose held that Britain's difficulty was India's opportunity and that the war must be used to strike. Gandhi would take no help from the fascist powers, whose ideology he detested; Bose accepted help from Germany and Japan while insisting that he was their ally and not their servant. Gandhi wanted a village economy of charkha and cottage industry; Bose wanted rapid state-planned industrialisation and founded the National Planning Committee. Gandhi relied on moral persuasion and a loose mass movement; Bose believed in discipline, uniforms and finally an army. Both were religious, but Bose kept religion out of politics and made the INA a model of communal unity. In the end the two roads converged: Gandhi's mass movements made British rule impossible to continue, and Bose's INA made the British doubt the loyalty of their army. / बोस और गांधीजी पूर्ण स्वतंत्रता का लक्ष्य और एक-दूसरे के प्रति गहरा सम्मान साझा करते थे; बोस ने 1944 के प्रसारण में पहली बार गांधीजी को राष्ट्रपिता कहा, और गांधीजी ने बोस को देशभक्तों का राजकुमार कहा। परन्तु साधनों पर वे भिन्न थे। गांधीजी अहिंसा को परम सिद्धांत मानते थे और उनका विश्वास था कि शस्त्रों से जीती स्वतंत्रता और हिंसा को जन्म देगी; बोस अहिंसा को एक युक्ति मानते थे और मानते थे कि कोई साम्राज्य स्वेच्छा से समर्पण नहीं करता, इसलिए अंततः बल की आवश्यकता होगी। गांधीजी ने ब्रिटेन को उसके संकट के समय परेशान करने से इनकार किया और 1940 में केवल सीमित व्यक्तिगत सत्याग्रह चलाया; बोस का मत था कि ब्रिटेन की कठिनाई भारत का अवसर है और युद्ध का उपयोग प्रहार के लिए किया जाना चाहिए। गांधीजी फासीवादी शक्तियों से, जिनकी विचारधारा से उन्हें घृणा थी, कोई सहायता नहीं लेते; बोस ने जर्मनी और जापान से सहायता स्वीकार की परन्तु ज़ोर दिया कि वे उनके सहयोगी हैं, सेवक नहीं। गांधीजी चरखे और कुटीर उद्योग की ग्रामीण अर्थव्यवस्था चाहते थे; बोस तीव्र राज्य-नियोजित औद्योगीकरण चाहते थे और उन्होंने राष्ट्रीय योजना समिति बनाई। गांधीजी नैतिक अनुनय और ढीले जन-आंदोलन पर निर्भर थे; बोस अनुशासन, वर्दी और अंततः सेना में विश्वास करते थे। दोनों धार्मिक थे, परन्तु बोस ने धर्म को राजनीति से दूर रखा और आईएनए को सांप्रदायिक एकता का आदर्श बनाया। अंत में दोनों मार्ग मिल गए: गांधीजी के जन-आंदोलनों ने ब्रिटिश शासन को जारी रखना असंभव बनाया, और बोस की आईएनए ने अंग्रेज़ों को अपनी सेना की वफ़ादारी पर संदेह करने को विवश किया।
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Assess the contribution of Subhas Chandra Bose and the INA to the freedom of India. / भारत की स्वतंत्रता में सुभाष चंद्र बोस और आईएनए के योगदान का मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
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Bose did not live to see India free and his army never reached Delhi, yet he and the INA hastened independence in several ways. The British ruled India with an Indian army of two million; the INA showed that Indian soldiers would fight for India against the British under their own flag, and the response of the regular army to the Red Fort trials, followed by the naval mutiny of February 1946, convinced the British that they could no longer rely on their sword arm, a reason Attlee himself later acknowledged for leaving India quickly. The INA was a living example of Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity when the country was dividing, and the trial of a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh united every party including the Muslim League. The INA agitation of 1945-46 revived the national movement after the exhaustion of Quit India and strengthened the Congress in the elections and the Cabinet Mission negotiations. The Rani of Jhansi Regiment proved that women could be soldiers. Bose's ideas of planning and industrialisation shaped independent India's Five-Year Plans, and Jai Hind became the national salutation. Critics point to his alliance with the Axis powers, the INA's military weakness and the split of 1939, but he was never a fascist and always insisted on India's independence of action. For Odisha he remains the greatest son of Cuttack, whose birthplace is a museum and whose birthday is celebrated as Parakram Diwas. / बोस भारत को स्वतंत्र देखने के लिए जीवित नहीं रहे और उनकी सेना कभी दिल्ली नहीं पहुँची, फिर भी उन्होंने और आईएनए ने कई तरह से स्वतंत्रता को निकट लाया। अंग्रेज़ बीस लाख की भारतीय सेना से भारत पर शासन करते थे; आईएनए ने दिखाया कि भारतीय सैनिक अपने झंडे के नीचे अंग्रेज़ों के विरुद्ध भारत के लिए लड़ेंगे, और लाल किले के मुकदमों पर नियमित सेना की प्रतिक्रिया ने, जिसके बाद फ़रवरी 1946 का नौसैनिक विद्रोह हुआ, अंग्रेज़ों को विश्वास दिलाया कि वे अपनी तलवार की भुजा पर अब भरोसा नहीं कर सकते, जिसे एटली ने स्वयं बाद में भारत शीघ्र छोड़ने का एक कारण स्वीकार किया। जब देश बँट रहा था तब आईएनए हिंदू-मुस्लिम-सिख एकता का जीवंत उदाहरण थी, और एक मुसलमान, एक हिंदू और एक सिख के मुकदमे ने मुस्लिम लीग सहित हर दल को एकजुट किया। 1945-46 के आईएनए आंदोलन ने भारत छोड़ो की थकान के बाद राष्ट्रीय आंदोलन को पुनर्जीवित किया और चुनावों तथा कैबिनेट मिशन वार्ताओं में कांग्रेस को मज़बूत किया। रानी झाँसी रेजिमेंट ने सिद्ध किया कि महिलाएँ सैनिक हो सकती हैं। बोस के नियोजन और औद्योगीकरण के विचारों ने स्वतंत्र भारत की पंचवर्षीय योजनाओं को आकार दिया, और जय हिंद राष्ट्रीय अभिवादन बना। आलोचक धुरी शक्तियों से उनके गठबंधन, आईएनए की सैन्य कमज़ोरी और 1939 के विभाजन की ओर संकेत करते हैं, परन्तु वे कभी फासीवादी नहीं थे और सदैव भारत की स्वतंत्र कार्यवाही पर बल देते रहे। ओडिशा के लिए वे कटक के सबसे महान सपूत हैं, जिनका जन्मस्थान संग्रहालय है और जिनका जन्मदिन पराक्रम दिवस के रूप में मनाया जाता है।
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