Subhas Chandra Bose

Also called: Netaji · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"

Meaning

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945), called "Netaji" (respected leader), was a radical Congress leader. He was Congress president in 1938 and 1939, formed the Forward Bloc in 1939, and during the Second World War led the Indian National Army (INA) with Japanese help to try to free India by armed struggle.

He matters because he stood for a different path from Gandhi's. He wanted full independence quickly and was ready to use force and foreign help to get it. The trials of INA soldiers after the war stirred strong feeling across India in the last years of British rule.

Explanation

Background: a young radical in the 1920s

• Early life. Bose was born in 1897 at Cuttack (Orissa). He passed the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination in England, but resigned in 1921 to join the national movement.
• Political guide. In Bengal he worked under C.R. Das, who later founded the Swaraj Party with Motilal Nehru on 1 January 1923. [2]
• Two moods after 1922. After Non-Cooperation was called off (Feb 1922), Congress split:
• No-changers wanted to keep boycotting the councils.

• Pro-changers (the Swarajists) wanted to enter the councils and fight the government from inside. [2]

• The younger leaders took a third line. Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose wanted:

• more radical mass agitation, and

• the goal stated plainly as full independence, not dominion status (self-rule inside the British Empire, with the British king still at the top).

• Late 1920s. Bose and Nehru pushed Congress toward the Purna Swaraj (complete independence) goal. Congress adopted it at the Lahore session, December 1929, with Nehru as president. [3]

Congress president and the break with Gandhi (1938–39)

• Haripura, 1938. Bose became Congress president with Gandhi's support.
• Tripuri, 1939. He stood again. This time he defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the candidate Gandhi backed.
• Gandhi took the defeat as his own.
• The Working Committee members who stood with Gandhi would not work with Bose.

• Bose resigned the presidency in 1939.

• Forward Bloc, 1939. He then formed the Forward Bloc, a group of left-wing and radical members. It began inside Congress, but Bose was soon removed from Congress posts.

• The key difference with Gandhi: Bose wanted to use Britain's trouble in the coming war to start a struggle at once. Gandhi and most senior leaders were more careful.

The Second World War and the INA (1941–45)

• Escape, 1941. The British kept Bose under house arrest in Calcutta. He escaped and reached Germany through Afghanistan.
• In Germany he formed the Free India Legion from Indian prisoners of war.

• People there started calling him "Netaji".

• To Southeast Asia, 1943. He travelled by submarine to the area under Japanese control.

• The INA had already been formed in 1942 by Mohan Singh from Indian prisoners of war held by Japan. Rash Behari Bose had led the Indian Independence League there.

• Subhas Bose took command of the INA in 1943 and rebuilt it.

• Azad Hind government. On 21 October 1943, in Singapore, he set up the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind).

• Main features of his campaign:
• Slogans: "Delhi Chalo" (On to Delhi), "Jai Hind", and "Give me blood, and I will give you freedom".
• The Rani of Jhansi Regiment, a women's unit.

• Japan handed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to his government in name only. He visited the islands and renamed them Shaheed and Swaraj.

• Military failure, 1944. The INA fought next to the Japanese army on the Imphal–Kohima front (Manipur–Nagaland). The attack failed because of hunger, disease, air attacks and the retreat of the Japanese army.

• Death. Bose reportedly died in an air crash at Taipei (Taihoku), Taiwan, in August 1945. People have long doubted this account, and official enquiries in India have not settled the question.

Results

• INA trials, 1945–46. The British put INA officers Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon on trial at the Red Fort, Delhi.
• Bhulabhai Desai led the Congress defence, and Nehru also appeared for the accused.

• Protests broke out across India, cutting across religions and regions.

• Effect on the British. This anger, along with the Royal Indian Navy mutiny (1946), showed the British that they could no longer fully trust the loyalty of Indians in the armed forces.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: about 1921–1945, from the late Non-Cooperation years through the Second World War.
• Places: Cuttack (birth); Calcutta and Bengal (his political base); Haripura (Gujarat, 1938) and Tripuri (near Jabalpur, 1939) Congress sessions; Germany; Singapore (Azad Hind government); Imphal–Kohima (1944 battles); Andaman Islands; Red Fort, Delhi (INA trials).
• Key people: C.R. Das (his guide), Jawaharlal Nehru (his partner on the left in the 1920s), Mahatma Gandhi (his main opponent on method), Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Mohan Singh, Rash Behari Bose.
• How we know:
• Congress session records and presidential addresses.
• Bose's own writings, for example The Indian Struggle.
• Azad Hind and INA documents and radio broadcasts.
• British intelligence files and the records of the INA trials.
• Official enquiry reports on his death.

Don't confuse with

• Rash Behari Bose – a revolutionary who had lived in Japan for many years and led the Indian Independence League in Southeast Asia. He handed leadership to Subhas Bose in 1943. They are two different people.
• Mohan Singh – he founded the first INA (1942). Subhas Bose took over and rebuilt it in 1943. He did not found it.
• Forward Bloc vs Swaraj Party – the Swaraj Party (1923) was formed by C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru for council entry. [2] The Forward Bloc (1939) was Bose's group of the radical left after he resigned as Congress president.
• Bose vs Nehru at Lahore (1929) – both pushed for full independence. But the Lahore session that adopted Purna Swaraj was chaired by Jawaharlal Nehru, not Bose. [3]

Prelims Hooks

• Haripura (1938) and Tripuri (1939) – the two sessions where Bose was elected Congress president. At Tripuri he defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Gandhi's candidate.
• Forward Bloc – founded by Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939, after he resigned as Congress president.
• Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind) – set up at Singapore, 21 October 1943.
• Order of events: Swaraj Party (1923) → Lahore Purna Swaraj (1929) → Tripuri (1939) → Forward Bloc (1939) → Azad Hind government (1943) → Imphal–Kohima (1944) → INA trials at the Red Fort (1945–46).
• Trap: the INA was first raised by Mohan Singh (1942), not by Subhas Bose.
• Trap: the Rani of Jhansi Regiment was the INA's women's unit, not a unit of the 1857 revolt.

Mains Points

• Two paths to freedom. Bose wanted to use Britain's wartime weakness and outside help to win freedom fast. Gandhi relied on non-violent mass satyagraha and built the movement slowly. The 1939 Tripuri crisis was where this disagreement came into the open. It shows that the national movement held many views, not just one.
• He lost the war but gained public support. The INA failed in battle, but the Red Fort trials united Indians across religion and region. Together with the 1946 naval mutiny, they showed that the British could no longer count on the Indian army. That helped bring independence sooner.
• How to judge his alliance with Japan and Germany. Some historians call it a practical choice made for India's freedom. Others criticise him for working with fascist powers. A balanced answer should give both views, and also note his secular approach: INA units mixed Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, and the Rani of Jhansi Regiment brought women into the fight.

Related concepts

• Swaraj Party
• C.R. Das
• Motilal Nehru
• No-changers
• Constructive programme
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Bardoli satyagraha 1928
• Vallabhbhai Patel
• Simon Commission
• Dominion status

Read more

• The road back to mass politics, 1922–30