Subhash Chandra Bose (1897-1945) revolutionised the freedom struggle with his ideas. He was born in 1897 at Cuttack in Orissa. He pursued higher studies in Calcutta and at the Cambridge University, after which he passed the Indian Civil Service Examination in England. But he did not join the ICS. He returned home to join the Non-Cooperation Movement.
From then onwards, he became an active member of the Congress. He was made the Chief Executive Officer of the Calcutta Corporation in 1924. It was during his association with Congress volunteers at the Congress session in Calcutta that communism had its impact on him. As a result, he developed thoughts and ideas of his own which were unsupportive of Gandhi’s programmes.
In spite of Gandhi’s opposition, Subhash Chandra Bose was elected the Congress President in 1938 (at Haripur) and 1939 (at Tripuri).
In 1938, he declared that the Indian freedom struggle ought to synchronise with the world war at the time. Owing to political differences, he resigned from the Congress in 1939. After founding the Forward Bloc and the Kisan Sabha, he left India in 1941 to intensify the freedom struggle by carrying out his revolutionary programmes.
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After seeking the support of the Soviet Union in India’s struggle and a meeting with Hitler, he made a major impact on the Indian nationalist movement with his reorganisation of the Indian National Army in 1943. Also called Azad Hind Fauj, the INA had been founded in Singapore in 1942 by Captain Mohan with Japan’s support but then had been left as good as dead.
Subhash Chandra Bose revived the INA by recruiting 60,000 Indian prisoners in Burma, Malaya and other places as its soldiers. The organisation meant to internationalise the Indian freedom struggle through violent means. He coined the slogans ‘Delhi Chalo’ and ‘Jai Hind’ which proved to be a constant source of inspiration to INA men. As supreme commander of the INA, he established a provisional Indian Government.
The INA was successful only in its initial phase. But the INA had achieved a unique distinction by succeeding in uniting people of different religions and backgrounds under its head.
Subhash Chandra Bose met a sudden end in a plane crash in 1945.