Subhash Chandra Bose was born in a Bengali family on January 23, 1897, at Cuttak in Orissa. From the beginning, reading was a passion with Bose and he was greatly influenced by the writings of Swami Vivekananda. He went to England for further studies and on returning to India, went to join Gandhiji. But his ideas did not match with Gandhiji’s belief in non-violence. He felt that an armed struggle was the only way to end British Rule in India.
So he left and returned to Calcutta to work under C.R. Das, the Bengali freedom fighter. In 1921, Netaji organised a boycott of the celebrations to mark the Prince of Wales visit to India. This led to his being imprisoned. Soon afterwards, Netaji was arrested again, as a suspected terrorist, and exiled to Mandalay in Burma.
He was arrested numerous times. On one such occasion when he was under house arrest he escaped via Afghanistan to Berlin and then to Japan. Here within two years, he raised the Indian National Army (INA) or Azad Hind Fauj. His purpose was to defeat the British during World War II. In spite of the defeat of the Azad Hind Fauj, Netaji won an immortal place in Indian History. “Jai Hind” was his battle cry and he took the nation to great heights. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in 1945.