Subhas Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose (/ʃʊbˈhɑːs ˈtʃʌndrə ˈboʊs/ ^ⓘ shuub-HAHSS CHUN-drə BOHSS;[12] 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and military failure. The honorific Netaji (Bengali: "Respected Leader") was first applied to Bose in Germany in early 1942—by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin. It is now used throughout India.[lower-alpha 8]

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Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
Bose c. 1930s
2nd Leader of Indian National Army[lower-alpha 4]
In office 4 July 1943 – 18 August 1945
Preceded by	Mohan Singh
Succeeded by	Office abolished
President of the Indian National Congress
In office 18 January 1938 – 29 April 1939
Preceded by	Jawaharlal Nehru
Succeeded by	Rajendra Prasad
President of the All India Forward Bloc
In office 22 June 1939 – 16 January 1941
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Sardul Singh Kavishar
5th Mayor of Calcutta
In office 22 August 1930 – 15 April 1931
Preceded by	Jatindra Mohan Sengupta
Succeeded by	Bidhan Chandra Roy
Personal details
Born	Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-01-23)23 January 1897 Cuttack, Orissa Division, Bengal Province, British India (now in Cuttack district, Odisha, India)
Died	18 August 1945(1945-08-18) (aged 48)[4][5] Army Hospital Nanmon Branch, Taihoku, Japanese Taiwan (present-day Taipei City Hospital Heping Fuyou Branch, Taipei, Taiwan)
Cause of death	Third-degree burns from aircrash[5]
Resting place	Renkō-ji, Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Indian National Congress All India Forward Bloc
Spouse(s)	Emilie Schenkl ​ (m. 1937)​ (secretly married without ceremony or witnesses, unacknowledged publicly by Bose.[6])
Children	Anita Bose Pfaff
Parents	Janakinath Bose (father) Prabhabati Bose (mother)
Education	Baptist Mission's Protestant European School, Cuttack, 1902–09[7] Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Cuttack, 1909–12[8] Presidency College, Calcutta, 1912–15 February 1916[lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 6] Scottish Church College, Calcutta, 20 July 1917–1919 Fitzwilliam Hall, Non-Collegiate Students Board, Cambridge, 1919–21.[11][lower-alpha 7]
Alma mater	University of Calcutta (B.A., Philosophy, 1919) University of Cambridge (B.A. Mental and Moral Sciences Tripos, 1921.[11])
Known for	Indian independence movement
Signature

Subhas Bose was born into wealth and privilege in a large Bengali family in Orissa during the British Raj. The early recipient of an Anglocentric education, he was sent after college to England to take the Indian Civil Service examination. He succeeded with distinction in the vital first exam but demurred at taking the routine final exam, citing nationalism as a higher calling. Returning to India in 1921, Bose joined the nationalist movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. He followed Jawaharlal Nehru to leadership in a group within the Congress which was less keen on constitutional reform and more open to socialism.[lower-alpha 9] Bose became Congress president in 1938. After reelection in 1939, differences arose between him and the Congress leaders, including Gandhi, over the future federation of British India and princely states, but also because discomfort had grown among the Congress leadership over Bose's negotiable attitude to non-violence, and his plans for greater powers for himself.[15] After the large majority of the Congress Working Committee members resigned in protest,[16] Bose resigned as president and was eventually ousted from the party.[17][18]

In April 1941 Bose arrived in Nazi Germany, where the leadership offered unexpected but equivocal sympathy for India's independence.[19][20] German funds were employed to open a Free India Centre in Berlin. A 3,000-strong Free India Legion was recruited from among Indian POWs captured by Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps to serve under Bose.[21][lower-alpha 10] Although peripheral to their main goals, the Germans inconclusively considered a land invasion of India throughout 1941. By the spring of 1942, the German army was mired in Russia and Bose became keen to move to southeast Asia, where Japan had just won quick victories.[23] Adolf Hitler during his only meeting with Bose in late May 1942 offered to arrange a submarine.[24] During this time, Bose became a father; his wife,[6][lower-alpha 11] or companion,[25][lower-alpha 12] Emilie Schenkl, gave birth to a baby girl.[6][lower-alpha 13][19] Identifying strongly with the Axis powers, Bose boarded a German submarine in February 1943.[26][27] Off Madagascar, he was transferred to a Japanese submarine from which he disembarked in Japanese-held Sumatra in May 1943.[26]

With Japanese support, Bose revamped the Indian National Army (INA), which comprised Indian prisoners of war of the British Indian army who had been captured by the Japanese in the Battle of Singapore.[28][29][30] A Provisional Government of Free India was declared on the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands and was nominally presided by Bose.[31][2][lower-alpha 14] Although Bose was unusually driven and charismatic, the Japanese considered him to be militarily unskilled,[lower-alpha 15] and his soldierly effort was short-lived. In late 1944 and early 1945, the British Indian Army reversed the Japanese attack on India. Almost half of the Japanese forces and fully half of the participating INA contingent were killed.[lower-alpha 16][lower-alpha 17] The remaining INA was driven down the Malay Peninsula and surrendered with the recapture of Singapore. Bose chose to escape to Manchuria to seek a future in the Soviet Union which he believed to have turned anti-British. He died from third-degree burns received when his overloaded plane crashed in Japanese Taiwan on August 18, 1945.[lower-alpha 18] Some Indians did not believe that the crash had occurred,[lower-alpha 19] expecting Bose to return to secure India's independence.[lower-alpha 20][lower-alpha 21][lower-alpha 22] The Indian National Congress, the main instrument of Indian nationalism, praised Bose's patriotism but distanced itself from his tactics and ideology.[lower-alpha 23][41] The British Raj, never seriously threatened by the INA, charged 300 INA officers with treason in the INA trials, but eventually backtracked in the face of opposition by the Congress,[lower-alpha 24] and a new mood in Britain for rapid decolonisation in India.[lower-alpha 25][41][44]

Bose's legacy is mixed. Among many in India, he is seen as a hero, his saga serving as a would-be counterpoise to the many actions of regeneration, negotiation, and reconciliation over a quarter-century through which the independence of India was achieved.[lower-alpha 26][lower-alpha 27][lower-alpha 28] His collaborations with Japanese Fascism and Nazism pose serious ethical dilemmas,[lower-alpha 29] especially his reluctance to publicly criticize the worst excesses of German anti-Semitism from 1938 onwards or to offer refuge in India to its victims.[lower-alpha 30][lower-alpha 31][lower-alpha 32]