Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose – UPSC Prelims

Subhas Chandra Bose was born on January 23, 1897, in Cuttack, Orissa. He was affectionately called Netaji.

In England, he appeared for the Indian Civil Service competitive examination in 1920 and came out fourth in the order of merit.

However, Bose was deeply disturbed by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and left his Civil Services’ apprenticeship midway to return to India in 1921.

23 Jan is celebrated as Parakram Diwas.

After returning to India, Netaji joined the Indian National Congress.

He started working under Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das whom he later acknowledged as his political guru.

Netaji along with Jawaharlal Nehru opposed the Motilal Nehru Report, which spoke for dominion status for India. They asserted that they would be satisfied with nothing short of complete independence for India.

In 1938, Subhas Chandra Bose was elected President of the Haripura Congress Session.

In 1939 at the Tripuri Session, Netaji again won the presidential elections against Gandhi’s candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya. But due to ideological differences with Gandhi, Bose resigned and left congress.

He then founded a new party named ‘the Forward Bloc’. The purpose was to consolidate the political left and major support base in his home state, Bengal.

In 1941, Bose reached Germany via Afghanistan. On the maxim that “an enemy’s enemy is a friend”, he sought the cooperation of Germany and Japan against the British Empire.

In 1943, he arrived in Singapore. Here he took over the reins of the Indian Independence Movement in East Asia from Rash Behari Bose and organized the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) composed mainly of Indian prisoners of war.

Azad Hind Fauj then proceeded towards India to liberate it from British rule.

However, the defeat of Japan and Germany in the Second World War forced INA to retreat, and it could not achieve its objective.