Bose, who had been ousted from the Indian National Congress in 1939 Following differences with the more conservative high command and subsequently placed under house arrest by the British, escaped from India early in 1941. He turned to the Axis power for helping in gaining India's Independence by force.. With Japanese support, he organized the Indian National Army , composed largely of Indian soldiers of the British Indian army who had been captured in the Battle of Singapore by the Japanese. As the war turned against them the Japanese came to support a number of countries to form provisional governments in the captured regions, including those in Burma, the Phillipines and Vietnam, and in addition, the Provisional Government of Azad Hind, presided by Bose.
Early Life
Subhas Chandra Bose was born in a Bengali Hindu, Kayasata family on 23 January 1897 in in Cuttuck, Orissa , then a part of Bengal Presedency, to Janakinath Bose, an Advocate and Prabhavati Devi. His parents' ancestral house was at Kodalia village.. He was the ninth child of a total of fourteen siblings. Subhas Chandra Bose left India in 1919 for Great Britain with a promise to his father that he would appear in the Indian Civil Services Examination (ICS). He went to study in Fitzwilliam College, Cambridze, and matriculated on 19 November 1919. He came fourth in the ICS examination and was selected but he did not want to work under an alien government which would mean serving the British. He resigned from the civil service job and returned to India.. He started the newspaper Swaraj and took charge of publicity for the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee.. In the year 1923, Bose was elected the President of All India Youth Congress and also the Secretary of Bengal State Congress. Bose worked as the CEO of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation for Das when the latter was elected mayor of Calcutta in 1924. In a roundup of nationalists in 1925, Bose was arrested and sent to prison in Mandalay, where he contracted tuberculosis..Indian National Congress
In 1927, after being released from prison, Bose became general secretary of the Congress party and worked with Jawaharlal Nehru for independence. Again Bose was arrested and jailed for civil disobedience; this time he emerged to become Mayor of Calcutta in 1930. During the mid-1930s Bose travelled in Europe, visiting Indian students and European politicians, including Benito Mussolini.. He observed party organization and saw communism and fascism in action. By 1938 Bose had become a leader of national stature and agreed to accept nomination as Congress president. He stood for unqualified Swaraj including the use of force against the British. This meant a confrontation with Mohandas Gandhi, who in fact opposed Bose's presidency, splitting the Indian National Congress party. Bose attempted to maintain unity, but Gandhi advised Bose to form his own cabinet. The rift also divided Bose and Nehru. Bose appeared at the 1939 Congress meeting on a stretcher. He was elected president again over Gandhi's preferred candidate Pattabhi Sitarammaya.. U. Muthuramalingam Thevar strongly supported Bose in the intra-Congress dispute. Thevar mobilised all south India votes for Bose. However, due to the manoeuvrings of the Gandhi-led clique in the Congress Working Committee, Bose found himself forced to resign from the Congress presidency.Disappearance and alleged Death
Bose is alleged to have died in a plane crash at Taihoku, Taiwan,on 18 August 1945 while en route to Tokyo and possibly then the Soviet Union. The Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Mitsubishi ki-21 bomber he was travelling on had engine trouble and when it crashed Bose was badly burned, dying in a local hospital four hours later. His body was then cremated, and a Buddhist memorial service was held at Nishi Honganji Temple in Taihoku. His ashes were taken to Japan and interred at the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo. This version of events is supported by the testimonies of a Captain Yoshida Taneyoshi, and a British spy known as "Agent 1189. The absence of his body has led to many theories being put forward concerning his possible survival. One such claim is that Bose actually died later in Siberia, while in Soviet captivity. Several committees have been set up by the government of India to probe into this matter..
In May 1956, a four-man Indian team known as the Shah Nazaz Committee visited Japan to probe the circumstances of Bose's alleged death. However, the Indian government did not then request assistance from the government of Taiwan in the matter, citing their lack of diplomatic relations with Taiwan.. However, the Inquiry Commission under Justice Mukherjee, which investigated the Bose disappearance mystery in the period 1999–2005, did approach the Taiwanese government, and obtained information from the Taiwan government that no plane carrying Bose had ever crashed in Taipei, and there was, in fact, no plane crash in Taiwan on 18 August 1945 as alleged. The Mukherjee Commission also received a report originating from the US department of State supporting the claim of the Taiwan Government that no such air crash took place during that time frame.
The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry submitted its report to the Indian government on November 8, 2005. The report was tabled in Parliament on 17 May 2006. The probe said in its report that Bose did not die in the plane crash, and that the ashes at the Renkoji Temple are not his. However, the Indian Government rejected the findings of the Commission, though no reasons were cited.
Recently Netaji's grand nephew Sugata Bose in his book His Majesty's Opponent claimed that the founder of the Indian Independence league in Tokyo, Rama Murti had hidden a portion of alleged cremated remains of Bose as "extra precaution" in his house and secondly, this portion has been brought to India in 2006 and Prime Minister was informed about the development. But Prime Ministers Office refused this claim in a statement issued in response to an RTI application, as "As per records, no such information exists."
On the other hand in February 2012 Dr Purabi Roy, an expert on Russia and research scholar who also held a Chair in St Petersburg University, claimed that Bose was in USSR during Second World War. Roy claims to have found "a unique photograph of Subhas Chandra Bose taken during Second World War" that might have been taken in Sibera.
Mystery over Netaji’s disappearance was first revealed by Satyendra Narain Sinha, who went to Japan, Taipei and China to follow the missing links. His article were publishes in a national daily in 1960s. But, Dr. Roy is the first who is claiming that Bose was in Russia. Reportedly Khrushchev had told an interpreter during his New Delhi visit that Bose can be produced within 45 days if Nehru wishes. But, that never happened. the Third Enquiry Commission on Netaji Disappearance, led by Justice Mukherjee, categorically announced Bose did not die at the Taihoku plane crash in 1945 as there was no plane crash during that period in an around the air strip, now in Taipei. Thus the Commission had quashed the so-called urn of Netaji at Renkoji Temple in Tokyo, Japan. It may be recalled that when the 'news' of Bose's death in 1945 reached, Viceroy Wavell quipped, 'I suspect it very much'..
In 1992, Bose was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, but it was later withdrawn in response to a Supreme Court directive following a Public Interest Litigation filed in the Court against the "posthumous" nature of the award. The Award Committee could not give conclusive evidence on Bose's death and thus the "posthumous" award was invalidated. No headway was made on this issue however. Bose's portrait hangs in the Indian Parliament, and a statue of him has been erected in front of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Recently Netaji's grand nephew Sugata Bose in his book His Majesty's Opponent claimed that the founder of the Indian Independence league in Tokyo, Rama Murti had hidden a portion of alleged cremated remains of Bose as "extra precaution" in his house and secondly, this portion has been brought to India in 2006 and Prime Minister was informed about the development. But Prime Ministers Office refused this claim in a statement issued in response to an RTI application, as "As per records, no such information exists."Bose mystery in contemporary India
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Mission Netaji is a Delhi-based Indian non-profit trust that conducts research on Subhas Chandra Bose's disappearance. Some documents the organisation has dug out have information connected to Bose's disappearance. This led to more documents that remain classified. Several Indian ministries, including the Indian India's Prime Minister office, have refused to make public the documents under the Right to Information Act campaign launched by Mission Netaji, on the ground that their disclosure will affect India's relations with foreign countries.
