72 Facts About Subhas Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose 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.

Subhas Bose was born into wealth and privilege in a large Bengali family in Orissa during the British Raj.

Subhas Chandra Bose succeeded with distinction in the vital first exam but demurred at taking the routine final exam, citing nationalism to be a higher calling.

Subhas Chandra Bose followed Jawaharlal Nehru to leadership in a group within the Congress which was less keen on constitutional reform and more open to socialism.

Subhas Chandra Bose chose to escape to Manchuria to seek a future in the Soviet Union which he believed to have turned anti-British.

Eager to join his five school-going older brothers, Subhas Chandra Bose entered the Baptist Mission's Protestant European School in Cuttack in January 1902.

From her, Subhas Chandra Bose imbibed a nurturing spirit, looking for situations in which to help people in distress, preferring gardening around the house to joining in sports with other boys.

Subhas Chandra Bose's father, who was reserved in manner and busy with professional life, was a distant presence in a large family, causing Subhas to feel he had a nondescript childhood.

In 1909 the 12-year-old Subhas Bose followed his five brothers to the Ravenshaw Collegiate School in Cuttack.

Subhas Bose followed his five brothers again 1913 to Presidency College, Calcutta, the historic and traditional college for Bengal's upper-caste Hindu men.

Subhas Chandra Bose chose to study philosophy, his readings including Kant, Hegel, Bergson and other Western philosophers.

Subhas Chandra Bose's family was not told clearly about the trip, leading them to think he had run away.

Subhas Chandra Bose's absence caused emotional distress to his parents, leading both parents to break down upon his return.

Subhas Chandra Bose returned to presidency and busied himself with studies, debating and student journalism.

Subhas Chandra Bose was expelled from the college and rusticated from University of Calcutta.

At his father's urging, Subhas Bose agreed to travel to England to prepare and appear for the Indian Civil Services examination.

Subhas Chandra Bose was eager to gain admission to a college at the University of Cambridge.

Subhas Chandra Bose sought help from some Indian students and from the Non-Collegiate Students Board.

Subhas Chandra Bose entered the register of the university on 19 November 1919 and simultaneously set about preparing for the Civil Service exams.

Subhas Bose took the open competitive exam for them in August 1920 and was placed fourth.

Subhas Chandra Bose prepared to sail for India in June 1921, electing for a fellow Indian student to pick up his diploma.

Subhas Chandra Bose thought Gandhi's answers were vague, his goals unclear, his plan for achieving them not thought through.

Das, and in him Subhas Chandra Bose found the leader whom he sought.

Subhas Chandra Bose started the newspaper Swaraj and took charge of publicity for the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee.

Subhas Chandra Bose worked as the CEO of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation for Das when the latter was elected mayor of Calcutta in 1924.

In 1927, after being released from prison, Subhas Chandra Bose became general secretary of the Congress party and worked with Jawaharlal Nehru for independence.

In late December 1928, Subhas Chandra Bose organised the Annual Meeting of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta.

Subhas Chandra Bose organized a volunteer corps in uniform, its officers were even provided with steel-cut epaulettes.

Subhas Chandra Bose observed party organisation and saw communism and fascism in action.

Subhas Chandra Bose was supported in Europe by the Indian Central European Society organized by Otto Faltis from Vienna.

Subhas Chandra Bose stood for unqualified Swaraj, including the use of force against the British.

Subhas Chandra Bose attempted to maintain unity, but Gandhi advised Subhas Chandra Bose to form his own cabinet.

However, due to the manoeuvrings of the Gandhi-led clique in the Congress Working Committee, Subhas Chandra Bose found himself forced to resign from the Congress presidency.

On 22 June 1939 Subhas Chandra Bose organised the All India Forward Bloc a faction within the Indian National Congress, aimed at consolidating the political left, but its main strength was in his home state, Bengal.

When Subhas Chandra Bose was heading to Madurai, on an invitation of Muthuramalinga Thevar to amass support for the Forward Bloc, he passed through Madras and spent three days at Gandhi Peak.

Subhas Chandra Bose's correspondence reveals that despite his clear dislike for British subjugation, he was deeply impressed by their methodical and systematic approach and their steadfastly disciplinarian outlook towards life.

Subhas Chandra Bose came to believe that an independent India needed socialist authoritarianism, on the lines of Turkey's Kemal Ataturk, for at least two decades.

For political reasons Subhas Chandra Bose was refused permission by the British authorities to meet Ataturk at Ankara.

Subhas Chandra Bose was thrown in jail by the British, but was released following a seven-day hunger strike.

Subhas Chandra Bose journeyed to Peshawar with the help of the Abwehr, where he was met by Akbar Shah, Mohammed Shah and Bhagat Ram Talwar.

Subhas Chandra Bose was taken to the home of Abad Khan, a trusted friend of Akbar Shah's.

On 26 January 1941, Subhas Chandra Bose began his journey to reach Russia through British India's North West frontier with Afghanistan.

Subhas Chandra Bose's guide Bhagat Ram Talwar, unknown to him, was a Soviet agent.

However, Subhas Chandra Bose found the Soviets' response disappointing and was rapidly passed over to the German Ambassador in Moscow, Count von der Schulenburg.

Subhas Chandra Bose founded the Free India Center in Berlin, and created the Indian Legion out of Indian prisoners of war who had previously fought for the British in North Africa prior to their capture by Axis forces.

Subhas Chandra Bose was prepared to envisage an invasion of India via the USSR by Nazi troops, spearheaded by the Azad Hind Legion; many have questioned his judgment here, as it seems unlikely that the Germans could have been easily persuaded to leave after such an invasion, which might have resulted in an Axis victory in the War.

In February 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose left Schenkl and their baby daughter and boarded a German submarine to travel, via transfer to a Japanese submarine, to Japanese-occupied southeast Asia.

So, in February 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose boarded a German U-boat and left for Japan.

In 1943, after being disillusioned that Germany could be of any help in gaining India's independence, Subhas Chandra Bose left for Japan.

Subhas Chandra Bose travelled with the German submarine U-180 around the Cape of Good Hope to the southeast of Madagascar, where he was transferred to the I-29 for the rest of the journey to Imperial Japan.

Subhas Chandra Bose was able to reorganise the fledgling army and organise massive support among the expatriate Indian population in south-east Asia, who lent their support by both enlisting in the Indian National Army, as well as financially in response to Subhas Chandra Bose's calls for sacrifice for the independence cause.

However, with the fall of Rangoon, Subhas Chandra Bose's government ceased to be an effective political entity.

When Rahman came to, he and Subhas Chandra Bose attempted to leave by the rear door, but found it blocked by the luggage.

The human torch turned out to be Subhas Chandra Bose, whose gasoline-soaked clothes had instantly ignited.

Subhas Chandra Bose was conscious and mostly coherent when they reached the hospital, and for some time thereafter.

Subhas Chandra Bose was naked, except for a blanket wrapped around him, and Dr Yoshimi immediately saw evidence of third-degree burns on many parts of the body, especially on his chest, doubting very much that he would live.

Dr Yoshimi promptly began to treat Subhas Chandra Bose and was assisted by Dr Tsuruta.

Subhas Chandra Bose still had a clear head which Dr Yoshimi found remarkable for someone with such severe injuries.

Soon, in spite of the treatment, Subhas Chandra Bose went into a coma.

Subhas Chandra Bose's body was cremated in the main Taihoku crematorium two days later, 20 August 1945.

Subhas Chandra Bose believed that the Bhagavad Gita was a great source of inspiration for the struggle against the British.

Subhas Chandra Bose first expressed his preference for "a synthesis of what modern Europe calls socialism and fascism" in a 1930 speech in Calcutta.

Subhas Chandra Bose believed that authoritarianism could bring liberation and reconstruction of Indian society.

Subhas Chandra Bose expressed admiration for the authoritarian methods which he saw in Italy and Germany during the 1930s; he thought they could be used to build an independent India.

However, during the war, Subhas Chandra Bose seems to have decided that no democratic system could be adequate to overcome India's poverty and social inequalities, and he wrote that a socialist state similar to that of Soviet Russia would be needed for the process of national re-building.

Accordingly, some suggest that Subhas Chandra Bose's alliance with the Axis during the war was based on more than just pragmatism and that Subhas Chandra Bose was a militant nationalist, though not a Nazi nor a Fascist, for he supported the empowerment of women, secularism and other liberal ideas; alternatively, others consider he might have been using populist methods of mobilisation common to many post-colonial leaders.

Since before the beginning of the World War II, Subhas Chandra Bose was opposed to the attempts to grant Jewish refugees asylum in India.

In 1938, Subhas Chandra Bose had denounced Nazi racial policy and persecution of Jews.

Subhas Chandra Bose added that Swastika was an ancient Indian symbol.

Subhas Chandra Bose urged that anti-Semitism should be part of Indian liberation movement because the Jews assisted the British to exploit Indians.

The most disturbing issue, all too often ignored, is that in the many articles, minutes, memorandums, telegrams, letters, plans, and broadcasts Subhas Chandra Bose left behind in Germany, he did not express the slightest concern or sympathy for the millions who died in the concentration camps.

Subhas Chandra Bose was featured on the stamps in India from 1964,1993,1997,2001,2016,2018 and 2021.