Subhas Chandra Bose, popularly known as Netaji, was born on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa, then a part of the Bengal Presidency. He was the sixth son and ninth child of his parents, Janki Nath and Prabhabati Bose. His father, a renowned lawyer, imbued his children with the ideals of simple living and high thinking. His mother, a pious woman, gave her children a strong religious background without the element of bigotry.

At the age of 12, Subhas moved to the Raven Shaw Collegiate School, in Cuttack. This was a School only for Indian boys. He studied Bengali and Sanskrit. The Principal Beni Madhav Das, who felt Subhas was totally different from the other boys, took a keen interest in him. Through him, Subhas was made aware of the new cultural, religious and political renaissance sweeping Bengal. At home, Politics was taboo; so Beni Madhav Das made up for this deficiency. He enlightened Subhas on the cultural traditions of India. He taught him the Vedas, epics and Upanishads. Subhas continued with his English education so that, even after long visits to England and Europe later, he was able to achieve a dynamic synthesis of Indian and Western thoughts.

In the regime of revolutionary saga of the Indian Freedom Movement, the contribution of Netaji was indeed remarkable. He enriched himself immensely being inspired by the lives of Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghosh, C.R. Das, Lenin, Mustaph Kemalpasha and Garibaldi. He was a savage to the Britishers who disliked.

Subhas wanted to put pressure on the British Government in the light of the Italian struggle for liberation and unification and Irish struggle for freedom. He was a luminary who dreamed of a free and resurgent India by organizing a National Army namely Azad Hind Fauz, later on renamed as Indian National Army (INA). These officers and Army forming part of the INA were deployed in the north eastern front to give a valiant fight to the British Army.

"I have said that today is the proudest day of my life. For an enslaved people, there can be no greater pride, no higher honour than to be the first soldier in the army of liberation. But this honour carries with it a corresponding responsibility and I am deeply conscious of it. I assure you that I shall be with you in darkness and in sunshine, in sorrows and in joy, in suffering and in victory. For the present, I can offer you nothing except hunger, thirst, privation, forced marches and deaths. But if you follow me, both in life and in death-as I am confident you will - I shall lead you to Victory and Freedom. It does not matter who among us will live to see India free. It is enough that she shall be free and that we shall give our all to make her free. May God now bless our army and grant us victory in the coming fight. Inquilab Zindabad! Azad Hind Zindabad!”

This was the concluding remark of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on July 5, 1943 at Singapore after taking over the charge of President of Indian Independence League from Rash Behari Bose on July 4, the previous day.

The speech he delivered that day was in fact one of his greatest speeches which overwhelmed the entire contingents of Indian National Army (INA) gathered there under the scorching tropical sun of Singapore. There was a rally of 13,000 men drawn from the South East Asian countries. Then, Netaji toured Thailand, Malay, Burma, Indo- China and some other countries and inspired the civilians to join the army and mobilized public opinion for recruitment of Scholars, augmenting resources and establishing new batches of INA.

He promised the people that he would open the second war of Independence and set up a provisional Government of Free India under whose banner three million Indians of South East Asia would fight the enemy. He made a clarion call to all Indians-Karo Sab nichhabar bano sab fakir-sacrifice all and be penniless mendicants for the sake of the motherland. Under blazing sun and heavy rains Netaji used to deliver his fiery speeches and appeal the masses to make donations, join the INA and give arms whatever they had. After the speech, his garlands were put to auction; each garland, fetching such a fabulous amount as ten or twenty thousand dollars at that time and this money was earmarked as the fund of the provisional Government. People also vied with one another to hand over donations to Netaji personally.

Netaji tried to influence the Governments of Germany and Japan and enlisted their support for the light for freedom of India. During World War II Burma was captured by Japan and British armies were fully defeated and INA marched upto Imphal of Manipur through dense forests and hills, incessant rains and inclement weather. The patriotic slogan "Delhi chalo" (March to Delhi) reverberated the vast areas once occupied by the British. The tide of the Second World War turned against Japan and Allies tried to recover Burma. Tokyo felt the need to appease the Burmese people in order that they might help in the country's defence against the Allied invasion.

The proclamation of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind 1943 provided fillip to the freedom struggle and it claimed the allegiance of every Indian irrespective of caste, creed and class. It ended with a stirring appeal.

"In the name of God, in the name of bygone generations who have welded the Indian people into one nation and in the name of the dead heroes who have bequeathed to us a tradition of heroism and self sacrifice we call upon the Indian people to rally round our banner and strike for India's Freedom. We call upon them to launch the final struggle against the British and all their allies in India and to prosecute that struggle with valour and perseverance and with full in faith in final victory until the enemy is expelled from Indian soil and the Indian people are once again a Free Nation."

Then the ceremony of taking the oath of Allegiance took place in an emotionally charged atmosphere. Amidst cheers, Netaji read out the oath, "In the name of God I take this sacred oath that to liberate India and 38 crores of my countrymen, I, Subhas Chandra Bose, will continue the sacred war of freedom till the last breath of my life."

His voice failed and he wiped his eyes with his handkerchief. He tried to overcome his emotions and with difficulty resumed in a steady voice "I shall always remain a servant of India and look after the welfare of 38 crores of Indian brothers and sisters. This shall be for me my highest duty. Even after winning freedom, I will always be prepared to shed the last drop of my blood for the preservation of India's freedom." Then other members of the Provisional Government took holy oath to liberate India and to remain absolutely faithful to their leader Netaji. Actually, these martyrs remained committed to this oath till the end of their life and their immortal life will remain an eternal source of inspiration and enlightenment to all.

Netaji died in a plane accident on August 18, 1945. The second world war ended by then with the victory of allied forces against Germany and Japan. Talks for Indian independence began in right earnest and India became a free nation on August 15, 1947 nearly two years after Netaji’s death. He was only 48 then. He was not a part of India’s transition from British rule to a free country led by the Congress. But his INA’s fight against the British troops for creating a free India, had played an important role in precipitating the process of transfer of power in 1947.

The massive strike action in 1946 demanding the release of INA prisoners unnerved the British rulers. This showed how popular Netaji was among the common Indians. There are misgivings about Netaji’s policy to free India with the help of Japan and Germany. Netaji was also aware of the dangers, but he was hoping to use the axis powers to get rid of the Britishers from India. He proved wrong in this part of his programme. But the fact is that he was one of the greatest leaders of the Indian freedom movement. Independent India’s history might have been different if Gandhiji was not that adamant in driving out Subhash Bose from the Congress s in 1939. (IPA Service)