The Indian National Army and Subhash Bose

Subhash Chandra Bose was an intrepid man. He had always shown a militant streak and reacted violently to any insult of Indians by the Europeans. He passed the Indian Civil Services examination securing fourth position but resigned from the service in 1921 to join the struggle for freedom by becoming a member of the Congress. His political guru was Chittaranjan Das. He became mayor of Calcutta in 1923. He was jailed many times by the British. Once it became clear to Subhash Chandra Bose that he could not follow Gandhi’s way but that the Congress was determined to follow Gandhi, Bose decided to go his own way to fight for independence.

In March 1940, Bose convened an Anti-Compromise

Conference at Ramgarh; it was a joint effort of the Forward Bloc and the Kisan Sabha. It was resolved at the conference that a world-wide struggle should be launched on April 6,

the first day of the National Week, with a call to the people not to help the Imperialist War with any resource—men, money or materials. He called for resistance to be offered to all forms of exploitation of Indian resources for the imperial cause. There was enthusiastic participation by the people in the struggle launched on April 6.

Bose was arrested in July when he protested and tried to launch a satyagraha against a proposed monument for Holwell in Calcutta. He was released from prison and placed under house arrest in December 1940 after a hunger strike. In January 1941, it was reported that Bose had escaped. On January 26, 1941, he reached Peshawar under the pseudo- name Ziauddin, helped by Bhagat Ram.

Later it was heard that he had left India “to supplement from outside the struggle going on at home”. He was reported to have approached Russia for help in the Indian struggle for freedom from Britain. But, in June 1941, Russia joined the Allies in the war, which disappointed Bose. He then went to Germany.

Bose met Hitler under the pseudo name, Orlando Mazzotta. With the help of Hitler, the ‘Freedom Army’ (Mukti Sena) was formed which consisted of all the prisoners of war of Indian origin captured by Germany and Italy. Dresden, Germany was made the office of the Freedom Army. Bose came to be called ‘Netaji’ by the people of Germany. He gave the famous slogan, ‘Jai Hind’ from the Free India Centre, Germany.

He began regular broadcasts from Berlin radio in January 1942, which enthused Indians. In early 1943, he left Germany and travelled by German and later by Japanese submarines to reach Japan and then Singapore in July of the same year. He was to take over command of the Indian independence movement from Rashbehari Bose, but that was the second phase of the Indian National Army.