Who is known as Netaji and tell about him ?

In his fervent wait to see India as an independent, federal and republic nation, he emerged as a charismatic and firebrand youth icon.

He was admired within the congress for his great ability in organization development. He served several stints in prison for his nationalist activities during this time.

Dispute with the Congress

In 1928, during the Guwahati Session of the Congress, a difference of opinion surfaced between the old and new members of the Congress

The young leaders wanted a "complete self-rule and without any compromise’ while the senior leaders were in favour of the "dominion status for India within the British rule".

The differences between moderate Gandhi and aggressive Subhash Chandra Bose swelled to irreconcilable proportions and Bose decided to resign from the party in 1939. He went on to form the Forward Bloc the same year.

Although he voiced his dislike for the British often in his correspondences, he also expressed his admiration for their structured way of life.

He met with the leaders of the British Labor Party and political thinkers including Clement Attlee, Harold Laski, J.B.S. Haldane, Arthur Greenwood, G.D.H. Cole, and Sir Stafford Cripps and discussed the possibilities that an independent India might hold.

Bose vehemently opposed the Congress decision to support the British during the Second World War.

With the aim to initiate a mass movement, Bose called out to Indians for their whole-hearted participation. There was tremendous response to his call “Give me blood and I will give you freedom” and the British promptly imprisoned him.

In jail, he declared a hunger-srtike. When his health deteriorated, the authorities, fearing violent reactions, released him but put him under house-arrest.

In January, 1941, Subhash made a planned escape and reached Berlin, Germany via a detour through Peshawar

Germans assured him their full support in his endeavours and he gained allegiance of Japan as well.

He took a perilous journey back east and reached Japan where he assumed command over 40,000 soldiers recruited from Singapore and other south East Asian regions.

He called his army the ‘Indian National Army’ (INA) and led the same to capture the Andaman and Nicobar islands from the British and rechristened it as Shaheed and Swaraj Islands.

A provisional “Azad Hind Government” started functioning in the captured territories. The INA or the Azad Hind Fauj stared for India and crossed Burma Border, and stood on Indian soil on March 18, 1944.

Unfortunately, the tide of the World War turned and the Japanese and German forces surrendered which forced him to call off further advancement.

Netaji disappeared mysteriously soon after the retreat. It is said that he went back to Singapore and met Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi, head of all military operations in South East Asia who arranged for him a flight to Tokyo.

He boarded a Mitsubishi Ki-21 heavy bomber from Saigon Airport on August 17, 1945.

The following day the bomber crashed shortly after take-off after a night halt in Taiwan

Witnesses report that Bose sustained intense third degree burns in the process. He succumbed to his injuries on Aug 18, 1945.

He was cremated on August 20 in Taihoku Crematorium and his ashes were laid to rest at the Renk?ji Temple of Nichiren Buddhism in Tokyo.

Bose’s comrades who were stranded in Saigon waiting to be transported never saw his body. Nor did they see any photographs of his injuries.

They refused to believe that their hero was dead and hoped that he evaded detection by the British-American forces.

They believed whole heartedly that it was just a matter of time that Netaji will gather up his army and conduct a march towards Delhi.

Soon people began to report sighting of the hero and even Gandhi expressed his scepticism about death of Bose.