NETAJI
SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE - MODERN HISTORY
News: Netaji will be remembered for fierce
resistance to colonial rule: PM Modi
What's
in the news?
●
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 23
paid tributes to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary and said
he will be remembered for his fierce resistance to colonial rule.
Parakram
Diwas:
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The Government had christened the day
'Parakram Diwas' in 2021 to mark the Azad Hind Fauj founder's birth
anniversary.
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January
23
is observed as 'Parakram Diwas'.
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PM Modi will also unveil a model of the National Memorial dedicated to Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose to be built on the island named after him.
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Keeping in mind the historical
significance of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and to honour Netaji's memory,
Ross Island was renamed Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Dweep by PM Modi during his
visit to the Island in 2018.
○
Neil Island and Havelock Island were also
renamed Shaheed Dweep and Swaraj Dweep respectively.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose:
●
Subhas Chandra Bose was born on January
23, 1897, in Cuttack, Odisha. He was affectionately called Netaji.
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In England, he appeared for the Indian Civil Service competitive
examination in 1920 and came out fourth in the order of merit.
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However, Bose was deeply disturbed by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and left his
Civil Service apprenticeship midway to return to India in 1921.
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Vivekananda's
teachings had a strong influence on him, and he regarded him as
his spiritual Guru.
●
Chittaranjan
Das
was his political mentor.
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He founded his own newspaper, Swaraj, after working as an editor for
Das's newspaper Forward.
●
23rd January is celebrated as Parakram
Diwas.
Contribution
to Indian Freedom Movement:
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After returning to India, Netaji joined
the Indian National Congress.
●
He started working under Deshbandhu
Chittaranjan Das whom he later acknowledged as his political guru.
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He organised the All-Bengal Young Men’s Conference.
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Netaji along with Jawaharlal Nehru opposed
the Motilal Nehru Report, which
spoke for dominion status for India. They asserted that they would be satisfied
with nothing short of complete independence for India (advocated for
unqualified Swaraj).
●
He was intimately linked with left politics in Congress in the 1930s,
alongside Jawaharlal Nehru and M.N. Roy.
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Bose supported the idea of comprehensive
independence and with his support Jawahar Lal Nehru passed the resolution of Poorna Swaraj in 1929.
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He was elected President of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in 1931 thereby
emerging as the most important Trade Union Leader of British India.
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In 1938, Subhas Chandra Bose was elected
President of the Haripura Congress
Session.
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The National
Planning Committee formulated by Bose in 1938 advocated for a policy of
rapid and broad industrialization on modern lines.
●
In 1939 at the Tripuri Session, Netaji again won the presidential elections
against Gandhi’s candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya. But due to ideological
differences with Gandhi, Bose resigned and left congress.
●
He then founded a new party named ‘the Forward Bloc’. The purpose was to
consolidate the political left and major support base in his home state,
Bengal.
●
He wrote in his August 1942 Article,
“India will be able to concentrate her whole attention on the solution of
social problems. The most important social problem is that of poverty and
unemployment”.
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Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose proudly
proclaimed “Free India will not be a land of capitalists, landlords, and
Castes”.
Indian
National Army:
●
In 1941,
Bose reached Germany via
Afghanistan. On the maxim that “an enemy’s enemy is a friend”, he sought the
cooperation of Germany and Japan against the British Empire.
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In 1943,
he arrived in Singapore. Here he
took over the reins of the Indian Independence Movement in East Asia from Rash
Behari Bose and organized the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) composed
mainly of Indian prisoners of war.
●
Azad
Hind Fauj then proceeded towards India to liberate it from
British rule.
●
However, the defeat of Japan and Germany
in the Second World War forced INA to retreat, and it could not achieve its
objective.
Ideology
of Netaji:
Principle
of equality and against casteism:
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The India National Army was a mixture of
various Religions, Races, and Castes with total social equality of all
soldiers.
●
They were served food cooked in the common
kitchen and shared space in common barracks breaking the age-old caste bonds
and practices.
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These were the first major successful
steps in eradicating casteist feelings and nurturing feelings of “being Indian” above everything else among the
soldiers.
Secularism:
●
To strengthen the secular feelings and
thereby foster National unity, common
worship and celebrations of all religious festivals were introduced in the INA.
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Many Indians from the Minority Communities
occupied high positions in the Provisional Government of Free India and the
Azad Hind Fauj.
Unity
in Diversity:
●
Though Hindustani was widely used for
military commands and administrative use, all other Indian languages were
considered equally important.
●
Also, the Azad Hind Radio Station, beamed to India in some Indian Languages
like Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi,
Gurkhali and Pashto apart from Hindustani and English.
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Azad Hind Radio Station had broadcast
stations in Singapore, Bangkok, Rangoon, Tokyo and Saigon.
Women
empowerment:
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Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had an inherent
faith in “Nari Shakti” or “Women Power”.
●
He strongly believed in the equality of
men and women in Civil and Military life.
●
His ideas on “women empowerment” were not
mere lip service.
●
Bose created a history by establishing the
world’s first all Women Regiment within
the Indian National Army in 1943 and christened it “The Rani Jhansi Regiment.”
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It was a full-fledged combat regiment with
its Indian women soldiers receiving all necessary military training on par with
their male counterparts.
Samyavada
philosophy:
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Netaji picked up the common good traits of
National Socialism and Communism to “form the basis of the new synthesis.”
●
That synthesis is called ‘Samyavada’ – an
Indian word, which literally means ‘the doctrine of synthesis or equality’.
●
Samyavada points to a perfect balance between the material and the spiritual, between the
East and the West.
Economy:
●
The National Planning Committee formulated
by Bose in 1938 advocated for a policy of rapid
and broad industrialization on modern lines.
●
He wanted to adopt a comprehensive scheme
for gradually socializing our entire agricultural and industrial system in the
spheres of both production and distribution.
●
He also spoke about abolition of landlordism and liquidation of agricultural indebtedness.
Thus, Subhash Chandra
Bose advocated complete freedom for India at the earliest, even when the
Congress wanted it in phases, through a Dominion status. The organisation of
the Azad Hind forces and INA are a milestone in the history of the Indian
struggle for freedom, the formation of which was the brainchild of Subhash
Chandra Bose.