History:
Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist whose
defiant patriotism made him a hero in India, but whose attempt during World War
II to rid India of British rule with the help of Nazi Germany and Imperial
Japan left a troubled legacy. The honorific Netaji, first applied in early 1942
to Bose in Germany by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the
German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin, was
later used throughout India.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18
August 1945) is one of the most celebrated freedom fighters of India. In 1942,
he earned the honorific title ‘Netaji’ (meaning “Respected Leader” in Hindi),
in Germany by the Indian soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj or the Indian National
Army and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in
Berlin.
Significance:
Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23 January, 1897, in
Cuttack, Orissa Division, Bengal Province, to Prabhavati Dutt Bose and
Janakinath Bose, an advocate. He belonged to a well to do family and was the
ninth of 14 children. Bose studied at Presidency College, Calcutta where he was
later expelled for attacking a professor making racist remarks towards Indians.
He then joined the Scottish Church College and earned his B.A in Philosophy. In
1919, under pressure from his father, Bose headed to London to give the Indian
Civil Services (ICS) examination; he came fourth and was selected. Bose,
however, resigned from Civil Services as he believed he could not side with the
British.
Bose is credited with the very famous slogans,
“Give
me blood, and I shall give you freedom!”
“Jai
Hind.”