Who does not know the Indian revolutionary freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897- 18 August 1945) who resigned from the Indian Civil Service (ICS) immediately after he was selected and joined the Indian National Congress, elected twice the President and even resigned from the Congress following differences with Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel? He was a close friend of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru during the freedom movement having emotional as well as socialist bond with the first Prime Minister of India. Even after he left not only the Congress but even Indian soil to take over the Indian National Army (INA) following differences with the Mahatma, he was the first person to call Gandhiji the Father of the Nation in his Rangoon Broadcast in July 1944 seeking Bapu’s blessings. And even Gandhiji addressed him as “the Patriot of the Patriots”. Unfortunately, the hero of the Indian youth and people at large died in the plane crash at Taipei on 18 August 1945 leaving so many mysteries unsolved around him.
The Netaji’s contribution in the freedom movement may be known to people who loved him but not many would be aware of his childhood adventures or encounters. It is a known fact that Pandit Nehru’s forefathers migrated from Kashmir to serve in the Mughal Durbar, but one may not be aware that even Subhas’s ancestors served on the high positions in the Durbar of Nawab of Bengal and Sultan. Subhas Bose grew up “in a predominantly Muslim quarter of Cuttack, with Muslim neighbors, teachers, and classmates, and took part in Muslim festivals”, discloses a celebrated historian and his great grand nephew Sugata Bose. A Harward Professor and former Member of Indian Parliament, Dr. Bose writes in “His Majesty’s Opponent Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire”: “Subhas belived his ‘mental attitude’ towards Muslims was influenced by his early contacts, and reported that friction or conflict between Hindus and Muslims was unknown in his formative years. The diverse and liberal social setting was a boon, but did not preclude the tortuous individual trials of coming of age in an era of incipient nationalism.”
Of course, Subhas was a bright student who ranked second in the entire university in his school-leaving matriculation examinations. He was sent to Calcutta (now Kolkata) to join the prestigious Presidency College. He was “rusticated’ for leading the students fight against the racial discrimination by his British teachers leading to physical assault on Edward Farley Oaten, a history professor. “Had Subhas actually taken part in the physical assault on a professor? In his deposition before the Enquiry Committee, Subhas did not admit his own guilt, but steadfastly refused to name any other or criticize the action of the students.” Subhas was clearly dismayed at the time to see his studies cut short, and hoped for a reprieve. His father (a government pleader and the first non-official Chairman of Cuttack Municipality) and elder brother Sarat (a barrister) tried their best to use their family connections in high places and their to ‘the dictatorial vice-chancellor, Ashutosh Mookerjee (the father of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee), to get Subhas admitted elsewhere, but their efforts were not immediately successful’.
After a year’s absence, Subhas returned to Kolkata to try his luck with the university authorities once more. He tried to get recruited in the ‘49th Begalee Regiment” in 1917 but was disqualified because of his poor eyesight, even thought he passed all the other medical tests. He tried his luck again at the office of the Principal of the Scottish Church College and with the help of his brother Sarat he could returned to his studies in philosophy in July 1917.
Subhas went to Kolkata to join the College in 1913 and had to have a gap of one year due to the Oaten episode. But in the summer vacation of 1914, he had come to Cuttak. One day he ‘quietly left home with a friend, without telling his parents, in search of a guru or a spiritual preceptor. He visited all of major pilgrimage sites of northern India, including Lachhman-Jhola, Hrishikesh, Hardwar, Mathura, Brindaban, Benares and Gaya. At Hardwar, a third friend joined the search party for a guru. The two-month expedition made possible a few meetings with some truly holy men, but overall it ended in disillusionment and disenchantment. Subhas witnessed first-hand the deeply ingrained caste prejudices in northern India and the petty sectarian rivalries of the men of religion.’ His pilgrimage ‘brought face to face with the patent shortcomings of Hindu society’. During this period Subhas’s political consciousness was aroused which made him a Desh Nayak (Leader of the Country) in later years in the words of Rabindranath Tagore.
Next Column: The Interim Government formed in 1946
