SELECTED SPEECHES OF SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE

SELECTED SPEECHES OF SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE

Introduction by S. A. AYER

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ment throughout India under Mahatma Gandhi's leadership in 1921, Janakinath interested himself in the constructive activities of the Congress such as Khadi and national education. A deeply religious man, he had always a soft corner in his heart for the poorest of the poor, and before his end came he made a special financial provision for his old servants and dependants.

As a growing child, Subhas Chandra found Cuttack quite congenial. Brought up in his well-to-do middle class home, he escaped the unfortunate traits of selfishness and greed which are often associated with poverty and want in one's early age. Equally he escaped the evils of pampering and snobbery of a home of luxury and lavishness. His parents believed in simplicity in the upbringing of their children.

Subhas earned for more intimate contact with his parents and envied those children who enjoyed the heart-warming friendship of their parents. The presence of so many elder brothers and sisters made Subhas feel thoroughly insignificant. He was confronted with a standing challenge to catch up with them He was thus free from overconfidence or cocksureness and came to believe that industry and good behaviour were the sole passports to success. Though the environment of his large family helped him broaden his mind, he could not shed his shy reserve even after he grew up to be a man of the masses later in life.

At the age of five Subhas was sent to the English school at Cuttack. He did very well in his seven years of study, but somehow could not feel at home there because he did not take part in sports or games which were a very important part of education in a school run on European lines. Also, Subhas became conscious of the two different worlds, one represented by his family and society which was India, and the other represented by the school atmosphere which was a near approach to England. Indian boys in the school were told that because they were Indians they could not sit for certain scholarship examinations though in their annual examinations they topped the class. Anglo-Indian boys could join the Volunteer Corps but Indian boys were debarred. Small incidents like these began to open Subhas's eyes to the fact that Indian boys were a class apart though they belonged to the same institution. To the extent that he stayed away from

Subhas received his first political impetus when he was 15. At a psychologically opportune moment, a student visitor from Calcutta told Subhas of a group in Calcutta which had as its ideal spiritual uplift and national service along constructive lines. The visitor talked to Subhas and his friends passionately about their duty to their country and about the Calcutta group to which he belonged. Subhas was deeply impressed and from then on established regular contact with the group. As he approached the end of his school career, his religious impulse began to grow in intensity and studies were no longer of primary importance.

In his home Subhas was fortunate to grow in

When Subhas took to religion and yoga seriously and insisted on perfect freedom of movement and action, he frequently came up against parental instructions. He had no hesitation in disobeying them because by that time he had been convinced, under the inspiration of Vivekananda, that revolt was necessary for self-fulfilment. He must have appeared to his teachers and parents as wayward, eccentric and obstinate, neglecting his studies and running after ash-laden Sadhus. Nothing mattered to him except his inner dreams. The more resistance he met, the more obstinate he became. His parents then thought that a change of environment might do him good and that the realistic atmosphere of Calcutta would help him shed his eccentricities and take to a normal life.

He sat for the Matriculation Examination in 1913, when he had just completed 15, and came out second in the whole University. His parents were delighted, and he was packed off to Calcutta.

By the time he left school he had arrived at certain decisions for himself; he would not follow the beaten track but would lead a life conducive to his spiritual welfare and the uplift of humanity. Stauding on the threshold of a college career, Subhas was convinced that life had a meaning and a purpose and that to fulfil the purpose, a regular schooling of the body and mind was necessary. This self-

discipline stood him in good stead when faced with the trials and tribulations of his later years.

Though the college was a Government institution, the students were anything but loyalists; as only the best students were admitted, they were free thinkers and attracted the attentions of the British rulers' secret police. The main hostel of the college was looked upon as a hot-bed of sedition and a rendezvous of revolutionaries; no wonder then that the police often carried out raids on the premises. Calling themselve the neo-Vivekananda Group, Subhas and his friends aimed at bringing about a synthesis between religion and nationalism. The emphasis on nationalism was inevitable in the then political atmosphere of Calcutta. Vivekananda had emphasised social service through national reconstruction, mainly in the educational sphere. In recruiting new members to the group, attention was given to enlisting brilliant students who would become trained professors in preparation for the educational scheme to be launched by the group. Week-ends and holidays were spent mostly away from home, often without permission, in search of men who could give spiritual light and inspiration.

Politically the group was against terroristic activity and secret conspiracy. It was therefore not so popular among students in the then prevailing atmosphere of the terrorist revolutionary movement in Bengal. But because the group was very active, it nevertheless aroused the suspicions of the secret police.

In Subhas's undergraduate days, Aurobindo Ghose was easily the most popular leader in Bengal, despite his voluntary exile in the French settlement of Pondicherry since 1909. A regular reader of Aurobindo's monthly journal, Arya, Subhas was impressed by that mystic's deeper philosophy—how by a proper use of the different yogas one could rise step by step to the highest truth. Surendranath Baneriee, a hero of Bengal and one of the makers of the Indian National Congress, did not impress Subhas despite his flowery rhetoric and consummate oratory as he lacked that deeper passion which Subhas found in Aurobindo's simple words: "I should like to see some of you becoming great; great not for your own sake, but to make India great, so that she may stand up with head erect amongst the free

Not taking any interest in politics so far, Subhas confined his attention to meeting religious teachers and qualifying for social service. In the latter field Subhas began helping a society that gave aid to the poor by collecting money and foodstuffs every Sunday through begging from door to door. He joined the student volunteers who did this begging. It was a novel and agonising experience for Subhas, on the first day, to go sack in hand to beg for rice, and be fought hard to overcome a strong sense of shame.

During one of the college vacations which he spent with his parents at Cuttack, he joined some members of his old set on a nursing expedition to a place some miles away which was stricken with cholera. The group took hardly any precautions for themselves against the dreaded infection but concentrated all their attention on bringing succour to the stricken villagers. Subhas's family grew anxious over his long absence and sent a search party in panic when they learnt the nature of his expedition.

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But he returned to Calcutta a disappointed youngman, not having found the Guru he had wanted so much. A few days later he fell ill with typhoid—the price of pilgrimage and guru-hunting.

While Subhas lay in bed, World War I broke out.

In college or in the hostel Subhas often met leaders of the terrorist revolutionary movement but was never drawn to them, net because he

believed in non-violence but because he was in a world of his own and believed that the people's salvation would come through national reconstruction. Sometimes his group seriously discussed the question whether it would not be a feasible plan to let the British manage the defence of India and reserve the civil administration to Indians. But soon two factors made Subhas develop politically and strike out an independent line for himself. These were the behaviour of Britishers in Calcutta, and World War I.

Subhas frequently read of incidents of British arrogance and rudeness towards Indians on the trams, on the streets and on railways. He was also himself involved in such, incidents. He was not only sensitive by temperament but had been accustomed to a different treatment from infancy. In conflicts of inter-racial character, the law was of no avail to Indians. When Indians began to take the law into their cwn hands, the effect was instantaneous. Naturally, word went round that the Englishman understood and respected physical force and nothing else. And this provided the psychological basis for the terroist revolutionary movement in Bengal.

While these unpleasant experiences roused Subhas's political consciousness, it was World War I that convinced him that a nation which did not possess military strength could not hope to preserve its independence.

In spite of neglecting his studies for two years, Subhas passed the Intermediate examination with credit in 1915. He fulfilled a long-cherished desire by taking the honours course in philosophy for his B.A. degree, and took his studies seriously for the first time in his college career. Early next year, however, his academic life received a severe jolt as the result of a sudden incident in the college. A British professor named E. F. Oaten manhandled some of Subhas's classmates when they were walking along the corridor adjoining the professor's lecture-room. As the class representative, Subhas took the matter up with the Principal but failed to get satisfaction. A general strike of all students followed and the Principal levied a fine on all absentee students. After two days, however, pressure was brought to bear on Mr. Oaten to settle the matter amicably with the student representatives.

A similar incident a month later resulted in Mr. Oaten being assaulted by a group of students. Subhas was an eye-witness but did not take part in the assault. The Government ordered the closure of the college. The Principal fell out with the Government over the wording of the order but before he quit the post he sent for Subhas and said: "Bose, you are the most troublesome man in the college. I suspend you." This was confirmed by the Governing Body and Subhas thus stood expelled from the college. His educational career was at an end and his future was dark and uncertain. But he had no regrets. On the contrary he had the supreme satisfaction of having

sacrificed himself for a noble cause. He had had a foretaste of leadership, though in a small way, and the martyrdom it involved. He had acquired character and could face the future with equanimity In this frame of mind, Subhas left Calcutta and went back to his parents in Cuttack.

To his surprise he found that his parents understood his plight and sympathized with him. Having nothing else to do, Subhas plunged again into social service, especially voluntary nursing of the poorer section of the community suffering from cholera or smallpox, and arranging the cremation of the victims of these diseases by raising money for the funeral expenses.

After a year in Cuttack, Subhas returned to Calcutta to try his luck with the University where Sir Ashutosh Mukherji was the virtual dictator. Growing restless with waiting for the University to reconsider his case, Subhas tried to enlist himself in the 49th Bengali Regiment but was rejected only on the ground of defective eyesight. One more year passed before the University relented. The then Principal or his old college raised no objection to his admission to the Scottish Church College, which was arranged largely through the efforts of Subhas's second brother, Sarat Chandra Bose. Subhas now took to his studies in right earnest and also joined the university unit in the Indian Defence Force (the Territorial Army) During training in camp near Fort William, Subhas donned khaki and took musketry practice; he marvelled at his own transformation—from sitting at the feet of saffronrobed anchorites to standing with a rifle on his shoulder and taking orders from a British officer. Subhas thoroughly enjoyed the soldiering which he found gave a fillip to his feeling of strength and self-confidence. He experienced a strange sensation on the first day when, with other trainees, he marched into Fort William to pick up his rifle. The gates of Fort William were closed to him as an Indian, but were thrown open to him as a soldier. He was puffed up during routemarches through the city, when he and his comrades felt superior to the police and other Government agents who had been harassing and terrorising them.

At the B. A. Examination in 1919 Subhas got first class honours in philosophy but was placed second in order of merit, which came to him as a slight disappointment.

He took experimental psychology for his M.A. course but a few months later his father came up to Calcutta one day and, after a talk with Sarat, asked Subhas suddenly if he would like to go to England to study for the Indian Civil Service examination. Entering the I.C.S. was the greatest ambition of young Indians in those days. Subhas was given 24 hours to make up his mind. The proposal came to him as a total surprise. He had qualms of conscience about joining the I.C.S. and serving under the British. But he made up his mind

to go, saying to himself that he could never pass the examination within the eight month's that would be left after reaching England; because of his age he had only one chance to appear for the examination. If, however, he got through, well, there would be plenty of time to decide what to do.

At Cambridge he had an unusually large number of lectures to attend. The subjects for his Civil Service Examination were: English Composition. Sanskrit, Philosophy, English Law, Political Science, Modern European History, English History, Economics and Geography.

What greatly impressed Subhas at Cambridge was the measure of freedom allowed to students and the general esteem in which they were held. This was in striking contrast to the police-ridden city of Calcutta where every student was suspect as a potential revolutionary.

Early in July 1920, eight months after he joined Cambridge University, Subhas sat for the Civil Service Open Competition in London, and though he had worked hard, he was not very hopeful. To his surprise, however, he was not only successful in the examination but came out fourth.

"The Civil Service can bring one all kinds of worldly comfort, but are not these acquisitions made at the expense of one's soul?....................................

"On principle I cannot accept the idea of being a part of the machinery which has outlived the days of its usefulness and stands at present for all that is connected with conservation, selfish power, heartlessness and red-tapism.....

"I am now at the crossways and no compromise is possible. I must either chuck this rotten Service and dedicate myself wholehearted-

ly to the country's cause, or I must bid adieu to all my ideals and aspirations and enter the Service.....

"If C. R. Das at his age can give up everything and face the uncertainties of life I am sure a young man like myself, who has no worldly cares to trouble him, is much more capable of doing so.....

"The illustrious example of Aurobindo Ghose looms large before my vision. I feel that I am ready to make the sacrifice which that example demands of me......

"We have got to make a nation and a nation can be made only by the uncompromising idealism of Hampden and Cromwell.....

"I have come to believe that it is time for us to wash our hands clean of any connection with the British Government.....

"The best way to end a Government is to withdraw from it..... I sent in my resignation a few days ago.....

It is a common saying that the child is the father of the man. I have sketched at length the childhood, adolescence and youth of Subhas until he finished his university education, because the way he was shaping at home and school and at college in India and England, and the deliberate manner of his sacrificing a brilliant career, unmistakably pointed to the path he was later to tread for 25 years as the stormy petrel of Indian politics.

Immediately on landing in Bombay he called on Mahatma Gandhi at his Laburnum Road residence and had an intimate talk with the leader who had launched a countrywide movement of progressive non-co-operation against the British rulers. Subhas was about to join this campaign and therefore wished to understand the Mahatma's mind and have a clear conception of the plan of action. The Mahatma answered Subhas's volley of questions with his characteristic patience For Subhas three points needed elucidation. How were the different activities conducted by the Congress going to culminate in the last stage of the campaign, namely, the non-payment of taxes? How could mere non-payment of taxes or civil disobedience force the Government to retire from the field and leave Indians free? How could the Mahatma promise Swaraj within one year as he had been doing since the last annual session of the Indian National Congress? Subhas was satisfied with the reply to the first question, but not so regarding the other two. However, he accepted the Mahatma's advice to him to report to Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das on reaching Calcutta.

This was the first time in his life that Subhas had met Maratma Gandhi. For the young man poised on the threshold of public life, it was a fateful meeting, and it was a failure in its immediate purpose. Agreement on the ultimate objective of India's freedom from foreign rule, but fundamental differences on the method of achieving the objective, largely characterised the political relations between these two leaders from the day Subhas first met the Mahatma in Bombay in July 1921 till they met for the last time at Wardha in June 1940. With the Mahatma, non-violence was a living creed; with Subhas, it was an article of faith that the use of force was necessary to dislodge the alien ruler from Indian soil. Subhas himself has recorded that at their last meeting the Mahatma said to Subhas that if the latter's effort to win freedom for India succeeded then the Mahatma's telegram of congratulations would be the first that Subhas would receive.

Now to resume the narrative. On reaching Calcutta, Subhas took the earliest opportunity to meet Deshbandhu Das. By the time their conversation was over, Subhas's mind was made up. He felt he had found a leader and meant to follow him. The Deshbandhu was not the same Mr. Das whom Subhas had once approached for advice as a student expelled from the University for political reasons. He was not the same Mr. Das who was earning thousands in a day and spending thousands in an hour. Though his house was no longer a palace, he was, however, the same Mr. Das who had always been a friend of youth, could understand their aspirations and sympathize with them in their sorrows. During their talk, Subhas began to feel that here was

a man who knew what he was about and to whom youthfulness was not a shortcoming but a virtue.

Before the end of the year, with the exception of Mahatma Gandhi, all the front-rank leaders including Pandit Motilal Nehru, Lala Lajpat Rai and Deshbandhu Das were in prison. Differences between the Mahatma on the one hand and the other leaders had already become evident on the issue of the move by the Viceroy, Lord Reading, for a political settlement. Deshbandhu Das, still a prisoner, urged the Mahatma to accept the offer; the Mahatma agreed too late and the Viceroy in the meanwhile had changed his mind. The Deshbandhu and many others with him felt that the chance of a life-time had been lost.

The year 1922 witnessed an anti-climax to the non-co-operation movement when Mahatma Gandhi suspended the campaign for the

non-payment of taxes because of mob violence against policemen in Chauri Chaura in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). A month later, in March 1922, the Mahatma was arrested in Ahmedabad and sentenced to six years' simple imprisonment. In the course of the same year Deshbandhu Das and his other associates in jail worked out a plan to enter the legislatures and to bring the administration to a halt. Orthodox followers of the Mahatma, known as the no-changers, opposed this plan of council-entry, but at the Congress Session held at Gaya at the year-end, under Deshbandhu's presidentship, Pandit Moulal Nehru announced the formation of the Swaraj Party. Deshbandhu Das formally resigned the Congress presidentship to leave himself free to work in opposition to the official policy of the Congress.

An extension of the programme of council-entry to the civic field in Calcutta resulted in a thumping victory for the Swaraj Party in March 1924. Deshbandhu Das was elected Mayor of Calcutta, and Subhas Bose was appointed Chief Executive Officer at the age of 27. As the head of the administration of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, and under the inspiring leadership of his chief and Mayor, Subhas revolutionized the relations between the Corporation and the public of Calcutta. The British vested interests in the city found themselves suddenly deprived of their importance. For the first time the people began to feel that municipal officers and employees were public servants and not mere bureaucrats. For himself, Subhas Bose had accepted Rs. 1,500 per month as salary instead of Rs. 3,000 per month attached to the post of Chief Executive Officer. The heavy responsibilities of his office absorbed all his time and attention, and yet he was arrested along with a number of other Congressmen in October in a desperate attempt by the British rulers ostensibly to scotch a revolutionary conspiracy but actually to stem the rising tide of the Swaraj Party's popularity throughout the country. The agitation over the arrest of Subhas Bose was the strongest as the public thought that the real object of the Government was to strike at the Swarajist administration of the Corporation. He was first lodged in juils in Bengal and then removed to the Mandalay jail in Burma, which was then administratively attached to India. Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak had been detained in this very jail for six years, and Lala Lajpat Rai for one year. The memory

ristirt, sor. 15.

Nearly two years before he was brought back from Mandalay jail and released in Calcutta, Subhas had suffered the severest personal blow in the death of his leader, Deshbandhu Das. The disappearance of the Deshbandhu's towering personality from the political arena was a great misfortune for India, and the Swaraj Party was paralysed.

Soon after his release in Calcutta he was elected president of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee for the first time, and he plunged headlong into active politics once again after a break of more than three years.

Bengal, along with the rest of India, was in the throes of an agitation to boycott the all-White Simon Commission appointed by the then Conservative Government of Britain to tour India and report to Parliament on the fitness of Indians for the next instalment of constitutional reforms. Subhas Bose spearheaded the boycott in Bengal. He then turned his attention to organizing the All-Bengal Students Association and the All-Bengal Youth Association. The same year (1928) Subhas joined Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Srinivasa Iyengar and others to form the Indian Independence League. The Congress Session at Madras at the year-end was notable for the resolution it passed which for the first time defined independence as the goal of the Indian people, for the appointment of representatives of the Left Wing to the Congress High Command (the Working Committee), and for the appointment of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mr. Shuaib Qureshi and Subhas Bose as General Secretaries.

The Calcutta Congress of December 1928 registered the first major trial of strength between the Right and the Left wings. The Mahatma moved the main resolution that if the British Government did not concede a Dominion Status Constitution for India by December 1929 the

Congress would organise non-violent non-co-operation. An amendment to the effect that the Congress would be content with nothing short of independence, which implied severance of the British connection, was moved by Subhas Bose. It was supported by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The amendment was, however, lost by 973 votes to 1,350. Subhas felt at the time that the vote was hardly a free one as the followers of the Mahatma made it a question of confidence and gave it out that if the Mahatma was defeated he would retire from the Congress. "Many people, therefore, voted for his resolution not out of conviction but because they did not want to be a party to forcing the Mahatma out of the Congress. Nevertheless, the voting showed that the Left Wing was strong and influential." The historic Lahore Congress, which met a year later under the Presidentship of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru adopted the independence resolution amidst scenes of wild enthusiasm. During the sitting of the Calcutta Congress a procession of 50,000 workers visited the Congress pandal to demonstrate their solidarity with the struggle for national freedom. At this Congress, Subhas Bose functioned as the General Officer Commanding Bengal Volunteer Corps which he had raised and trained on military lines, complete with a distinct uniform.

Elected president of the All-India Trade Union Congress, Subhase bose held this office till 1931.

From now on the personality of Subhas Chandras Bose emerged forcefully in the forefront of the struggle for freedom, organizing and giving a dynamic lead to the youth and students of the country on a national scale, rallying the support of industrial labour by building up trade unionism on solid foundations, and generally spearheading the Leftist elements in the country which were getting more and more impatient for a showdown with the alien regime.

His repeated arrests and imprisonment; election as Mayor of Calcutta (1930); resignation of the office of President of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee as a protest against wanton police firing inside the Hijli Detention Camp (1931); election as Treasurer of the All-India Trade Union Congress for 1931-32; banishment to Europe for treatment of tuberculosis of the lungs and intestines, and establishment of personal contact with Vithalbhai Patel in Vienna (1932); arrival in Calcutta from Europe without the Government's permission, and consequent order of home internment (1934); return to Europe for a major operation; attendance at the Conference of the Indian Central European Society held at Vienna; address to the Asiatic Students Conference in Rome opened by Signor Mussolini (1935); visit to Ireland; arrival in Bombay and arrest on board the ship (1936); unconditional release and departure for Europe (1937)—these were among the important events in his stirring political career.

When he was still abroad, in January 1938, Subhas Chandra Bose, at the early age of 41 won the highest honour the nation could bestow on any Indian: he was elected President of the 51st Session of the Indian National Congress to be held at Haripura in Gujarat. After meeting the Irish leader, Mr. De Valera, in Ireland the same month, Subhas Bose returned to India in February and presided over the deliberations of the premier political organization of the country.

It may be said without exaggeration that his presidentship of the Indian National Congress in 1938 proved a turning point in his life and, to some extent, in the history of the country's fight for freedom One of his most important services to India as the Congress President was the formation of a National Planning Committee with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as Chairman, and himself as Convenor.

When the All-India Congress Committee met in Calcutta the mext month, all attempts at ironing out the differences between Subhas

Bose and the Rightists failed and, amidst boisterous scenes, Subhas Bose announced his resignation of the office of Congress President.

He then formed the Forward Bloc within the Congress in May 1939. In doing so he had two expectations. Firstly, in the event of future conflict with the Right Wing he would be able to fight more effectively, and further he would be able to win over the entire Congress to his point of view one day. Secondly, even if he failed to win over the entire Congress to his point of view, he could in any major crisis, act on his own, even if the Right Wing failed to rise to the occasion. The conflict between the Right Wing and the Forward Block steadily widened and reached its climax when the Congress Working Committee debarred Subhas Bose, twice elected President of the Congress, from holding any position in an elective Congress Committee for three years. This action was taken against Subhas for advising Congressmen to protest against two resolutions passed by the All India Congress Committee which defined the relation of Ministers vis-a-vis the Provincial Congress Committees and laid down that permission should be taken from Provincial Congress Committees for starting passive resistance. Meanwhile, the Forward Bloc was gaining popularity in large parts of the country.

War broke out in Europe in September 1939, exactly as Subhas Bose had predicted six months earlier. The Forward Bloc launched an anti-British, anti-war campaign all over the country. When the British rulers found that the Forward Bloc was developing into a real menace to their war efforts, they struck a blow at the Bloc by throwing Subhas Bose and hundreds of his co-workers into prison in July 1940. The British had no intention of bringing him to trial. Subhas Bose was now convinced more than ever before that India would win her independence if she played her part in the war against Britain and collaborated with those powers that were fighting Britain. He arrived at the conclusion that India should now actively enter the field of international politics.

Subhas Bose had already been in British custody eleven times and he now felt that it would be a gross political blunder to rot in prison any more. He therefore gave an ultimatum to the British authorities at the end of November 1940 that there was no moral or legal justification for his detention and unless he was released immediately he would go on hunger-strike. At first the British pretended that they did not take him seriously but after the "fast unto death" had lasted a few days, they were really unnerved; not wanting his death on their hands, the British quietly set him free and kept a strict vigil on his movements. For some forty days Subhas Bose did not stir out of his house or even out of his bed-room. And then, one morning in the third week of January 1941, all India was thrilled to hear that Subhas

Bose had escaped the British surveillance and disappeared from his Calcutta home. The next that India and the wond heard about Subhas was when he himself began speaking on the radio from Germany in November 1941, nine months after his disappearance from India.

THE DARING plans of the escape and the ha

who rallied to the cause of their country's freedom under the banner of Subhas Chandra Bose spontaneously acclaimed him as their Neta (leader) and addressed him ever since as "Netaii".

It was one thing to form a Free India Army in Germany in wartime, but it was a totally different, if not utterly impossible, proposition to take that army all the way from Europe up to the north-western gates of India to fight the British entrenched inside India.

His golden opportunity came in December 1941 when the World War spread to the Pacific and Japan was also ranged against Britain. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose immediately set about drawing up plans to reach East Asia and there to raise a Free India Army from among the large Indian communities in Malaya, Singapore. Burma and other regions of East Asia. If only the active and enthusiastic co-operation of the Japanese, Burmese and other war-time governments in East Asia was assured, it would be a much easier task to lead a free India army massed on the Burma border to launch an attack on the British forces on the other side of the Indian border and roll them back in Bengal and Assam. Such a spectacular achievement by an Indian Army of Liberation on the Bengal and Assam borders, he calculated would lead to a countrywide uprising against the British regime.

Within hours of the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific region. Rash Behari Bose, the veteran Indian revolutionary who had been in political exile in Japan for thirty long years, appealed over the radio to Indians throughout East Asia to form Indian Independence Leagues with the sole object of fighting for their motherland's liberation from the British yoke.

In February 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese forces; the British abandoned the Indian soldiers they had taken all the way from India to defend their colonial possessions in Malaya and Singapore. By the terms of their surrender they handed over to the Japanese military authorities some 20,000 Indian soldiers and officers as prisoners of war. The Japanese in turn told the Indian prisoners of war that they were being handed over to "General Officer Commanding Captain Mohan Singh who shall have powers of life and death over you". This was the genesis of the Indian National Army which later attracted thousands of civilian Indian youths in East Asia, and enabled Netaji in course of time to raise no fewer than three combatant divisions totalling over 30,000 men under arms.

The die was cast. Netaji decided to risk everything including his

very life to reach East Asia in response to the urgent summons of his countrymen. His perilous 90-day submarine voyage from Germany through enemy-infested waters round the British Isles, round Africa, across the Indian ocean, to Sumatra and Penang, and from there by air to Japan, and ultimately to Singapore, is another glorious chapter in the history of India's struggle for freedom. Reaching Japan in June 1943, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose lost no time in entering into parleys with the Japanese Prime Minister, General Tojo, and his top-ranking military advisers to enlist their aid for his well thought out plans to free his motherland. After receiving their solemn assurances of unstinted support to the Indian Independence Movement with arms and equipment, Netaji revealed his presence in Japan by a personal broadcast over the Tokyo Radio in which he addressed himself to Indians in East Asia and to Indians inside India.

Netaji Bose flew from Japan and landed at Sagapore on July 2, 1943. Two days later, in the presence of Indian Independence League delegates from all over East Asia, Rash Behari Bose handed over the leadership of the Movement to the younger Bose in a memorable speech. In his reply, accepting this onerous responsibility, Netaji hinted that he would in the near future form a provisional Government of Free India under whose leadership India's Army of Liberation would march against the alien regime in the motherland.

The next day Netaji in the khaki uniform of Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army, reviewed the serried ranks drawn up in formation on the spacious maidan opposite the Singapore Town Hall. For the first time, he gave this army of liberation the war-cry of "Chalo Delhi" ("On to Delhi"); and he gave the assembled civilians the slogan of "Total Mobilization". He then went on a whirlwind tour of Malaya, Thailand, Burma and French Indo-China to rouse Indians there to come forward and sacrifice their all, including their lives, in the final battle for India's freedom. The response was overwhelming wherever he went. In short, Indians in East Asia went freedom-mad.

Netaji then reorganized the Indian Independence League Headquarters and expanded its activities. The departments already functioning at the League Headquarters were: General Finance, Publicity, Intelligence, and Recruitment and Training. Netaji strengthened these departments and added the following: (1) Head an Social Welfare; (2) Women's Affairs; (3) National Education and Culture; (4) Reconatruction; (5) Supply; (6) Overseas; and (7) Housing and Transport.

Netaji divided his time between the League Headquarters and the Headquarters of the Supreme Command of the INA.

When he was satisfied that the INA had been thoroughly organized, and that Indians in East Asia were offering a splendid response to his call for total mobilization, he took the next logical step of establishing the Provisional Government of Free India outside India, in Singapore, on the historic 21st of October, 1943, that is, less than four brief months after he took over the leadership of the movement in East Asia.

Events then started moving with cyclonic speed.

The following night the Provisional Government of Azad Hind declared war on Britain and America A few hours later, Netaji addressed a mammoth rally of Indians, civilians and soldiers, and took a solemn pledge from them that they would sacrifice their all in waging the war for the liberation of India.

In a few days, nine countries—Japan, Germany, Italy, Croatia. Burma, Thailand, National China, the Philippines and Manchura—accorded their recognition to the Provisional Government of Azad Hind.

A week after forming the Provisional Government, Netaji flew to Tokyo where he attended the Greater East Asia Conference in the first week of November, and was received by the Emperor of Japan with all the honours due to the Head of the State and of the Provisional Government of Free India.

At the Greater East Asia Conference, Premier Tojo of Japan announced on 6th November that Japan had decided to hand over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the Provisional Government, which thus acquired its first stretch of territory of Free India.

Returning to Singapore towards the end of December, Netaji left for the Andamans where he set foot on Free India territory on 31st December, 1943. In the meanwhile the Provisional Government had decided to rename the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as the Shaheed (Martyrs) and Swaraj (Independence) Islands.

Before leaving for the Andamans, Netaji appointed a committee to make recommendations for the national unufication of Indians in East Asia in matters of language, dress, food, greeting, emblem and ceremonies. He attached the greatest importance to this aspect of constructive work with a view to bringing about abiding unity in the Indian nation.

From the Andamans, Netaji flew to Burma via Bangkok and established the Headquarters of the Provisional Government, the Indian Independence League and the INA Supreme Command in Rangoon. There were now two Headquarters, the one in Rangoon, and the Rear Headquarters in Singapore.

Burma having a frontier with India, which the INA had sworn to cross at all costs in order to give battle to the British on Indian soil and expel them from there, Netaji still further intensified his efforts night and day to convert the new Headquarters into a base of operations. He could not rest until he ensured that the Burma base had become a springboard from which to jump at the throat of the enemy in India.

Then came the dramatic announcement of the firing of the first shot by the INA in the Second War of India's Independence when it opened a campaign on the Arakan front on 4th February, 1944, and fought a successful action.

The 18th of March, 1944, will ever remain a Red Letter Day in the annals of the INA for on that historic day the INA crossed the Burma border and, for the first time, stood on the sacred soil of India. This momentous news was given to East Asia, to India and to the world by Netaji in a proclamation that he issued on the 21st of March, 1944.

The 21st of every month had become a sacred day for Indians in East Asia as the day on which, in October 1943, the Provisional Government of Free India was established in Singapore.

Thus within nine months of his arrival in Singapore, Netaji had reorganized the INA and moved it from Malaya via Thailand and Burma up to the Indian border and had actually led it across the frontier and brought it to Indian soil—an astounding feat even for Netaji.

Between the time he shifted his Headquarters to Rangoon and the INA's historic crossing of the Burma-India border, Netaji had put through a gigantic expansion of the Indian Independence League; he also expanded the Provisional Government by creating the portfolios of Supply, Manpower and Revenue.

Twelve more departments were added to the League Headquarters to cope with the phenomenal increase in its activities as the channel for the execution of the Provisional Government's programme of Total Mobilization of money, materials and manpower.

A Rani of Jhansi Regiment Camp was opened in Rangoon, and Camps were opened all over East Asia for the speedy training of Indian civilian youths. These Camps turned out soldiers by the thousands after intensive military training.

Netaji established the first National Bank of Azad Hind in Rangoon on the 5th of April, 1944, and the same day he left for the fighting front and moved his headquarters nearer the firing line. This time he took with him a contingent of fully trained and equipped Ranis of Jhansi.

Meanwhile, the INA was fighting freedom's battle on eight sectors of the Burma-India border, on the plains of Imphal and in the neighbourhood of Kohima. In a matter of hours news was expected of the fall of Imphal to India's Army of Liberation. This would have meant the death-knell of the British Empire in India.

The INA was ordered to withdraw, but only to prepare for the next attack on Imphal.

This debacle happened in June-July 1944; the wounded and dying heroes, many in tatters and many more suffering from acute malaria and dysentery, began trekking back to Mandalay and Rangoon.

All the same, the tide steadily turned against the Liberation Army. By sheer superiority in air support and mechanized equipment, the enemy was relentlessly smashing his way through to Meikhtila and heading towards Pyinmana and, of course, ultimately onward to Rangoon.

When it was realized that it would be too much of a risk if Netaji continued to stay on in Rangoon, members of the Cabinet of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind persuaded him to leave and to continue the fight from elsewhere.

The memorable retreat began on April 24, 1945. A convoy of lorries carrying some of the Cabinet Ministers, INA Commanders and Ranis of Jhansi, headed by Netaji in his car, left Rangoon that night in bright moonlight. It was three weeks before Netaji and party reached Bangkok. The three weeks were packed with forced marches, blistered feet, hunger, thirst, hairbreadth escapes from enemy fighters and bombers, and perilous crossings of big rivers.

At long last Netaji and party reached Bangkok in mid-May, 1945 a week after the surrender of Germany to the Allied Forces.

Japan, however, continued to fight.

At this stage, in June 1945, news came through that the British Viceroy in India, Lord Wavell, was trying to persuade Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress to give up opposition and to co-operate in Britain's war effort in return for the inclusion of more Indians in the Viceroy's Executive Council.

With his characteristic open-mindedness Mahatma Gandhi was willing to explore all possibilities of ending the conflict between the alien Government and the Congress representing the Indian nation. At a later stage Mahatma Gandhi withdrew from the scene and left it to the President of the Congress, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, advised by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, to speak for the Congress at the Simla Conference in June-July 1945.

On hearing about the Wavell offer, Netaji flew from Bangkok to Singapore on June 18 and addressed himself over the Radio to the Congress leaders night after night for nearly a month, imploring them, with all the earnestness he could command, not to accept the Wavell offer. His most important argument in support of his appeal to them to turn down the Wavell offer was that it was a typical British stratagem to keep the Indian question a domestic issue of the British Empire. Further, the Conservative Government then in office wished to "settle" the Indian question before the next general elections in Britain which might perhaps put the Labour Party in power. Then there was the risk for the British imperialists that India might receive a better deal at the hands of Labour. By turning down the Wavell offer, the Congress could continue to keep the Indian struggle at the level of an international question. If, however, the Congress wished to arrive at a compromise with Britain it would be well to wait till the next British elections.

Netaji was overjoyed when he heard the news of the failure of the Simla Conference where the Congress finally rejected the Wavell offer.

He then left on a tour of Malaya and was camping in Seramban when he learnt that Russia had declared war on Japan; this was soon followed by a midnight visit of certain League officials from Singapore to Netaji's camp on August 11 with the news that Japan had surrendered.

The INA would not surrender; it need not surrender, but it could not continue the fight any more; it had to cease fighting.

military sense. Because it had already covered itself with immortal glory wherever it fought. The unparalleled sufferings and sacrifices of Netaji and the INA in the cause of India's freedom had evoked the respect and admiration of the Japanese, Chinese, Burmese, Thais, Malays, Filipinos, Indonesians and Vietnamese. The South East Asian nations who were under colonial rule at the outbreak of the Pacific War, and who then witnessed the flight of their rulers from the advancing Japanese forces, were stirred to the depths of their being by the spectacle of the revolutionary Indian Independence Movement and the patriotic Indian National Army under the dynamic leadership of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The Burmese, the Malays, the Indonesians and the Vietnamese took a solemn pledge that they would be free for all time and would not allow their ex-rulers to return to their lands as rulers again after the war.