When in 1956 former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee visited India, the then governor of Bengal asked one important question, after the Quit India Movement subsided in 1942, there were no significant freedom movements in India. So, in spite of having a possibility to rule India why did the Britishers leave? On that Clement Attlee answered, “the role played by Netaji Subhash Chandra's army was Paramount.” This one statement itself is enough to question the version of history taught in our school textbooks. Therefore, this article attempts to discuss an important chapter of Indian history that has been erased from our textbooks or perhaps not taught well enough. Who was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose? what was this legend's contribution towards the freedom struggle of our Nation? and most importantly, how did this contribution give us freedom from the shackles of the Britishers?

The early years of freedom struggle

In 1897, when Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was born, India was completely at the mercy of the colonial rulers and all thanks to their kindness, India was sinking into poverty.  while on one side we were shipping premium Made in India goods to the Royal families in England, here in India lakhs of Indians were starving to death because of famines. At that juncture, there were only a few handfuls of people who could afford a decent standard of living and fortunately, Netaji’s family was among these handfuls of people. But as Netaji stepped into adulthood, he closely watched the atrocities caused by the Britishers in Indian Society. He took them so personally that when he saw his college Professor harass Indian students, he even slapped him for which he got rusticated from The Presidency College. After this incident, Netaji’s father sent him to London to study for ICS or Indian Civil Service which was by far one of the toughest exams in the world. with just six months of study, Netaji cleared the exam but as soon as he was offered a job, he rejected it and came back to India and joined Gandhiji in India’s freedom struggle movement. This is what marks the beginning of the Netaji freedom struggle.

Within just a few months, with his charismatic personality and brilliant political acumen, he began climbing the ladders of Congress more quickly than anyone else. He became so popular that in the Presidential elections of the Congress he ended up defeating Dr Pattabhi who was backed by Gandhiji himself. But as we all know Netaji and Gandhiji had different ideologies; Gandhiji was all about seeking Independence through nonviolence whereas Netaji believed that Independence is not something that you request, it's something that you fight and snatch from the rulers. Or in Hindi, Azadi mangi nahi, Chini Jaati Hai. So, in 1939 in spite of being the president, he resigned from Congress and left as a lone wolf to find another way to free India. And this is where the historic journey of Netaji begins.

Netaji and his International Relations Strategy

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose even saw an opportunity during World War. The British army was spread all across the world because of which in India only the upper management of the army were Britishers whereas the entire front-liners had only Indian soldiers. And as far as numbers are concerned, while there were 40000 British soldiers in India, 2500000 Frontliners were Indian soldiers only. And Netaji thought if he could somehow get those 2500000 soldiers to Revolt, the Britishers will have no other option but to leave India. But in order to make that happen, the soldiers needed a big push that could form the rebellion. And this is where Netaji’s International relations strategy paid off. He realised that since the Japanese and Germans and the Russians were the enemies of the British raj, they would be more inclined to help him out. Hence, on 17th January 1941 at 1:30 a.m. Netaji disguised as a Pathan and went from India to Afghanistan from Afghanistan to Russia and when the Russians did not help him out, he went to Germany and that is where he met Adolf Hitler. But after some time, he realises that Hitler was not in a position to help him out so he finally comes to Japan. Japanese troops had defeated and taken 64000 British soldiers as prisoners of War. Then out of these 64000 soldiers, close to 40,000 soldiers were Indian soldiers who were fighting on behalf of the British Raj. Japanese were so smart that they thought instead of sending their own army to defeat the British raj in India why not send these Indian soldiers as a separate Army unit. So, they found an army unit of them and recruited captain Mohan Singh as the in-charge of the unit and this Army was called the Indian National Army or the Azad Hind Fauj. Netaji took control of the Azad Hind Fauj in 1943 and he started delivering speeches to motivate the soldiers and established a purpose for them that is to free India from the British raj. This is when in one of the iconic speeches Netaji uttered the words that will go through the tunnels of time forever: tum mujhe Khoon do main tumhe Azadi Dunga.  

The Azad Hind Fauj and Red fort trial

Because of this infectious enthusiasm, the Indian National Army was ready to fight with the strength of 40,000 soldiers and one of these regiments was the Rani of Jhansi Regiment which was a women Regiment. This is where Netaji found three incredible Commandos: Prem Kumar Sehgal, Shahnawaz Khan and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon. These three commandos brought the army from Myanmar to Kohima and finally to Imphal where they fought with the British army. Unfortunately, the British army ruthlessly defeated the Azad Hind Fauj and within some time the Japanese also surrendered. To make matters worse, news came out saying that in an unfortunate plane crash Netaji lost his life. At this time, since the British had censored media, nobody in India knew that the Indian National Army was formed by Netaji and the fact that they were coming to India not to fight for the Japanese but for the freedom of India herself.  Therefore, to set an example to show what could happen if we revolted against the Britishers, they decided to conduct a public trial on the three Commandos: Prem Kumar Sehgal, Shahnawaz Khan and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon. This trial is known as the Red Fort trial which was held in November 1945 wherein these three Commandos were given a harsh punishment so that no Indian ever dares to stand against the Britishers. But what followed next was catastrophic beyond their imagination. The moment the Indian soldiers in the British army came to know about the Indian National Army, all the soldiers including the Navy started revolting. As the news spread, it started snowballing into a rebellion that the British could have never imagined before. Lakhs of people took to the streets, thousands of people started marching with Netaji’s photo and some of them directly started beating up the British army. This event is famously known as the naval mutiny of 1946. Furthermore, hundreds of people gathered outside the Red Fort and started screaming slogans like Hindustan ki Ek Awaz, Sehgal, Dhillon, Shahnawaz; 40 karod ki ek Awaaz, Sehgal, Dhillon, Shahnawaz.

Finally, just like Netaji thought, when 2500000 Indian soldiers started uniting against the major 40000 British officers, the Britishers had no other option but to retract. And this panic had such an effect that within no time, in 1946 cabinet mission was set up which started the transfer of power and an interim government was formed on 28 February 1947.  The British Prime Minister Clement Attlee declared that the Britishers would Quit India by June 1948. Therefore, the Red Fort trial was one of the most significant events in Indian freedom movement history because of which we attained our independence on the 15th of August 1947.

This is one important chapter in history that is usually not highlighted elaborately in history textbooks. However, Subhas Chandra Bose, a true patriot, remains the most influential freedom fighter of India, with extraordinary leadership skills, leading the freedom struggle movement and forever engraving his name in golden words in the Indian Independence struggle. It is important for every Indian, especially the youth to imbibe the principles of Netaji in their daily lives to work for the betterment of our motherland.

Views expressed by the author are personal.