The organic connection between Subhas Chandra Bose and the Hindu Bengali masses – ঘরের ছেলে সুভাষ

Coauthored by Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, and Dikgaj

The Hindu Bengalis had constituted the sword arm of India during the freedom fight against the British [1]. In the words of Subhas Chandra Bose, “Bengal, of which Calcutta is both the heart and the brain, has for a very long time been one of the strongholds of the nationalist movement’’ pp. 98-99, [8], and “With the dawn of the present century there was a national awakening in India on a large scale, and Bengal, which had suffered longest from the British yoke, was the pioneer in the new movement’’ p. 13, [8]. He has squarely attributed the nationalist movement in Bengal to the Hindus therein, describing them as “the backbone of nationalism in this country’’ p. 90, [3]. He explicitly stated that “Nobody will deny that Bengal has been the cradle of Indian Nationalism since the dawn of British rule in this country. Hindu Bengal, in particular, has throughout these decades thought and striven in terms of nationalism’’ p. 169, [3].

In the twentieth century, both in ideas and actions, the freedom movement against the British was driven by the Hindu Bengalis. It started from their losing the awe of the British in the last part of the nineteenth century, which precipitated intellectual and physical retaliation from them against British racism. Then under the inspired leadership of Arabindo Ghosh and Bepin Chandra Pal, the Hindu Bengalis ushered in the freedom movement against the British through the anti-partition movement in 1905 that spread from Bengal to the rest of India, and was the first nationwide mass movement against the British shorn of Jihadi motivation. Ideas and messaging that would drive the freedom movement from here onwards were formulated and coalesced in Hindu Bengal before and during this anti-partition agitation, starting from Bande Mataram in the late nineteenth century, to Swaraj and Swadeshi just before and during 1905. Arabindo Ghosh was the ideological fountainhead of the Swaraj and Swadeshi movements in the first decade of the twentieth century. These were later appropriated by Gandhi, without due attribution, and launched as Non-Cooperation and the civil disobedience movements in the 1920s and 1930s. The Hindu Bengalis comprised of the bulk of the revolutionary freedom fighters, and they organized, trained and contributed to revolutionary movements, not merely in their province, but throughout India and even abroad. An ethnic demographic decomposition of the revolutionaries shows that the Hindus of undivided Bengal and the Hindu Bengalis residing outside Bengal, eg, in the United Provinces, collectively struck for India. Even in Madras Presidency, Bengalis provided the ideological and logistical support to revolutionaries who struck against the British. The Bengal revolutionaries forced the British to annul the Bengal partition, offer various political reforms and struck terror in their hearts. They infiltrated the Congress machinery and forced it to declare independence as its goal in 1929 Lahore Congress [1]. Subhas Chandra Bose had envisioned the Quit India movement, which was eventually launched by Gandhi in 1942, owing in part due to relentless pressure from Bose. Finally, the Indian National Army that Subhas Chandra Bose led, forced the British to transfer power, even in its defeat, by inspiring mass protest movements against trial of the I.N.A. heroes and by inciting disloyalty in the British Indian military, which became evident through mutinies in their army, air force and navy. Thus, what Arabindo Ghosh started, Subhas Chandra Bose ended.

Yet, the Bengalis have never received due credit for their enormous contribution to the resistance against the British, – the vision, resolve, organization, intellectual sophistication, valour, creativity, strategy and sacrifice embodied in the same. At times individual Bengali icons like Subhas Chandra Bose have been credited for expelling the British, but never the ethnicity as a whole. There is also a distinct attempt by certain groups to actually disassociate Subhas Chandra Bose from his Bengali roots by claiming that he was never important in Bengal. Notwithstanding, it is important to recognize that Subhas Chandra Bose was a product of the Bengali revolutionary ecosystem and ethos – the very best of it, the flowering of Bengali culture, the greatest embodiment of Bengali values. The fountainhead of his inspiration may be definitively located in Bengal – Swami Vivekananda all his life, the various Bengal renaissance icons and Arabindo Ghosh in his formative years. His letters, speeches, particularly when he was stationed outside Bengal, reveal a deep attachment to everything Bengali – the soil, the ambience, the panorama, the culture, the literature, the food – in short, everything. We intend to elaborate on this organic connection in another series. But in the current one, we establish that Bengal constituted Subhas Chandra Bose’s predominant support system. In this sense, he was Bengal’s. That entails no conflict with his other identities, namely Indian and Hindu, rather enforces these.

In the first part of this series [21], we have argued that Subhas Chandra Bose was propelled to political prominence at the national level by virtue of a strong support from Bengal Congress. During his time, Bengal was by far the largest political bloc in India, particularly in the Indian National Congress. Though the support from Bengal would not by itself suffice, unless some of the other large political blocs chimed in, any leader for whom Bengalis consolidated would start with a huge advantage in any national-level political contest in India. The situation is reminiscent of the saying in contemporary India – that the road to Delhi is through Lucknow – owing to the large number of Lok Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh. While various leaders of Bengal Congress betrayed Bose at different points, the rank and file therein stood with him through thick and thin, braving the wrath of the All India Congress Committee, who sought to oust him from his home base through intrigues, machinations, threats, intimidations and enticements, in short, through Gandhian subterfuge. The Bengal intelligentsia vociferously supported him when he took his stand against the compromises of the Gandhian High Command, comprising of Nehru, Patel, Rajagopalachari, Kripalani, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. This was despite the fact that at times he was less than deferential to its doyens like renowned chemist and entrepreneur, P. C. Ray and nobel-laureate, poet Rabindranath Tagore. His finances mainly came from the Bengalis, though they had stopped controlling the business in Bengal for some time before his birth. Thus, finances remained his Achilles heel all along. This is also why the account of his political domination in Bengal is all the more remarkable, other than the fact that he was active in politics in Bengal for a very short time and had limited financial backing. Between 1921 and 1940, the period in which he was active in Bengal politics, he was outside jail for only about 9 years, and functioned as an independent leader only in 5 of those years.

The political base Subhas Chandra Bose could develop with both limited time and money at his disposal owed entirely due to his connection with the Bengali common people, which is what we elaborate on in this article. This connection was organic because he embodied several characteristics that are dear to the hearts of the Bengalis, viz, his academic prowess, his principled stances, his revolutionary politics, and finally, his refusal to countenance disrespect at any cost. These qualities were all manifest in his life from his earliest days. He was therefore the epitome of the culture of the Bengali Bhadralok, and was cherished in Bengali hearts and homes, not only while he was active in Bengal, but also long after he physically left. This connection has been seen only rarely in human history. This is what we document in this series of three articles. We start from the very beginning, when he was a middle-school student, and show that his fame had proliferated beyond the circle of his acquaintances, because of his personal characteristics that Bengalis valued (Section A). The romance continued when he joined Indian National Congress in 1921, and intensified as the years went on, until he attained the pinnacle of his political glory, whereby he defeated Gandhi’s proxy, Sitaramayya in Indian National Congress Presidential Contest in 1939 (Section B). Yet, during this time, he was in jail and exile in Europe for about 11 years. Owing to Gandhian machinations, he had to resign from Congress Presidency, in a few months after winning it, and was disqualified from holding Congress office in August, 1939. But, this loss of political power catapulted him to the stature of a tragic hero, to the proximity of a deeply-wronged family member in Hindu Bengali psyche, and thereby increased his popularity in Bengal even more (Section C). In yet another romance of history, braving huge odds, he successfully deceived the British intelligence, to escape in January, 1941, to outside their reach, to Germany. His tryst with the unknown continued while he embarked on a submarine voyage to reach Japan in 1943. In Japan, he assumed the Indian National Army (INA), which was formed of the Indian prisoners of war of the British Indian Army and volunteering Indian civilians in South East Asia. All along, assured of a strong support in his home base he made desperate attempts to lead the INA to Bengal, to Chattogram and onward to Calcutta (Section D). He knew that if only he could lead his army to Bengal, it would precipitate a mass revolt therein. And then, secure at his home base, he could launch his final onslaught towards Delhi and strike a death-blow to the Raj, through a protracted struggle, if necessary. He wanted to reach home, to be at home, the only real home he had known. That was however not to be, and in August 1945 he disappeared into the darkness of history, not to be ever documented again. In a subsequent section, we document yet another little known facet of history – the presence of Bengalis in critical roles therein (Section E). Finally, we show how deeply Subhas Chandra Bose was attached to Bengal – her landscape, her culture, her literature, her folk-music, and most importantly her people, This attachment manifested in his correspondences and public pronouncements more when he was confined in jails outside Bengal, or exiled outside, or needed to live abroad to strike the final blow at the Raj (Section F). He saw Bengal as a unique phenomenon, and this organic connection to his ethnic roots reinforced his Indian nationhood. This leads us to explore the intrinsic connection between provincialism and nationalism, of the revolutionary variety. In conclusion, we touch upon the propaganda of some charlatans and opportunists seeking to disassociate his legacy from his beloved Bengal, his সোনার বাংলা, towards their vicious ends (Section G)

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In Part-3, we will document the popularity of Subhas Chandra Bose in Bengal in the immediate aftermath of his disappearance, in 1945-46, and how his memory lingered on, years after, decades after he left her. We will also get into further details of the egregious factual and logical errors of the propaganda mentioned above.

Section A: Before joining politics [1897-1921]

Subhas Chandra Bose was born in Cuttack to Bengali parents Janakinath Bose and Prabhabati Bose. He was raised in Cuttack where his father practiced law. Right from his student days, due to his academic prowess, he became well-known, among Bengali students in Bengal, even to those who did not know him personally. His friend from College days, Dilip Kumar Roy, has recalled how he first heard of Subhas, while they were both in school, and before they met in person. A mutual friend had predicted to him that Subhas would far outshine the topper of Dilip’s class, Khitish Chatterji (who later became a well-known intellectual of Bengal) in Matriculation exam. Kshitish stood 18th or 24th among 10,000 matriculates, Subhas stood second after Pramatha Sarkar of the Mitra institution. The mutual friend reappeared after the results became public and chortled with glee: “And he would have  out-topped this Sarcar, too, had he been a bookworm like them. But Subhash never cared to ‘cram’. He consorted with Yogis and Sages all the time and pored over Vivekananda’s works, not your blessed text-books, I assure you.” “It almost seemed as if it was he, and not Subhash, who had put Khitish in his place” pp. 1-3, [17].

After finishing school in Cuttack, Subhas Chandra Bose joined Presidency College. While he was studying there, Prof. Oaten of Presidency College was accused of assaulting some Indian students and of hurling racial abuse on Indians. The students assaulted Oaten in an ambush. Subhas Chandra Bose was expelled from Presidency accused of having orchestrated the assault. This incident stirred the Bengali society to the extent that even Rabindranath Tagore wrote an essay on the broad topic in its wake. Subhas Chandra Bose’s political comrade in the 1920s, Sabitri Prasanna Chatterjee, has written about his popularity in Bengal starting from that time: “ Subhaschandra was well-known among students because of the Oaten incident in Presidency College and that Rabindranath wrote an article in this context on green leaf magazine titled, “student disciplining mechanism” had generated significant awe and love about Subhaschandra in our minds’’ p. 18, [16]. Dilip Kumar Roy has written “This (Oaten) incident “translated” him [Subhas] into a hero overnight.’’ p. 29, [17].

After graduating from Scottish Church College, Bose went to study in England. Dilip Kumar Roy was his fellow student at that time. He has written about Bose’s popularity among the Bengali students in England: “I can hardly recall a Bengali in England [during Subhas and Dilip’s student days in England] who didn’t openly or tacitly accept him as the natural leader of our set. Even non-Bengalis began to warm up to him when it was made public that he would resign (from I.C.S.)’’ p. 31, [16], and “ I remember one young Bengali (in England during 1919-21), who was at the time apprenticed to an optician. He came one day to me and talked flamboyantly about having taken an “everlasting vow” to leave his hospital work just for the great privilege of being ordered about by “our heaven-sent leader”.  Deeply dismayed, I reported it at once to Subhas who became even more alarmed, inasmuch as he could not possibly venture to take in hand young hopefuls by the dozen in this off-hand fashion, the less so because his own future was uncertain, his foothold precarious. So he rushed to this young fanatic and, after much effort, dissuaded him from his blood-curdling resolve’’ p. 51, [17]. After qualifying for the I.C.S. with flying colors (a fourth rank overall), Subhas Chandra Bose resigned from it, to join in freedom struggle and also because he did not want to work under a colonial government. Bengal loves renunciates. Dilip Roy has recalled that Bose’s resignation from the I.C.S. “had caused such an unprecedented stir in England and Bengal’’ p. 46, [17].

Section B: As a Congress leader [1921-1937]

Subhas Chandra Bose returned to India in 1921 and joined freedom struggle with Chittaranjan Das as his mentor. He was arrested in 1925 and detained without trial in Mandalay jail in Burma. Until then he had worked in the shadow of Das and had not functioned as an independent political leader. Yet, as per Leonard Gordon, who has authored a tome on Subhas Chandra Bose and his brother Sarat Chandra Bose, “Subhas was becoming more widely known in Bengal and India even while he was serving his time in prison [in Mandalay]. Indeed, the prison term and the suffering he endured there contributed to his reputation. He was becoming known as a hero and martyr for India. Anil Baran Roy told [Anushilan Samiti revolutionary and later RSPI founder] Jogesh Chatterji, ‘Subhas Chandra is the rising sun of India’ ‘’ p. 150, [5].

On 13.8.25 Sailendra Nath wrote to Subhas Chandra Bose at Mandalay, addressing him as Dear Subhasbabu, “You have not written about your own state of health. Don’t you know that there are so many persons who are so anxious to know about the state of your health now ? I think you have not yet realised how much you mean to the whole of Bengal and the Bengalees and in what kind of relationship you stand with them. That is why you ignore to write anything about yourself, taking it to be too much personal. I think I need not drive the point home that all should be anxious to know about the state of health of somebody for whom the youth of Bengal as a whole are waiting with much hope. Now I think I have been able to make you realise the significance of the whole thing. Yesterday Hemanta Sarkar [Bose’s childhood friend] raised questions regarding the persons who are now incarcerated in Mandalay Jail with special reference to their condition of health including you too. In answer Stephenson said that you have gained ten pounds of weight. But by reading your letter I can guess that you are not at all in a happy state of health.” pp. 303-304, [4]

In 1926 Bose secured his first election victory while still in far away Mandalay. He defeated a formidable opponent in North Calcutta, with a thumping majority, without having campaigned there or having directly issued an appeal to his constituents to vote for him. His constituents in North Calcutta voted for him to press the Government to release or try him. We learn from the accounts he left: “In the latter half of 1926 an interesting development took place. The Legislatures were dissolved and fresh elections were due in November. …I was offered a Calcutta constituency for the Bengal Legislative Council [by the Bengal Congress Party]. …I had a formidable opponent in Mr. J. N. Basu, the leader of the Liberal Party in Bengal. At the last election Mr. Basu had retained his seat by defeating the Swarajist candidate and the Congress Party thought that it was necessary to put me up against him in order to dislodge him. He was exceedingly popular in his constituency and was a fine type of gentleman and we had nothing against him except his Liberal Politics. This was the key-election of the year in Bengal and so the Party had to put forward its best efforts in order to win. The election was reminiscent of the early Sinn Fein elections in which political prisoners were candidates and the slogan was – ‘Put him in to get him out’. Modern electioneering methods were used by the Party, including the use of rockets for distributing leaflets and posters showing the candidate behind prison bars. The voters felt that my success would be a public vote of confidence in me and force the Government either to release me or send me up for trial. So I got a thumping majority.’’ pp. 153-154, [8].

Upon release, on 10.8.27, he thanked his constituents, as follows: “Last year, I stood as a candidate for election of the Bengal Legislative Council from the North Calcutta Non-Mohammedan Constituency. In that connection I had addressed a letter to you on the 24th of September last from Mandalay Jail. Unfortunately, the letter did not reach you. For reasons best known to them, the authorities did not think it necessary to forward the letter to the proper quarters….But although my letter did not reach you my silent appeal from behind prison doors must have reached your hearts, so that you got me elected by a huge majority of votes, despite the opposition of a very powerful rival. ….I am particularly grateful to you for one reason. At a time when I was being victimized by Government and placed in that unenviable position when even intimate friends not to know a person, you installed me on that high pedestal of honour in utter disregard of the mighty wrath of the Bureaucracy. The confidence you have thus reposed in me is not merely a personal honour to me, it is an honour shown to all political sufferers” pp. 200-201, [12].

On 10.12.26 Santosh Kumar Bose wrote to Subhas Chandra Bose at Mandalay, “Your short but very interesting letter reached me on the 17th November- the day of polling for the Council elections in Calcutta, when your name was being uttered by thousands of people in Calcutta. Your candidature had called forth the affectionate enthusiasm of the whole of Calcutta, and if silent sympathy, apart from the active propaganda of the workers, had any efficacy, you had it in an abundant degree from high and low, young and old alike. The actual results have justified the popular expectation.” p. 105, [4].

Subhas Chandra Bose was released in 1927. In 1927, when he was merely 30, a biographical sketch was written for him, by his childhood friend, Hemanta Kumar Sarkar. This shows the public interest in him in Bengal. Dilip Kumar Roy has written about an incident in that time that shows the respect he commanded, at the young age of 30, among common Bengalis: “In 1927, I was invited by the Edison Gramophone Company in New York to make some long-playing records. Subhash was jubilant like a child and (with the help of two of my old friends, Nalini Kanta Sarcar and Kazi Nazrul Islam) organised a big meeting at the University Institute to felicitate me. The great novelist Saratchandra consented to preside and Rabindranath himself was invited to bless me publicly. A number of literary men and musicians also attended among whom the famous writer Sri Pramatha Choudhury took a leading part. The large auditorium and stage seethed with humanity, so much so that when the Poet came Subhash had to cordon him off personally to take him up on to the stage.

But worse was to come, the hall, packed to suffocation, first hummed and then rang out with the noise of the appeals and cries from the audience and every speaker was booed down summarily; the students took the leading part, clamoring for a song. “We want songs, please…songs….no speeches, for God’s sake …..sing ranga jaba, Dilip Babu….”ranga jaba….ranga jaba…..” and so on. As the lesser speakers hadn’t the ghost of a chance, Sri Pramatha Choudhury rose to his feet, to be dismissed out of hand. So last, though not least, Saratchandra stood up and appeared, but alas, in vain! We were at a loss, not knowing what to do, when Subhash leapt to his feet and, scarlet with indignation, thumped the table. “Silence!” he roared, “silence, I say! We have gathered here to felicitate Dilip Kumar and we have invited our revered Poet to bless him. We have printed a programme and we must stick to it. You have all come here to testify to your affection for Dilip Kumar and wish him God-speed on his musical mission in America. He will sing at the end, but we insist on good manners and discipline on your part. How can we build a nation if we are undisciplined and behave like Philistines and rowdies ? Mother India expects every son of hers to know how to behave himself. So I insist, I repeat, on a pin-drop silence and that at once….” And, lo, the miracle happened: the clamour was stilled instantly into an awed hush ! He did ride the howling storm and rule the boisterous waves of rebel faces on that unforgettable evening. Indeed, it had to be seen to be believed: the incredible impact of his tremendous personality which refused to accept defeat !’’ pp. 243-244, [17].

An important incident in 1928 Calcutta Congress enhanced Bose’s stature among rebellious freedom-aspirant Bengalis. In December 1928, Calcutta Congress session, due to repeated demands in the Congress, Gandhi had moved a resolution demanding dominion status within a year, failing which, Congress will launch non-violent non-cooperation, including non-payment of taxes. But, Bose moved an amendment to the effect that Congress would be content with nothing short of independence, which implied severance of the British connection. In his speech, Bose described why he moved the resolution, and why he recanted his earlier private assurance to Gandhi about not moving such a resolution: “ I have been asked by some friends why, being a signatory to the Nehru Report, I have stood up to speak for independence….You are aware that in private conversations and elsewhere I have said that I do not desire to stand in the way of elder leaders. …There are certain incidents which have made me somewhat alter my previous views. You are aware that the Bengal delegates, or at least the majority of them, assembled and resolved to have this amendment moved on their behalf and that they were prepared to accept the vote of the House, whatever the consequence might be. Even if I did not stand here today to move the amendment, I can assure you that some other members would have stood up to do so on their behalf.’’ p. 275, [12]He added in the above speech, “So far as Bengal is concerned, you are aware that since the dawn of the national movement in this country we have always interpreted freedom as complete and full independence. We have never interpreted it in terms of dominion status. After so many of our countrymen laid down their lives, after our poets preached the gospel, we have understood freedom as full and complete independence. The talk of dominion status does not make the slightest appeal to our countrymen, to the younger generation who are growing up, and we should remember that after all it is the younger generation who are the heirs of the future” p. 278, [12]. In Calcutta Congress 1928, Gandhi had opposed Bose’s amendment saying that “young Bengal was making a serious blunder, for to call for complete independence was merely to chant a hollow phrase.’’ p. 478, [26] The amendment lost, 973 votes to 1350 – but was no pushover. About 2/3 of the delegates from Bengal, backed the Bose amendment in 1928 p. 192, [5]. Notwithstanding the demands of his corporate sponsors, sensing a groundswell of support for the demand for complete independence, as reflected in the 935 votes that Bose’s amendment in 1928 secured, Gandhi moved in December 1929, Lahore Congress, the resolution for complete independence which he opposed in 1928 (Bose amendment). Quoting Bose: “No doubt the amendment was defeated at the Calcutta Congress but only a year later, the Lahore Congress accepted the same ideal and it was in fact adopted by those who had voted against its acceptance at Calcutta” pp. 143-144, [7], and “… in December, 1928, at the Calcutta Congress there was a revolt against Gandhism sponsored by the Independence League on the issue of independence. Mahatma Gandhi then advocated Dominion status and he fought and defeated our resolution on Independence. But, a year later, at the Lahore Congress, he himself moved the resolution declaring that henceforth Independence was to be the goal of the Indian National Congress’’ pp. 14-15, [13]. Gandhi’s choice of words, while moving this resolution is curious: “by the exigencies of circumstances, we are now compelled to declare that the Congress wants complete independence and fixes it as its “swaraj”’’ p. 142,[25], p. 201, [27].

On 25 January 1931 Bose had again written about his amendment in Calcutta Congress, in an article titled ‘The Question Of Amnesty’, “When I moved my amendment in favor of the ideal of Independence at the Calcutta Congress in the year 1928 I did so with a full sense of responsibility and in the belief that I was representing the mind of Bengal” pp. 143-144, [7]. Bose was indeed representing the mind of Bengal. We learn from his friend and comrade Sabtriprasanna Chatterjee that “Gandhi’s trust on Subhas decreased after he went back on his promise to him about giving up the independence demand in Calcutta Congress of 1928. But his popularity increased among the representatives of Bengal. The ex-revolutionaries, particularly those from the Jugantar group, were predominant among these representatives’’ p. 88, [16]. Gordon has written that Bose was considered a “Guru’’ by some of the students who insisted on touching his feet at the time of the 1928 Calcutta Congress p. 193, [5], and “ his [Bose’s] own popularity in Bengal may have been related to a religious aura that surrounded him because of his sacrifices and his years of imprisonment’’ pp. 287-288, [5].

On 26 January 1930 Subhas Chandra Bose led a procession in Calcutta during which he was mercilessly beaten by the police. His ring finger broke, as a result of which he could not write for long. Sabitriprasanna describes the experience of being incarcerated with him subsequently: “On one hand it was quite comforting to be jailed with him. Innumerable food items would be sent for him from various different places. Basket full of fruits and soda-lemonade kept on arriving. We hardly drank water. All these were quite comforting. But there were dangers too. Who knew from which direction he would raise a storm….Getting relief from the hard work associated with the newspaper I was happily increasing my weight. ….During this time one morning coming to my cell Subhaschandra said, write a letter. His hand was still dysfunctional. He did not have the strength to write a letter. I immediately got my pen and paper and told him, proceed. He continued to dictate, if his finger was not x-rayed by tomorrow he would start hunger strike. After finishing the letter I looked at him with sad eyes. Subhaschandra asked laughingly, what happened ? I told with humility, I have just put on 2 pounds, now….With a lot of pain signing the letter he said, you do not need to do hunger strike. I said, what kind of discourse is this ! If he stops eating, I don’t know of any one in Bangladesh who would be able to eat. Without any response he left with the letter laughing. I stood up to leave, at that time Subhaschandra returned. He asked me, you said if I stop eating, the people of Bangladesh would not be able to eat, is this true ? I said, as far as I know it is true. He said, but in this Bangladesh newspapers publish so many shameless lies against me, that I read too. I said, I have read too. I think, even they do not respect you any less. But that they spread lies about you, that’s out of habit. And there is something else I think. He said, tell. With some hesitation I said, you are pure gold. If one needs to make ornaments out of gold one has to add some contaminants. In every way you are so flawless that not everyone can tolerate you. I don’t know how Subhaschandra took my words. He was thinking something silently and gravely’’ pp. 186-188, [16].

Bose was jailed for most of 1930 vii-viii, [7]. Yet, he was elected the Mayor of Calcutta in 1930 while in jail. He was released late in 1930 and jailed again for a few months in 1931 pp. vii-xi, [7].

Hijli prison camp in Medinipur in current West Bengal was used by the British to detain (primarily Bengali) revolutionary under-trials and political suspects. On 16^th September 1931, at the instigation of one of the officers of the detention camp authority, the guards fired 29 rounds on unarmed prisoners. Santosh Kumar Mitra and Tarakeswar Sengupta died at the firing and a number of others were injured. This incident sparked large scale outrage in Bengal. On 26^th September 1931, then aged 70 and ailing Rabindranath Tagore addressed a large condolence meeting at the foot of the landmark “Monument’’ (presently called the Shahis Minar) at Kolkata. Sometime later, he composed the famous poem “Prashna’’ (The Question) based on this episode [28]. Subhas Chandra Bose had come to take possession of the bodies. He was detained by the police subsequently.

On 20 September 1931, he spoke to the Congressmen about an incident during his imprisonment, “While I was imprisoned at Berhampur, the District Magistrate smilingly told me, “the only course left for us is to put you against a wall and shoot you”, to which I also smilingly replied, “ that is alright ; if you do so it will produce such a conflagration as will consume you all”. “Englishmen did not like the Bengalees, specially young Bengalees. But when the emotionalism that lay hidden in Bengalees would be released it would carry everything before them and it would conquer…Bengalees were an eye-sore to Englishmen for their independent spirit and hankering after absolute freedom. For the last thirty years Bengal had strived and suffered for it and that was why they were so eager to crush them. Before power was finally given up there would be reproduction in Bengal of what the Black and Tans did in Ireland. That would be the acid test of the patriotism of Bengal and prove if Bengal was prepared to pay the price for complete independence. I am confident that Bengal- Young Bengal- will not [now] rise to the full height of her stature. Bengal knows and realises the price for independence’’ pp. 218-219, [24].

Bose was jailed again in 1932, and in February 1933, seriously ill, Subhas Chandra Bose, left India for treatment in Europe pp. vii-xi, [7]. He returned to India briefly in 1934 hearing that his father was seriously ill. He was too late to see him alive. He returned to Europe shortly after the funeral. He returned to India in March 1936 defying a government ban on him. He was placed under immediate arrest upon touching Bombay. After 1 year in detention, he was allowed to return to active political life in April 1937 pp. xv-xvi [9]. Immediately, Bengalis organized a public reception, to be held on 6 April, 1937, to celebrate his homecoming p. 389, [9].

On 5.4.1937, Bose wrote to Naomi C. Vetter, from his Calcutta residence, about this reception, “The Calcutta public are arranging a mammoth gathering in the open air for tomorrow when they will present an address of welcome. After that I shall leave Calcutta. The civic reception (municipal) will have to be put off till I return to Calcutta after a few months” p. 195, [9]. Bose’s speech in the public reception on 6.4.1937 was published in The Calcutta Municipal Gazette p. 389, [9]. In that address, he said, “This is an event which will continue in my memory for all time and it will be an inspiration in the midst of trials and difficulties that may yet be in store for me. There is nothing that I can offer you in return, except a re-affirmation of my unflinching resolve to devote all that I have to the service of our Motherland and her political and economic emancipation” p. 393, [9].

Gordon has given more details about this public reception: “All-Bengal Subhas day was held on April 6, 1937, to celebrate Subhas’ homecoming after long years of imprisonment and forced exile. A huge crowd gathered at the Shraddhananda Park to greet him at his first public meeting in Bengal and India after more than five years: “As many as six hundred associations offered garlands and bouquets to Mr Subhas Chandra Bose. The garlands were placed in heaps on a table placed in front of him. The following message of poet Rabindranath was then read:- ‘I add my voice to the nation’s welcome of Subhas’. He was then Congress Working Committee member and would soon don the mantle of BPCC President. ‘’ p. 326, [5]. That Rabindranath joined in welcoming Bose showed that he was a hero in Bengal by then. And, in 1937, the Subhas Congress fund was started p. 327, [5].

Thus, between 1921 and 1937, Subhas Chandra Bose was free for about 7 years, and functioned as an independent leader only in 3 of those years. Yet, by 1938, he had become a hero, in particular of young Bengal. In 1938 Dilip Kumar Roy told Subhash Chandra Bose, “you are the idol of young Bengal” p. 59, [17].

Section C: After resigning from Congress Presidency [1939-1941]

With Gandhi’s blessings, Subhas Chandra Bose was elected Congress President in 1938. He became Congress President the second time in 1939 despite Gandhi’s opposition thanks to a popular vote by the delegates. But, the Congress top-echelon owed its loyalty to Gandhi, and refused to cooperate with him. Realizing that he would not be able to move his agenda of a nation-wide mass-movement against the British from within Congress, courtesy this non-cooperation, he resigned from Congress Presidency in April 1939. The popular support for him in Bengal only increased after he resigned. In fact, it is worth mentioning that, after Bose resigned the presidency of the Congress, out of the 32 District Congress Committees in Bengal, only eight sided with Gandhi, while sixteen sided with Subhas Bose pp. 140-144, [30]. This has been examined further in [21].

On 15.6.39, in a private correspondence he wrote to his former Secretary Emilie Schenkle from train, “My resignation was the only right step for me to take. It has made me tremendously popular in some places (e.g. Bengal) and among all progressive people” p.  213, [14].

In an article in Forward Bloc, in late 1939, Bose wrote, “When I resigned the Presidentship of the Indian National Congress at the meeting of the All-India Congress Committee in Calcutta, on 29th April 1939, I took a leap in the dark. Among my co-workers and friends, some approved of it but others consider it a blunder. In making that fateful decision, I was guided in the last resort by my own instinct and political sense. It was, however, a pleasant surprise to discover soon after, that through my resignation I had succeeded in rallying public opinion around us to an unimaginable degree. Bengal, in particular, stood solidly behind us and there the Forward Bloc had the best start possible’’ pp. 21- 22, [3]. And, “a special session  of the Bengal Provincial Conference [of Forward Bloc] was held at Dacca on 25th and 26th May, [1939]. ….The number of delegates who attended was considerable, viz. nearly 600 and they all came with great alacrity. Dacca gave a wild and tumultuous  reception to the President-elect and the writer [Bose] on the 25th  May. The main conference drew a vast crowd of visitors and sideshows like the Students’ Conference, Workers’ Conference, Kisan Conference and Women’s Conference were also successful’’ pp. 105-106, [3].

Recalling the occasion at which Rabindranath Tagore laid the foundation stone of Mahajati Sadan in January 1940, at Bose’s request and in his presence in Calcutta, Sabitriprasanna Chatterjee, who had attended the event, has written, “ although the attendance for the occasion was only through invitation, an impossibly large crowd had gathered outside….Then Rabindranath had reached the meeting. Immediately afterwards it seemed that the gate would collapse because of pressure of the crowd gathered outside, as soon as,  stepping  down from the dias and arriving at the gate Subhaschandra addressed the crowd for 2-3 minutes, the noise rescinded, whatever little space there was in the meeting hall, he filled it up in a disciplined manner through personal supervision and the proceedings of the assembly commenced as soon as silence prevailed. Heard a staunch Congressman, who was next to me, speak: “I see that Subhas Babu’s influence did not diminish even after leaving Congress “ pp. 106-107, [16].

Section D: After leaving India [1941-1945]

Subhas Chandra Bose left India for Germany in January 1941 and reached Germany in April 1941. In February 1943 he left for Japan in a submarine. In January 1942 the Indian National Army (INA) was formed in South East Asia from among the Indians of the British Indian Army who became prisoners of war after the contingent at Singapore surrendered in 1942. The INA was constituted by Japanese intelligence officer Fujiwara, British Indian Army officer, Mohan Singh, under the supervision of veteran revolutionary Rashbehari Bose. Subhas Chandra Bose assumed the command of the Indian National Army after his arrival in South East Asia. On 21 October, 1943, he formed the Provisional Government of Free India in Singapore. Immediately after the formation, the government declared war on Britain and the United States of America. In the spring of 1944, aided by Japan, the INA proceeded towards India from Burma, and reached Indian soil, at Mowdok in present-day Bangladesh, on April 14, 1944 [2]. The INA had to retreat soon because of collapse of their supply line as Japan had started experiencing reverses in the second world war by that time. Further attempts by the INA did not succeed either, again because of the defeat of Japan. In August 1945, Subhas Chandra Bose was reportedly killed in an aircrash – an account that has been disputed at various quarters, but nothing definitive has emerged of his presence anywhere subsequently. We document the public support for him in Bengal, in 1941-45, after he left India.

Subhas Chandra Bose continued to remain in touch with his base in Bengal throughout his documented stay in both Germany and Japan in 1941-1945. On 2nd April, 1941, Alberto Quaroni, Italian Minister in Kabul reported to his Government in Rome about his interview with Bose in Kabul in March 1941. Bose told Quaroni that he was in close touch with the chief of the terrorist organization in Bengal and had sent instruction to him to opt for organized sabotage instead of individual efforts. Bose also noted that terrorist organizations existed in Bengal and other parts of India p. 36, [13]. Leonard Gordon has documented about Bose’s stay in Germany, “Bose, through the German Foreign Office, continued to make contact with Bhagat Ram Talwar, now known as Rahmat Khan, who reported to the German embassy in Kabul. Bhagat Ram met with Forward Bloc agents, including Santimoy Ganguli, a young Bengali, who made it successfully to the Frontier and back. Bose tried to give instructions and gather information about Indian politics and his own family through these exchanges. These communications did go on, but as Milan Hauner has shown, Bhagat Ram appears to have been working for several governments at once and so the British knew about his activity’’ p. 452, [5].

The popular support for Bose continued in Bengal even after he left India for Europe in January 1941. Jogesh Chandra Chatterji notes that “[in August 1942] the people [in Bengal] were solidly behind Bose’’ p. L, [6]. An authorized biography of Kanu Sanyal (1932-2010), a leader of the Naxalbari uprising, hence belonging to the hard left, has recorded the sentiments about Subhas Chandra Bose in Bengal in general and in Sanyal’s own household, just after he left India. The sentiments are remarkable because Sanyal’s father, Annada Govinda Sanyal, was a beneficiary of the British Raj, in his professional capacity. The biography notes: “ Notwithstanding the wide-ranging political developments taking place in the outside world, at home, none in the Sanyal family ‘would discuss politics’. This is despite the fact that the Indian freedom movement was already at its peak. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s call to arms to achieve freedom had caught the popular Bengali imagination by fancy. Sanyal family’s apparent reluctance was not because they were less passionate about the freedom struggle but it was due to Annada Govinda’s professional attachment with the British Raj. Yet Annada Govinda could hardly suppress curiosity about the fast evolving political scenario. So much so that on returning home from office, he would spend every evening at neighbor Dr Moti Mohan Sarkar’s study. Only Sarkar had a radio set in the entire neighborhood. Sarkar and Annada Govinda would eagerly listen to radio bulletins for news on Subhash Chandra Bose’s fresh moves or stay hooked to his famous radio speech from Berlin. They used to analyse threadbare Netaji’s each and every move. Very often than not, young Sanyal would accompany his father to Dr Sarkar’s house. He would lend an ear to their conversations and their radio bulletins. ‘It was evident that my father and Dr Sarkar considered Bose to be a real leader. They revered him to a great extent and were completely against Mahatma Gandhi and his policies.’ ‘Many of the sentiments were getting transmitted into me’, Sanyal had explained ‘’ pp. 16-17, [19].

This biography has also described how the Communist Party of India fell into disgrace in Bengal due to their vilification campaign against Subhas Chandra Bose during the second world war, after Germany attacked Russia:

• “The Communists in India those days used to carry out their political activities through secret meetings. They also used to distribute pamphlets and booklets on important issues concerning India and the world. Booklets in Bengali, putting forth the Communists’ views about the World War: ‘Kon Dike Paallaa Bhari’, Who Has the Edge, ‘Japan Ke Rukhte Hobe’, Japan Must be Stopped, etc. were in circulation at Kurseong as well. Sanyal’s father Annada Govinda, however, would never grab a copy of these booklets. This is because he strongly disapproved the Communist Party’s vilification campaign against the leader of India’s freedom movement, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. `The Communists call Subhash Chandra Bose quisling. I really wonder what a dumb lot they are’, Annada Govinda would tell Sanyal. Quisling is a Norwegian word for traitor; the Indian Communists branded Subhash Chandra Bose as one because of his association with Hitler. Communist Party’s persistent abuse of Netaji hurt teenager Sanyal’s sentiments as well. As a result, he began to nurture a strong hostile feeling towards the Communists. ‘One will be astonished to know that in my early youth, I was an anti-Communist to the core. This was solely because of the Communist Party’s vilification campaign against Netaji’, Sanyal would clarify. That was more so because like most Bengalis, for Sanyal too, Subhash Chandra Bose was the real hero of Indian freedom struggle. In fact, Sanyal was so fond of Netaji that as a child he had called on Bose at Giddha Pahar in Kurseong, where the British had kept him under house arrest for 3 months. Sanyal had gone to Giddha Pahar with a junior schoolmate, Jyotirmoy Sarkar, to collect an autograph of Bose. They were readily obliged by Netaji, leaving Sanyal forever charmed by Bose’s personality.’’ pp. 11-12, [19].
• “In 1944, the Communist Party opened a branch office at Kurseong. The office was located on the ground floor of a wooden building that fell on the way down from Sanyal’s house to Burdwan Road. ‘Till then, I [Kanu Sanyal] was extremely outraged against the Communists. Hence, without any provocation, I gathered a group of local youths and broke down the signboard of the newly opened Communist Party office’, Sanyal had testified’’
  pp. 16-17, [19].

Mihir Bose has noted that [In 1943] “Ian Stephens, editor of the Calcutta daily, The Statesman, told a dinner party that, were the Japanese to parachute Bose on to the Maidan, some 90 per cent of the [Calcutta] city’s inhabitants would rush to join him. Stephens’ guests were not amused, but this was the assumption that Bose shared’’ p. 400, [10].

Indeed, while in Japan, Subhas Chandra Bose was himself certain of his popularity and the revolutionary spirit in Bengal. For example, during his first meeting with Japanese Army chief of staff, Sugiyama, in Tokyo [in mid-1943], he “explained with great fervour his hope of first taking Chittagong, then pushing on into Bengal” Loc 2789, [18]. In December 1943, during his first meeting with Mohan Singh, Bose told him, “My name carries enough weight. When I land in Bengal everyone will revolt. Wavell’s whole army will join me.” Loc 3023-3030, [18].
He told General Mutaguchi of Japan prior to the Imphal campaign in 1944 by Japan and INA, ‘If the Japanese Army succeeds in the Imphal invasion and pushes the INA forward in the Assam plain, the Indian people as well as officers and men in the British-Indian Army will respond to the INA. This will spread all over India, especially in my home state of Bengal ‘ pp. 255-256, [15], p. 512, [5]. Recall that Assam plains had a large Hindu Bengali middle-class population that time. Scholar Joyce Lebra has noted, “The BAA [Burma Area Army, Loc 4093, [18]] began to plan the deployment of INA forces. Politically, the best use of Indian troops would be in a thrust from the south through Akyab to Bengal, where Bose was most likely to meet an enthusiastic reception. But Japanese forces could not fight at sea. Nor could Japan dispute Allied air power over Burma. For strategic reasons it would therefore be safer to use the INA in north Burma. It was decided to use a regiment of the 1st INA Division under Shah Nawaz Khan in the Haka-Falam area of the Chin Hills’’ Loc 4003-4013, [18]. Intelligence Bureau, Home Department, Government of India, wrote in early 1944, “….Bose and the Japanese, for their offensive and to hamper ours and our defense, are relying on revolutionary help from this country and particularly from Bengal. Constant appeals are being made for this help and these will continue. ‘’ p. 533, [5].

Several of Bose’s speeches in Germany indicate how critical Bengal and Calcutta were in his military plans.

• On 15 October, 1942, Bose said in a broadcast from Germany, “I would like to warn my countrymen in Bengal that difficult days are in store for them, much blood will flow in that eastern province, but our countrymen there should not fear it. …In the past, the British used India as a base and also used India’s resources for attacking and conquering Burma. Now that the British have been expelled from Burma, they want once again to use India, and particularly Bengal, for trying to reconquer that land. They are thereby deliberately dragging war to the soil of India. Bengal will accordingly have the experience of the horrors of total war before any other province. But, let Bengal be proud of it. The task of the vanguard is always a difficult one, but it is also a glorious one. I am confident that Bengal will rise to the occasion and fulfill her historic role. Once again the Sun of Freedom will rise in the East.” p. 169, [13].
• In his last speech recorded from Germany, some time before his departure in a submarine on 8 February, 1943, which was broadcast on 1 March, 1943, Bose said, “Friends, you must have realised by now that in future Bengal will have to play a most important role in this fight for freedom. Let all my sisters and brothers in Bengal prelate for this contingency” p. 198, [13].

Bose’s close political aide in Germany, M. R. Vyas, has noted: “The first sign of their (British) nervousness was the dismissal of Fazlul Huq’s Government [in 1943]. With the Japanese landings in Malaysia, Bengal could turn into a base for Subhas Bose’s plan of Alliance with the Tripartite powers, the British feared.’’ pp. 351-352, [22].

Bose’s emphasis on Bengal, in his public statements, increased after he reached Japan. The press statements of the Provisional Government of the Azad Hind during the onslaught of the INA show a similar emphasis:

• On 1 August 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose, issued a message in Bangla, written in his own hand, as part of a Press Statement on the achievement of Burma’s independence. He wrote in it, “Blood will flow in torrents on the soil of Bengal once the battle is joined. But there is nothing to fear – we must pay for our sins with our own blood. There can be no doubt that our India – more precious to us than gold – will be free this time. Look, the eastern sky is already aglow with the bright rays of the rising sun’’ p. 73, [11].
• On the official announcement that the Headquarters of the Free India Government had been moved to Burma, Mr. S. A. Ayer, Minister of Publicity and Propaganda of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind, said, “Indians at home would be thrilled to hear that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has moved his Headquarters to within a few hours flight to Calcutta” p. 173, [11].

• On 18 May 1944, Subhas Chandra Bose issued a press statement in which he said, “Mahatmaji will be glad when the National Army enters Calcutta, and he will send me a congratulatory telegram” p. 200, [11].
• On 18 October, 1944, Bose said in his broadcast on ‘Army Day’, “when our victorious army comes into the plains of Bengal and Assam, 388 millions of our countrymen at home will be convinced that the British retreat from India has begun. Then will come the grand revolution inside the country. Then will the British Indian Army break its shackles and join India’s army of liberation. Moreover, when the British are once ousted from their Maginot Line on the Eastern Frontier, they will not be able to set up a new line of defense until they cross the western frontier of Bengal and go into Bihar and Orissa. From Imphal to the River Brahmaputra, the Azad Hind Fauj will have a route march. And after breaking the enemy’s improvised defense on the west bank of the Brahmaputra, the Azad Hind Fauj will have another route-march from the River Brahmaputra to the neighborhood of Calcutta. …The battle of Panipat for the capture of Delhi will be fought this time on the hills and in the jungles that bar the way to Imphal and Chittagong’’ pp. 272-273, [11].
• He echoed the same thoughts in his broadcast on the first anniversary of the proclamation of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind on 21 October, 1944. He added there that “Imphal and Chittagong will be to India’s last war of independence, what Sedan was to the Franco-Prussian war in 1856” p. 281, [11].
• On 17 December 1944, Bose said in a speech at Singapore, “Those who are aware of the past history of India know well that Panipat always settled the fate of India. But in this war the fate of India will be settled somewhere in the jungles between Imphal and Chittagong. When once we smash enemy fortifications on the Eastern frontier and reach the plains of Bengal and Assam then our road to Delhi will be clear. So the enemy will strive hard to hold to these fortifications. In this war when the Maginot Line was pierced, France collapsed in a few weeks. So when the fate of Chittagong and Imphal is sealed there will be no war in the Bengal Province and our advance to Calcutta will be only a route march. I have just now told you that the battle of Imphal and Chittagong will settle the fate of India. …Friends, we should realize the importance of Imphal and Chittagong and be ready to make any sacrifice to occupy these cities” p. 305, [11].
• On 1 January 1945, Bose said in a public speech at Singapore, “The battles of Chittagong and Imphal will decide the battle of India’s liberation. ….The Indian National Army will soon find itself in the plains of Bengal and Assam’’ p. 311, [11].

Imphal was the first major town on the way of the INA. Hence mentioning it was natural. But the Japanese were not planning to head to Chittagong; yet, Bose repeatedly mentioned Chittagong. In fact, after the INA and the Japanese Army withdrew from Imphal, Bose continued to feel that “Japan’s strategy had been at fault. Japan and the INA should have made an immediate attack on Chittagong. This would have sparked the anti-British revolution in Bengal which would have spread rapidly all over India.” Loc 3364-3372, [18]. It becomes very clear that rather than Delhi it was Calcutta that was his immediate aim. He was preparing for a protracted struggle to oust the British from India, with his home town Calcutta and his home province Bengal as his base, given the support he was confident from there, and the revolutionary fervour, idealism and valour he saw in Bengalis. We produce a few evidences attesting to Bose’s perception of his fellow-ethnics:

• In 1925 from Mandalay he wrote to the Superintendent Mandalay Central Jail, “And you cannot expect me or any Bengali political prisoner to be as submissive or obsequious as your subordinate officers or convicts may generally be. If your personal experience has led you to believe in the obsequiousness of servility of the race to which I belong, I can only deplore it and I can say that only in the hard school of experience will your disillusionment come” pp. 191-192, [23].
• In October 1926, Bose wrote in Mandalay jail “The Bengalees undoubtedly suffer from many defects but there is one quality which the Bengalees possess and which has overshadowed many of their defects and on account of which they are respected in this world as human beings. The Bengalees have self-confidence, the Bengalees have an emotional frame of mind and imagination, and they can therefore visualise great ideals regardless of all the failings, all the limitations and failures in the material life in Bengal today. They can lose themselves completely in the contemplation of those ideals and devote themselves unreservedly to achieve what apparently appear to be unattainable. It is because of this power of imagination and of self-confidence that Bengal has produced so many dedicated men more will be born in future. It is because of this that the backbone of the Bengalees will never give way in the face of sorrows, sufferings and tortures. A nation which possesses idealism will gladly put up with sorrows and sufferings to gain for the achievement of its ideals.” p. 229, [12].
• M. R. Vyas has recalled about Bose in 1941-43: “He [Bose] bore traces of Bengalism, but these were on the fringe, and mainly on personal matters. It never seriously affected his general political vision. For example, once, when the Germans captured 150 Laskars, (from a sunken British ship), all of them hailing from East Bengal, he immediately said: “Now we shall have a strong naval unit of the Indian army”. In the end, after he had addressed these Laskars for over an hour, only two came forward saying: “Sir, we shall do all we can for our country, only we shall not touch any guns!”. Subash Bose was completely aghast. He simply could not grasp a Bengali refusing to fight. We had to console him with so many other examples of the great contribution of Bengalis.’’ pp. 313-314, [22].

Section E: The Bengalis in the Indian National Army: 1942-1945

The INA was formed in South East Asia from among the Indians of the British Indian Army who became prisoners of war after the contingent at Singapore surrendered in 1942, and from Indian civilian recruits in South East Asia [2]. The combat divisions of the British Indian Army had a minuscule number of Bengalis because the British excluded several ethnicities from recruitment therein – Bengalis were one of the excluded ethnicities. The names of all INA soldiers have not been documented. Yet, we come across several Bengali names primarily from among the non-combat divisions in British Indian Army and the civilians in South East Asia at the time.

The most prominent Bengali in the Indian National Army was Lieutenant Colonel A. C. Chatterji. He was a member of the Indian Medical Service and used to be the Director of Public Health in Bengal before the second world war. He had helped Rashbehari Bose restructure the INA after it was nearly destroyed in 1942 due to internal strife. Subhas Chandra Bose appointed him the minister of finance in the Provisional Government of Free India in October 1943 and subsequently the Governor Designate of the Liberated Countries. He had entered India along with the INA in 1944. The files that the West Bengal Government has recently declassified reveals how wary the British were of him. On February 5, 1946 the head of the British Indian Army’s Eastern Command wrote to a top spy chief in Delhi requesting him to ensure that lieutenant colonel AC Chatterji was held under military captivity: “This HQ is concerned at the probable return to Bengal in the near future of Lt Col AC Chatterji. This officer had very considerable influence in this province, and apart from his official status as Director of Public Health in Bengal before the war and his personal contacts with leaders of political strife, as appointed by Subhas Bose as the Governor Designate of the Liberated Countries…. His (Chatterji’s) return at this juncture would revive excitement and enthusiasm in the INA, which at present is showing a tendency to switch to other forms of political propaganda such as cloth shortage, famine, release of political prisoners, and detenus and even defence of the Maharaja of Rewa.’’ [26]. Further, we find the name of another doctor in the INA. On May 5 1946 a story reported by Amrita Bazar Patrika mentions Dr Bidhu Bhushan Roy as a doctor in the INA pp. 755-756, [5]. And finally, another person who would go on to serve the INA cause with distinction was Dr. Sen. A man who was part of the Burmese Government Medical Service, he would become the personal physician of Subhas Bose, and it was with him that Bose left his personal possessions, to be delivered to his brother, Sarat Chandra Bose p. 394, [10]. His daughter, Reba Sen, served in the Jhansi Rani Brigade, the all woman-brigade Subhas Chandra Bose formed in the INA p. 143, [16].

We learn from Lieutenant Colonel A.C. Chatterji that the Secret Service men of the INA were all Bengalis, at least, initially: “They (the Secret Service men) did excellent propaganda work and managed to obtain supplies as much as possible and their work was highly appreciated. Incidentally, all these S.S. men were Bengalees. Their implicit devotion to duty in difficult circumstances showed that, given the opportunity and responsibility, people belonging to the so-called non-martial races could show and have actually shown courage and devotion as well as any one else’’ p. 208, [20].

On 29 October, 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose sent a letter in Bangla, in his own handwriting to Sisir Kumar Bose, asking for assistance to the bearer of the letter. The bearer of the letter was T. K. Rao, who was the leader of a secret group sent by submarine from Penang. Bose added his customary Bangla invocation of the divine, Sri Sri Kali Puja written, on it. The first letter had to be destroyed in 1944. Another secret agent delivered a similar letter after the end of the war in 1945, he was unable to deliver the letter in 1944. This letter is preserved in the archives of the Netaji Research Bureau p. 413, [11].

Leonard Gordon has documented the escapades of a group of INA men Bose sent to Bengal: “One group including Dr Pabitra Mohan Roy, T. Mukherjee, Mahinder Singh, and Americk Singh, traveled from Penang to the Andaman Islands in April 1944, and landed at night at Konarak in Orissa, near the great sun temple. They moved on to Calcutta and contacted local Bose men, including Haridas Mitra, eldest son-in-law of Suresh Chandra Bose, and Jyotish Chandra Bose. Roy and Americk Singh set up a transmitter in Behala, Calcutta, and began sending out messages. Mahinder Singh moved to the Punjab where he carried out his part of the mission. T. Mukherjee disappeared and was suspected by the remaining three of having betrayed them. The operation continued for about a year when Roy, Americk Singh, Haridas Mitra, and Jyotish Bose were captured. Mukherjee turned King’s witness at the trial of his former associates and information was also supplied to the investigators by members of the Durrani group [Mahmood Khan Durrani’s Muslim trainees who were sent from Japan to Karachi in a Japanese submarine and immediately surrendered to the British and did their best to help the British]. The four accused were tried and sentenced to death. During a transfer at Sealdah Station, Americk Singh, handcuffed, saw a momentary opening and made a dash for freedom through the streets of Calcutta. He was not caught. For more than a year, with the help of Bose associates whom he contacted, he hid out and later returned to Malaya. …Haridas Mitra, through the intervention of Gandhi and Patel, eventually had his sentence commuted and later was released. Another contact man, Gopal Sen, committed suicide to avoid capture on July 22, 1944. Others from the BV network, including Sisir Bose, were captured, and held as long as the war was on ‘’ p. 534, [5].

We obtain names of several Bengalis in the INA from the account of Sabitriprasanna Chatterjee. He has written of the Deputy Quarter Master General Lieutenant Colonel Priyonath Datta who addressed a press conference in Calcutta on 22 April 1946, Monday. He said there that INA had controlled Kohima for about a week. INA had also controlled the Bisanpur region under Colonel M. A. Malik and Major Chakravarty for about two months since 1944 April. This is the area that they controlled for the maximum duration within British India. The locals of Bisanpur helped them with men and money. The INA had to rely on the assistance of Indians after crossing the river Brahmaputra, the Japanese Army was with them only to assist them in crossing the river p. 168, [16]. Sabitriprasanna recalls meeting a Bengali from Sylhet, Amulya Chandra Bhadra, who had a jewellery shop in Burma. He donated all his property to the INA and enrolled as a soldier there. He met Sabitriprasanna after his release from the prison camp of Neelganj p. 175, [16]. He told Sabitriprasanna, “We do not know what you think of Netaji; but we consider him God. Without Divine power, he would not have been able to accomplish the impossible, and would not have returned alive himself from the multiple dangers that he faced. Not just us, the Burmese, the Japanese, the expatriate Indians in Burma deify him.  Many in Rangoon and Singapore decorate Netaji’s pictures with floral garlands and worship them with incense and lamps. This is principally because when the British soldiers left Rangoon a fearsome situation developed there, in it every man, woman and child’s life was endangered and before Netaji reached there innumerable individuals lost their lives and had their properties looted. Netaji saved our lives and belongings. Under his able organization law and order was restored in Rangoon and when he left Rangoon after the Japanese army surrendered then he left some INA soldiers to protect the lives and properties of people there….One day the Indians of Rangoon decided that they would weigh Netaji with gold. After hearing this Netaji tried hard to dissuade everyone. But everyone’s feelings were so hurt that Netaji had to agree. We are Bengalis, we thought he was a popular leader of our Bangladesh, what if our extremely respected Netaji is humiliated in being weighed against gold. But God was so merciful on Netaji, that, the jewellery etc. weighed more than his weight ; all that was deposited in the coffers of Azad Hind’’ pp. 176-177, [16].

Amulya Bhadra has narrated about his experience of fighting in the INA, which shows he did not surrender to the British despite substantial hardships:

• “When the threat was intense, bad news is reaching us from everywhere, or terrifying bombing was going on in a trench, we had heard Netaji singing:

“প্রলয়নাচন নাচলে যখন আপন ভুলে,

হে নটরাজ, তোমার যত বন্ধন

পড়লো খুলে’’

“Proloynachan nachle jakhan
Apan bhule,
He Nataraj, tomar jata bandhan
Porlo khule

(Bangla song about Lord Shiva’s dance)’’ p. 178, [16].

• One day we were advancing; at one place our supplies became insufficient. We knew that there were no separate arrangements for good food for Netaji. Besides we were not overwhelmed by these sufferings. But that day seeing that the amount of food was so little, after marching long distances, pained by extreme hunger, one unit refused the morning food. Hearing this Netaji himself came to us ; his eyes were filled with tears. He said :- friends, I did not bring you with me through false enticements. Physical suffering through hunger and thirst, perhaps inhuman torture at the hands of the enemy, you had come with me ready to tolerate these ; to free India. Repeatedly Japan is violating the friendship pact with us. We have supplies, but they are not giving us transport to carry the supplies as needed through this inaccessible road ; though they had promised that they would be ready to redress these inconveniences. You know, I had to quarrel with them repeatedly on many issues ; true that each time they had to accept our demands, but Japan is now consumed with itself, so accepting all these dangers we had set out on this difficult road with the “liberty, or death” resolve. I know, if you cross these mountains you can easily get sumptuous meals and many luxury items, but you had not come to suffer with me with that aim. I know what it is to suffer of hunger and thirst. But I want to remind you, that, of the forty crore Indians who you have come thus far with me to set free, lakhs and lakhs are dying of starvation. Let the famine of fertile and well-watered Bangladesh make us forget the pain and sufferings here – this is what I wish’ After this emotional address by Netaji, the sorrow dissipated from everyone’s mind, everyone took his food smiling ‘’ pp. 178-179, [16].
• “We stood at one mountain, on another side were the British-Indian army, in between there was some flat or half-flat ground. We would speak in Hindi with a Loud Speaker – You are Indians, come with us, let us together free India. Here there is no comfort, no luxury, no indulgence ; you will not get these here. But here our Netaji will give you freedom. They used to respond : Hey, why would you die eating grass, eating once a day ; come to our side. You can eat good food, dress well, see movies, get alcohol, etc.’’ p. 179, [16].
• “Climbing the Kohima mounts we would show the Japanese soldiers – that was our India. They would bow and salute Netaji’s country. While patrolling or appointed to guard, suppose the Japanese soldiers heard that Netaji was headed their way, he may be far off ; they would respectfully stand at attention. It seemed that they regarded Netaji with greater respect than their general’’ p. 180, [16].

A distinctive feature of Subhas Chandra Bose’s leadership was involvement of women in leadership roles in all his activities. As part of that tradition, he had formed an all–women Brigade, the Jhansi Rani Brigade, in the INA. It had two units, the nursing and the fighting. Among 50 nurses, twenty five were Bengali. Girls of many aristocratic families worked as nurses in the INA, and they performed very well. Among them Miss Bela Bose’s name deserves a special mention p. 172, [16]. We come across the names of Sipra Sen, Reba Sen, Ranu Bhattacharya, Maya Ganguli as worthy of special mention p. 143, [16]. Pratima Pal was the second lieutenant of the Brigade. She received military training in 1944 pp. 182-183, [16].

Section F: Yearning for home, the longing for his cherished Bengal, his সোনারবাংলা in Subhas Chandra Bose

Whenever Subhas Chandra Bose lived outside Bengal, he showed a yearning to return to the only home he had known. Although it was his assessment of the support he could expect from there, should he reach there at the helm of an army (Section D), it was this organic connection to Bengal that would have played a role in his desperation to reach Bengal with his INA. We document his attachment to his home province, all aspects of her.

We reproduce Bose’s letters from various jails outside Bengal, to demonstrate this longing for returning to Bengal:

• On 12.8.1925, from Mandalay jail, he wrote to renowned author Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya in Bangla. “If I had not been here, I would never realise the depth of my love for golden Bengal. I sometimes feel as if Tagore visualized the feelings of a prisoner when he wrote: Sonar Bangla, ami tomae bhalobasi!
  Chirodin tomar akash tomar batas
  Amar prane bajae banshee”

[সোনার বাংলা, আমি তোমায় ভালোবাসি!

চিরদিন তোমার আকাশ তোমার বাতাস

আমার প্রাণে বাজায় বাঁশি]
When, even for a moment, the vision of Bengal’s variegated beauty rises before my mind’s eye – I have the realisation that going through all this trouble and coming to Mandalay have been worth the while. Who knew before that there was so much charm hidden in the soil of Bengal, in her waters, in her skies and air ! “ p. 111, [23].

• On 21.7.1926, he wrote from Mandalay jail to Basanti Devi in Bangla, “ We have become reconciled to permanent settlement here. The vision of the Mother, of Mother Bengal, of the Universal Mother – all that we adore – have and will become even more adorable, sacred and dear to us within the confines of the prison. They will remain fresh in our minds all the time but their presence in our imagination will make our separation from the material world all the more poignant” p. 332, [23].
• On 20.12.1926 he wrote from Rangoon Central Jail in Bangla to Basanti Devi, “Not only my own kith and kin, but also Bengal and the whole of India shine in matchless beauty in my dreams. Reality has receded from my life – I am now clinging to my dreams” p. 119, [4].
• In December 1926, he wrote in Bangla from Mandalay Jail to Anath Bandhu Dutta, “I am of course a prisoner – but there is nothing to be unhappy about. To suffer privation for the Mother is a matter of glory. You have to believe me when I say that there is joy in suffering…..My only prayer now is : tomar pataka jare dao tare bahibare dao shakti (O Lord, give unto your chosen one the strength to bear the cross) [তোমার পতাকা যারে দাও তারে বহিবারে দাও শক্তি]….You said in your letter, “distance and time have made you even dearer to Bengal”. On the other hand, I can hardly express in words how much dearer and truer has beloved Bengal become to me on account of the distance and time that separates us. The late Deshbandhu said in his book of Bengal lyrics, “An eternal truth is inherent in the waters and soil of Bengal”. Had I not been away for this one year, I would not appreciate the truth of this saying. “The wavy, green rice-fields of Bengal, the blooming and sweet-smelling mango groves, the spectacle of evening prayer at the temples with the burning of incense, the picturesque courtyards of our village homes” – to see all this even with the mind’s eye is a rare delight. When I see patches of white clouds floating across the sky in the morning or afternoon, I momentarily feel – as the exiled Yaksha of Meghdut did – like sending through them some of my innermost feelings to Mother Bengal. I could at least tell her in the Vaisnavic strain – “tomari lagiya kalanker bojha, bahite amar sukh” (To face calumny for your sake is to me a blessing) [তোমারি লাগিয়া কলঙ্কের বোঝা, বহিতে আমার সুখ]. As darkness descends, the sun disappears behind the high ramparts of the fort of Mandalay and the western horizon is lit up with the rays of the setting sun and the crimson rays give the countless clouds a dazzling beauty – I am reminded of Bengal’s skies, the scene of Bengal’s sunset. Who knew before that there was such charm even in the imagined scene ? When the light and color of morning prevade the sky and then hit my sleepy eyes and wake me up, I am reminded of another sunrise, the sunrise through which Bengal’s poets and savants have realized Mother Bengal” pp. 131-132, [4].
• On 22.4.1932, Subhas wrote from Seoni Sub-Jail (Seoni, C.P.)/to a friend, “I do not know when I shall be able to return to Bengal – but I have felt during my stay here, as I have never felt before (except once only when I was in Burma)  what Tagore wrote in his exquisite style.

    Sonar Bangla! Ami tomai bhalobashi

      Chirodin tomar Akash tomar Batas

      Amar prane bajai banshi

(O my golden Bengal, I love you so,

your sky and the air ever play

the music in my heart)

[সোনার বাংলা, আমি তোমায় ভালোবাসি!

চিরদিন তোমার আকাশ তোমার বাতাস

আমার প্রাণে বাজায় বাঁশি]

And I long at times for the scenery which one can see only in Bengal – the ocean like rivers and the smiling fields of wavy corn. And I cannot help repeating in the poet’s words –

Ore Aghrane tor bhara khete

               Ki dekhechi Madhur Hashi

(Oh what a picture of sweet smile came to my gaze

Reflected from the fields replete with corns in the month of Agrahayan (the eighth month in the Bangla calendar)

[ওরে অঘ্রাণে তোর ভরা খেতে

কি দেখেছি মধুর হাঁসি]

Before my arrest this time I had toured in the interior of Maharashtra and I enjoyed heartily the wild and rugged scenery of the hills of Maharashtra. But much as I liked it – I felt simultaneously that the picture was not complete without the poetic scenery of Bengal- the vast rivers and the never ending field of Agrahayan paddy.

Where an experience is denied to the senses – the mind has to conjure it up for self-enjoyment. That is my excuse for the digression. “ pp. 279-280, [4].

On 2.3.1933, before leaving for Europe, from his ship S. S. Gange, Subhas Chandra Bose’s last message was a parting message to Bengalis: “For over a year I have been exiled from my own province. During this period owing to unhealthy conditions of confinement my health completely broke down. As my condition worsened, I was shifted from one province to another – but I was deliberately kept away from the hospitals and the physicians who were so anxious to take charge of my treatment. Even the prisons of Bengal, so hospitable to thousands of my countrymen- shut their doors on me.

To my physical suffering was added mental torture. During my incarceration outside Bengal, I watched with a sense of increasing pain and helplessness the repression that was prevailing in the province. All that I could do in the circumstances was to silently pray in the seclusion of my cell that the Divine Mother may grant strength to our people and that a new Bengal may be born.

Torn away from the realities of life, through those lung and dark hours I sought refuge in contemplation. The vision of India conjured up and worshipped by our great seers from Bankim and Vivekananda to Dwijendralal and Deshbandhu – rose before my mind’s eye to give me solace, strength and inspiration. I felt – as I had never felt before that the vision of “Bharatmata” as she was destined to be – was the supreme Reality which transcended the shortcomings and imperfections of the present hour. That vision was a treasure of which no earthly power could deprive me – it was a shrine at which I worshipped from day to day.

One of the dreams that have inspired me and given a purpose to my life is that of a great and undivided Bengal devoted to the service of India and of humanity – a Bengal that is above all sects and groups and is the home alike of the Moslem, the Hindu, the Christian and the Buddhist. It is this Bengal- the Bengal of my dreams – the Bengal of the future still in embryo – that I worship and strive to serve in my daily life.

To interpret this dream and endeavor to translate in into reality – is one of the passions of my life. It is a task to which we must give our very best if success is to be ours. No sacrifice is too dear – no suffering too great – if we are to fulfil this mission. Friends, will you not rise to that noble height where the vision of a great and undivided Bengal will be the only reality before ? Remember the legacy bequeathed by our great men. Forget not that you are the heirs of their dreams – the hopes of the country’s future. If you are great ourselves in thought and deed – then alone will you be able to make your country great. Therefore I say with all the sincerity that I can command, “Forget your petty quarrels, sink your personal differences- strive to make Bengal united and great – so that in her greatness may be our highest happiness and glory. After all, who dies if Bengal lives ; who lives if Bengal dies ?” pp. 262-263, [24].

Bengal was at the core of his thought during his sojourns outside jail in Europe in the 1930s.

On 18. 10.1934, he declared his resolve in Bangla to a friend, Satyendra Chandra Mitra, “I shall continue to fight and stand for Bengal and for the best interests of India, even if I am an inglorious minority of one’’ pp. 82-83, [9].

From Europe he wrote extensively against the Communal Award that discriminated against the Hindu Bengalis:

• “I cannot accept – nor can I understand – this attitude of ‘don’t accept, don’t reject’ towards the Communal Award. The party of Dr. B. C. Roy has done incalculable disservice to Bengal by supporting Mahatma Gandhi on this question. Bengal should have been quite united on this question’’ (letter in Bangla to friendSatyendra Chandra Mitra on 18.10.1934) pp. 82-83, [9]
• “Bengal Hindus have been suffering from a just grievance because the Communal Award have allotted them only 80 seats out of 250 in the new Legislature, while Moslems have been given 119 seats (Under the existing Constitution, Hindus have 60 per cent of the elected seats in the Bengal Legislative Council. This is in accordance with the Lucknow Pact of 1916 – the agreement arrived at between the Indian National Congress and the All-India Moslem League). To add to this, the Poona Agreement concluded at the time of the Mahatma’s fast, has allotted 30 seats to the depressed classes, out of these 80 seats, as against the provision for 10 in the Communal Award, though the depressed classes issue hardly exists in Bengal. Bengal Hindus (This is also the case with the Punjab Hindus. Many of the Hindu constituencies in Bengal and Punjab have, therefore, returned members of the Congress Nationalist Party to the Assembly) have therefore been greatly offended by the decision of the Working Committee not to reject the Communal Award’’ pp. 299-300, [8]. Bose went on to write, “In Bengal and Punjab a statutory majority has been virtually provided for the majority community – the Moslems, without giving the Hindu minority representation according to their population such as the Moslem minorities in all provinces have received’’ p. 322, [8].

He visited various Municipalities in European cities and studied them with the goal of enhancing Calcutta Corporation, in which he cut his political teeth as the Chief Executive Officer under Mayor C. R. Das. There was a spate of correspondences with the Calcutta Mayor Santosh Kumar Basu in which he shared his feedback from the visits. He visited the Rathaus (the Municipal office) of Vienna at the invitation of the Mayor. Bose studied the progress made by the Vienna municipality on housing, education, medical relief, and society welfare work under the socialist administration between 1921 and 1933. He presented the Mayor two copies of the Municipal Gazette and informed him of the civic progress made in Calcutta since 1924 when Congress entered the Corporation. Bose wanted to write a book on Vienna, meant for Municipal Councillors and employees, and wished the Calcutta Corporation to publish it. He wrote to Santosh Kumar Basu, the Mayor of Calcutta, on 11 May 1933, to check the willingness of the Calcutta Corporation on the matter pp. 10-11, [9]. On 23 May 1933, Bose wrote again to Santosh Kumar Basu. He provided further details about the housing, public bathe, the electricity and the gas works of the Vienna Municipality. He asked for a decision from the Calcutta Corporation on his proposal to write the book he mentioned in the previous letter pp. 13-14, [9]. On 18 June 1933, Bose wrote again to Basu, stating that the Mayor of Vienna had deputed an English-speaking Officer and a car to take him around. He had visited the Electric, Gas, Water works, and will visit the Drainage works, and will look into the road-making, road-cleaning arrangements. He wanted the residents of Calcutta to receive cheaper gas and electricity, learning from the work and the experience of the Municipality of Vienna pp. 16-17, [9]. On 9 July 1933 Bose wrote to Mayor Basu about his visit to the Mayor of Prague at his office in the Town Hall. The Mayor of Prague sent his greetings to the Mayor and citizens of Calcutta through Bose. Bose told the Engineer who showed him their experimental Tar-macadam roads that Calcutta would be very interested in the experiment p. 20, [9]. On 17 October, 1933, he noted in a letter to Mayor Basu that he had forwarded him last week a letter addressed to Mayor Basu by the Mayor of Vienna and a photograph the Mayor of Vienna had sent p. 34, [9]. On 14.3.34, Bose wrote to Mayor Basu about his visit to Warsaw Municipality in July 33. He was received by the Deputy Mayor as the Mayor was out of town on the summer holidays. His photograph with the Deputy Mayor was later reproduced in Polish newspaper, a copy of which he had forwarded to Basu. The population of Warsaw was close to 1.5 million, which was approaching that of Calcutta. He therefore wrote in detail about the functioning of the Warsaw Municipality, in particular about the Physical Culture Institute of Warsaw. He recalled plans for a Municipal stadium and physical culture institute in Calcutta. The municipal functionaries at Warsaw were willing to help those in Calcutta as required pp. 58-60, [9]. On 7 April 1934 Bose wrote to Mayor Basu about his visit to Berlin Municipality. The Mayor of Berlin sent a message to the Mayor of Calcutta and to the city of Calcutta through Bose. The Berlin Municipality promised to help Calcutta in any civic problem as required by Calcutta. He studied Berlin Municipality from the point of view of Calcutta, particularly the water, sewage, roads, electric departments, public baths, principal hospitals of Berlin. Bose was greatly interested to see the Home for mentally defective boys and girls and the Home for cripples. He observed the up-to-date method of looking after and educating them pp. 64-66, [9].

Bose returned to India in March 1936 and left her forever in 1941. He lived under an assumed identity in Berlin until 19 February, 1942, the date on which he delivered his first address to India under his own name. He continued his broadcasts from Germany and subsequently from Japan. Bengal recurred in these broadcasts:

• In his broadcast on 31 March 1942, he addressed an open letter to Sir Stafford Cripps, in which he said, “India will never forget that between 1929 and 1931 a Labour Cabinet was responsible for putting about 100000 men and women into prison, for ordering large-scale lathi charges on men and women all over the country, for shooting down of defenseless crowds as in Peshawar, and for burning houses and dishonouring women as in the villages of Bengal.” p. 85, [13].
• On 15 October, 1942, Bose said in his broadcast, “During the long struggle for power in India, there is no cruelty, there is no atrocity that the British have not committed in that country. Who does not know that in our revolution of 1857 innocent men were bound hand and foot and shot dead by cannon fire. From 1857 till today, during a period of peace, the British police and military have indulged in every form of terror and brutality in order to break the backbone of the people. The official report of the British Government on the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre in 1919 accuses the British authorities and the British Army of inhuman cruelty, unwarranted massacre, and of every form of humiliation and torture including dishonouring of helpless women. And even after 1919, the lives of Indian men and the honor of Indian women have always been regarded by the British police and the military as mere playthings. Who in India does not know of the sufferings of the people of Midnapore in Bengal in 1930, when homes and villages were burnt and their womenfolk dishonored because they were conducting a peaceful campaign for non-payment of tases ? The atrocities in the prisoners’ camp at Hijli and in towns of Dacca and Chittagong in 1931 are known to every household in Bengal. After the beginning of this war, I have seen with my own eyes the photos of beheaded Burmese sent by British tommies in Burma to their families in Britain. Such sadism is possible only among British tommies, and to cap everything, is there any parallel to be found for the atrocities now being perpetrated on unarmed men, women and children by the British police and military in India for their crime in demanding freedom ?” p. 167, [13].

In his Independence Day speech on 26 January, 1943, Bose recalled, “in 1931, just 12 years ago, while leading a peaceful procession on Independence Day as Mayor of India’s largest city, Calcutta, I and my fellow processionists were attacked and brutally assaulted by British mounted police till permanent marks of injury were left on our persons. But our lot was nevertheless better than that of those who had to face the bayonet and rifle-shot” p. 183, [13].

In the same speech, Bose said, “In the scale of values, which the British people cherish – morality, art and culture do not have their proper place. What is admired and respected by them above everything is the capacity to fight and to kill. What is also important is that in the occupation of India, the British used not only arms but also the weapons of bribery, treachery and every form of corruption. When the British first occupied a part of India, namely the province of Bengal, they came into touch with a people who were highly developed in art and philosophy but these people were nevertheless looked down upon, because the British regarded them as no good as fighters. When the people realized after some time that what carries weight with the British is force and not art or morality – they began to use the bomb and  the revolver. Since then they have been respected by the Britisher – though feared and intensely hated. And the whole of India today knows that the only logic which Britain understands and respects is the logic of force.

Perhaps, a somewhat similar experience has been undergone by Japan, though under quite different circumstances. So long as Japan lived in dignified isolation and devoted her whole energy to her internal development- cultural, artistic and economic – she did not draw the admiration or the attention of the outside world. But when she demonstrated in 1905 that she could beat Imperial Russia in modern warfare – she immediately rose in the estimation of the whole world. This experience of Japan has been a lesson not only for India but for the other enslaved nations of Asia as well.” p. 185, [13].

Oftentimes, Bose inspired INA using tales from Bengal:

• On 22 October 1943, speaking on the occasion of birthday celebration of the Rani of Jhansi and on the opening of the first camp for the training of the volunteers of the Rani of Jhansi regiment, he said: “I cannot forget an incident in Calcutta when we held a procession against the orders of the Government and when the police tried to break the procession by lathi charge, some of our sisters made a cordon around us (coming between us and the police) without flinching to face lathi charges…Not only in the history of the Passive Resistance Movement but in the history of the Revolutionary Party also, we have the examples of our brave sisters who have played a noble part. I know of many sisters who became daring revolutionaries. If one type of courage was necessary for passive resistance, another and more active courage is necessary for revolutionary efforts, and in this too, I found that our sisters were not wanting. In 1931, an English magistrate was shot dead by two girls ; the age of one was 16, the age of the other was 17. In India, even ordinary men will shudder before Magistrates, but then two young sisters bravely went to the house of the Magistrate and fired at him. You can easily imagine what wonderful courage those young sisters might have had. Such courage does not descend from the skies ; it has its roots in the age-old traditions of India’s past. Since 1928, I have been taking interest in women’s organizations in India and I found that, given the opportunity, our sisters could rise to any occasion. There was one Rastra Mahila Sangh of ladies in Bengal, which did splendid work. In December 1928, a volunteer corps of 500 women was formed which was not only run on sound lines but their parades and their discipline gave us great hopes and confirmed my belief in the fact that, given the impetus and opportunity, Indian women could perform duties entrusted to them in a befitting manner’’ p. 125, [11].
• On 27 June 1945, in a broadcast from Singapore, Bose exhorted his countrymen, “The Indian Army of today is not the Indian Army of 1939. The Indian Army according to British reports is 2500000 strong. In this army, there are many who are politically minded and nationalist in thought. The time for an armed revolt will have come when this army is demobilized and if India is not free by then. Thanks to this war, 2,500,000 Indians have been trained in the use of arms. When the time comes for their disbandment, you can raid the armory and get the arms with which to fight our British rulers. The Chittagong armory raid in 1930 was an excellent example of how arms belonging to our enemy can be procured and then used against them’’ p. 395, [11].
• To inspire the INA soldiers to continue despite unendurable privation, he spoke to them: “I know what it is to suffer of hunger and thirst. But I want to remind you, that, of the forty crore Indians who you have come thus far with me to set free, lakhs and lakhs are dying of starvation. Let the famine of fertile and well-watered Bangladesh make us forget the pain and sufferings here – this is what I wish’ After this emotional address by Netaji, the sorrow dissipated from everyone’s mind, everyone took his food smiling ‘’ pp. 178-179, [16].

Thousands of miles away, he shared the pain of the starving and dying millions in his Bengal during the Bengal Famine holocaust in which the British starved to death 4 million Bengalis. A reproduction of his discourses on this famine constitute a sufficient testament:

• On 20 August 1943, Bose issued a press statement on Bengal Famine, which also constituted part of his broadcast. He said, “There is a serious famine prevailing in India, particularly in Bengal and Calcutta. On receipts of these reports from India, the Indian League of Independence in East Asia is extremely anxious about the welfare of the Indian people and is, therefore, trying to do everything in its power to take the necessary measures in order to help them. Today, I am in the happy position to announce that 100000 tons of rice are waiting to be transported from Burma to relieve hunger in India. This rice is put at the disposal of the Indian people unconditionally. These 100000 tons of rice are at present lying in a harbour in the vicinity of India. At the moment when the British Government expresses its willingness to accept this delivery, the name of the harbour as well as of the authorities, who will hand over the rice, will be named. At the same time the Japanese Government will be asked for a guarantee of a safe conduct for the ships calling for this quantity of rice.’’ p. 78, [11]. He also declared that, “if this first delivery is accepted by the British Government, further deliveries for the starving Indian population could be sent to India”. The Press Statement said that Bose “expressed the earnest hope that this offer would be accepted, because hundreds of thousands of men, women and children would be saved from starvation” p. 79, [11].
• On 21 October 1943, Bose declared the formation of the Provisional Government of Free India at Singapore. In the speech delivered on this momentuous occasion, he noted “The political unrest in India has been greatly accentuated by the famine conditions prevailing in several parts of India – and particularly in Bengal. There can be no doubt that these famine conditions have been largely due to the policy of ruthless exploitation of India’s food and other resources for Britain’s war purposes over a period of nearly four years. You are aware that on behalf of our League I made a free and unconditional offer of one hundred thousand tons of rice for our starving countrymen at home as a first installment. The British authorities in India not only did not accept this offer, but also we were abused in return. On the other hand, appeals made by public institutions in India – like the Calcutta Municipality, for instance, to President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, for food supplies for the starving millions in India evoked no response at all. The only satisfaction that we can derive out of this heart-rending situation is the thought that hunger always breeds revolution” pp. 110-111, [11].
• On 3 November 1943, Bose gave a press interview broadcast over Tokyo Radio. He said there, “Originally Burma, and later, the Indian National Army offered 100000 tons of rice to India’s starving population, and the British Government was asked to make arrangements for taking delivery. The British Government, unfortunately, made no reply to this offer. The army is, however, determined to dispatch foodstuffs to India at all cost. A way will somehow have to be found.’’ p. 158, [11]. He went on to add that “The (food) situation is appalling. The fact that Churchill and Roosevelt have ignored the appeals of the Indians shows that the British Government and its American ally are quite indifferent to their misery. No satisfactory measures have, so far, been taken by the British Government. It even refuses to supply ships for the import of foodstuffs into India” pp. 158-159, [11].
• On 17 December 1944, Bose said in a speech in Singapore, “Last year in Bengal Province alone 20 lakhs of Indians perished due to starvation” p. 305, [11].

Identification with the culture of Bengal was an important component of Bose’s attachment to Bengal. His collected works is replete with his discourse on Bengali landscape, literature, folk songs, character, and different Hindu Bengali religious schools. His pride in his Bengali identity, in all its distinctiveness, becomes evident. We produce some excerpts from his writings as illustrative examples:

• On 20.2.1926 from Mandalay, Subhas Chandra Bose wrote to Hemendra Nath Dasgupta, “The present-day Bengalee race is an admixture of Aryan, Dravidian and Mongolian blood. Each race has some peculiar characteristics of its own. Hence, when there is an admixture of blood, here must be an admixture of racial characteristics too. Due to this admixture of blood the genius of the Bengalee is so versatile and Bengal’s life so colourful. The religiosity and idealism of the Aryans, love of art and devotionalism of the Dravidians, intellectuality and realism of the Mongolians have all very happily blended together in the Bengalee character. That the Bengalees are intellectual and emotional at the same time, at once realistic and idealistic, imitative and creative is due to this admixture of blood. If the blood of a particular race runs through your veins you must have imbibed from birth some characteristics, something from the culture of that race’’ pp. 29-30, [12] (Like many other contemporary intellectuals, he believed in the Aryan-Dravidian theory, but what stands out is he saw intrinsic strengths in each group, rather than innate superiority of one above the other).

Bose continued on the distinctiveness of the Bengalis in the same letter: “Those acquainted with Bengal’s history and literature will admit that in spite of its belonging to Aryan culture, the culture of Bengal has assumed a distinct form of its own. Swami Dayanand’s Arya Samaj movement swept the whole of Northern India, but how was it that he could not get any footing on the soil of Bengal? And why do thousands of educated Bengalees adore and draw inspiration from Ramakrishna Paramhansadeva, the devotee of goddess Kali? Why did Buddhism, driven out from everywhere, find its last refuge in Bengal? Why did Navanyaya, or New-logic, originate in Bengal? Why did not Bengal accept Shankara’s Mayavada? Why, after Buddhism was ousted from Bengal, did Achintya-Bhedabhedavada rise up as a protest against Shankara’s theory ? No sooner do we raise these questions than it begins to be clear that Bengal’s culture has something uncommon and unique about it. On its cultural side three strains are visible – (1) Tantra, (2) Vaishnavism and (3) Navanyaya and Raghunandan’s Smriti. On the side of Nyaya and Smriti, Bengal has a close kinship with Aryavarta; through Vaishnavism she maintains a life-line with the south, while through the tantras she has a relationship with the races living in the Tibetan, Burmese and Himalayan regions. The pursuit of Nyaya has helped the Bengalee to be logical and argumentative.’’ p. 30, [12]

• In December 1925 Bose wrote in an article titled The Call of The Motherland,

“There are many who lament that Bengalees have failed to be like the Marwaris and the Bhatias. I, on my part, always pray that may the Bengalees remain forever Bengalees.

Shri Krishna has said in the Gita: “Sadharme Nidhanang Sreya Parodharma Bhayabaha” [স্বধর্মে নিধনং শ্রেয় পরধর্ম ভয়াবহ]. One should rather die for one’s own Dharma but to change one’s Dharma is frightful. I believe in this saying. For the Bengalees to forsake their Swadharma is tantamount to the sin of suicide. God has not bestowed on us (Bengalis) wealth but he has enriched us with the wealth of life. If we lose our richness of life in the craze for wealth, then we should better forego wealth.” p. 223, [12].

He continued in the same piece, “Bengalees should always remember that they have a distinctive place in India-why only in India, in the whole world-and they have a duty to fulfill in keeping with that position. Bengalees have got to win freedom and as soon as freedom is won they have got to build up a new India. And that new India has to be built by the Bengalees through varied activities, in the field of literature, science, music and the arts, activities connected with the physical prowess and skill, athletics, and through charity and benevolence. It is only the Bengalees who have the power to bring about progress in every field of national life and also the instinct for cultural synthesis” pp. 223-224, [12].

And: “I believe that the Bengalees have a character peculiarly their own. This special characteristic of the Bengalees has been manifested in education, culture and the inherent mental make-up of the Bengalees. There is a special feature also in the landscape of Bengal. Is there not something unique in the soil of Bengal, in her rivers and dales, in her skies, in her luscious green fields and in her ponds ringed by palmyras? Has not this unique natural setting of Bengal added something to the character of the Bengalees? Having been born in a land with such a tender soil, the Bengalees are so warm-hearted! Having been brought up against this beautiful natural background, they have become worshippers of beauty. Nourished by food and water provided by their well-watered, fertile and highly productive motherland the Bengalees have been able to show such creative faculties in literature and verse” p. 224, [12].

Yet, Bose’s identification with Bengalis, reinforced, rather than conflict with his Indian nationalism. In fact, characterizations of Bengal and India frequently overlapped in his writings, as well as in contemporary nationalistic discourse in Bengal:

• Commenting on the cult of the worship of the mother in the Bengalis, derived from the Shakti school of Tantra, Bose wrote to Hemendra Nath Dasgupta from Mandalay on 20.2.1926: “It is because of the deep influence of the Tantras that the Bengalees as a race are devoted to mother, and this is also the reason why they love to worship the Supreme Being in the image of the Mother. People of other races and religions (such as the Jews, the Arabs, the Christians) worship God as father. Sister Nivedita thinks that in those communities, in which men occupy a more important position than women, people naturally contemplate God as father. On the other hand, in societies where women have precedence over men, people learn to worship God as Mother. Anyway, it is well known that the Bengalees love to think of God, – and why God alone, even Bengal and India – as Mother. We think of our country as Motherland, but the correct English expression is Fatherland, and our use of ‘Mother-land’ is rather faulty from the point of view of English usage.

Most of our great writers afford illustrations of this mother-cult in their writings.

Bankim wrote :-

‘Hail O Mother ;

Well-watered, fruitful, cooled by the western breeze

Green with corps, O Mother ; “

[বন্দে মাতরম্ ৷
সুজলাং সুফলাং
মলয়জশীতলাম্
শস্যশ্যামলাং
মাতরম্ !]

Dwijendralal sang :-

“When that Mother India emerged out of the blue waters of the Sea”.

[যেদিন সুনীল জলধি হতে উঠিল জননী ভারতবর্ষ ]

And Rabindranath sang :-

“Oh my mother-land let me lay my head at thy feet” p. 32, [12].

[ও আমার দেশের মাটি তোমার পরে ঠেকাই মাথা]

• The tribute he paid to his mentor, C. R. Das, in the above letter, is more explicit in the synergy he valued between the so-called much-despised “provincialism’’ and the hallowed nationalism: “The greatest pride in his (C R Das’) life was that he was a Bengalee. That was why he was so much loved and adored by the Bengalees. He often used to say that what makes the Bengalee is a compound of his good and bad points. He felt wounded if any one made fun of or satirized the Bengalees as being emotional. It was, he thought, a matter of pride, and not of shame, that we are susceptible to emotions.

That Bengal has a certain distinction, which has expressed itself in her landscape, her literature, her folk-songs and her character. I do not think that any one before the Deshbandhu had expressed with such emphasis.

……In his love for the nation the Deshbandhu would not forget Bengal, nor in loving Bengal would he forget the nation. He loved Bengal with all his life, but the love was not confined to the four corners of the province. I have it from his non-Bengalee colleagues that within a few days of their coming to know him, they were attracted by his great heart. The Maharashtrians loved and respected him with the same ardour as they did Tilak Maharaj, for the people of Maharashtra too received from him equal sympathy and affection. The Deshbandhu used to say that Bengal should be the vanguard of the Swaraj movement. In 1920, Bengal had lost her lead of the movement. But thanks to his untiring efforts and labor, in 1923 she won it back. With the death of the Deshbandhu that lead has again been lost for Bengal. God alone knows when she will recover that position.

Another frequent statement of his was that if any Indian movement has to be worked in Bengal it must have the stamp of Bengal on it. If satyagraha has to be launched in Bengal it must first be made suitable for the province. Those who have intimate experience of actual conditions as they prevail cannot but endorse this opinion’’ pp. 33-35, [12].

Like his mentor, he loved his own, the Bengalis, for what they were, in all their greatness, and their smallness. Occasionally, he expressed his disappointment with the politicking in Bengal, but only in private correspondence to fellow Bengalis, never to those who were not Bengalis, nor in public discourse. One never runs down family in public after all. This is best exemplified in some of his letters from Europe. He wrote to Satyendra Nath Majumdar on 22.3.1934, “I will say, if the leader claims credit for success, then he has also to accept the ignominy of defeat. It will not do to say – ‘Countrymen did not respond – people of the country have no strength of character’, etc.” p. 54, [9]. On 25.7.1934, he wrote to Satyendra Chandra Mitra, addressing him as Satyen Babu, “I have no party now which I can call my own and I do not think that my voice carries weight with anyone in Bengal today. I am too conscious of my position-but I do not care. I am content to serve my country in my own way and to the best of my ability – even if I am alone in this wide world. There is nothing to choose between the two parties in Calcutta that are now fighting for crumbs….I think very highly of your work in the Assembly on behalf of the political prisoners of Bengal. May God bless you for that !  I would do anything to help you- but I do not want to have anything to do with the wretched party-politics of Calcutta…..Babu Priyanath Sen of Dacca has also written to me for supporting his candidature. I have replied to him in the same strain.” pp. 75-76, [9]. On 18.10.34, Bose wrote again to the same friend, “Satyen Babu, I know I stand quite isolated today – but I am not sorry for that. I shall continue to say and to do what I consider right, even if that brings upon me untold suffering and unpopularity….. I shall continue to fight and stand for Bengal and for the best interests of India, even if I am an inglorious minority of one.’’ p. 83, [9]. The documentations of public support from his contemporaries presented in this article, the established facts of his domination of Bengal Congress [21], the popularity in Bengal of the Forward Bloc party he founded as he himself documented [21] shows that his anxiety concerning marginalization in Bengal politics was misplaced. In subsequent years, he probably himself recognized his unique standing in the Hindu Bengali psyche, which resulted in the confidence he expressed in Germany and Japan in the public support for him in Bengal (Section D). But, the operative point here is that his loyalty to his people was unconditional even when he felt rejected by an influential section thereof. And, this loyalty to his ethnicity also constituted one of the important distinctions between the two poles of the contemporary polity – principled revolutionaries like Bose and opportunists power-seekers like Gandhi, Nehru and Gandhians. In the words of B. R. Tomlinson, “In many ways, both Nehru and the ‘Gandhians’ represented one style of leadership- both were prepared to subsume their provincial ambitions in the needs of the Congress as a nation-wide whole, both looked on Gandhi as a political father-figure, a beneficial as well as a necessary influence on India’s development. In this respect Bose was an outsider -he regarded his provincial interest in Bengal as all-important and saw the Mahatma’s influence as only a useful political tool. For health reasons (he suffered from tuberculosis) he had been in Europe for some time; his previous links with the all-India leaders had been based more on political expediency than on any identity of interest. This independence of outlook and action was the real source of Bose’s challenge to the established leaders’’ pp. 123-124, [31].

Indeed, patriotism is organically bottom-up, rather than top-down. One identifies with the nation through the soil he is born in, through the culture that he draws sustenance from. And, revolutionary nationalism, by its conception, emanates more from the soul than the brain, for the mind alone can’t drive one to literally obliterate self, against all biological instincts, so that an abstraction perpetuates. Thus, explicitly or implicitly, almost all heroic revolutionary acts have been actuated by “provincialism’’. The Chapekar brothers who lived near Pune assassinated W. C. Rand, the British plague Commissioner of Pune, for perpetrating inhuman atrocities on the locals in the name of controlling plague. The Bengal revolutionary movement was kindled by the partition of Bengal in 1905 [1]. Tamizh revolutionary Vanchinathan shot Robert Ashe, who had been involved in the quelling of the Coral Mills strike, in the Madras Presidency to which Vanchinathan belonged. The quelling involved significant amounts of violence, with fellow Tamizh revolutionaries VO Chidambaram Pillai and Subramaniya Siva sentenced to long prison sentences [33]. Bhagat Singh’s assassination of Saunders was actuated by the death of fellow Punjabi Lala Lajpat Rai, who was injured in a lathi charge by the police. It was the Punjabi chapter of the HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Revolutionary Army) that vowed to exact vengeance on James Scott, the office who had injured Lala Lajpat Rai p. 16, [32], but in a case of mistaken identity, shot Saunders. Subhas Chandra Bose was a product of the same revolutionary ethos.

Section G: Could Subhas Chandra Bose have benefited from the counsel of some astute advisors?

Recently some purported researchers, namely Anuj Dhar and his Mission Netaji, seeking to investigate the end of Subhas Chandra Bose, have claimed in an India Today panel discussion that Bengalis have forgotten him the day he left India [29]. In a Facebook post on September 7, 2017, he is even more emphatic and expansive, “ most Bengalis do not think much of him. They never did.’’ Based on our documentations thus far, we may conclude that if Dhar is right, then it has to be that all contemporaries, both close friends and enemies, of Subhas Chandra Bose had repeatedly lied about his popularity in Bengal (eg, Ian Stephens, editor The Statesman, told a dinner party in 1943 that, were the Japanese to parachute Bose on to the Maidan, 90 per cent of the inhabitants of Calcutta would rush to join him p. 400, [10]), both during and after his stay in Bengal. Scholars like Leonard Gordon have falsified too. And, the vocal support for him from the Bengal intelligentsia, like Rabindranath, Prafulla Chandra Ray, Meghnad Saha [21] have been faked by the Nehruvian school of distortionists, or even better, these doyens were all from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh or some other punya-bhumi. And, BPCC support for Bose [21], votes of the Bengal delegates in the Congress Presidential election [21], results of BPCC elections [21], results of the North Calcutta Constituency in Bengal Legislative Council have all been concocted for posterity just so that the knight in shining armor Dhar can rectify the documentations with his judgment. More importantly, if Dhar is right, either Bose himself repeatedly lied about his popularity in Bengal or the man didn’t have the first clue that he was only building castles in air about instigating a mass revolution in Bengal once he reached there with his INA. If only Bose could have benefited from Dhar’s wisdom he could have seen the truth as it is – that most Bengalis never thought much of Bose ever, and they forgot him the day he left India (in 1941 January). We can only conclude that Bose was distinctly unlucky to not have had Dhar as his mentor and advisor.

It may be inappropriate to devote more space to charlatans and propagandists in an article that explores the organic connection between an icon of the Indian nation with his ethnic roots – particularly those charlatans who seek to malign Subhas Babu’s ethnicity through deliberate omissions and misrepresentations. We therefore provide only two representative data points as to Dhar’s modus operandi of “Suppressio Veri, Suggestio Falsi’’ in defaming Bengalis.

• First:

Noteworthy: 1) Dhar presents no evidence whatsoever that Bengalis did not or do not take pride in their role in freedom struggle 2) he deliberately, and fortunately transparently, ignores evidences to the contrary, pertaining to the specific example in question. Specifically, a) in March 2019, an article led by a Bengali had first brought to public domain the ethno-religious census of the political prisoners at cellular [1] relying on Government of India records, and the numbers, pie-charts and bar-graphs produced therein clearly elucidated the dominance of (Hindu) Bengalis among the political prisoners overall, as also in the specific period of 1909-1938 b) the MP Ritabrata Banarjee who asked this question is a Bengali and was sent to Rajya Sabha from Bengal (by CPIM party), c) because Bengalis took pride in what they did for freedom-struggle, there is a wealth of literature in Bangla, and in English written by Bengalis, on the revolutionary freedom struggle. Some of this literature constitute primary sources written by the Bengali political prisoners at Cellular, many of these have been cited in tomes written by genuine scholars, eg, [5]. A series on Bengal’s contribution to freedom-fight initiated by the current authors in [1], and continued in [21] and the current article cite those too. But, then if propaganda is the goal, then these surely testify to the Gandhi-bhakti of Bengalis and their lack of pride in their contribution to freedom struggle.

When his theories are contradicted, with verifiable and substantive counters, Dhar either ignores or dismisses those with frivolity (one notices the same proclivity in [29]):

In contrast, he usually shares supportive evidences, even when they are anecdotal and unverifiable, eg,

• Second, recently, the Chief of Staff of a US Democratic Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was photographed in a T-shirt with Subhas Chandra Bose’s picture on it. In a bid to discredit Ocasio-Cortez, some members of the US right wing immediately took to Twitter to call Subhas Chandra Bose a Nazi-collaborator, or even a Neo-Nazi. Anuj Dhar joined the discourse with the following tweets:

In the above, Dhar accuses Bengali thinkers of insulting Bose in context of his association with Germany, while omitting that the Chief of Staff , Saikat Chakrabarty, who wore the T-shirt with the picture of Bose, is a Bengali. Goes without saying that Dhar would not mention that most, or at least a large number of social media arguments against Bose being a Nazi-collaborator, came from Bengalis, including by Bengali political activists (with political persuasion different from Dhar’s), while simultaneously quite a few non-Bengali Indians affirmed that Bose was a Nazi collaborator (some of them are columnists of the right wing Swarajya Magazine Dhar contributes to).

But, lest we defile the piece on Subhas Chandra Bose further, we defer further exposure of the absurdity of several of Dhar’s assertions to the next and the concluding part of the sequel.

References:

[1] Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, Dikgaj, “A Historical Defense for the Citizenship Amendment Bill- Hindu Bengal’s contribution to India’’, https://sringeribelur.wordpress.com/a-historical-defense-for-the-citizenship-amendment-bill-hindu-bengals-contribution-to-india/

[2] Jon Mitchell, Japan’s unsung role in India’s struggle for independence https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2011/08/14/national/history/japans-unsung-role-in-indias-struggle-for-independence/#.XRjQ5-hKjcs

[3] `The Alternative Leadership, Speeches, Articles,  Statements and Letters’, June 1939-1941 Subhas Chandra Bose, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 10, Edited by Sisir K. Bose and Sugata Bose

[4] Subhas Chandra Bose, Correspondence, 1926-1932, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 4, Edited by Sisir K. Bose

[5] Leonard Gordon, “Brothers against the Raj’’

[6] Jogesh Chandra Chatterji, “In Search of Freedom’’

[7] Subhas Chandra Bose, “Leader of youth’’, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 6, edited by Sisir K. Bose and Sugata Bose

[8] Subhas Chandra Bose, “The Indian Struggle’’, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 10, Edited by Sisir K. Bose and Sugata Bose

[9] Subhas Chandra Bose, India’s Spokesman Abroad, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 8, Letters, Articles, Speeches and Statements 1933-1937, Edited by Sisir K. Bose and Sugata Bose

[10] Mihir Bose, “The Lost Hero’’

[11] Subhas Chandra Bose, “Writings and Speeches, Chalo Delhi, 1943-1945’’, Netaji Collected Works: Volume 12, Edited by Sisisr K. Bose and Sugata Bose

[12] Subhas Chandra Bose, “Statements, Speeches, Prison notes and Boycott of British Goods, 1923-1929.’’, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 5, Edited by Sisir K. Bose

[13] Subhas Chandra Bose, “Azad Hind, Writings and Speeches, 1941-May 1943’’, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 11, Edited by Sisir K. Bose and Sugata Bose

[14] Subhas Chandra Bose, Letters to Emilie Schenkl, 1934-1942, Netaji Collected Works: Volume 7, Edited by Sisir K. Bose and Sugata Bose

[15] Iwaichi Fujiwara, “F. Kikan, Japanese Army Intelligence Operations in Southeast Asia during World War II’’

[16] Sabitri Prasanna Chatterjee, “Subhas Chandra O Netaji Subhas Chandra’’

[17] Dilip Kumar Roy, “Netaji, the man; Reminescences’’

[18] Joyce Lebra, “The Indian National Army and Japan’’

[19] Bappaditya Paul, “The first Naxal: An authorised biography of Kanu Sanyal’’

[20] Maj. Gen. A. C. Chatterji, India’s Struggle For Freedom

[21] Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, Dikgaj, The Hindu Bengali support for Subhas Chandra Bose বাংলার সুভাষ, বাঙালির সুভাষ https://sringeribelur.wordpress.com/the-hindu-bengali-support-for-subhas-chandra-bose-%e0%a6%ac%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%82%e0%a6%b2%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%b0-%e0%a6%b8%e0%a7%81%e0%a6%ad%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%b7-%e0%a6%ac%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%99%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%b2/

[22] M. R. Vyas, “Passage Through a Turbulent Era’’

[23] Subhas Chandra Bose, “In Burmese prisons, Subhas Chandra Bose Correspondence May 1923-July 1926,’’ Netaji Collected Works, Volume 3, Edited by Sisir K. Bose

[24] Subhas Chandra Bose, “Leader of Youth 1929-1932’’, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 6, Edited by Sisir K. Bose and Sugata Bose

[25] SPEECH AT SUBJECTS COMMITTEE, A.I.C.C. LAHORE, December 27, 1929, HYPERLINK “http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL048.PDF”http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL048.PDF

[26] Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, Speech on Resolution on Nehru Report, Calcutta Congress III, 31/12/1928, “http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/vol043.pdf”http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL043.PDF

[27] Suniti Kumar Ghosh, “The Tragic Partition of Bengal’’

[28] http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/nehru_museum/hijlishaheed bhavan.html

[29] Subhas Bose, Tackling Netaji | India Today Conclave East 2017

[30] Bidyut Chakrabarty, “Subhas Bose and Middle Class Radicalism’’

[31] B. R. Tomlinson, “The Indian National Congress and the Raj ’’, 1929-1942

[32] Bhagat Singh, and Bhupender Hooja, “The Jail Notebook and Other Writings’’.

[33] http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/history-revisited-but-this-time-with-love/5/16695/