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Articles on Rashbehari Bose

The legend of Rashbehari Bose and the Forgotten Hindu-German Conspiracy

In the first part of the series of articles, we examine the role of Rashbehari Bose in the forgotten Hindu German conspiracy.  We reflect on the doomed valour and commitment of Rashbehari and his associates in the Hindu German conspiracy and the attempt to seed a revolt on the scale of the 1857 revolt in north India.  We expound on the forgotten heroes alongside Rashbehari and how they desperately resisted the British & how they were brutally treated, to the indifference of the then Congress.

Rashbehari Bose’s Second War from East Asia: Battleground Japan and Singapore 

In the second part of the series, we narrate the tale of Rashbehari Bose as he daringly escaped from the shores of India and managed to get into Japan. From the shores of Japan, even with no knowledge of the Japanese language, he tried to further the cause of the Revolution by trying to send arms & ammunition to his Revolutionary colleagues in India. When the plot was foiled & British hunted him in Japan, he went underground with the help of Japanese pan-Asianists and hid out with a Japanese family, that kindly gave him shelter. He utilised this enforced confinement to familiarise himself with the Japanese language.

Rashbehari Bose and the Woman who Saved him

In the third part of the series, we narrate the saga of Rashbehari Bose as he found love in Japan with a traditional samurai lady, who understood his predicament & love him in despite of it. He then naturalised in Japan & became a Japanese citizen, evading the British agents who were constantly on the hunt for him. We narrate his saga as he lost his possessions in the great Kanto earthquake & struggled desperately for a living in Japan, with his new wife & child. We narrate how India failed him at that point & only Rabindranath Tagore helped him any. Then personal tragedy in the form of the death of his wife struck him. Despite all these travails, he never faltered in his struggle for Indian independence.

Rashbehari Bose: India’s Messenger in Japan

In the fourth part of the article, we narrate the work of Rashbehari as he realised the importance of British propaganda against the Indians and India & worked to counter it from the shores of Japan. In this article, we focus on his work in Japan, & his cultivating the highest figures in both the Japanese military & government to be sympathetic to the Indian cause. We narrate how he worked on both positive & negative propaganda – talking up Indian strengths & virtues & pointing to British brutalities & discrimination. He wrote several books in Japanese & translated, among other things, the Bhagavadgita into Japanese. His works ranged from as far as humour in India to translations of the Bhagavadgita & Rabindranath’s poetry.

Rashbehari Bose: The Revolutionary and the Statesman

In the fifth part of the article, we narrate the work of Rashbehari as he functioned as the unofficial ambassador at large of India in Japan. We focus on how he worked to organise the Indians in Japan for the coming struggle against the British. He also cultivated the high Japanese officials, both civilian & military and sowed the idea of a free India being in the interests of Japan. Ceaselessly, tirelessly, Rashbehari worked to strengthen Indian interests among the Japanese.

The Revolutionary Psyche – Rashbehari Bose

In the sixth part of the article, we examine the mindset of the Revolutionaries, and Rashbehari in particular as an example of the generic mindset. We examine how they braved terrible odds, huge disparity in resources & weapons, contempt & derision of their own countrymen, betrayers & spies, & few resources, even to keep themselves alive. However, the Revolutionary bond held, they helped each other desperately to stay alive & ahead of the British Raj & they competed with each other to fight the British. In contrast, the Congress even betrayed its own to curry favour with the British.

How free India has Wronged the Legacy of Rashbehari Bose

In the seventh part of the series, we show free India has mistreated the legacy of Rashbehari. We show the misery suffered by his immediate family & contrast it with the way India has treated the kith and kin of Nehru & Gandhi. We also show how Japan showed him greater respect, while India has treated him shabbily. Only the current government seems to be making a few amends in the Indian treatment of Rashbehari’s legacy.

Two Revolutionaries Rashbehari and Subhas- A Meeting of Minds

In the eighth part of the series, we examine the similarity in mindset between the two Boses – Rashbehari & Subhas. We observe how they had similar ideas about what constituted freedom, & how India needed to be liberated from the British. We also contrast their ideas of freedom against the idea of freedom and methods of liberation advocated by Gandhi.

Gandhi and Nehru from the Vantage Point of Two Revolutionaries, Rashbehari and Subhas

In the ninth part of the article, we contrast the attitudes of Nehru and Gandhi on one side and Rashbehari and Subhas on the other, towards the war. We also examine how the two Boses were ready to do whatever it took to win freedom for India. Finally, we show how Subhas was ready to confront the strongmen of the Congress even during the war, if necessary.

How Rashbehari and Subhas Repeatedly Outsmarted the British

In the tenth part of the article, we show how the two Boses repeatedly deceived the British intelligence and effected grand escapes. We show how they were willing to take huge risks, & play hide-and-seek games (both mentally and physically) with the British intelligence to get what they wanted to achieve Indian freedom.