Subhas Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose (/ʃʊbˈ hɑːs ˈtʃʌndrə ˈboʊs/ ⓘ shuub-HAHSS CHUN-drə BOHSS;[12] 23
January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British
authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi
Germany and Imperial Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, anti-Semitism,
and military failure. The honorific Netaji (Bengali: "Respected Leader") was first applied to
Bose in Germany in early 1942—by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the
German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin. It is now used
throughout India.[h]

Subhas Bose was born into wealth and privilege in a large Bengali family in Orissa during
the British Raj. The early recipient of an Anglocentric education, he was sent after college to
England to take the Indian Civil Service examination. He succeeded with distinction in the
vital first exam but demurred at taking the routine final exam, citing nationalism as a higher
calling. Returning to India in 1921, Bose joined the nationalist movement led by Mahatma
Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. He followed Jawaharlal Nehru to leadership in a
group within the Congress which was less keen on constitutional reform and more open to
socialism.[i] Bose became Congress president in 1938. After reelection in 1939, differences
arose between him and the Congress leaders, including Gandhi, over the future federation
of British India and princely states, but also because discomfort had grown among the
Congress leadership over Bose's negotiable attitude to non-violence, and his plans for
greater powers for himself.[15] After the large majority of the Congress Working
Committee members resigned in protest,[16] Bose resigned as president and was eventually
ousted from the party.[17][18]

In April 1941 Bose arrived in Nazi Germany, where the leadership offered unexpected but
equivocal sympathy for India's independence.[19][20] German funds were employed to
open a Free India Centre in Berlin. A 3,000-strong Free India Legion was recruited from
among Indian POWs captured by Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps to serve under Bose.[21]
[j] Although peripheral to their main goals, the Germans inconclusively considered a land
invasion of India throughout 1941. By the spring of 1942, the German army was mired in
Russia and Bose became keen to move to southeast Asia, where Japan had just won quick
victories.[23] Adolf Hitler during his only meeting with Bose in late May 1942 offered to
arrange a submarine.[24] During this time, Bose became a father; his wife,[6][k] or
companion,[25][l] Emilie Schenkl, gave birth to a baby girl.[6][m][19] Identifying strongly
with the Axis powers, Bose boarded a German submarine in February 1943.[26][27] Off
Madagascar, he was transferred to a Japanese submarine from which he disembarked
in Japanese-held Sumatra in May 1943.[26]

With Japanese support, Bose revamped the Indian National Army (INA), which comprised
Indian prisoners of war of the British Indian army who had been captured by the Japanese
in the Battle of Singapore.[28][29][30] A Provisional Government of Free India was declared
on the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands and was nominally presided by
Bose.[31][2][n] Although Bose was unusually driven and charismatic, the Japanese
considered him to be militarily unskilled,[o] and his soldierly effort was short-lived. In late
1944 and early 1945, the British Indian Army reversed the Japanese attack on India. Almost
half of the Japanese forces and fully half of the participating INA contingent were killed. [p]
[q] The remaining INA was driven down the Malay Peninsula and surrendered with
the recapture of Singapore. Bose chose to escape to Manchuria to seek a future in
the Soviet Union which he believed to have turned anti-British. He died from third-degree
burns received when his overloaded plane crashed in Japanese Taiwan on August 18, 1945.
[r] Some Indians did not believe that the crash had occurred,[s] expecting Bose to return to
secure India's independence.[t][u][v] The Indian National Congress, the main instrument of
Indian nationalism, praised Bose's patriotism but distanced itself from his tactics and
ideology.[w][41] The British Raj, never seriously threatened by the INA, charged 300 INA
officers with treason in the INA trials, but eventually backtracked in the face of opposition by
the Congress,[x] and a new mood in Britain for rapid decolonisation in India.[y][41][44]

Bose's legacy is mixed. Among many in India, he is seen as a hero, his saga serving as a
would-be counterpoise to the many actions of regeneration, negotiation, and reconciliation
over a quarter-century through which the independence of India was achieved.[z][aa]
[ab] His collaborations with Japanese Fascism and Nazism pose serious ethical dilemmas,
[ac] especially his reluctance to publicly criticize the worst excesses of German anti-Semitism
from 1938 onwards or to offer refuge in India to its victims.[ad][ae][af]

Biography

1897–1921: Early life

Map 1: The growth of British Bengal between 1757 and

1803 is shown in shades of brown. Cuttack is approximately 225 miles (362 km) southwest
of Calcutta.

Subhas Chandra Bose was born to Bengali parents Prabhavati Bose (née Dutt)
and Janakinath Bose on 23 January 1897 in Cuttack—in what is today the state of Odisha in
India, but was then the Orissa Division of Bengal Province in British India.[ag]
[ah] Prabhavati, or familiarly Mā jananī (lit. 'mother'), the anchor of family life, had her first
child at age 14 and 13 children thereafter. Subhas was the ninth child and the sixth son.
[54] Jankinath, a successful lawyer and government pleader,[53] was loyal to the
government of British India and scrupulous about matters of language and the law. A self-
made man from the rural outskirts of Calcutta, he had remained in touch with his roots,
returning annually to his village during the pooja holidays.[55]

Eager to join his five school-going older brothers, Subhas entered the Baptist Mission's
Protestant European School in Cuttack in January 1902.[7] English was the medium of all
instruction in the school, the majority of the students being European or Anglo-Indians of
mixed British and Indian ancestry.[52] The curriculum included English—correctly written
and spoken—Latin, the Bible, good manners, British geography, and British History; no
Indian languages were taught.[52][7] The choice of the school was Janakinath's, who
wanted his sons to speak flawless English with flawless intonation, believing both to be
important for access to the British in India.[56] The school contrasted with Subhas's home,
where only Bengali was spoken. At home, his mother worshipped
the Hindu goddesses Durga and Kali, told stories from the
epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and sang Bengali religious songs.[7] From her, Subhas
imbibed a nurturing spirit, looking for situations in which to help people in distress,
preferring gardening around the house to joining in sports with other boys.[8] His father,
who was reserved in manner and busy with professional life, was a distant presence in a
large family, causing Subhas to feel he had a nondescript childhood.[57] Still, Janakinath
read English literature avidly—John Milton, William Cowper, Matthew Arnold,
and Shakespeare's Hamlet being among his favourites; several of his sons were to become
English literature enthusiasts like him.[56]

Janakinath Bose, Prabhavati Bose, and their family, ca.

1905. Sarat Chandra Bose (standing, centre) and Subhas Bose (aged 8, standing, extreme
right).[58]

In 1909 the 12-year-old Subhas Bose followed his five brothers to the Ravenshaw Collegiate
School in Cuttack.[8] Here, Bengali and Sanskrit were also taught, as were ideas from Hindu
scriptures such as the Vedas and the Upanishads not usually picked up at home.
[8] Although his western education continued apace, he began to wear Indian clothes and
engage in religious speculation. To his mother, he wrote long letters which displayed
acquaintance with the ideas of the Bengali mystic Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and his
disciple Swami Vivekananda, and the novel Ananda Math by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee,
popular then among young Hindu men.[59] Despite the preoccupation, Subhas was able to
demonstrate an ability when needed to focus on his studies, to compete, and to succeed in
exams. In 1912, he secured the second position in the matriculation examination conducted
under the auspices of the University of Calcutta.[60]

Subhas Bose followed his five brothers again 1913 to Presidency College, Calcutta, the
historic and traditional college for Bengal's upper-caste Hindu men.[60][61] He chose to
study philosophy, his readings including Kant, Hegel, Bergson and other Western
philosophers.[62] A year earlier, he had befriended Hemanta Kumar Sarkar, a confidant and
partner in religious yearnings.[63] At Presidency, their emotional ties grew stronger.[63] In
the fanciful language of religious imagery, they declared their pure love for each other.
[63] In the long vacations of 1914, they traveled to northern India for several months to
search for a spiritual guru to guide them.[63] Subhas's family was not told clearly about the
trip, leading them to think he had run away. During the trip, in which the guru proved
elusive, Subhas came down with typhoid fever.[63] His absence caused emotional distress to
his parents, leading both parents to break down upon his return.[63] Heated words were
exchanged between Janakinath and Subhas. It took the return of Subhas's favorite
brother, Sarat Chandra Bose, from law studies in England for the tempers to subside. Subhas
returned to presidency and busied himself with studies, debating and student journalism.
[63]

In February 1916 Bose was alleged to have masterminded,[53] or participated in, an

incident involving E. F. Oaten, Professor of History at Presidency.[9] Before the incident, it
was claimed by the students, Oaten had made rude remarks about Indian culture, and
collared and pushed some students; according to Oaten, the students were making an
unacceptably loud noise just outside his class.[9] A few days later, on 15 February, some
students accosted Oaten on a stairway, surrounded him, beat him with sandals, and took to
flight.[9] An inquiry committee was constituted. Although Oaten, who was unhurt, could not
identify his assailants, a college servant testified to seeing Subhas Bose among those
fleeing, confirming for the authorities what they had determined to be the rumor among the
students.[9] Bose was expelled from the college and rusticated from University of Calcutta.
[64] The incident shocked Calcutta and caused anguish to Bose's family.[53] He was ordered
back to Cuttack. His family's connections were employed to pressure Asutosh Mukherjee, the
Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University.[64] Despite this, Subhas Bose's expulsion remained in
place until 20 July 1917, when the Syndicate of Calcutta University granted him permission
to return, but to another college.[10] He joined Scottish Church College, receiving his B.A. in
1918 in the First Class with honours in philosophy, placing second among all philosophy
students in Calcutta University.[65]

A coloured-in photograph (1851) of Presidency College,

Calcutta which Subhas Bose entered in 1913, but from which he was expelled in 1916

At his father's urging, Subhas Bose agreed to travel to England to prepare and appear for
the Indian Civil Services (ICS) examination.[66] Arriving in London on 20 October 1919,
Subhas readied his application for the ICS.[67] For his references he put down Lord Sinha of
Raipur, Under Secretary of State for India, and Bhupendranath Basu, a wealthy Calcutta
lawyer who sat on the Council of India in London.[66] Bose was eager also to gain
admission to a college at the University of Cambridge.[68] It was past the deadline for
admission.[68] He sought help from some Indian students and from the Non-Collegiate
Students Board. The Board offered the university's education at an economical cost without
formal admission to a college. Bose entered the register of the university on 19 November
1919 and simultaneously set about preparing for the Civil Service exams.[68] He chose the
Mental and Moral Sciences Tripos at Cambridge,[68] its completion requirement reduced to
two years on account of his Indian B. A.[69]
 Subhas Bose (standing, right) with friends in England,
1920

There were six vacancies in the ICS.[70] Subhas Bose took the open competitive exam for
them in August 1920 and was placed fourth.[70] This was a vital first step.[70] Still
remaining was a final examination in 1921 on more topics on India, including the Indian
Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, Indian history, and an Indian language.[70] Successful
candidates had also to clear a riding test. Having no fear of these subjects and being a rider,
Subhas Bose felt the ICS was within easy reach.[70] Yet between August 1920 and 1921 he
began to have doubts about taking the final examination.[71] Many letters were exchanged
with his father and his brother Sarat Chandra Bose back in Calcutta.[72] In one letter to
Sarat, Subhas wrote,

"But for a man of my temperament who has been feeding on ideas that might be called
eccentric—the line of least resistance is not the best line to follow ... The uncertainties of life
are not appalling to one who has not, at heart, worldly ambitions. Moreover, it is not
possible to serve one's country in the best and fullest manner if one is chained on to the civil
service."[72]

In April 1921, Subhas Bose made his decision firm not to take the final examination for the
ICS and wrote to Sarat informing him of the same, apologizing for the pain he would cause
to his father, his mother, and other members of his family.[73] On 22 April 1921, he wrote to
the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, stating, "I wish to have my name removed
from the list of probationers in the Indian Civil Service."[74] The following day he wrote
again to Sarat:

I received a letter from mother saying that in spite of what father and others think she
prefers the ideals for which Mahatma Gandhi stands. I cannot tell you how happy I have
been to receive such a letter. It will be worth a treasure for me as it has removed something
like a burden from my mind."[75]

For some time before Subhas Bose had been in touch with C. R. Das, a lawyer who had
risen to the helm of politics in Bengal; Das encouraged Subhas to return to Calcutta.
[76] With the ICS decision now firmly behind him, Subhas Bose took his Cambridge B.A.
Final examinations half-heartedly, passing, but being placed in the Third Class.[75] He
prepared to sail for India in June 1921, electing for a fellow Indian student to pick up his
diploma.[76]

1921–1932: Indian National Congress

Bose at the inauguration of the India Society in Prague in

1926

Subhas Bose, aged 24, arrived ashore in India at Bombay on the morning of 16 July 1921
and immediately set about arranging an interview with Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi, aged 51,
was the leader of the non-cooperation movement that had taken India by storm the
previous year and in a quarter-century would evolve to secure its independence.[ai]
[aj] Gandhi happened to be in Bombay and agreed to see Bose that afternoon. In Bose's
account of the meeting, written many years later, he pilloried Gandhi with question after
question.[78] Bose thought Gandhi's answers were vague, his goals unclear, his plan for
achieving them not thought through.[78] Gandhi and Bose differed in this first meeting on
the question of means—for Gandhi non-violent means to any end were non-negotiable; in
Bose's thought, all means were acceptable in the service of anti-colonial ends.[78] They
differed on the question of ends—Bose was attracted to totalitarian models of governance,
which were anathematized by Gandhi.[79] According to historian Gordon, "Gandhi, however,
set Bose on to the leader of the Congress and Indian nationalism in Bengal, C. R. Das, and
in him Bose found the leader whom he sought."[78] Das was more flexible than Gandhi,
more sympathetic to the extremism that had attracted idealistic young men such as Bose in
Bengal.[78] Das launched Bose into nationalist politics.[78] Bose would work within the
ambit of the Indian National Congress politics for nearly 20 years even as he tried to change
its course.[78]

In 1922 Bose founded the newspaper Swaraj and assumed charge of the publicity for the
Bengal Provincial Congress Committee.[80] His mentor was Chittaranjan Das, a voice for
aggressive nationalism in Bengal. In 1923, Bose was elected the President of Indian Youth
Congress and also the Secretary of the Bengal State Congress. He became the editor of the
newspaper "Forward", which had been founded by Chittaranjan Das.[81] Bose worked as
the CEO of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation for Das when the latter was elected mayor of
Calcutta in 1924.[82] During the same year, when Bose was leading a protest march in
Calcutta, he, Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi and other leaders were arrested and imprisoned.[83]
[failed verification] After a roundup of nationalists in 1925, Bose was sent to prison
in Mandalay, British Burma, where he contracted tuberculosis.[84]
 Subhas Bose (in military uniform) with Congress
president, Motilal Nehru taking the salute. Annual meeting, Indian National Congress, 29
December 1928

In 1927, after being released from prison, Bose became general secretary of the Congress
party and worked with Jawaharlal Nehru for independence. In late December 1928, Bose
organised the Annual Meeting of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta.[85] His most
memorable role was as General officer commanding (GOC) Congress Volunteer Corps.
[85] Author Nirad Chaudhuri wrote about the meeting:

Bose organized a volunteer corps in uniform, its officers were even provided with steel-cut
epaulettes ... his uniform was made by a firm of British tailors in Calcutta, Harman's. A
telegram addressed to him as GOC was delivered to the British General in Fort William and
was the subject of a good deal of malicious gossip in the (British Indian) press. Mahatma
Gandhi as a sincere pacifist vowed to non-violence, did not like the strutting, clicking of
boots, and saluting, and he afterward described the Calcutta session of the Congress as
a Bertram Mills circus, which caused a great deal of indignation among the Bengalis.[85]

A little later, Bose was again arrested and jailed for civil disobedience; this time he emerged
to become Mayor of Calcutta in 1930.[84]

1933–1937: Illness, Austria, Emilie Schenkl

(left) Bose with Emilie Schenkl, in Bad Gastein, Austria, 1936; (right) Bose, INC president-
elect, center, in Bad Gastein, Austria, December 1937, with (left to right) A. C. N.
Nambiar (Bose's second-in-command, Berlin, 1941–1945), Heidi Fulop-Miller, Schenkl, and
Amiya Bose.

During the mid-1930s Bose travelled in Europe, visiting Indian students and European
politicians, including Benito Mussolini. He observed party organisation and saw communism
and fascism in action.[86] In this period, he also researched and wrote the first part of his
book The Indian Struggle, which covered the country's independence movement in the
years 1920–1934. Although it was published in London in 1935, the British government
banned the book in the colony out of fears that it would encourage unrest.[87] Bose was
supported in Europe by the Indian Central European Society organized by Otto Faltis from
Vienna.[88]

1937–1940: Indian National Congress

In 1938 Bose stated his opinion that the INC "should be organised on the broadest anti-
imperialist front with the two-fold objective of winning political freedom and the
establishment of a socialist regime."[89] By 1938 Bose had become a leader of national
stature and agreed to accept nomination as Congress President. He stood for
unqualified Swaraj (self-governance), including the use of force against the British. This
meant a confrontation with Mohandas Gandhi, who in fact opposed Bose's presidency,
[90] splitting the Indian National Congress party.
 Bose, president-elect, INC, arrives in Calcutta, 24 January
1938, after two-month vacation in Austria.[ak][al]

Bose attempted to maintain unity, but Gandhi advised Bose to form his own cabinet. The rift
also divided Bose and Nehru; he appeared at the 1939 Congress meeting on a stretcher. He
was elected president again over Gandhi's preferred candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya.[93] U.
Muthuramalingam Thevar strongly supported Bose in the intra-Congress dispute. Thevar
mobilised all south India votes for Bose.[94] However, due to the manoeuvrings of the
Gandhi-led clique in the Congress Working Committee, Bose found himself forced to resign
from the Congress presidency.[citation needed]

On 22 June 1939 Bose organised the All India Forward Bloc a faction within the Indian
National Congress,[95] aimed at consolidating the political left, but its main strength was in
his home state, Bengal. U Muthuramalingam Thevar, who was a staunch supporter of Bose
from the beginning, joined the Forward Bloc. When Bose visited Madurai on 6 September,
Thevar organised a massive rally as his reception.[citation needed]

When Subhas Chandra Bose was heading to Madurai, on an invitation of Muthuramalinga

Thevar to amass support for the Forward Bloc, he passed through Madras and spent three
days at Gandhi Peak. His correspondence reveals that despite his clear dislike for British
subjugation, he was deeply impressed by their methodical and systematic approach and
their steadfastly disciplinarian outlook towards life. In England, he exchanged ideas on the
future of India with British Labour Party leaders and political thinkers like Lord
Halifax, George Lansbury, Clement Attlee, Arthur Greenwood, Harold Laski, J.B.S.
Haldane, Ivor Jennings, G.D.H. Cole, Gilbert Murray and Sir Stafford Cripps.[citation needed]

Bose arriving at the 1939 annual session of the Congress,

where he was re-elected, but later had to resign after disagreements with Gandhi and the
Congress High Command
He came to believe that an independent India needed socialist authoritarianism, on the lines
of Turkey's Kemal Atatürk, for at least two decades. For political reasons Bose was refused
permission by the British authorities to meet Atatürk at Ankara. During his sojourn in
England Bose tried to schedule appointments with several politicians, but only the Labour
Party and Liberal politicians agreed to meet with him. Conservative Party officials refused to
meet him or show him courtesy because he was a politician coming from a colony. In the
1930s leading figures in the Conservative Party had opposed even Dominion status for India.
It was during the Labour Party government of 1945–1951, with Attlee as the Prime Minister,
that India gained independence.

On the outbreak of war, Bose advocated a campaign of mass civil disobedience to protest
against Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's decision to declare war on India's behalf without consulting
the Congress leadership. Having failed to persuade Gandhi of the necessity of this, Bose
organised mass protests in Calcutta calling for the removal of the "Holwell Monument",
which then stood at the corner of Dalhousie Square in memoriam of those who died in
the Black Hole of Calcutta.[96] He was thrown in jail by the British, but was released
following a seven-day hunger strike. Bose's house in Calcutta was kept under surveillance by
the CID.[97]

1941: Escape to Nazi Germany

The Wanderer car Bose used to escape from his Calcutta

home in 1941

Bose's arrest and subsequent release set the scene for his escape to Nazi Germany,
via Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. A few days before his escape, he sought solitude and,
on this pretext, avoided meeting British guards and grew a beard. Late night 16 January
1941, the night of his escape, he dressed as a Pathan (brown long coat, a black fez-type
coat and broad pyjamas) to avoid being identified. Bose escaped from under British
surveillance from his Elgin Road house in Calcutta on the night of 17 January 1941,
accompanied by his nephew Sisir Kumar Bose, later reaching Gomoh Railway Station
(now Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Gomoh Station) in the then state of Bihar (now
Jharkhand), India.[98][99][100][101]

He journeyed to Peshawar with the help of the Abwehr, where he was met by Akbar Shah,
Mohammed Shah and Bhagat Ram Talwar. Bose was taken to the home of Abad Khan, a
trusted friend of Akbar Shah's. On 26 January 1941, Bose began his journey to reach Russia
through British India's North West frontier with Afghanistan. For this reason, he enlisted the
help of Mian Akbar Shah, then a Forward Bloc leader in the North-West Frontier Province.
Shah had been out of India en route to the Soviet Union, and suggested a novel disguise for
Bose to assume. Since Bose could not speak one word of Pashto, it would make him an easy
target of Pashto speakers working for the British. For this reason, Shah suggested that Bose
act deaf and dumb, and let his beard grow to mimic those of the tribesmen. Bose's
guide Bhagat Ram Talwar, unknown to him, was a Soviet agent.[100][101][102]

Supporters of the Aga Khan III helped him across the border into Afghanistan where he was
met by an Abwehr unit posing as a party of road construction engineers from
the Organization Todt who then aided his passage across Afghanistan via Kabul to the
border with the Soviet Union. After assuming the guise of a Pashtun insurance agent
("Ziaudddin") to reach Afghanistan, Bose changed his guise and travelled to Moscow on the
Italian passport of an Italian nobleman "Count Orlando Mazzotta". From Moscow, he
reached Rome, and from there he travelled to Nazi Germany.[100][101][103] Once in Russia
the NKVD transported Bose to Moscow where he hoped that Russia's historical enmity to
British rule in India would result in support for his plans for a popular rising in India.
However, Bose found the Soviets' response disappointing and was rapidly passed over to the
German Ambassador in Moscow, Count von der Schulenburg. He had Bose flown on
to Berlin in a special courier aircraft at the beginning of April where he was to receive a
more favourable hearing from Joachim von Ribbentrop and the Foreign Ministry officials at
the Wilhelmstrasse.[100][101][104]

1941–1943: Collaboration with Nazi Germany

(left) Bose with Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS; (right) Bose meeting Adolf Hitler

In Germany, he was attached to the Special Bureau for India under Adam von Trott zu
Solz which was responsible for broadcasting on the German-sponsored Azad Hind Radio.
[105] He founded the Free India Center in Berlin, and created the Indian Legion (consisting
of some 4500 soldiers) out of Indian prisoners of war who had previously fought for the
British in North Africa prior to their capture by Axis forces. The Indian Legion was attached
to the Wehrmacht, and later transferred to the Waffen SS. Its members swore the following
allegiance to Hitler and Bose: "I swear by God this holy oath that I will obey the leader of
the German race and state, Adolf Hitler, as the commander of the German armed forces in
the fight for India, whose leader is Subhas Chandra Bose". This oath clearly abrogated
control of the Indian legion to the German armed forces whilst stating Bose's overall
leadership of India. He was also, however, prepared to envisage an invasion of India via the
USSR by Nazi troops, spearheaded by the Azad Hind Legion; many have questioned his
judgment here, as it seems unlikely that the Germans could have been easily persuaded to
leave after such an invasion, which might also have resulted in an Axis victory in the War.
[103]

Soon, according to historian Romain Hayes, "the (German) Foreign Office procured a
luxurious residence for (Bose) along with a butler, cook, gardener, and an SS-chauffeured
car. Emilie Schenkl moved in openly with him. The Germans, aware of the nature of the
relationship, refrained from any involvement."[106] However, most of the staff in the Special
Bureau for India, which had been set up to aid Bose, did not get along with Emilie.[107] In
particular Adam von Trott, Alexander Werth and Freda Kretschemer, according to
historian Leonard A. Gordon, "appear to have disliked her intensely. They believed that she
and Bose were not married and that she was using her liaison with Bose to live an especially
comfortable life during the hard times of war" and that differences were compounded by
issues of class.[107] In November 1942, Schenkl gave birth to their daughter.

The Germans were unwilling to form an alliance with Bose because they considered him
unpopular in comparison with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.[108][109] By the
spring of 1942, the German army was mired in the USSR. Bose, due to disappointment over
the lack of response from Nazi Germany, was now keen to move to Southeast Asia, where
Japan had just won quick victories. However, he still expected official recognition from Nazi
Germany. Adolf Hitler during his only meeting with Bose in late May 1942 refused to
entertain Bose's requests and facilitated him with a submarine voyage to East Asia.[24][110]
[111]

In February 1943, Bose left Schenkl and their baby daughter and boarded a German
submarine to travel, via transfer to a Japanese submarine, to Japanese-occupied southeast
Asia. In all, 3,000 Indian prisoners of war signed up for the Free India Legion. But instead of
being delighted, Bose was worried. A left-wing admirer of Russia, he was devastated when
Hitler's tanks rolled across the Soviet border. Matters were worsened by the fact that the
now-retreating German army would be in no position to offer him help in driving the British
from India. When he met Hitler in May 1942, his suspicions were confirmed, and he came to
believe that the Nazi leader was more interested in using his men to win propaganda
victories than military ones. So, in February 1943, Bose boarded a German U-boat and left
for Japan. This left the men he had recruited leaderless and demoralised in Germany. [103]
[112]

1943–1945: Japanese-occupied Asia

Main articles: Indian National Army and Azad Hind

 The crew of Japanese submarine I-29 after the
rendezvous with German submarine U-180 300 sm southeast of Madagascar; Bose is sitting
in the front row (28 April 1943)

In 1943, after being disillusioned that Germany could be of any help in gaining India's
independence, Bose left for Japan. He travelled with the German submarine U-180 around
the Cape of Good Hope to the southeast of Madagascar, where he was transferred to the I-
29 for the rest of the journey to Imperial Japan. This was the only civilian transfer between
two submarines of two different navies in World War II.[100][101]

The Indian National Army (INA) was the brainchild of Japanese Major (and post-war
Lieutenant-General) Iwaichi Fujiwara, head of the Japanese intelligence unit Fujiwara Kikan.
Fujiwara's mission was "to raise an army which would fight alongside the Japanese
army."[113][114] He first met Pritam Singh Dhillon, the president of the Bangkok chapter of
the Indian Independence League, and through Pritam Singh's network recruited a captured
British Indian army captain, Mohan Singh, on the western Malayan peninsula in December
1941. The First Indian National Army was formed as a result of discussion between Fujiwara
and Mohan Singh in the second half of December 1941, and the name chosen jointly by
them in the first week of January 1942.[115]

This was along the concept of, and with support of, what was then known as the Indian
Independence League headed from Tokyo by expatriate nationalist leader Rash Behari Bose.
The first INA was however disbanded in December 1942 after disagreements between
the Hikari Kikan and Mohan Singh, who came to believe that the Japanese High Command
was using the INA as a mere pawn and propaganda tool. Mohan Singh was taken into
custody and the troops returned to the prisoner-of-war camp. However, the idea of an
independence army was revived with the arrival of Subhas Chandra Bose in the Far East in
1943. In July, at a meeting in Singapore, Rash Behari Bose handed over control of the
organisation to Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose was able to reorganise the fledgling army and
organise massive support among the expatriate Indian population in south-east Asia, who
lent their support by both enlisting in the Indian National Army, as well as financially in
response to Bose's calls for sacrifice for the independence cause. INA had a separate
women's unit, the Rani of Jhansi Regiment (named after Rani Lakshmi Bai) headed by
Capt. Lakshmi Swaminathan, which is seen as a first of its kind in Asia.[116][117]
 Currency issued by the Azad Hind Bank with Bose's
portrait

Even when faced with military reverses, Bose was able to maintain support for the Azad
Hind movement. Spoken as a part of a motivational speech for the Indian National Army at a
rally of Indians in Burma on 4 July 1944, Bose's most famous quote was "Give me blood,
and I shall give you freedom!" In this, he urged the people of India to join him in his fight
against the British Raj.[citation needed] Spoken in Hindi, Bose's words are highly evocative.
The troops of the INA were under the aegis of a provisional government, the Azad Hind
Government, which came to produce its own currency, postage stamps, court and civil code,
and was recognised by nine Axis states—Germany, Japan, Italian Social Republic,
the Independent State of Croatia, Wang Jingwei regime in Nanjing, China, a provisional
government of Burma, Manchukuo and Japanese-controlled Philippines. Of those countries,
five were authorities established under Axis occupation. This government participated in the
so-called Greater East Asia Conference as an observer in November 1943.[118]

The INA's first commitment was in the Japanese thrust towards Eastern Indian frontiers
of Manipur. INA's special forces, the Bahadur Group, were involved in operations behind
enemy lines both during the diversionary attacks in Arakan, as well as the Japanese thrust
towards Imphal and Kohima.[119]

Bose speaking in Tokyo in 1943

The Japanese also took possession of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1942 and a year
later, the Provisional Government and the INA were established in the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands with Lt Col. A.D. Loganathan appointed its Governor General. The islands were
renamed Shaheed (Martyr) and Swaraj (Independence). However, the Japanese Navy
remained in essential control of the island's administration. During Bose's only visit to the
islands in early 1944, apparently in the interest of shielding Bose from attaining a full
knowledge of ultimate Japanese intentions, Bose's Japanese hosts carefully isolated him
from the local population. At that time the island's Japanese administration had been
torturing the leader of the island's Indian Independence League, Diwan Singh, who later
died of his injuries in the Cellular Jail. During Bose's visit to the islands several locals
attempted to alert Bose to Singh's plight, but apparently without success. During this time
Loganathan became aware of his lack of any genuine administrative control and resigned in
protest as Governor General, later returning to the Government's headquarters in Rangoon.
[120][121]

On the Indian mainland, an Indian Tricolour, modelled after that of the Indian National
Congress, was raised for the first time in the town of Moirang, in Manipur, in north-eastern
India. The adjacent towns of Kohima and Imphal were then encircled and placed under
siege by divisions of the Japanese Army, working in conjunction with the Burmese National
Army, and with Brigades of the INA, known as the Gandhi and Nehru Brigades. This attempt
at conquering the Indian mainland had the Axis codename of Operation U-Go.[citation
needed]

During this operation, on 6 July 1944, in a speech broadcast by the Azad Hind Radio from
Singapore, Bose addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the "Father of the Nation" and asked for his
blessings and good wishes for the war he was fighting. This was the first time that Gandhi
was referred to by this appellation.[122] The protracted Japanese attempts to take these
two towns depleted Japanese resources, with Operation U-Go ultimately proving
unsuccessful. Through several months of Japanese onslaught on these two towns,
Commonwealth forces remained entrenched in the towns. Commonwealth forces then
counter-attacked, inflicting serious losses on the Axis led forces, who were then forced into a
retreat back into Burmese territory. After the Japanese defeat at the battles of Kohima and
Imphal, Bose's Provisional Government's aim of establishing a base in mainland India was
lost forever.[citation needed]

Still the INA fought in key battles against the British Indian Army in Burmese territory,
notable in Meiktilla, Mandalay, Pegu, Nyangyu and Mount Popa. However, with the fall
of Rangoon, Bose's government ceased to be an effective political entity.[citation needed] A
large proportion of the INA troops surrendered under Lt Col Loganathan. The remaining
troops retreated with Bose towards Malaya or made for Thailand. Japan's surrender at the
end of the war also led to the surrender of the remaining elements of the Indian National
Army. The INA prisoners were then repatriated to India and some tried for treason.[citation
needed]