Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
(Freedom Fighters)
23-1-1897

About
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was born on January 23, 1897 to Janaki Nath Bose (a famous lawyer) and his mother Prabhavati Devi (a devout and religious lady) at Odia bazaar of Cuttack district OOdisha. In the year 1902, when he was only 5 year old, he got admission in Cuttack Protestant School and then he started his educational career. In the year 1909 he got admission in Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Cuttack. In 1913, he started his higher secondary educational academic career in Presidency College, Calcutta.

Activities
Netaji formed the Indian National Army (I.N.A) on 21st October 1943. He is remembered for his Salutation and slogan of 'Jai Hind'. The famous words of Subash Chandra Bose "Give me blood, I will give you freedom" encouraged the freedom fighters. Bose worked as the CEO of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation for Das when the latter was elected mayor of Calcutta in 1924. The West Bengal government decided in 2011 to observe Bose's birth anniversay (23 January) as Desh Prem Divas which means Day of Patriotism.Though the Forward Bloc requested the Indian government to declare Bose's birth anniversay as Desh Prem Divas at a national level, the government did not approve of it, citing that– "Many eminent personalities took part in the freedom struggle of India and the immense contribution made by them cannot be judged relatively. If at all a day is to be declared as Desh Prem Divas, it does not appear to be appropriate to be so declared on the birth anniversary of any particular personality. Even the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi has not been declared as any special day relating to the freedom movement of India.

Role In Society
Bose advocated complete unconditional independence for India, whereas the All-India Congress Committee wanted it in phases, through Dominion status. Finally at the historic Lahore Congress convention, the Congress adopted Purna Swaraj (complete independence) as its motto. Gandhi was given rousing receptions wherever he went after Gandhi-Irwin pact. Subhas Chandra Bose, traveling with Gandhi in these travels, later wrote that the great enthusiasm he saw among the people enthused him tremendously and that he doubted if any other leader anywhere in the world received such a reception as Gandhi did during these travels across the country. He was imprisoned and expelled from India. Defying the ban, he came back to India and was imprisoned again. Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress for two consecutive terms, but had to resign from the post following ideological conflicts with Mohandas K. Gandhi and after openly attacking the Congress' foreign and internal policies. Bose believed that Gandhi's tactics of non-violence would never be sufficient to secure India's independence, and advocated violent resistance. He established a separate political party, the All India Forward Bloc and continued to call for the full and immediate independence of India from British rule. He was imprisoned by the British authorities eleven times. His stance did not change with the outbreak of the Second World War, which he saw as an opportunity to take advantage of British weakness. At the outset of the war, he left India, travelling to the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, seeking an alliance with each of them to attack the British government in India. With Imperial Japanese assistance, he re-organized and later led the Azad Hind Fauj or Indian National Army (INA), formed with Indian prisoners-of-war and plantation workers from British Malaya, Singapore, and other parts of Southeast Asia, against British forces. With Japanese monetary, political, diplomatic and military assistance, he formed the Azad Hind Government in exile, and regrouped and led the Indian National Army in failed military campaigns against the allies at Imphal and in Burma. His political views and the alliances he made with Nazi and other militarist regimes at war with Britain have been the cause of arguments among historians and politicians, with some accusing him of fascist sympathies, while others in India have been more sympathetic towards the real politic that guided his social and political choices. It is also believed among a section of people in India that if Subhas Chandra Bose could win the freedom of India himself the face of today's Indian sub-continent would have been different.