Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Story of the Real Hero of India
The Netaji's Azad Hind Fauj and the Independence of India.
I guarantee that if you read this article carefully, you will definitely get the goosebumps.
In 1956 when former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee visited India the then governor of Bengal asked him one important question, he asked that ‘after the quit India movement subsided in 1942 there were no significant freedom movements in India then in spite of having the opportunity to rule India why did the britishers leave’?
To which Clement Attlee said ‘That the role played by Netaji's Army (INA) was paramount in India being granted independence while the role played by the non-violent movement was dismissed as venable’ and this one statement of british PM itself is enough to question the version of history taught in our school textbooks, people as much as we've taught about so called legends like Mahatma Gandhi and the significant contribution of Satyagraha moment, we are knowingly or unknowingly not taught about the significant sacrifices made by Netaji and his Azad Hind Fauj.
In this article i’m going to dig into an important chapter of Indian history that has been erased from our history textbooks or perhaps not taught well enough and that is who was Netaji Subhas Chandra bose, what was this legend contribution towards the Independence struggle of our nation and most importantly how did his contribution give us freedom from the shackles of the britishers.
This is a story that dates back to 1897 India when Netaji was born this is when India was completely at the mercy of the colonial rulers and all thanks to their kindness India was sinking in poverty while on one side we were shipping premium goods made in India to the royal families in England (UK), here in India lakhs of Indians were starving to death because of famine. During this time very few families could actually afford a decent standard of living and fortunately Netaji's family was among these handful of people but as Netaji started growing he started noticing the atrocities caused by the britishers in India, he started noticing that these britishers came to our own motherland and had the audacity to put out boards outside hotels which said ‘Dogs and Indians are Not Allowed’.
He took them so personally that when he saw his college professor harass the Indian students he even slapped him for which he got rusticated from the Presidency College. After that Netaji's father sent him to london to study for ICS or the Indian Civil Services which was by far one of the toughest exams in the world, this exam was so tough that even the most brilliant students used to flunk in spite of studying for two years but Netaji was such a genius that he happened to clear the exam with just 6 months of study and this was baffling even for the britishers who held these exams but as soon as he was offered the job he rejected it and returned back to India, because he believed that in spite of knowing the fact that his motherland was in trouble in spite of seeing the pathetic condition of people in India it would be wrong for him to turn his back on his motherland while she was crying for help. This is when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose left london and came to India and joined Gandhi Ji and his team to fight for India and this is what marked the beginning of Netaji's freedom struggle and within just a few months because of his charismatic personality and brilliant political acumen he began climbing the ladders of Indian National Congress more quickly than anyone else. Netaji became so popular that in the presidential elections of the Indian National Congress he ended up defeating Dr.Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayyawho was backed by Gandhi ji himself but as we all know Netaji and Gandhi ji had different ideologies, Gandhi Ji was all about seeking independence through so called non-violence whereas Netaji believed that independence is not something that you request for it's something that you fight and snatch from the rulers or in hindi as they say ‘आज़ादी मांगी नहीं छीनी जाती है’, but as we all know that is something that they both never came to terms with and as time passed Netaji realized that he cannot drive the people of congress against Gandhi ji's ideologies, so in 1939 in spite of being the president he resigned from congress and left as a lone wolf to find another way to free India and this is where the historic journey of Netaji began.
Historic Journey of Neta Ji
Now by this time World War Two had started on one side while Hitler was ravaging through europe on the other side the Japanese did not just dominate Asia but also started preparing to wage a war against the United States itself and Hitler had caused so much damage that let alone colonies the britishers are almost on the words of losing their own country and this is where Netaji saw an opportunity, he saw that in the race of fighting the Nazis and Japanese the british army was spread all across the world because of which in India only the upper management of the army were britishers whereas the entire frontline army had only Indian soldiers and as far as my research is concerned the numbers say that while there were 40000 (Forty Thousand) british soldiers in India we had 25 lakh front line Indian soldiers and Netaji thought if he could somehow get those 25 lakh soldiers to revolt, the britishers will have no other option but to leave india but in order to make that happen the soldiers needed a big push that could form the rebellion and this is where Netaji's international relations strategy paid off. He realized that since the Japanese, Germans and the Russians (Soviets) were the enemies of the british raj they would be more inclined to help him out so on 17th.January.1941 at 1:30 am Netaji disguised as a pathan and went from India to Afghanistan and from Afghanistan to Russia and when the Russians did not help him out he went to Germany and that is where he meet Adolf Hitler but after some time he realized that Hitler was not in a position to help him out so he finally comes to Japan, ‘now read this very very carefully’ the situation with the japanese was that they anyways wanted to attack the britishers. In the battle of Singapore in 1942 less than 10000 Japanese troops defeated and took 64000 british soldiers as prisoners of war then out of these 64000 soldiers close to 40000 soldiers were Indian soldiers who were fighting on behalf of the british raj and these japanese were so smart that they thought instead of sending their own army to defeat the british raj in India why not send these Indian soldiers as a separate army unit to fight the britishers in India, so they found an army unit out of them and recruited Captain Mohan Singh as the in-charge of the army and this army was called as the Indian National Army or The Azad Hind Fauj but the problem with this army was that the soldiers had completely lost their motivation because they almost felt like scapegoat were being used for the greed of power and this is where Netaji came in as he took control of the Azad Hind Fauj in 1943, he started delivering speeches to motivate the soldiers and established a purpose for them that is to free India from the british raj, he sits with them he eats with them and he reinstated the lost patriotism in the soldiers.
This is when in one of the iconic speeches Netaji uttered the words that will echo through the tunnels of time forever when he said 'Tum Mujhe Khoon Do Mai Tumhe Aazadi Dunga' and because of this infectious enthusiasm the Indian National Army was ready to fight with the strength of 40000 soldiers and one of these regiments was the Rani of Jhansi Regiment which was an all women regiment, this is where Netaji found three incredible commanders whose name were Prem Kumar Sahgal, Shah Nawaz Khan and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and these three commanders took the Indian National Army all the way from Singapore to Myanmar and from Myanmar to Kohima and from Kohima to Impal and here's where they encountered the british army which by the way was full of Indian soldiers so practically two armies of Indians were firing at each other while the britishers let them die in the hands of their own brothers and unfortunately the british army ruthlessly defeated the Azad Hind Fauj within some time the Japanese also surrendered and to make matters worse news came out saying Netaji had died in a plane crash (that's a whole different topic) and while the nation was mourning the loss of this legend something crazy happened as it turns out until this point nobody in India knew that the Indian National Army was formed by Netaji and the fact that they were coming to India not to fight for the Japanese but for the freedom of India herself and this was because the britishers very cleverly censored the press because they knew that if indians came to know that an entire army is coming to fight for them these 25 lakh soldiers will start revolting and the rebellion will go out of control but now that they had complete control of the prisoners they made one very big mistake the britishers thought about launching a psychological attack on the Indians and they wanted to set an example to show us what could happen to us if we revolted against the britishers so they decided to conduct a public trial on the three commanders of Netaji who were Sahgal,Nawaza and Gurbaksh and this trial is known as The Red Fort trial which was held in November 1945 where these three commanders were about to be given a harsh punishment so that no Indian ever dares to stand against the britishers and it was marketed through press almost as if it was an invitation for a sensational event but you know what - what followed next was a catastrophe beyond their imagination as it turns out because of this marketing of the Red Fort Trial everybody in India came to know about the Azad Hind Fauj and the fact that Netaji had formed this army to free India from the british raj and guess what just like Netaji strategized the moment the Indian soldiers in the british army came to know about the Indian National Army all these soldiers including the Navy started revolting and as the news spread it started snowballing into a rebellion that the britishers had never seen before, lakhs of people took to the streets, thousands of people started marching with Netaji's photo and some of them directly started beating up the british army and police even the british Indian army and navy started protesting with Netaji's photo this event is famously knows as the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny 1946.
Further more hundreds of people gathered in front of the Red Fort and started screaming slogans like ‘Hindustan Ki Ek Aawaz Sahgal Dhillon Shahnawaj’, ‘40 Crore Ki Ek Aawaz Sahgal Dhillon Shahnawaj’ and just like Netaji thought when 25 Lakh Indian soldiers started uniting against a major 40000 british officers the britishers saw no other option but to retract and this panic had such a ripple effect that within no time in 1946 a cabinet mission is set up which stated the transfer of power interim government is formed and on 20th February 1947 the british Prime Minister Clement Attlee declared that the britishers would quit india by June 1948, therefore the Red Fort Trial was one of the most crucial events in Indian history because of which we got our independence on 15th of august 1947.
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This is that one important chapter in history that is usually not covered elaborately in history textbooks and you know what the most disturbing fact of all is that after Pt.Nehru took charge the last wiser of India that is Lord Mountbattenn he did not even allow the INA soldiers to be a part of the Indian Army and they did not get any recognition and even their families did not get pensions until the 1970s.
This is the story of the unsung heroes of our independence now whether this important story of the Red Ford Trial is deliberately not taught to us or is coincidentally overlooked i don't know but what i know for sure is that every Indian must be taught about these important lessons of our nation so that we value and recognize the contributions of those heroes who shed their blood for the Independence.
But the freedom we got is not the freedom that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose wanted.
The freedom we got is not the freedom for which Netaji Bose fought with the British.
क़दम क़दम बढ़ाये जा
ख़ुशी के गीत गाये जा
ये ज़िंदगी है क़ौम की
तू क़ौम पे लुटाये जा
Thank You.
Jai Hind.
Purvam Tomer, OSCP Hacker & Geopolitics Enthusiast.