Subhas Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose was born on January 23, 1897, in Cuttack, in present-day Odisha, India. He came from a prominent Bengali family and received his early education in Cuttack before studying at Presidency College and Scottish Church College in Calcutta. He later went to England and studied at the University of Cambridge, where he prepared for the Indian Civil Service examination. He passed the examination but chose to resign from the service in 1921 and return to India to participate in the independence movement.

After returning to India, Bose became involved in the Indian National Congress and worked closely with Chittaranjan Das in Bengal. He was repeatedly imprisoned by the British authorities because of his political activities. During the late 1920s and 1930s, he emerged as one of the prominent younger leaders of the Congress and advocated complete independence from British rule.

Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress at the Haripura session in 1938 and was re-elected in 1939. His political differences with Mahatma Gandhi and other Congress leaders included disagreements over strategy, the pace of independence, and the approach to the emerging Second World War. Bose resigned as Congress president in 1939 and subsequently founded the All India Forward Bloc.

In 1941, Bose escaped from house arrest in India and eventually reached Germany. During World War II, he sought international support for India's independence, including from Germany and Japan. In 1943, he travelled to Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia and took leadership of the Indian National Army, also known as the Azad Hind Fauj.

Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India, or Azad Hind, in October 1943. Under his leadership, the INA fought alongside Japanese forces against British and Allied forces in Burma and northeastern India. The INA's military campaign ultimately failed after Japanese forces were defeated, but the organization became an important part of the historical memory of India's independence struggle.

Bose's wartime alliances remain an important subject of historical discussion because he sought assistance from the Axis powers, including Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, in his campaign against British rule. Historians have differed in their interpretations of his political strategy, his international alliances, and their implications.

Bose is generally reported to have died on August 18, 1945, after an aircraft accident in Japanese-controlled Taiwan. The circumstances surrounding his death have remained controversial, and India's Ministry of Culture notes that the exact circumstances have not been definitively resolved.