Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – ) also known as Netaji ( Hindi / Bengali : “ Respected Leader ” ) , was an Indian nationalist whose unsuccessful attempt in the waning years of World War II to liberate India militarily from British rule roused patriotic feelings in India . Earlier , Bose had been a leader of the younger , radical , wing of the Indian National Congress in the late 1920s and 1930s , rising to become Congress President from 1938 to 1939 . However , he was ousted from the Congress in 1939 following differences with the high command , and subsequently placed under house arrest by the British before escaping from India in early 1941 . He turned to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan for help in gaining India ' s independence by force . With Japanese support , he organised the Indian National Army , composed largely of Indian soldiers of the British Indian army who had been captured in the Battle of Singapore by the Japanese . As the war turned against them , the Japanese came to support a number of puppet and provisional governments in the captured regions , including those in Burma , the Philippines and Vietnam , and in addition , the Provisional Government of Azad Hind , presided by Bose . Bose ' s effort , however , was short lived . In 1945 the British army first halted and then reversed the Japanese U Go offensive , beginning the successful part of the Burma Campaign . Bose ' s Indian National Army was driven down the Malay Peninsula , and surrendered with the recapture of Singapore . Bose died soon thereafter from third degree burns received after attempting to escape in an overloaded Japanese plane which crashed in Taiwan , which many Indians believe did not happen , and many , especially in Bengal , believing that he would return to liberate India . The trials of the INA soldiers at Red Fort , Delhi , in late 1945 caused widespread public unrest in India . Early life . Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23 January 1897 ( at 12 . 10 pm ) in Cuttack , Orissa Division , Bengal Province , to Prabhavati Devi and Janakinath Bose , an advocate . He was the ninth child of a total of fourteen siblings . He was admitted to the Protestant European School like his other brothers and sisters in January , 1902 . He continued his studies at this school which was run by the Baptist Mission up to the year 1909 and then shifted to the Ravenshaw Collegiate School . The day Subhas was admitted to this school , Beni Madhav Das , the then Headmaster of the school , understood how brilliant and scintillating was the genius of this little boy . After securing the second position in the matriculation examination in 1913 , he got admitted to the Presidency College where he studied briefly . His nationalistic temperament came to light when he was expelled for assaulting Professor Oaten for the latter ' s anti - India comments . He later joined the Scottish Church College at the University of Calcutta and passed his B . A . in 1918 in philosophy . Bose left India in 1919 for England with a promise to his father that he would appear in the Indian Civil Services Examination ( ICS ) . He went to study in Fitzwilliam College , Cambridge , and matriculated on 19 November 1919 . He came fourth in the ICS examination and was selected but he did not want to work under an alien government which would mean serving the British . As he stood on the verge of taking the plunge by resigning from the Indian Civil Service in 1921 , he wrote to his elder brother Sarat : " Only on the soil of sacrifice and suffering can we raise our edifice " . Finally , he resigned from his civil service job on 23 April 1921 and returned to India . He started the newspaper " Swaraj " and took charge of publicity for the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee . His mentor was Chittaranjan Das who was a spokesman for aggressive nationalism in Bengal . In the year 1923 , Bose was elected the President of All India Youth Congress and also the Secretary of Bengal State Congress . He was also editor of the newspaper " Forward " , founded by Chittaranjan Das . Bose worked as the CEO of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation for Das when the latter was elected mayor of Calcutta in 1924 . In a roundup of nationalists in 1925 , Bose was arrested and sent to prison in Mandalay , where he contracted tuberculosis . National politics . Indian National Congress . In 1927 , after being released from prison , Bose became general secretary of the Congress party and worked with Jawaharlal Nehru for independence . Again Bose was arrested and jailed for civil disobedience ; this time he emerged to become Mayor of Calcutta in 1930 . 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 . By 1938 Bose had become a leader of national stature and agreed to accept nomination as Congress President . Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar known for his close friendship with Nethaji Subash Chandra Bose . 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 , splitting the Indian National Congress party . Bose attempted to maintain unity , but Gandhi advised Bose to form his own cabinet . The rift also divided Bose and Nehru . Bose appeared at the 1939 Congress meeting on a stretcher . He was elected president again over Gandhi ' s preferred candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya . U . Muthuramalingam Thevar strongly supported Bose in the intra - Congress dispute . Thevar mobilised all south India votes for Bose . 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 . All India Forward Bloc . On 22 June 1939 Bose organised the Forward Bloc , 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 When Subash 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 . He came to believe that a free India needed socialist authoritarianism , on the lines of Turkey ' s Kemal Atatürk , for at least two decades . Bose was refused permission by the British authorities to meet Atatürk at Ankara for political reasons . During his sojourn in England , only the Labour Party and Liberal politicians agreed to meet with Bose when he tried to schedule appointments . Conservative Party officials refused to meet Bose 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 ' Holwell Monument ' commemorating the Black Hole of Calcutta , which then stood at the corner of Dalhousie Square , to be removed . 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 . Escape from British India to Germany and Japan . Bose ' s arrest and subsequent release set the scene for his escape to 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 on the night of his escape , he dressed as a Pathan to avoid being identified . Bose escaped from under British surveillance at his house in Calcutta . On 19 January 1941 , accompanied by his nephew Sisir K . Bose in a car that is now on display at his Calcutta home . 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 . 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 Soviet Russia . 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 Germany . Once in Russia the NKVD transported Bose to Moscow where he hoped that Russia ' s traditional 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 favorable hearing from Joachim von Ribbentrop and the Foreign Ministry officials at the Wilhelmstrasse . In Germany , he instituted the Special Bureau for India under Adam von Trott zu Solz , broadcasting on the German - sponsored Azad Hind Radio . 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 abrogates 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 . 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 turned his back on his legionnaires and slipped secretly away aboard a submarine bound for Japan . This left the men he had recruited leaderless and demoralised in Germany . Bose lived in Berlin from 1941 until 1943 . During his earlier visit to Germany in 1934 , he had met Emilie Schenkl , the daughter of an Austrian veterinarian whom he married in 1937 . Their daughter is Anita Bose Pfaff . Bose ' s party , the Forward Bloc , has contested this fact . In 1943 , After being disillusioned that Germany could be of any help in liberating India , he 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 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 . Leadership of Azad Hind Fauj and later events . The Indian National Army ( INA ) was originally founded by Captain General Mohan Singh in Singapore on 1 September 1942 with Japan ' s Indian POWs in the Far East . This was along the concept of — and with support of — what was then known as the Indian Independence League , headed by expatriate nationalist leader Rash Behari Bose . The first INA was however disbanded in December 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 . According to author Richard Aldrich : Despite the systematic attempts of the Japanese , Germans and others to destroy archives , these field security teams had some notable successes in apprehending suspects and in securing material evidence , especially in Singapore ( see plate 20 ) . Mountbatten noted in his diary on 13 September 1945 that security services had captured a set of the ' most revolting pictures ' showing the fate of some of the Indians who refused to join with Chandra Bose and the INA : ' The first photo shows two dozen Indian soldiers kneeling upright in front of the graves they had dug , with their eyes bandaged . . . in the last photo one can see the Japanese soldiers finishing off the living with a bayonet . ' However , the idea of a liberation 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 national 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 . 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 . 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 , Italy , the Independent State of Croatia , Wang Jingwei regime in Nanjing , China , a provisional government of Burma , Manchukuo and Japanese - controlled Philippines . Recent researches have shown that the USSR too had diplomatic contact with the " Provisional Government of Free India " . 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 . The INA ' s first commitment was in the Japanese thrust towards Eastern Indian frontiers of Manipur . INA ' s special forces , the Bahadur Group , were extensively involved in operations behind enemy lines both during the diversionary attacks in Arakan , as well as the Japanese thrust towards Imphal and Kohima , along with the Burmese National Army led by Ba Maw and Aung San . 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 , when he was carefully screened , by the Japanese authorities , from the local population who at that time were torturing the leader of the Indian Independence League on the Islands , Dr . Diwan Singh , who later died of his injuries , in the Cellular Jail . The islanders made several attempts to alert Bose to their plight , but apparently without success . Enraged with the lack of administrative control , Lt . Col Loganathan later relinquished his authority and returned to the Government ' s headquarters in Rangoon . On the Indian mainland , an Indian Tricolour , modelled after that of the Indian National Congress , was raised for the first time in the town in Moirang , in Manipur , in north - eastern India . The towns of Kohima and Imphal were placed under siege by divisions of the Japanese , Burmese and the Gandhi and Nehru Brigades of INA during the attempted invasion of India , also known as Operation U - GO . However , Commonwealth forces held both positions and then counter - attacked , in the process inflicting serious losses on the besieging forces , which were then forced to retreat back into Burma . When Japanese funding for the army diminished , Bose was forced to raise taxes on the Indian populations of Malaysia and Singapore . When the Japanese were defeated at the battles of Kohima and Imphal , the Provisional Government ' s aim of establishing a base in mainland India was lost forever . The INA was forced to pull back , along with the retreating Japanese army , and fought in key battles against the British Indian Army in its Burma campaign , 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 . 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 eventual surrender of the Indian National Army , when the troops of the British Indian Army were repatriated to India and some tried for treason . 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 . His most famous quote / slogan was " Give me blood and I will give you freedom " . Another famous quote was " Dilli Chalo " ( " On to Delhi ) ! " This was the call he used to give the INA armies to motivate them . " Jai Hind " , or , " Glory to India ! " was another slogan used by him and later adopted by the Government of India and the Indian Armed Forces . Another slogan coined by him was " Ittefaq , Etemad , Qurbani " ( Urdu for " Unity , Agreement , Sacrifice " ) . INA also used the slogan Inquilab Zindabad , which was coined by Maulana Hasrat Mohani . Ideology and philosophy . 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 , travelling 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 famous motto was : " " Give me blood and I will give you freedom " " . 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 - organised 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 realpolitik that guided his social and political choices . Political philosophy . Subhas Chandra Bose believed that the Bhagavad Gita was a great source of inspiration for the struggle against the British . Swami Vivekananda ' s teachings on universalism , his nationalist thoughts and his emphasis on social service and reform had all inspired Subhas Chandra Bose from his very young days . The fresh interpretation of the India ' s ancient scriptures had appealed immensely to him . Many scholars believe that Hindu spirituality formed the essential part of his political and social thought throughout his adult life , although there was no sense of bigotry or orthodoxy in it . Subhas who called himself a socialist , believed that socialism in India owed its origins to Swami Vivekananda . As historian Leonard Gordon explains " Inner religious explorations continued to be a part of his adult life . This set him apart from the slowly growing number of atheistic socialists and communists who dotted the Indian landscape . " . Bose ' s correspondence ( prior to 1939 ) reflects his deep disapproval of the racist practices of , and annulment of democratic institutions in Nazi Germany . However , he expressed admiration for the authoritarian methods ( though not the racial ideologies ) which he saw in Italy and Germany during the 1930s , and thought they could be used in building an independent India . Bose had clearly expressed his belief that democracy was the best option for India . The pro - Bose thinkers believe that his authoritarian control of the Azad Hind was based on political pragmatism and a post - colonial recovery doctrine rather than any anti - democratic belief . However , during the war ( and possibly as early as the 1930s ) , Bose seems to have decided that no democratic system could be adequate to overcome India ' s poverty and social inequalities , and he wrote that a socialist state similar to that of Soviet Russia ( which he had also seen and admired ) would be needed for the process of national re - building . Accordingly , some suggest that Bose ' s alliance with the Axis during the war was based on more than just pragmatism , and that Bose was a militant nationalist , though not a Nazi nor a Fascist , for he supported empowerment of women , secularism and other liberal ideas ; alternatively , others consider he might have been using populist methods of mobilisation common to many post - colonial leaders . Bose never liked the Nazis , but when he failed to contact the Russians for help in Afghanistan , he approached the Germans and Italians for help . His comment was that if he had to shake hands with the devil for India ' s independence he would do that . On 23 August 2007 , Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Subhas Chandra Bose memorial hall in Kolkata . Abe said to Bose ' s family " The Japanese are deeply moved by Bose ' s strong will to have led the Indian independence movement from British rule . Netaji is a much respected name in Japan . " However , in India , many believe that Bose was not given the due respect that he deserved . Infosys Technologies founder - chairman N . R . Narayana Murthy , delivering the annual Netaji oration , said , " We have not paid him due respect . It is time this is corrected . " Adding , " If only Netaji had participated in post - independence nation building . "