Talk:Subhas Chandra Bose/Archive 4

This is an archive of past discussions about Subhas Chandra Bose. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

Archive 5

Semi-protected edit request on 1 July 2022

This edit request to Subhas Chandra Bose has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Srijitaaaaa (talk) 20:29, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

I want to edit the article

You can edit this and other semiprotected articles when you account becomes autoconfirmed, which usually happens when the account is at least four days old and you have at least 10 edits. RudolfRed (talk) 20:48, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

Srijitaaaaa: Please read Death of Subhas Chandra Bose and read it very carefully before you make any edits in this article related to Bose's death. He died of third-degree burns in a plane crash in Taipei airport Taiwan on August 18, 1945. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 07:55, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Remove the so-called Death date of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

There is no irrefutable proof of Bose's death in the so-called air crash of 18th August 1945. In a news published by the National Republic on September 1956, they said:

"Government and the People of the USA don't believe the so-called death of Chandra Bose in the reported plane crash. Moreover, some people had seen him after the incident with a field nurse. There is every possibility that Bose is alive."

If you talk about Government documents, Check File No. (PMO)/870/11/P/16/92-POL in the National Archives of India. The Govt. file is telling that Bose gave three radio speeches after the so-called death.

In 1999, the Mukherjee Commission was founded to look into the death of Netaji. Justice Manoj Mukherjee led it, and the conclusion of their investigation confirmed what the public had speculated for years that Subhas Chandra Bose did not die in a plane crash, and the ashes in the Japanese temple is not his. If you want those reports, let me know. I shall give it.

And, let's talk about Prof. Gordon. If you believe Prof. Gordon, You must have to believe others. Writers like Keshab Bhattacharya, Jayanta Choudhuri, Maj Gen (Retd.) GD Bakshi and various other renowned researchers and editors, clearly told that There was no air crash at Taihoku Airport on 18th August 1945 and Bose didn't die in the plane crash.

Check the News of Indian Newspaper "Hindustan Times" dated March 04, 2001. This is telling that Bose was in Russia after the so-called air crash and death.

Moreover, there is no proof of any plane crash at Taihoku airport on August 18, 1945, and no documentary evidence such as a medical certificate, a cremation certificate, plane crash records, etc are available.

Colonel Nizamuddin, a 102-year-old man in 2006, also claimed that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose did not die in an air crash on August 18, 1945. "Netaji was not on the plane that crashed in Taipei in 1945, as he changed his plans to board aircraft at the last minute. He was not killed in the crash, but died a few years ago as Gumnami Baba in Faizabad," claimed Nizamuddin, the driver-cum-bodyguard of Netaji in the INA (PTI, May 17, 2006). He also claimed that he met Netaji and his brother Sarat Chandra Bose in 1946 over a bridge on a river in Thailand. He backed the Mukerjee Commission findings and said, "He (Netaji) did not die in the air crash. The plane did not carry him, but instead had on board Captain Ekram, Lal Singh, a Bengali soldier and a woman, all AHF members, besides two to three Japanese."

Do you need any more evidence to remove the so-called death date of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose? — Preceding unsigned comment added by BadhanDharBN (talk • contribs) 08:13, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes we do, and shouting in capitals and stamping your foot won't persuade others to agree or help you find it. Britmax (talk) 11:19, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

I'm not shouting at you. You are repeatedly wanting "Proof" on behalf of the claims that Netaji Bose didn't die on 18th August 1945. You have to understand that Subhas Chandra Bose is the national hero of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. He is the bravest son of the Indian Subcontinent. So, it is not possible to allow to spread of hoaxes related to Bose.

Would You Need More Evidence? If Yes, let me know. I will provide you. Otherwise, Remove this wrong date from Wikipedia. BadhanDharBN (talk) 12:59, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

"I'm not shouting at you." Look around at some internet etiquette guides. If you write in block capitals then yes, you are. Britmax (talk) 13:03, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Fine, I'm editing this comment. I didn't have the wish to shout on you. I didn't know about that guideline, sorry. BadhanDharBN (talk) 13:05, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Let me prove you wrong. In Wikipedia, There is a reference to 5 books for declaring Mr. Bose is dead on 18th August 1945. But, it is not correct to conclude every book as Right. I also gave you the reference of various renowned writers. More specifically, Now I'm giving you some of the book's names on behalf of my claim:

1) Chakrabuhye Netaji, Writer: Keshab Bhattacharya

2) Khama Karo Subhas, Writer: Dr. Jayanta Choudhuri

3) Netaji Gelen Kothay, Writer: Dr. Jayanta Choudhuri

4) Bose: The Indian Samurai - Netaji and the INA A Military Assessment, writer: Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Gagandeep Bakshi

5) Bose: The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist, Writer: Chandrachur Ghose

6) Conundrum, Writer: Anuj Dhar & Chandrachur Ghose

7) What Happened to Netaji, Writer: Anuj Dhar

Now, I have given the reference of 7 books in the opposite to 5 books.

Would you please remove it now? BadhanDharBN (talk) 13:13, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for your apology regarding shouting. However, this is not a situation where one person with seven books somehow "scores" higher than someone with five. The books, and any sources quoted, have to be of sufficient quality to be reliable by the standards we hold to here. Editors with a great deal more knowledge of the situation than I have say that Bose died in an accident in 1944. I cannot change that against them, and they will be the ones assessing your claims. Sorry. Britmax (talk) 17:24, 20 March 2022 (UTC).

What types of proof Do I need to submit in case of removing the Misinformation? BadhanDharBN (talk) 09:27, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

@BadhanDharBN: See WP:HSC for how scholarly publications in history are typically evaluated. At a quick glance I don't think any of '7 books' you list would qualify . Abecedare (talk) 19:23, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

@BadhanDharBN: Leonard A. Gordon, whose Wikipedia page I might have created, and whose definitive biography of Bose I have read with great pleasure, gives detailed evidence of the interviews he conducted with the Japanese surgeon, the male nurses, and with Col. Habibur Rahman who were present in the fateful ward in Taihoku General Hospital where and when Bose died.

Rahman, who was badly injured himself is the only reason that Bose survived for the few hours he did; without Rahman, Bose would have been incinerated in the burning bomber like the Japanese general Tsunamasa Shidei who out of great sympathy and charity for Bose agreed to take Bose and his heavy luggage on board an already overloaded and malfunctioning bomber. Rahman carried burn scars on his arms and legs long after the plane crash. They were visible to all during the Shahnawaz Committee hearings 1956 at which Rahman gave testimony, traveling for the occasion to India from Pakistan to which he had moved after the Partition of India.

The families of Shidei and other Japanese who perished in the plane crash commemorate their deaths every year on 18 August. The Japanese who attended on Bose, part of an immaculately meticulous culture— but which we shouldn't forget had also inflicted great cruelty on all its enemies and subject peoples during the second world war— displayed some of that same meticulousness during their treatment of the dying Bose, even during those chaotic days at the end of the second world war (which Gordon has recorded).

Major historians of the war in Asia, such as Christopher Bayly state that Bose died from third-degree burns on that day. Major historians of modern South Asia such as Barbara D. Metcalf, Thomas R. Metcalf and Stanley Wolpert consider Bose to have died on that day. Bose's own daughter and close surviving family are now certain he died in the plane crash. Although this does not count for Wikipedia evidence, I have personally interviewed aged Indians who as children in middle-school in Calcutta in August 1945 had seen girls from Bose's family who were their classmates come barefoot to school in ritual observance of his death. Let me respectfully suggest that by continuing to resurrect tired old conspiracy theories promoted by the talking heads of today, you are disrespecting all who played any tangible role in Bose's last years. I am not going to engage you in a spurious discussion, but I'm attempting to give you a feel for the knowledge of sources and access to resources I had brought to bear when I wrote the article Death of Subhas Chandra Bose many years ago. Best regards, Fowler&fowler «Talk» 19:31, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

There is lots of proof about Bose's appearance in South-East Asia and the USSR after 18th August 1945. BadhanDharBN (talk) 09:28, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

You are also egregiously disrespecting Bose, for character flaws he might have had aplenty, but lack of courage was not one of them. He is hardly the person who would have chosen the life of a hermit in the Himalayas, pussyfooting around authority and controversy, and away from the very people he had loved such as his companion Emilie Schenkl, his daugher Anita Bose Pfaff, and his brother Sarat Chandra Bose, who had offered him refuge in what must have been very difficult times. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 20:16, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Yeah, yeah. You are the only person who "respects" Bose by spreading the false death and marriage of Bose.

How will you feel If anyone spread your false death and marriage news when you are alive and unmarried? Just think about it and then you possibly can feel how much disrespect Bose is feeling in the name of so-called respect. BadhanDharBN (talk) 09:31, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

The oldest living man on earth is 112 years old (see List of the verified oldest people) Bose, if alive would be 125-years old. Please write to the Guiness Book and record his age. Your work on Wikipedia is over. If you persist in trolling here, I will make sure you are banned. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 11:33, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

In where I have told that Bose is alive? I have told you and others, responsible persons, to remove the controversial death date of Bose.

And, are you threatening me in the name of banning? I'm telling you one quote of Bose:

"One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself into a thousand lives."

There is something called Freedom of Speech. You are denying my proof without any reason! What kind of proof do you want? Documents of Indian Government? Documents of the French Secret Service, British & US Secret Service? Just let me know. I shall submit these proofs here. BadhanDharBN (talk) 12:06, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Indian Government repeatedly telling that they have no stand regarding the death of Subhas Chandra Bose and they have no irrefutable proof which concludes that Bose had died in the reported plane crash on 18th August 1945.

You have been declaring that Bose died on 18th August 1945 on the basis of a book written by Leonard Gordon. If you consider Leonard Gordon a specialist for Bose, then you also have to consider Dr. Jayanta Choudhury as a specialist researcher for Bose because he is a Ph.D. on Bose from Kolkata University (India). BadhanDharBN (talk) 12:10, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

You aren't even telling me that which type of proofs do I need to submit to remove the death date of Bose!!!

Have you the will and guts to remove the death date of Bose (from Wikipedia) on basis of evidence?

There are newspaper cuttings (from renowned newspapers of India), Verdict of Mukherjee Commission (which was formed by Govt. of India to solve the disappearance mystery of Bose), Various popular books (written by popular authors), and most importantly, Intelligence report of the Government of India, Government of French and Some other countries including the USA and UK (these reports are quoted from the files declassified by Govt. of India) which is telling that there is no IRREFUTABLE proof that Bose had died on 18th August 1945.

Wikipedia should be a clear and trustable website for people of all walks. It shouldn't deliver misinformations.

Wikipedia is losing its quality for spreading misinformation in the name of Bose.

So, please take all the necessary steps to remove the wrong death date of Bose. If you need more proof, let me know and I shall deliver it to you. BadhanDharBN (talk) 12:24, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

This discussion is veering into the personal and unhelpful. Unless BadhanDharBN has other sources of comparable reliability (by wikipedia's standards) to those already used in the article that we need to discuss, we can end the debate here. Abecedare (talk) 11:39, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Fine. Then just let me know which types of proof do you want to make the change. BadhanDharBN (talk) 12:25, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

As I mentioned in my previous post: see WP:HSC for the type of sources that would help move the discussion forward. Abecedare (talk) 12:28, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

"What type of discussion" means? If talking against injustice and misinformation is a "personal matter", then declare Wikipedia as an autocratic website.

You must have to remove information if the information is proved as wrong information. I already gave you various types of information but you are denying removing the misinformation related to Bose. If you have a problem with my information, then let me know which types of information do you need to remove the misinformation. I'm agreed to give any kind of information (including the answer of Govt. of India regarding the Death of Bose on 18th August 1945). BadhanDharBN (talk) 15:21, 23 March 2022 (UTC)

Do you know that a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed on Indian High Court (Calcutta High Court) for knowing whether Bose is dead or alive? The case filling number is WPA(328)/2021. If the Government of India is sure about the death of Bose in the reported plane crash, then the PIL would not be accepted. BadhanDharBN (talk) 15:25, 23 March 2022 (UTC)

It appears that the matter was concluded as an instruction to hurry up, no "accepting". "Keeping in view the difficulties expressed by respondents as well as the suffering of the petitioner due to the long pendency of the appeal, WPA 328 of 2021 is disposed of by directing respondent no.2 to dispose of the said appeal of the petitioner under the Bengal Excise Act, 1909, as referred to in the present writ petition, as expeditiously as possible, positively within May 31, 2021." See Sanjoy Saha vs The State Of West Bengal And Others on 5 March, 2021 PS: apologies, I forgot to sign. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 21:51, 23 March 2022 (UTC)

Then you are aware that the death date of Bose is controversial. Then why you are declaring Bose dead when you know it is controversial and you or no other parties have no irrefutable proof about this claim? Please take steps to remove it or at least add controversial signs with the date. BadhanDharBN (talk) 09:22, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

I agree with the removal of Netaji's so called death date. He was not died in plane crash on 18th August 1945. Instead he used to spent his life as Gumnami baba or parda baba or Bhagwanji. We should respect him and remove the false information of his death and his marriage. He never married to a German woman. The woman who claimed herself as Netaji's daughter, totally lied. Srijitaaaaa (talk) 20:38, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

The death of Shri Subhash Chandra Bose is very controversial, these perverted editors are repeatedly presenting Wikipedia with Netaji's fake death.

The Mukherjee Commission has already proved that there was no plane crash at that place in 1945 on that day.

Someone threatened to block me from Wikipedia. To that man I say Ah welcome, you rogue capitalist flatterer do whatever you want Abcd amureet (talk) 11:54, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Netaji's self-proclaimed ideology in his autobiography, speeches and interviews.

If it is edited by revealing the truth, it is deleted. I added some points with very reliable sources and archives and own autobiography of the personality. But the biased editors who don't want to reveal the truth have deleted it. want justice. Abcd amureet (talk) 04:02, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

Either delete the "ideology" part or let the truth be written.

In an interview with R. Palme Dutt in 1938, four years after the publication of his autobiography Indian Struggle, Bose announced his philosophical line; “… I have always understood and am quite satisfied that Communism, as it has been expressed in the writings of Marx and Lenin and in the official statements of policy of the Communist International, gives full support to the struggle for national independence and recognises this as an integral part of its world outlook.”^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Bose's correspondence (prior to 1939) reflects his disapproval of the racist practices and annulment of democratic institutions in Nazi Germany: "Today I regret that I have to return to India with the conviction that the new nationalism of Germany is not only narrow and selfish but arrogant."^[6] However, he expressed admiration for the authoritarian methods which he saw in Italy and Germany during the 1930s; he thought they could be used to build an independent India but later admitted that his previous assessment of fascism was fundamentally wrong.^[7]

Bose had clearly expressed his belief that democracy was the best option for India.^[8] 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.^[a]^[9] 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 the empowerment of women, secularism and socialist ideas; alternatively, others consider he might have been using populist methods of mobilisation common to many post-colonial leaders.^[7] Abcd amureet (talk) 04:09, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

As a true socialist, he wanted to free the peasants and workers from exploitation. While inspecting the objectives of the "Samyabadi Sangha" literally meaning 'Communist Union', he said: "We stand for the interests of the people, the peasants, the workers, but not for the interests of the landlords, the capitalists and the moneylenders."

Sources https://archive.thestatesman.com/?p=1481230319

https://magazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/jan2004/englishpdf/chapter1.pdf Abcd amureet (talk) 04:12, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

Fowler&fowler reply Abcd amureet (talk) 04:15, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

Abcd amureet, I saw the recent edits you made to the article (that Fowler&fowler reverted) and I too had concerns about the (1) sourced content that you deleted, and (2) possible synthesis based on primary sources (i.e., quotes by SCB). In your above comment too, I am unclear about which part is your own analysis and which part reflects the analysis of the sources you are citing. It would help if you could slow down, specify a particular change you are proposing, and provide the relevant citation (and source quotes, if needed) that support that change. Abecedare (talk) 14:45, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

References

[1]
Ghosh, Ratna (2006). Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Indian Freedom Struggle: Subhas Chandra Bose : his ideas and vision. Deep and Deep Publications. ISBN 978-81-7629-843-8.
[2]
Bose 2006, p. 399.
[3]
Mukherjee, Rudrangshu (2015-09-15). Nehru and Bose: Parallel Lives. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-93-5118-849-0.
[4]
DEY, MITHUN (2016-01-28). "Netaji: The Leftist Intellectual?". www.thecitizen.in. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
[5]
Bose, Subhas Chandra (1997-10-09). The Indian Struggle, 1920-1942. OUP India/Netaji Research Bureau. ISBN 978-0-19-564149-3.
[6]
Bose to Dr. Thierfelder of the Deutsche Academie, Kurhaus Hochland, Badgastein, 25 March 1936 Bose & Bose 1997a, p. 155
[7]
Sen 1999.
[8]
Roy 2004, pp. 7–8.
[9]
Bose & Bose 1997a, pp. 319–20.

Prior to my edit, it was written that Netaji considered the synthesis of communism and fascism to be the ultimate philosophical ideal. The fact is, however, that in 1938, he explained his full ideological views and resolved all the confusion with his ideology in an interview with Rajini Palme Dutt, which was published in the Daily Worker. This interview is very famous. I added some more such information with reference and reliable sources of Mr. Subhas Basu's own statement, which was not tolerated by Fowler. And I also inform you I have reverted the edit. Now explain which sources are not reliable; Netaji's own written autobiography "The India Struggle"? Abcd amureet (talk) 17:05, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

Dear @Abcd amureet:

Although I am sure you know this, The Indian Struggle is not Bose's autobiography, but a history of the Indian nationalist movement from his viewpoint, and a beautiful book. It still makes me nostalgic for something I can't put my finger on, ... the interwar years perhaps, historically. It was written, as you must know, in Austria in the mid-1930s with the help of Emilie Schenkl, with whom he later had a daughter during his second extended stay in Europe from 1941 to 1943, during which he wrote the second part of the book. Gandhi had encouraged Bose to take the mid 1930s break abroad after Bose had expressed feelings of general exhaustion.

Bose was a hero to many, not only many in Bengal, not only the POWs of the British Indian Army taken by Japan after the Battle of Singapore (1941) who had joined the first INA, but also the thousands of young men and women (mostly Tamil) volunteers from Malaya and Singapore in the second INA who heeded Bose's call and enlisted in 1943 after Bose's arrival in Singapore. Both the Japanese and the INA suffered terribly during the long withdrawal in late 1944 and early 1945 through Burma, nearly half dying under harsh circumstances, before the survivors surrendered to the British in Singapore in August 1945. Bose was a major Indian nationalist, a complex man, a driven man, but human with strengths and flaws. Wikipedia has to be neutral in a scholarly manner about all aspect of Bose's biography.

Although I am an admirer of Palme-Dutt and the British communists of that period as well, neither his interview nor Bose's history is a reliable source for Wikipedia purposes.

If you read WP:RS and WP:SOURCETYPES you will see that modern scholarly sources are the best ones. May I point to Leonard A. Gordon's Brothers against the Raj, the definitive scholarly biography of Bose, in this regard? It has an extended description of Bose's stays in Austria and of the book. In addition the books of Marzia Casolari (2020) and Romain Hayes (2011) have substantial discussion of Bose's various relationships with Italian Fascism and German Nazism based on archival material in Europe. The books of Joyce Lebra give a perspective on Bose from the point of view of the Japanese.

Having said this, I should add: I have not taken a look at the ideology section. You might be correct about it needing improvement. Please give me a couple of days. I will get back to you here. Best regards, Fowler&fowler «Talk» 18:08, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

You made a couple of days into a couple of weeks… Abcd amureet (talk) 05:32, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

I apologize. I will take a look this week. Thanks for the reminder Fowler&fowler «Talk» 14:13, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

let's see it's the last day of the week As I won't be allowed to edit Take in more facts that are worth adding (1) "During all these years we have meant and explained by freedom-political freedom alone; but henceforth we have to declare that we do not want to liberate people merely from political bondage. We want to liberate them from all forms of bondage. The struggle for independence has as its aim the removal of the triple bondage of political, economic and social oppression. When all shackles are removed, we can proceed to build a new society on the basis of communism. The principal aim of our freedom struggle is to build a free and classless society. This ideal and this dream have inspired men in all ages and in all lands." IN A HANDWRITTEN LETTER OF NETAJI TO BARINDRA GHOSH. (1930) source;The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence: An Insider’s Account By Madhuri Bose (2) "I want a socialist Republic of India. I want political freedom and complete economic emancipation. Every human being must have the right to work and right of living wage. There shall be no drones in our society and no uncarned incomes. There must be equal opportunities for all. Above all, there should be a fair, just and equitable distribution of wealth. For this purpose it may be necessary for the state to take over the control of the means of production and distribution of wealth. And thirdly I want social equality for all. There should be no caste, no depressed classes. Every man will have the same rights and the same status in society. Further, there shall be no inequality between the sexes, either in social status or in the law, and women shall be, in every way, equal partners of men." NETAJI ADDRESSING THE ALL-INDIA NAOJAWAN BHARAT SHABHA IN KARACHI, MARCH OF 1931 source; Samar Guha, "Socialist Image of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose", National Herald, New Delhi, August 15, 1971

(3) IN 1929, BOSE RAISED A DEMAND FOR "FULL SOCIALISM", AND CAME SECURE TO BHAGAT SINGH'S SOCIALIST ORGANISATION HINDUSTAN REPUBLICAN ARMY. "... A new society has to be recognized on basis of full socialism. Economic disparity is to be removed and everybody, man and woman, is to be given equal opportunity for education and advancement in life. We necessity see that a sovereign state is recognized on a socialist basis." ADDRESSING THE MIDNAPORE YOUTH CONFERENCE IN 1929 source; Modern India (1857 1969) NIILM University, Chapter-5 NATIONALISM: INTER-WAR-II, Indian national congress-socialist ideas: role of Nehru and Bose

(4) Get to know the internationalist Basu- The Chinese Communist General, Zhu De, made an urgent request to Nehru to send medical aid to China. Their application was accepted and Subhash Chandra Bose as the President of the Congress sent a medical mission to China where Dr. Kotnis played a heroic role.

(5) Netaji against bigotry- "I would request Savarkar, Jinnah & to all those who still think of a compromise with the British to realize once for all that in the world of tomorrow there will be no British Empire." -Netaji Bose via Azad Hind Radio (1943) references; Selected Speeches of Subhas Chandra Bose, Pg 116–117, (Publications Division, IB Ministry) Netaji Collected Works, Volume 11, Pg 144

Or at the end of the week I will present the article myself with all proofs Abcd amureet (talk) 09:37, 10 July 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia's notion of assuming good faith does not mean giving a carte blanche to fringe theories. If you continue to vandalize the article as you have done, you are staring at penalties and blocks. Be warned. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 07:50, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

The truth is that you are the real vandal Abcd amureet (talk) 12:10, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Subhas Chandra Bose, President of the All India Trade Union Congress.

Title of S.C.Bose

Many things are wrongly written

Please don't write the cause of death as plane crash...no solid proof is there and many agencies have worked on that and concluded different things..also several lines written do defame Netaji....like for his greed in power there was discomfort in Congress so upper leaders opposes him when he elected as president of congress...this may be just opposite...the person who sacrificed his life for the country and some people of that era tried to supress his contribution in freedom movement becomes more popular and now some person writing that for Netaji's personal power and greed ...people of upper class opposes...this is a shame ...please correct the information. 47.15.41.112 (talk) 12:56, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

Do you have WP:RS that states that the cause of death is something else? OTherwise, you’re just spreading conspiracy theories.

Clyde2_{3}^{9}

(👋 • 🗣 • ✍️) 04:15, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

So much inaccuracy and bias

This article is a good example of why Wikipedia should not be used for any serious research work. Feels like it was wriiten/edited by people aligning to a certain political ideology for whom spreading their own propaganda is more important than educating common people. The way Netaji's death is unambiguously portrayed to be in a plane crash is nothing but laughable. I suggest the 'authors' spend some time studying the recent research that uncovers the 'best kept secrets' surrounding his death. 49.207.205.206 (talk) 07:05, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia should not be used for research in the first place. You need to provide WP:RS to prove that his death really wasn’t a plane crash. Otherwise, you’re just spouting conspiracy theories.

Clyde2_{3}^{9}

(👋 • 🗣 • ✍️) 04:16, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 November 2022

Proliferation of notes and lengthy quotes?

Why are there over 55 notes (often just in the form of quotes and a citation), combined with huge amounts of in-citation quotation. I'm not certain that this fulfills the copyright criteria. If no-one has any objections, I might try and slim this a fair whack. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 01:20, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Agreed that they look excessive, but are they actually doing harm? They were retained (confession: by me) when I tidied up the referencing and citing some years ago. Apparently they were needed to stop a slow burn edit war. Please be aware that this article is extremely sensitive with opposing feelings running quite highly at times. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 10:13, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

I am of course aware of the contentious nature of the topic, but quotes of these length (several are over 150 words long) and number (over 55, plus numerous in-citation quotes) surely violate the WP:NPS guideline? There are so many that two were actually duplicates of others—I have now removed them. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 12:39, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

I've no horse in this race, but will point out that a guideline is a GUIDEline, not a regulation. Pinging Fowler&fowler who is the expert here. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 13:06, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

As Martin notes, the topic is contentious. It is inordinately contentious. When the detailed notes were not there, daily battles were waged. Death deniers appeared daily to question his death by third-degree burns in the plane crash on August 18, 1945. The Japanese were given short shrift for going the extra mile in caring for the dying Bose, especially at a time of anxiety and confusion about their own futures. This was after their surrender in the Second World War and before they had reached Japan's safer shores.

Thanks very much for removing the duplication.

Detailed notes are essential. They are the norm in highly contentious South Asia articles. Witness: 2020 Delhi riots, Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, Sanskrit, Bhagat Singh, Indian rebellion of 1857, Shalwar kameez, ... They have survived ARBIPA scrutiny. If you disagree, you are welcome to discuss your misgivings at WT:INDIA. Best, Fowler&fowler «Talk» 23:06, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

PS I am not really editing Wikipedia these days, not even skimming it, so please forgive me if I do not reply immediately. Thanks. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 23:11, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 January 2023

Semi-protected edit request on 23 January 2023

Death Controversy

Buildings named after Bose

Death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Death conspiracy

In popular media

Require to edit on Subhas Chandra Bose

Odisha instead of Orissa

Lead

This edit was removed but it stayed for months.

The claim that it is "sourced to sub-standard sources" is wrong because Hayes has been also used for backing the statement and he said "First, there was concern that recognition of an Indian government presided by Bose would be perceived as German preference for the 'leftist Forward bloc' faction within the Congress which would antagonise Gandhi and Nehru. The Germans were not prepared to do this merely to gain Bose as an ally. Gandhi was rightly recognised as the key force in Indian politics, regardless of the contempt his pacifist ideology aroused in Berlin."

Another removed sentence includes "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."

The added sources support the sentence. Hitler did not "offer" Bose a submarine but only accepted his request to shift him to Asia. Orientls (talk) 08:54, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Hitler refused to sign the Tripartite Agreement that Bose was keen on.

The Special Bureau on India had prepared a final draft in Feb 1942. It affirmed Germany, Italy, and Japan supporting India's anti-imperialist struggle and providing aid in the indeterminate future. Hitler also shot down Mussolini's idea that Bose take a secret flight. He suggested taking a Japanese submarine failing which he offered to arrange a German one. He charted out the course on a map. Eventually Bose took the German in February 1943, transferring to a Japanese off the Cape of Good Hope. You had employed WP:SYNTHESIS by using a book published by Deep and Deep Publications (now "temporarily closed" says a website, and a book on the Dachau trials that had only incidental mention of Bose in a few lines on one page.

Instead of summarizing a set of complex ideas extensively discussed in a book you cherry-picked a few. Those of us who have maintained the page over time, have not done so every minute of every day. Your edit managed to fly under the radar, mainly by eschewing comprehensive and transparent edit summaries. But the WP:ONUS is yours. Best, Fowler&fowler «Talk» 15:29, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

PS And Hitler was plenty critical of both Gandhi and Nehru in his conversation with Bose. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 15:31, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

This has been already addressed by Romain Hayes in the already posted quote that "Gandhi was rightly recognised as the key force in Indian politics, regardless of the contempt his pacifist ideology aroused in Berlin."

Another one is: "Woermann recommended the indefinite postponing of any announcement of Bose's presence in Germany and cautioned the Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop that the time had not yet come to recognize Bose's government - in- exile. Woermann specifically feared that any such step would alienate both Gandhi and Nehru, the real leaders of Indian nationalism , and the representatives of the political forces with which Germany would have to deal when her army reached the Khyber Pass."

I don't see why these facts need to be excluded from the lead. The current lead appears to be saying that Germans were on their way to help Bose but the war with USSR changed the scenario. This is wrong. It is necessary to mention that Germans were NOT interested in making official alliance with Subhas Chandra Bose because of crisis over his significance in India. Nehru and Gandhi were considered as the most significant leaders of India, not Bose and this fact influenced decision of Germans.

Bose was upset over lack of help from Germany and wanted to move to East as mentioned in the source. "Bose was quite disillusioned with Germany. He had already written to Ribbentrop asking for travel arrangements to the East."

I don't think we should present it as Hitler's own idea as it currently does with the wording " Adolf Hitler during his only meeting with Bose in late May 1942 offered to arrange a submarine", because it was demand of Bose to move to the East. Editorkamran (talk) 16:20, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Huh? What do you think I had summarized if not Hayes?

Lack of help from Germany? The Germans gave him a Special Bureau in Berlin; they gave him 3,000 Indian army POWs, some of whom had deep reservations about fighting the Indian army. They gave him a mansion, and a large support staff. They never said a word about Emilie Schenkl. They gave him a radio station to broadcast over. Please read Hayes. I've never heard of Ray. What primary sources did he use? Has the book been reviewed in any academic journal? Has it even been reviewed in The Hindu? Anita Bose Pfaff is not a historian. She was all of two months old when her father abandoned her mother and her in wartime Germany without any economic support. Ray's book is not WP:SCHOLARSHIP, and that is the only standard this article is beholden to. So please communicate in summary style, not by quoting from here and there. There has been no controversy about Bose's death, except among the fringe-believers in India many of whom were in Bengal and now in the Hindu Right. People saw the extensive third-degree burn scars Habibur Rahman had when he gave evidence in the post-independence commission.

In sum, what Hitler had refused was what Bose had first asked: Musolini's grandiose idea of the flight to Asia aboard a secret plane (which in turn had been extracted from Mussolini by Bose at the end of the overlong interview) but more importantly Hitler refused the Tripartite Agreement (between Germany, Italy, and Japan) which aimed to say something supportive for the version of nationalism Bose was espousing, but crucially offered economic and military aid to Bose's version of India in the future. Although the draft was prepared by the Special Bureau of India in Berlin, it had all the hallmarks of the flamboyant English prose of Bose, untempered by Kant, Hegel, Schiller, Schopenhauer, or Nietzsche, he might have had read at Presidency College, let alone by Adorno, or Rosa Luxemburg that he did not. I've read the scholarship. I've read Hayes. I can quote him at great length. You are welcome to take Ray to WP:RS/N, say there that I requested it, and tell me when you do it. Best, Fowler&fowler «Talk» 20:11, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Please read Death of Subhas Chandra Bose Fowler&fowler «Talk» 20:32, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Here is Hayes. I've woven the timeline with the later text:

"22 February The Special India Bureau completes the Tripartite Declaration on India." (Bose was very keen on the "Tripartite powers" (Germany, Italy, and Japan) issuing a statement of support for the inalienable right of the Indian people to determine their own future. The declaration (which was to be signed by the heads of the three powers, stated among other things: "In the endeavour to open the gate of freedom to the Indian people also, at this historical moment when the British Empire is beginning to reel under the blows delivered by the armed might of the Tripartite Powers, the German, Italian and Japanese governments hereby solemnly declare that they recognise the inalienable right of the Indian people to independence ... All the promises of self-government made by Britain to India have proved so far to be lies. Fresh promises will be given by Britain simply to mislead the Indian people; they, again will be broken. It will not be the victory of British imperialism that will bring true freedom to the Indian people but solely the victory of the Tripartite Powers. India has never had a more favourable opportunity of attaining freedom; the hour has struck when the Indian people themselves must act to shape their own destiny and self-determination.")

"11 April 1942 The Japanese government approves the Tripartite declaration on India."
"17 April 1942 Hitler rejects the Tripartite declaration but approves Bose’s transfer to Southeast Asia "("Referring to himself now as an ‘old revolutionary’ Hitler advised Bose to ‘bank on the Japanese’ and get as close to India as possible. An internal revolt, combined with external pressure would ensure Indian liberation. Hitler was sceptical that Gandhi’s tactics would accomplish anything. He termed ‘Japan’s astonishingly rapid advance’ a major ‘historical event’, while admitting that he did not know what his ally was planning next. (‘They had not mentioned anything positive to Germany’.) Nevertheless, Hitler advised Bose—again as an ‘old revolutionary’—quickly to reach an agreement with the Japanese so that no ‘psychological mistakes’ would be made. He did not elaborate as to what he meant by ‘psychological mistakes’. Although he encouraged Bose to leave for Tokyo, Hitler ruled out going by air—thinly concealing his contempt for the Italians in the process—claiming that he was ‘too important a personality to let his life be endangered by such an experiment’. Instead, Hitler proposed Bose board I-30, a Japanese submarine scheduled to reach German-occupied France that summer. If this was not feasible he proposed placing a German submarine at Bose’s ‘disposal’. With the help of a map, Hitler traced the likely route through the Atlantic Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean. Bose only brought up two issues in the course of the meeting. First, the need for Hitler’s views on India to be clarified in the absence of a declaration, particularly as passages of Mein Kampf were still being exploited by the British in India. Secondly, the need for continued German assistance after the war so that India would not depend exclusively on Japan. Hitler was dismissive of his remarks in Mein Kampf suggesting that they belonged to the past. As for the future, he only promised economic assistance as ‘the power of a country could only be exercised within the range of its sword’. Hitler then got up, presented Bose with a precious stone cigar case and wished him the best in his endeavours to liberate India. With that, the meeting ended.")

"8 February 1943 Bose writes a letter to his brother informing him that he has married and has a daughter before boarding U-180, the German submarine bound for the Indian Ocean"

What you are asking for is WP:UNDUE, especially for the lead. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 20:45, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

It is not undue to mention that Germany was unwilling to make an alliance with Bose because he was not representative of Indians like Gandhi and Nehru were. This fact also diminishes the revisionist nonsensical view that Bose was the most influential Indian leader.

It is also a well-known fact that Bose was "disillusioned" over Germany. This has to be mentioned on the lead because it proves that Bose failed to find what he wanted from Germany. Few sources:-

"But Berlin was not the answer to all Bose's hopes. Though Bose was eventually received by Hitler, the meeting was a disappointment to Bose, and "he did not like very much to speak about it". An even greater source of disillusion for Bose was the German fiasco at Stalingrad. Bose began to turn elsewhere for help for the cause of Indian independence." From The Indian National Army and Japan by Joyce Lebra.
"Hitler finally shifted the responsibility for Bose and Indian declaration onto the Japanese by offering him submarine transport to East Asia. Bose was profoundly disillusioned by this final rejection. Having first sought German support for a free India on his arrival at Berlin in April 1941, the intervening fourteen months had brought him only limited success in the establishment of the Free India Center and the Indian Legion. No formal guarantee of Indian independence had been forthcoming from Germany. Bose undoubtedly felt that he wasted his time by going to Germany in the first place." From Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Orientls (talk) 17:59, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Who used the honorific "Netaji" first

Nethaji wasn't power crazy

Please remove 18 Aug 1945 from Netaji's Wikipedia page

Semi-protected edit request on 10 December 2023

Undue weightage

Semi-protected edit request on 24 January 2024

Semi-protected edit request on 24 January 2024 (2)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 January 2024 (3)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 January 2024 (4)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 February 2024

He was a first army man of india

Please remove 18 Aug 1945 Netaji's Death day

Semi-protected edit request on 21 September 2024

Request for locking the page until July January 25

False Accusations on Netaji

User fowler&fowler is trying to defend a false accusation about Netaji being an antisemitic just for his alliance with the Axis during ww2. How ever this is a totally false notion and the alliance was actually an enemy's enemy sort of thing. Also I would like to draw the example of Finland, who got support from Germany due to the Soviet invasion, but were not Anti Semitic and had refused to Hitler's demand against Jews in Finland. The Same applies for Netaji and the INA, who were fighting British colonialism and the BRUTAL tortures and FAMINES (Search: Bengal Famine) inflicted by them. He was a hero and is respected by Indians, as a freedom fighter. Please stand up against this propaganda of falsely accusing him. SuvGh (talk) 14:15, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Not a false accusation. Read the whole Subhas Chandra Bose#Anti-semitism. CharlesWain (talk) 14:44, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Please refer to correct sources which are not biased. 2409:4060:2D8A:53A9:0:0:5A08:E408 (talk) 15:56, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

@CharlesWain But ok, I'll here you out. If you have to put it, you have to give proper sources, and not put in the introductory page, but somewhere in the later sections. Because, for the sake of argument even if we agree it's true, I'll say that the fact the G. Washington had slaves of his own which is why he didn't outright ban slavery, is not written in his introductory page. This guys means a lot of emotions to Indians, and it's good to respect that. He did do a lot for the Independence movement, so till it's settled, you can put it in the back somewhere. And sorry for any mean-ness I might have shown to you. SuvGh (talk) 16:08, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

can you agree to this atleast? SuvGh (talk) 16:09, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Wasn't anti-Semitism already opposed by masses since the 20th century? Slavery was not universally opposed when George Washington was in power. Nevertheless, he did an exceptional work (for that time) by freeing his slaves upon his will. In smaller words, you cannot use his example to justify your emotive POV. CharlesWain (talk) 17:44, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Idk what sources you have seen,but slavery was a moral evil all the time.Also Netaji's contributions also lies in helping the poor even when he was a child.So either add both +ve and the "-ve" where ever u have encountered it,with proper sources,or leave it in the back pages,and forget about it.In this case I agree with user SuvGh and the a anonymous user.

If you don't have proper sources,don't spread hatred. SuvGh (talk) 01:55, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

typo- I, user SuvGh agree with that anonymous user.

anyways please provide verified and NON british sources(Important) in the talk page, before further edits SuvGh (talk) 02:01, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes I have noticed this before when I came across this page and I hoped someone would fix this. Thank you for speaking up for this. This is indeed a mis-guided endeavour to defem a national Hero. 2409:4060:2D8A:53A9:0:0:5A08:E408 (talk) 15:56, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

@2409:4060:2D8A:53A9:0:0:5A08:E408 Thanks for the support. SuvGh (talk) 16:01, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Comment: I have readded the original citations to the lead sentence until January 25, two days after SCB's 128 birth anniversary. Please see MOS:LEADCITE which states: "The necessity for citations in a lead should be determined on a case-by-case basis by editorial consensus. Complex, current, or controversial subjects may require many citations."

Fowler&fowler «Talk» 16:19, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 January 2025

Empire of Japan or Japanese Fascism

Recent big change to the lead

More information Old version, Malhar1234's new version ...

Old version	Malhar1234's new version
Subhas Chandra Bose^[b] (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians,^[f] but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Fascist Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism,^[k] anti-Semitism,^[r] and military failure.^[v] The honorific 'Netaji' (Hindustani: "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.^[w] Bose was born into wealth and privilege in a large Bengali family in Orissa during the British Raj. The early recipient of an Anglo-centric education, he was sent after college to England to take the Indian Civil Service examination. He succeeded with distinction in the first exam but demurred at taking the routine final exam, citing nationalism to be the 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.^[x] 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.^[21] After the large majority of the Congress Working Committee members resigned in protest,^[22] Bose resigned as president and was eventually ousted from the party.^[23]^[24] In April 1941 Bose arrived in Nazi Germany, where the leadership offered unexpected but equivocal sympathy for India's independence.^[25]^[26] 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.^[27]^[y] 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.^[29] Adolf Hitler during his only meeting with Bose in late May 1942 agreed to arrange a submarine.^[30] During this time, Bose became a father; his wife,^[31]^[z] or companion,^[32]^[aa] Emilie Schenkl, gave birth to a baby girl.^[31]^[ab]^[25] Identifying strongly with the Axis powers, Bose boarded a German submarine in February 1943.^[33]^[34] Off Madagascar, he was transferred to a Japanese submarine from which he disembarked in Japanese-held Sumatra in May 1943.^[33] 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.^[35]^[36]^[37] A Provisional Government of Free India was declared on the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands and was nominally presided by Bose.^[38]^[39]^[ac] Although Bose was unusually driven and charismatic, the Japanese considered him to be militarily unskilled,^[ad] 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.^[ae]^[af] 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. Bose died from third-degree burns after his plane crashed in Japanese Taiwan on 18 August 1945.^[ag] Some Indians did not believe that the crash had occurred,^[ah] expecting Bose to return to secure India's independence.^[ai]^[aj]^[ak] The Indian National Congress, the main instrument of Indian nationalism, praised Bose's patriotism but distanced itself from his tactics and ideology.^[al]^[48] The British Raj, never seriously threatened by the INA, charged 300 INA officers with treason in the Indian National Army trials, but eventually backtracked in the face of opposition by the Congress,^[am] and a new mood in Britain for rapid decolonisation in India.^[an]^[48]^[2] 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.^[ao]^[ap]^[aq] His collaborations with Japanese fascism and Nazism pose serious ethical dilemmas,^[ar] 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.^[as]^[at]^[au]	Subhas Chandra Bose^[av] (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians.^[56] The honorific 'Netaji' (Hindustani: "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.^[aw] ^[ba] Bose was born into wealth and privilege in a large Bengali family in Orissa during the British Raj.^[57] The early recipient of an Anglo-centric education, he was sent after college to England to take the Indian Civil Service examination. He succeeded with distinction in the first exam but demurred at taking the routine final exam, citing nationalism to be the 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.^[bb] 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.^[21] After the large majority of the Congress Working Committee members resigned in protest,^[22] Bose resigned as president and was eventually ousted from the party.^[23]^[24] In April 1941 Bose arrived in Nazi Germany, where the leadership offered unexpected but equivocal sympathy for India's independence.^[25]^[26] 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.^[27]^[bc] 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.^[29] Adolf Hitler during his only meeting with Bose in late May 1942 agreed to arrange a submarine.^[30] During this time, Bose became a father; his wife,^[31]^[bd] or companion,^[32]^[be] Emilie Schenkl, gave birth to a baby girl.^[31]^[bf]^[25] Identifying strongly with the Axis powers, Bose boarded a German submarine in February 1943.^[33]^[34] Off Madagascar, he was transferred to a Japanese submarine from which he disembarked in Japanese-held Sumatra in May 1943.^[33] 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.^[35]^[36]^[37] A Provisional Government of Free India was declared on the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands and was nominally presided by Bose.^[38]^[39]^[bg] Although Bose was unusually driven and charismatic, the Japanese considered him to be militarily unskilled,^[bh] 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.^[bi]^[bj] 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. Bose died from third-degree burns after his plane crashed in Japanese Taiwan on 18 August 1945.^[bk] Some Indians did not believe that the crash had occurred,^[bl] expecting Bose to return to secure India's independence.^[bm]^[bn]^[bo] The Indian National Congress, the main instrument of Indian nationalism, praised Bose's patriotism but distanced itself from his tactics and ideology.^[bp]^[48] The British Raj, never seriously threatened by the INA, charged 300 INA officers with treason in the Indian National Army trials, but eventually backtracked in the face of opposition by the Congress,^[bq] and a new mood in Britain for rapid decolonisation in India.^[br]^[48]^[2] 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.^[bs]^[bt]^[bu] His collaborations with Japanese fascism and Nazism for India's Independence, pose serious ethical dilemmas,^[bv] 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.^[bw]^[bx]^[by]

Close

Notes

[a]
"The Fundamental Problems of India" (An address to the Faculty and students of Tokyo University, November 1944): "You cannot have a so-called democratic system, if that system has to put through economic reforms on a socialistic basis. Therefore we must have a political system – a State – of an authoritarian character. We have had some experience of democratic institutions in India and we have also studied the working of democratic institutions in countries like France, England, and the United States of America. And we have come to the conclusion that with a democratic system we cannot solve the problems of Free India. Therefore, modern progressive thought in India is in favour of a State of an authoritarian character"^[9]
[b]
/ʃʊbˈhɑːs ˈtʃʌndrə ˈboʊs/ ^ⓘ shuub-HAHSS CHUN-drə BOHSS;^[1]
[c]
"His romantic saga, coupled with his defiant nationalism, has made Bose a near-mythic figure, not only in his native Bengal, but across India."^[2]
[d]
"Bose's heroic endeavor still fires the imagination of many of his countrymen. But like a meteor which enters the earth's atmosphere, he burned brightly on the horizon for a brief moment only."^[3]
[e]
"Subhas Bose might have been a renegade leader who had challenged the authority of the Congress leadership and their principles. But in death he was a martyred patriot whose memory could be an ideal tool for political mobilization."^[4]
[f]
^[c]^[d]^[e]
[g]
"To many [Congress leaders], Bose's programme resembled that of the Japanese fascists, who were in the process of losing their gamble to achieve Asian ascendancy through war. Nevertheless, the success of his soldiers in Burma had stirred as much patriotic sentiment among Indians as the sacrifices of imprisoned Congress leaders."^[5]
[h]
"Marginalized within Congress and a target for British surveillance, Bose chose to embrace the fascist powers as allies against the British and fled India, first to Hitler's Germany, then, on a German submarine, to a Japanese-occupied Singapore. The force that he put together ... known as the Indian National Army (INA) and thus claiming to represent free India, saw action against the British in Burma but accomplished little toward the goal of a march on Delhi. ... Bose himself died in an aeroplane crash trying to reach Japanese-occupied territory in the last months of the war. ... It is this heroic, martial myth that is today remembered, rather than Bose's wartime vision of a free India under the authoritarian rule of someone like himself."^[2]
[i]
The deaths of Subhas Chandra Bose in August 1945 and Vallabhbhai Patel in December 1950 removed not only Nehru's principal competitors for national leadership but also powerful competitors for authoritarian state ideologies. On the eve of World War II, Bose successfully challenged Gandhi's hold on Congress by being elected its president in 1938 and again in 1939. Bose, like Nehru, had been shaped by a Cambridge education and exposure to European events in the 1930s. For a time they worked together in Congress's socialist left. By 1938, they diverged on the prospects and value of fascism and on political means. Bose thought Hitler and Mussolini represented the wave of the future and would win the war they both anticipated. Nehru believed that the Soviet experiment provided economic lessons for independent India, fascism should be opposed and would be defeated, and Gandhi's and the liberal state's concerns for right means was essential. ... In ... 1943, Bose arrived ... in Singapore where, with Japanese support, he formed a government in exile (Azad Hind or Free India) and took command of the Indian National Army (INA), composed of twenty-thousand of the eighty-thousand Indian officers and men captured by the Japanese when Singapore fell. Styling himself Netaji (leader on the Fuhrer mode), he declared his objective to be liberation of India by military means.^[6]
[j]
Not all Indians, even within the Congress, agreed with the anti-fascist position of the CFD (Congress Foreign Department), and no foreign policy initiative went without contestation. There remained many in India who formally and informally challenged this position by supporting fascist regimes over anti-fascist solidarity. Most prominent was Subhas Chandra Bose, a left-leaning Congressmen from Bengal who famously aligned with and raised an Indian army to support the Axis powers in the Second World War. Well before the war and at the same time that the CFD championed the anti-fascist cause in Spain and Abyssinia, Bose argued in letters to Nehru that his foreign policy was ‘nebulous’ and filled with ‘frothy sentiments and pious platitudes’ that failed to prioritise the ‘nation’s self-interest’.°’ He appealed to Nehru to abandon ‘lost causes’ like Spain and instead leverage the international situation for India’s advantage by serving the British a strong ultimatum at a moment when their power in Europe is threatened. He added that ‘condemning countries like Germany and Italy’, served no purpose for Indian nationalist goals.'^[7]
[k]
^[g]^[h]^[i]^[j]
[l]
"The most troubling aspect of Bose's presence in Nazi Germany is not military or political but rather ethical. His alliance with the most genocidal regime in history poses serious dilemmas precisely because of his popularity and his having made a lifelong career of fighting the 'good cause'. How did a man who started his political career at the feet of Gandhi end up with Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo? Even in the case of Mussolini and Tojo, the gravity of the dilemma pales in comparison to that posed by his association with Hitler and the Nazi leadership. The most disturbing issue, all too often ignored, is that in the many articles, minutes, memorandums, telegrams, letters, plans, and broadcasts Bose left behind in Germany, he did not express the slightest concern or sympathy for the millions who died in the concentration camps. Not one of his Berlin wartime associates or colleagues ever quotes him expressing any indignation. Not even when the horrors of Auschwitz and its satellite camps were exposed to the world upon being liberated by Soviet troops in early 1945, revealing publicly for the first time the genocidal nature of the Nazi regime, did Bose react."^[8]
[m]
Between 1938 and 1939 the reactions of the Anti-Nazi League, the Congress, and the progressive press toward German anti-Semitism and German politics showed that Indian public opinion and the nationalist leaders were fairly well informed about the events in Europe. If Bose, Savarkar and others looked favourably upon racial discrimination in Germany or did not criticise them, it cannot be said, to justify them, that they were unaware of what was happening. The great anti-Jewish pogrom known as “the Night of Broken Glass” took place on 9th November 1938. In early December, pro-Hindu Mahasabha journals published articles in favour of German anti-Semitism. This stance brought the Hindu Mahasabha into conflict with the Congress which, on 12th December, made a statement containing clear references to recent European events. Within the Congress, only Bose opposed the party stance. A few months later, in April 1939, he refused to support the party motion that Jews might find refuge in India.^[9]
[n]
Jawaharlal Nehru called the Jews 'People without a home or nation' and sponsored a resolution in the Congress Working Committee. Although the exact date is not known, yet it can be said that it probably happened in December 1938 at the Wardha session, the one that took place shortly after Nehru returned from Europe. The draft resolution read: 'The Committee sees no objection to the employment in India of such Jewish refugees as are experts and specialists and who can fit in with the new order in India and accept Indian standards.' It was, however, rejected by the then Congress President Subhas Chandra Bose, who four years later in 1942 was reported by the Jewish Chronicle of London as having published an article in Angriff, a journal of Goebbels, saying that "anti-Semitism should become part of the Indian liberation movement because Jews had helped the British to exploit Indians (21 August 1942)" Although by then Bose had left the Congress, he continued to command a strong influence within the party.^[10]
[o]
None of the works that deal with ... Subhas Chandra Bose, or his Indian National Army has engaged either Bose’s reaction to German mass killing of Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) because their ancestors came from India or the reaction of the soldiers in his army to the sex slaves kidnapped in Japanese-occupied lands and held in enclosures attached to the camps in which they were being trained to follow their Japanese comrades in the occupation of India.^[11]
[p]
Bose requested a declaration from the Germans that they supported the movement for freedom in India – and in Arab countries. He had opposed Nehru in permitting political asylum to Jews fleeing Europe in 1939. He was prepared to ingratiate himself with Nazi ideology by writing for Goebells's Der Angriff in 1942. He argued that anti-Semitism should become a factor in the struggle for Indian freedom since the Jews had collaborated with British imperialism to exploit the country and its inhabitants.^[12]
[q]
As a heterogeneous empire, Bose observed, the British had to be pro-Arab in India and pro-Jewish elsewhere and accused that London “has to please Jews because she cannot ignore Jewish high finance." ... Bose’s anti-Jewish slur was no different from the anti-Semitic remarks in the League deliberations referred to earlier. Bose also opposed Nehru’s efforts to provide asylum to a limited number of European Jewish refugees who were fleeing from Nazi persecution. Despite the opposition led by Bose, Nehru “was a strong supporter of inviting (Jewish refugees) to settle down in India... (and felt that) this was the only way by which Jews could be saved from the wrath of the Nazis... Between 1933 and the outbreak of the War, Nehru was instrumental in obtaining the entry of several German Jewish refugees into India."^[13]
[r]
^[l]^[m]^[n]^[o]^[p]^[q]
[s]
(p.117) the INA was raised during the Second World War, with the support of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA); lasted less than three years; and went through two different configurations during that period. In total, it numbered some 40,000 men and women, half of whom are estimated to have been recruited from Indian Army prisoners of war (POWs). The INA’s battlefield performance was quite poor when assessed either alongside the IJA or against the reformed Fourteenth Army on the battlefields of Assam and Burma. Reports of its creation in 1942/3 caused consternation among the political and military leadership (p. 118) of the GOI, but in the end its formation did not constitute a legitimate mutiny, and its presence had a negligible impact on the Indian Army.^[14]
[t]
"The (Japanese) Fifteenth Army, commanded by ... Maj.-General Mutuguchi Renya consisted of three experienced infantry divisions — 15th, 31st and 33rd — totalling 100,000 combat troops, with the 7,000 strong 1st Indian National Army (INA) Division in support. It was hoped the latter would subvert the Indian Army's loyalty and precipitate a popular rising in British India, but in reality the campaign revealed that it was largely a paper tiger."^[17]
[u]
"The real fault, however, must attach to the Japanese commander-in-chief Kawabe. Dithering, ... prostrated with amoebic dysentery, he periodically reasoned that he must cancel Operation U-Go in its entirety, but every time he summoned the courage to do so, a cable would arrive from Tokyo stressing the paramount necessity of victory in Burma, to compensate for the disasters in the Pacific. ... Even more incredibly, he still hoped for great things from Bose and the INA, despite all the evidence that both were busted flushes."^[18]
[v]
^[s]^[15]^[16]^[t]^[u]
[w]
"Another small, but immediate, issue for the civilians in Berlin and the soldiers in training was how to address Subhas Bose. Vyas has given his view of how the term was adopted: 'one of our [soldier] boys came forward with "Hamare Neta". We improved upon it: "Netaji"... It must be mentioned, that Subhas Bose strongly disapproved of it. He began to yield only when he saw our military group ... firmly went on calling him "Netaji"'. (Alexander) Werth also mentioned adoption of 'Netaji' and observed accurately, that it '... combined a sense both of affection and honour ...' It was not meant to echo 'Fuehrer' or 'Duce', but to give Subhas Bose a special Indian form of reverence and this term has been universally adopted by Indians everywhere in speaking about him."^[19]
[x]
"Younger Congressmen, including Jawaharlal Nehru, ... thought that constitution-making, whether by the British with their (Simon) Commission or by moderate politicians like the elder (Motilal) Nehru, was not the way to achieve the fundamental changes in society. Nehru and Subhas Bose rallied a group within Congress ... to declare for an independent republic. (p. 305) ... (They) were among those who, impatient with Gandhi's programmes and methods, looked upon socialism as an alternative for nationalistic policies capable of meeting the country's economic and social needs, as well as a link to potential international support (p. 325)."^[20]
[y]
"Having arrived in Berlin a bruised politician, his broadcasts brought him—and India—world notice.^[28]
[z]
"While writing The Indian Struggle, Bose also hired a secretary by the name of Emilie Schenkl. They eventually fell in love and married secretly in accordance with Hindu rites."^[31]
[aa]
"Although we must take Emilie Schenkl at her word (about her secret marriage to Bose in 1937), there are a few nagging doubts about an actual marriage ceremony because there is no document that I have seen and no testimony by any other person. ... Other biographers have written that Bose and Miss Schenkl were married in 1942, while Krishna Bose, implying 1941, leaves the date ambiguous. The strangest and most confusing testimony comes from A. C. N. Nambiar, who was with the couple in Badgastein briefly in 1937, and was with them in Berlin during the war as second-in-command to Bose. In an answer to my question about the marriage, he wrote to me in 1978: 'I cannot state anything definite about the marriage of Bose referred to by you, since I came to know of it only a good while after the end of the last world war ... I can imagine the marriage having been a very informal one ...'... So what are we left with? ... We know they had a close passionate relationship and that they had a child, Anita, born 29 November 1942, in Vienna. ... And we have Emilie Schenkl's testimony that they were married secretly in 1937. Whatever the precise dates, the most important thing is the relationship."^[32]
[ab]
"Apart from the Free India Centre, Bose also had another reason to feel satisfied-even comfortable-in Berlin. After months of residing in a hotel, the Foreign Office procured a luxurious residence for him 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 their relationship, refrained from any involvement. The following year she gave birth to a daughter.^[31]
[ac]
"Tojo turned over all his Indian POWs to Bose's command, and in October 1943 Bose announced the creation of a Provisional Government of Azad ("Free") India, of which he became head of state, prime minister, minister of war, and minister of foreign affairs. Some two million Indians were living in Southeast Asia when the Japanese seized control of that region, and these emigrees were the first "citizens" of that government, founded under the "protection" of Japan and headquartered on the "liberated" Andaman Islands. Bose declared war on the United States and Great Britain the day after his government was established. In January 1944 he moved his provisional capital to Rangoon and started his Indian National Army on their march north to the battle cry of the Meerut mutineers: "Chalo Delhi!"^[39]
[ad]
"At the same time that the Japanese appreciated the firmness with which Bose's forces continued to fight, they were endlessly exasperated with him. A number of Japanese officers, even those like Fujiwara, who were devoted to the Indian cause, saw Bose as a military incompetent as well as an unrealistic and stubborn man who saw only his own needs and problems and could not see the larger picture of the war as the Japanese had to."^[40]
[ae]
"Gracey consoled himself that Bose's Indian National Army had also been in action against his Indians and Gurkhas but had been roughly treated and almost annihilated; when the survivors tried to surrender, they tended to fall foul of the Gurkhas' dreaded kukri."^[41]
[af]
Initially, INA troops in the Arakan stayed loyal to the INA and their IJA masters. However, as starvation and defeat began to take their toll, loyalties began to waver, and two companies from the Bose Brigade surrendered en masse to British forces in July 1944.^[42]
[ag]
"The good news Wavell reported was that the RAF had just recently flown enough of its planes into Manipur's capital of Imphal to smash Netaji ("Leader") Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army (INA) that had advanced to its outskirts before the monsoon began. Bose's INA consisted of about 20,000 of the British Indian soldiers captured by the Japanese in Singapore, who had volunteered to serve under Netaji Bose when he offered them "Freedom" if they were willing to risk their "Blood" to gain Indian independence a year earlier. The British considered Bose and his "army of traitors" no better than their Japanese sponsors, but to most of Bengal's 50 million Indians, Bose was a great national hero and potential "Liberator". The INA was stopped before entering Bengal, first by monsoon rains and then by the RAF, and forced to retreat, back through Burma and down its coast to the Malay peninsula. In May 1945, Bose would fly out of Saigon on an overloaded Japanese plane, headed for Taiwan, which crash-landed and burned. Bose suffered third-degree burns and died in the hospital on Formosa."^[43]
[ah]
"The retreat was even more devastating, finally ending the dream of gaining Indian independence through military campaign. But Bose still remained optimistic, thought of regrouping after the Japanese surrender, contemplated seeking help from Soviet Russia. The Japanese agreed to provide him transport up to Manchuria from where he could travel to Russia. But on his way, on 18 August 1945 at Taihoku airport in Taiwan, he died in an air crash, which many Indians still believe never happened."^[4]
[ai]
"There are still some in India today who believe that Bose remained alive and in Soviet custody, a once and future king of Indian independence. The legend of 'Netaii' Bose's survival helped bind together the defeated INA. In Bengal it became an assurance of the province's supreme importance in the liberation of the motherland. It sustained the morale of many across India and Southeast Asia who deplored the return of British power or felt alienated from the political settlement finally achieved by Gandhi and Nehru.^[44]
[aj]
"On 21 March 1944, Subhas Bose and advanced units of the INA crossed the borders of India, entering Manipur, and by May they had advanced to the outskirts of that state's capital, Imphal. That was the closest Bose came to Bengal, where millions of his devoted followers awaited his army's "liberation". The British garrison at Imphal and its air arm withstood Bose's much larger force long enough for the monsoon rains to defer all possibility of warfare in that jungle region for the three months the British so desperately needed to strengthen their eastern wing. Bose had promised his men freedom in exchange for their blood, but the tide of battle turned against them after the 1944 rains, and in May 1945 the INA surrendered in Rangoon. Bose escaped on the last Japanese plane to leave Saigon, but he died in Formosa after a crash landing there in August. By that time, however, his death had been falsely reported so many times that a myth soon emerged in Bengal that Netaji Subhas Chandra was alive—raising another army in China or Tibet or the Soviet Union—and would return with it to "liberate" India.^[45]
[ak]
"Subhas Bose was dead, killed in 1945 in a plane crash in the Far East, even though many of his devotees waited—as Barbarossa's disciples had done in another time and in another country—for their hero's second coming."^[46]
[al]
"The thrust of Sarkar's thought, like that of Chittaranjan Das and Subhas Bose, was to challenge the idea that 'the average Indian is indifferent to life', as R. K. Kumaria put it. India once possessed an energised, Machiavellian political culture. All it needed was a hero (rather than a Gandhi-style saint) to revive the culture and steer India to life and freedom through violent contentions of world forces (vishwa shakti) represented in imperialism, fascism and socialism."^[47]
[am]
As cases began to come to trial, the Indian National Congress began to speak out in defence of INA prisoners, even though it had vocally opposed both the INA's narrative and methods during the war. The Muslim League and the Punjab Unionists followed suit. By mid-September, Nehru was becoming increasingly vocal in his view that trials of INA defendants should not move forward.^[49]
[an]
"The claim is even made that without the Japanese-influenced 'Indian National Army' under Subhas Chandra Bose, India would not have achieved independence in 1947; though those who make claim seem unaware of the mood of the British people in 1945 and of the attitude of the newly-elected Labour government to the Indian question."^[50]
[ao]
"Despite any whimsy in implementation, the clarity of Gandhi's political vision and the skill with which he carried the reforms in 1920 provided the foundation for what was to follow: twenty-five years of stewardship over the freedom movement. He knew the hazards to be negotiated. The British must be brought to a point where they would abdicate their rule without terrible destruction, thus assuring that freedom was not an empty achievement. To accomplish this he had to devise means of a moral sort, able to inspire the disciplined participation of millions of Indians, and equal to compelling the British to grant freedom, if not willingly, at least with resignation. Gandhi found his means in non-violent satyagraha. He insisted that it was not a cowardly form of resistance; rather, it required the most determined kind of courage.^[51]
[ap]
What he is remembered for is his vigor, his militancy, his readiness to trade blood (his own if necessary) for nationhood. In large parts of Uttar Pradesh, the historian Gyanendra Pandey has recently remarked, independence is popularly credited not to 'the quiet efforts at self¬regeneration initiated by Mahatma Gandhi,' but to 'the military daring of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.'^[52]
[aq]
" 'The transfer of power in India ,' Dr Radhakrishnan has said, 'was one of the greatest acts of reconciliation in human history.'"^[53]
[ar]
"The most troubling aspect of Bose's presence in Nazi Germany is not military or political but rather ethical. His alliance with the most genocidal regime in history poses serious dilemmas precisely because of his popularity and his having made a lifelong career of fighting the 'good cause'. How did a man who started his political career at the feet of Gandhi end up with Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo? Even in the case of Mussolini and Tojo, the gravity of the dilemma pales in comparison to that posed by his association with Hitler and the Nazi leadership. The most disturbing issue, all too often ignored, is that in the many articles, minutes, memorandums, telegrams, letters, plans, and broadcasts Bose left behind in Germany, he did not express the slightest concern or sympathy for the millions who died in the concentration camps. Not one of his Berlin wartime associates or colleagues ever quotes him expressing any indignation. Not even when the horrors of Auschwitz and its satellite camps were exposed to the world upon being liberated by Soviet troops in early 1945, revealing publicly for the first time the genocidal nature of the Nazi regime, did Bose react."^[8]
[as]
Between 1938 and 1939 the reactions of the Anti-Nazi League, the Congress, and the progressive press toward German anti-Semitism and German politics showed that Indian public opinion and the nationalist leaders were fairly well informed about the events in Europe. If Bose, Savarkar, and others looked favourably upon racial discrimination in Germany or did not criticise them, it cannot be said, to justify them, that they were unaware of what was happening. The great anti-Jewish pogrom known as "the Night of Broken Glass" took place on 9 November 1938. In early December, pro-Hindu Mahasabha journals published articles in favour of German anti-Semitism. This stance brought the Hindu Mahasabha into conflict with the Congress which, on 12 December, made a statement containing clear references to recent European events. Within the Congress, only Bose opposed the party stance. A few months later, in April 1939, he refused to support the party motion that Jews might find refuge in India.^[9]
[at]
Leaders of Indian National Congress (INC), which led the anti-colonial movement, responded in different ways to the plight of Jews. In 1938, Gandhi, the nationalist icon, advised the Jews to engage in non-violent resistance by challenging "the gentile Germal" to shoot him or cast him in dungeon. Jawaharlal Nehru, the future first prime minister of independent India, was sympathetic towards the Jews. The militant nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose, who escaped to Germany in 1941 with the aim of freeing India through military help from the Axis nations, remained predictably reticent on this issue.^[54]
[au]
Jawaharlal Nehru called the Jews 'People without a home or nation' and sponsored a resolution in the Congress Working Committee. Although the exact date is not known yet, it can be said that it probably happened in December 1938 at the Wardha session, the one that took place shortly after Nehru returned from Europe. The draft resolution read: 'The Committee sees no objection to the employment in India of such Jewish refugees as are experts and specialists and who can fit in with the new order in India and accept Indian standards.' It was, however, rejected by the then Congress President Bose, who four years later in 1942 was reported by the Jewish Chronicle of London as having published an article in Angriff, a journal of Goebbels, saying that "anti-Semitism should become part of the Indian liberation movement because Jews had helped the British to exploit Indians (21 August 1942)" Although by then Bose had left the Congress, he continued to command a strong influence within the party.^[10]
[av]
/ʃʊbˈhɑːs ˈtʃʌndrə ˈboʊs/ ^ⓘ shuub-HAHSS CHUN-drə BOHSS;^[55]
[aw]
"Another small, but immediate, issue for the civilians in Berlin and the soldiers in training was how to address Subhas Bose. Vyas has given his view of how the term was adopted: 'one of our [soldier] boys came forward with "Hamare Neta". We improved upon it: "Netaji"... It must be mentioned, that Subhas Bose strongly disapproved of it. He began to yield only when he saw our military group ... firmly went on calling him "Netaji"'. (Alexander) Werth also mentioned adoption of 'Netaji' and observed accurately, that it '... combined a sense both of affection and honour ...' It was not meant to echo 'Fuehrer' or 'Duce', but to give Subhas Bose a special Indian form of reverence and this term has been universally adopted by Indians everywhere in speaking about him."^[19]
[ax]
"His romantic saga, coupled with his defiant nationalism, has made Bose a near-mythic figure, not only in his native Bengal. but across India."^[2]
[ay]
"Bose's heroic endeavor still fires the imagination of many of his countrymen. But like a meteor which enters the earth's atmosphere, he burned brightly on the horizon for a brief moment only."^[3]
[az]
"Subhas Bose might have been a renegade leader who had challenged the authority of the Congress leadership and their principles. But in death he was a martyred patriot whose memory could be an ideal tool for political mobilization."^[4]
[ba]
^[ax]^[ay]^[az]
[bb]
"Younger Congressmen, including Jawaharlal Nehru, ... thought that constitution-making, whether by the British with their (Simon) Commission or by moderate politicians like the elder (Motilal) Nehru, was not the way to achieve the fundamental changes in society. Nehru and Subhas Bose rallied a group within Congress ... to declare for an independent republic. (p. 305) ... (They) were among those who, impatient with Gandhi's programmes and methods, looked upon socialism as an alternative for nationalistic policies capable of meeting the country's economic and social needs, as well as a link to potential international support (p. 325)."^[20]
[bc]
"Having arrived in Berlin a bruised politician, his broadcasts brought him—and India—world notice.^[28]
[bd]
"While writing The Indian Struggle, Bose also hired a secretary by the name of Emilie Schenkl. They eventually fell in love and married secretly in accordance with Hindu rites."^[31]
[be]
"Although we must take Emilie Schenkl at her word (about her secret marriage to Bose in 1937), there are a few nagging doubts about an actual marriage ceremony because there is no document that I have seen and no testimony by any other person. ... Other biographers have written that Bose and Miss Schenkl were married in 1942, while Krishna Bose, implying 1941, leaves the date ambiguous. The strangest and most confusing testimony comes from A. C. N. Nambiar, who was with the couple in Badgastein briefly in 1937, and was with them in Berlin during the war as second-in-command to Bose. In an answer to my question about the marriage, he wrote to me in 1978: 'I cannot state anything definite about the marriage of Bose referred to by you, since I came to know of it only a good while after the end of the last world war ... I can imagine the marriage having been a very informal one ...'... So what are we left with? ... We know they had a close passionate relationship and that they had a child, Anita, born 29 November 1942, in Vienna. ... And we have Emilie Schenkl's testimony that they were married secretly in 1937. Whatever the precise dates, the most important thing is the relationship."^[32]
[bf]
"Apart from the Free India Centre, Bose also had another reason to feel satisfied-even comfortable-in Berlin. After months of residing in a hotel, the Foreign Office procured a luxurious residence for him 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 their relationship, refrained from any involvement. The following year she gave birth to a daughter.^[31]
[bg]
"Tojo turned over all his Indian POWs to Bose's command, and in October 1943 Bose announced the creation of a Provisional Government of Azad ("Free") India, of which he became head of state, prime minister, minister of war, and minister of foreign affairs. Some two million Indians were living in Southeast Asia when the Japanese seized control of that region, and these emigrees were the first "citizens" of that government, founded under the "protection" of Japan and headquartered on the "liberated" Andaman Islands. Bose declared war on the United States and Great Britain the day after his government was established. In January 1944 he moved his provisional capital to Rangoon and started his Indian National Army on their march north to the battle cry of the Meerut mutineers: "Chalo Delhi!"^[39]
[bh]
"At the same time that the Japanese appreciated the firmness with which Bose's forces continued to fight, they were endlessly exasperated with him. A number of Japanese officers, even those like Fujiwara, who were devoted to the Indian cause, saw Bose as a military incompetent as well as an unrealistic and stubborn man who saw only his own needs and problems and could not see the larger picture of the war as the Japanese had to."^[40]
[bi]
"Gracey consoled himself that Bose's Indian National Army had also been in action against his Indians and Gurkhas but had been roughly treated and almost annihilated; when the survivors tried to surrender, they tended to fall foul of the Gurkhas' dreaded kukri."^[41]
[bj]
Initially, INA troops in the Arakan stayed loyal to the INA and their IJA masters. However, as starvation and defeat began to take their toll, loyalties began to waver, and two companies from the Bose Brigade surrendered en masse to British forces in July 1944.^[42]
[bk]
"The good news Wavell reported was that the RAF had just recently flown enough of its planes into Manipur's capital of Imphal to smash Netaji ("Leader") Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army (INA) that had advanced to its outskirts before the monsoon began. Bose's INA consisted of about 20,000 of the British Indian soldiers captured by the Japanese in Singapore, who had volunteered to serve under Netaji Bose when he offered them "Freedom" if they were willing to risk their "Blood" to gain Indian independence a year earlier. The British considered Bose and his "army of traitors" no better than their Japanese sponsors, but to most of Bengal's 50 million Indians, Bose was a great national hero and potential "Liberator". The INA was stopped before entering Bengal, first by monsoon rains and then by the RAF, and forced to retreat, back through Burma and down its coast to the Malay peninsula. In May 1945, Bose would fly out of Saigon on an overloaded Japanese plane, headed for Taiwan, which crash-landed and burned. Bose suffered third-degree burns and died in the hospital on Formosa."^[43]
[bl]
"The retreat was even more devastating, finally ending the dream of gaining Indian independence through military campaign. But Bose still remained optimistic, thought of regrouping after the Japanese surrender, contemplated seeking help from Soviet Russia. The Japanese agreed to provide him transport up to Manchuria from where he could travel to Russia. But on his way, on 18 August 1945 at Taihoku airport in Taiwan, he died in an air crash, which many Indians still believe never happened."^[4]
[bm]
"There are still some in India today who believe that Bose remained alive and in Soviet custody, a once and future king of Indian independence. The legend of 'Netaii' Bose's survival helped bind together the defeated INA. In Bengal it became an assurance of the province's supreme importance in the liberation of the motherland. It sustained the morale of many across India and Southeast Asia who deplored the return of British power or felt alienated from the political settlement finally achieved by Gandhi and Nehru.^[44]
[bn]
"On 21 March 1944, Subhas Bose and advanced units of the INA crossed the borders of India, entering Manipur, and by May they had advanced to the outskirts of that state's capital, Imphal. That was the closest Bose came to Bengal, where millions of his devoted followers awaited his army's "liberation". The British garrison at Imphal and its air arm withstood Bose's much larger force long enough for the monsoon rains to defer all possibility of warfare in that jungle region for the three months the British so desperately needed to strengthen their eastern wing. Bose had promised his men freedom in exchange for their blood, but the tide of battle turned against them after the 1944 rains, and in May 1945 the INA surrendered in Rangoon. Bose escaped on the last Japanese plane to leave Saigon, but he died in Formosa after a crash landing there in August. By that time, however, his death had been falsely reported so many times that a myth soon emerged in Bengal that Netaji Subhas Chandra was alive—raising another army in China or Tibet or the Soviet Union—and would return with it to "liberate" India.^[45]
[bo]
"Subhas Bose was dead, killed in 1945 in a plane crash in the Far East, even though many of his devotees waited—as Barbarossa's disciples had done in another time and in another country—for their hero's second coming."^[46]
[bp]
"The thrust of Sarkar's thought, like that of Chittaranjan Das and Subhas Bose, was to challenge the idea that 'the average Indian is indifferent to life', as R. K. Kumaria put it. India once possessed an energised, Machiavellian political culture. All it needed was a hero (rather than a Gandhi-style saint) to revive the culture and steer India to life and freedom through violent contentions of world forces (vishwa shakti) represented in imperialism, fascism and socialism."^[47]
[bq]
As cases began to come to trial, the Indian National Congress began to speak out in defence of INA prisoners, even though it had vocally opposed both the INA's narrative and methods during the war. The Muslim League and the Punjab Unionists followed suit. By mid-September, Nehru was becoming increasingly vocal in his view that trials of INA defendants should not move forward.^[49]
[br]
"The claim is even made that without the Japanese-influenced 'Indian National Army' under Subhas Chandra Bose, India would not have achieved independence in 1947; though those who make claim seem unaware of the mood of the British people in 1945 and of the attitude of the newly-elected Labour government to the Indian question."^[50]
[bs]
"Despite any whimsy in implementation, the clarity of Gandhi's political vision and the skill with which he carried the reforms in 1920 provided the foundation for what was to follow: twenty-five years of stewardship over the freedom movement. He knew the hazards to be negotiated. The British must be brought to a point where they would abdicate their rule without terrible destruction, thus assuring that freedom was not an empty achievement. To accomplish this he had to devise means of a moral sort, able to inspire the disciplined participation of millions of Indians, and equal to compelling the British to grant freedom, if not willingly, at least with resignation. Gandhi found his means in non-violent satyagraha. He insisted that it was not a cowardly form of resistance; rather, it required the most determined kind of courage.^[51]
[bt]
What he is remembered for is his vigor, his militancy, his readiness to trade blood (his own if necessary) for nationhood. In large parts of Uttar Pradesh, the historian Gyanendra Pandey has recently remarked, independence is popularly credited not to 'the quiet efforts at self¬regeneration initiated by Mahatma Gandhi,' but to 'the military daring of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.'^[52]
[bu]
" 'The transfer of power in India ,' Dr Radhakrishnan has said, 'was one of the greatest acts of reconciliation in human history.'"^[53]
[bv]
"The most troubling aspect of Bose's presence in Nazi Germany is not military or political but rather ethical. His alliance with the most genocidal regime in history poses serious dilemmas precisely because of his popularity and his having made a lifelong career of fighting the 'good cause'. How did a man who started his political career at the feet of Gandhi end up with Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo? Even in the case of Mussolini and Tojo, the gravity of the dilemma pales in comparison to that posed by his association with Hitler and the Nazi leadership. The most disturbing issue, all too often ignored, is that in the many articles, minutes, memorandums, telegrams, letters, plans, and broadcasts Bose left behind in Germany, he did not express the slightest concern or sympathy for the millions who died in the concentration camps. Not one of his Berlin wartime associates or colleagues ever quotes him expressing any indignation. Not even when the horrors of Auschwitz and its satellite camps were exposed to the world upon being liberated by Soviet troops in early 1945, revealing publicly for the first time the genocidal nature of the Nazi regime, did Bose react."^[8]
[bw]
Between 1938 and 1939 the reactions of the Anti-Nazi League, the Congress, and the progressive press toward German anti-Semitism and German politics showed that Indian public opinion and the nationalist leaders were fairly well informed about the events in Europe. If Bose, Savarkar, and others looked favourably upon racial discrimination in Germany or did not criticise them, it cannot be said, to justify them, that they were unaware of what was happening. The great anti-Jewish pogrom known as "the Night of Broken Glass" took place on 9 November 1938. In early December, pro-Hindu Mahasabha journals published articles in favour of German anti-Semitism. This stance brought the Hindu Mahasabha into conflict with the Congress which, on 12 December, made a statement containing clear references to recent European events. Within the Congress, only Bose opposed the party stance. A few months later, in April 1939, he refused to support the party motion that Jews might find refuge in India.^[9]
[bx]
Leaders of Indian National Congress (INC), which led the anti-colonial movement, responded in different ways to the plight of Jews. In 1938, Gandhi, the nationalist icon, advised the Jews to engage in non-violent resistance by challenging "the gentile Germal" to shoot him or cast him in dungeon. Jawaharlal Nehru, the future first prime minister of independent India, was sympathetic towards the Jews. The militant nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose, who escaped to Germany in 1941 with the aim of freeing India through military help from the Axis nations, remained predictably reticent on this issue.^[54]
[by]
Jawaharlal Nehru called the Jews 'People without a home or nation' and sponsored a resolution in the Congress Working Committee. Although the exact date is not known yet, it can be said that it probably happened in December 1938 at the Wardha session, the one that took place shortly after Nehru returned from Europe. The draft resolution read: 'The Committee sees no objection to the employment in India of such Jewish refugees as are experts and specialists and who can fit in with the new order in India and accept Indian standards.' It was, however, rejected by the then Congress President Bose, who four years later in 1942 was reported by the Jewish Chronicle of London as having published an article in Angriff, a journal of Goebbels, saying that "anti-Semitism should become part of the Indian liberation movement because Jews had helped the British to exploit Indians (21 August 1942)" Although by then Bose had left the Congress, he continued to command a strong influence within the party.^[10]

References

References

[1]
Bose, Subhas Chandra (26 June 1943). "Speech of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Tokyo, 1943". Prasar Bharati Archives. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
[2]
Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 210.
[3]
Kulke & Rothermund 2004, p. 311.
[4]
Bandyopādhyāẏa 2004, p. 427.
[5]
Stein 2010, pp. 345.
[6]
Rudolph, Lloyd I.; Rudolph, Suzanne Hoeber (1987), In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State, University of Chicago Press, pp. 69–70, ISBN 0-226-73138-3
[7]
Louro, Michele L (2021), "Anti-fascism and anti-imperialism between the world wars: The perspective from India", in Braskin, Kasper; Featherstone, David; Copsey, Nigel (eds.), Anti-Fascism in a Global Perspective: Transnational, Routledge, ISBN 9781138352186
[8]
Hayes 2011, p. 165.
[9]
Casolari 2020, pp. 89–90.
[10]
Aafreedi, Navras J. (2021), "Holocaust education in India and its challenges", in Aafreedi, Navras J.; Singh, Priya (eds.), Conceptualizing Mass Violence: Representations, Recollections, and reinterpretatons, Abington, UK and New York, NY: Routledge, p. 154, ISBN 978-1-003-14613-1
[11]
Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2011), A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edition, p. xx, ISBN 978-0-521-61826-7
[12]
Shindler, Colin (2010), Israel and the European Left: Between Solidarity and Deligitimization, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, Continuum, p. 112, ISBN 978-1-4411-8898-4
[13]
Kumaraswamy, P. R. (2010), Squaring the Circle: Mahatma Gandhi and the Jewish National Home, Digital version, Routledge, p. 153, ISBN 9781000097856
[14]
Marston 2014, pp. 117–118.
[15]
"At the same time that the Japanese appreciated the firmness with which Bose's forces continued to fight, they were endlessly exasperated with him. A number of Japanese officers, even those like Fujiwara, who were devoted to the Indian cause, saw Bose as a military incompetent as well as an unrealistic and stubborn man who saw only his own needs and problems and could not see the larger picture of the war as the Japanese had to."{{resfn|Gordon|1990}}
[16]
Markovits, Claude (2021), India and the World: A History of Connections, c.1750–2000, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 79, 113, 114, doi:10.1017/9781316899847, ISBN 978-1-107-18675-0, LCCN 2021000609, S2CID 233601747, (p. 79) This was owing to Japan's own ambivalent attitude towards Indians: on the one hand, the Japanese saw them as potential allies in the fight against Britain, and they made an alliance with the dissident nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose; on the other hand, they despised them as a 'subject race' enslaved by the British. Thanks to this alliance, however, the Indians escaped some of the harshest measures that the Japanese took against the Chinese population in the region. That said, 100,000 Indian coolies, mostly Tamilian plantation workers, were conscripted as forced labour and put to work on various infrastructure projects for the Japanese Imperial Army. Some were sent from Malaya to Thailand to work on the infamous Thailand–Burma railway project, resulting in 30,000 deaths of fever and exhaustion (Nakahara 2005). Thousands of war prisoners who had refused to join the Indian National Army (INA) of Subhas Bose were sent to faraway New Guinea, where Australian troops discovered them hiding in 1945.

Markovits, Claude (2021), India and the World: A History of Connections, c.1750–2000, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 79, 113, 114, doi:10.1017/9781316899847, ISBN 978-1-107-18675-0, LCCN 2021000609, S2CID 233601747, (p. 113) y. Amongst the 16,000 Indian prisoners taken by the Axis armies in North Africa, some 3,000 joined the so-called 'Legion of Free India' ('Freies Indien Legion'), in fact the 950th Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht, formed in 1942 in response to the call of dissident Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945), who had escaped from India, where he was under house arrest, in 1940 and reached Germany in 1941 after a long trek via Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. The soldiers of that regiment swore allegiance both to Hitler and to Subhas Bose and wore special insignia over their German uniforms. A few German officers were detached to command the regiment (Hartog 2001). As a fighting force, however, the legion proved singularly ineffective. First stationed in the Netherlands, it was moved in 1943 to south-west France, where it did garrison duties along the 'Mur de l'Atlantique', not a very onerous task. Following the Allied landing in June 1944, it was incorporated into the Waffen SS and followed the German army in its gradual retreat from France, occasionally engaging in skirmishes with the French Résistance. There was a breakdown of discipline, some men took to looting and raping, and twenty-nine 'légionnaires' captured by the Résistance were publicly executed on Poitiers' main square in September 1944. The remains of the force ended up in Germany, and the legion was officially dissolved in March 1945. The men then tried to reach Switzerland, but most of them were caught by British and French troops. A few were summarily executed by Moroccan troops of the French army, but the majority were transferred to India where they were imprisoned awaiting trial, which eventually did not take place. They were not allowed to re-enlist in the army after the war but were awarded pensions by independent India.

Markovits, Claude (2021), India and the World: A History of Connections, c.1750–2000, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 79, 113, 114, doi:10.1017/9781316899847, ISBN 978-1-107-18675-0, LCCN 2021000609, S2CID 233601747, (p. 114) Part of the INA participated in the Japanese invasion of March 1944, but its entry into India failed to trigger the rising that Bose had hoped for, and the INA soldiers met with a determined response from their ex-comrades in the Indian army. Many were taken prisoner, and the rest retreated into Burma, where they soon faced an invasion from India. While, from a strictly military point of view, Bose's attempt was a total fiasco, the political outcome of his adventure was more significant

Roy, Kaushik (2019), The Battle for Malaya: The Indian Army in Defeat, 1941–1942, Twentieth-Century Battles series, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p. 222, ISBN 978-0-253-04415-0, And not all the Indian PoWs who joined the first INA were volunteers. Between April and December 1942, those Indian commissioned officers, with the aid of some VCOs who had joined the INA, used violence to force the jawans to change sides. Those jawans who refused to join the INA were denied medical treatment and food and were even sent to work in the Japanese "death camps" (labor camps) in New Guinea. One example is that of John Baptist Crasta, who was born on 31 March 1910 near Mangalore in South India. He was an Indian Christian. In 1933, he joined the Indian Army in the noncombatant branch. In March 1941, the 12th Field Battalion in which Crasta was serving was ordered to Singapore. As head clerk, Crasta was in charge of supplying rations to the 11th Indian Division. According to him, torture of the nonvolunteers started under Mohan Singh's direction from late March 1942 onwards. In Crasta's own words: "Near Bidadare, a camp was created to torture non-volunteers. Although given the innocent name of Separation Camp, it was actually a concentration camp where the most inhuman atrocities were committed by the INA men on their non-volunteer Indian brethren. Subedars Sher Singh and Fateh Khan were put in charge of this notorious prison. High ranking officers who refused to have anything to do with the INA were thrown into it without clothing or food, made to carry heavy loads on their heads, and to double up on the slightest sign of slackness. . . . They would be caned, beaten, and kicked." However, Subhas Bose never used violence to compel the PoWs to join the second INA. Nevertheless, the Indian PoWs were subjected to virulent propaganda in order to ensure their compliance to join the INA.
[17]
Moreman 2013, pp. 124–125.
[18]
McLynn 2011, p. 429.
[19]
Gordon 1990, pp. 459–460.
[20]
Stein 2010, pp. 305, 325.
[21]
Matthews, Roderick (2021), Peace, Poverty, and Betrayal: A New History of British India, Oxford University Press, By this point the Congress leadership was in turmoil after the election of Subhas Chandra Bose as president in 1938. His victory was taken, principally by Bose himself, as proof that Gandhi's star was in decline, and that the Congress could now switch to his personal programme of revolutionary change. He set no store by non-violence and his ideals were pitched a good deal to the left of Gandhi's. His plans also included a large amount of leadership from himself. This autocratic temperament alienated virtually the whole Congress high command, and when he forced himself into the presidency again the next year, the Working Committee revolted. Bose, bitter and broken in health, complained that the 'Rightists' had conspired to bring him down. This was true, but Bose, who seems to have had a talent for misreading situations, seriously overestimated the strength of his support—a significant miscalculation, for it led him to resign in order to create his own faction, the Forward Bloc, modelled on the kind of revolutionary national socialism fashionable across much of Europe at the time.
[22]
Haithcox, John Patrick (1971), Communism and Nationalism in India: M. N. Roy and Comintern Policy, 1920–1939, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 282–283, ISBN 0-691-08722-9, LCCN 79120755, One of the principal points of dispute between Bose and the Congress high command was the attitude the party should take toward the proposed Indian federation. The 1935 Constitution provided for a union of the princely states with the provinces of British India on a federal basis. This was to take place after a certain number of states had indicated their willingness to join. This part of the constitution never came into effect for it failed to secure the assent of the required number of princes, but nevertheless the question of its acceptance in principle was hotly debated for some time within the party. In opposing federation, Bose spoke for many within the Congress party. He argued that under the terms of the constitution the princes would have one-third of the seats in the lower house although they represented only one-fourth of India's population. Moreover, they would nominate their own representatives, whereas legislators from British India, the nominees of various political parties, would not be equally united. Consequently, he reasoned, the princes would have a reactionary influence on Indian politics. Following his election for a second term, Bose charged that some members of the Working Committee were willing to compromise on this issue. Incensed at this allegation, all but three of the fifteen members of the Working Committee resigned. The exception was Nehru, Bose himself, and his brother Sarat. There was no longer any hope for reconciliation between the dissidents and the old guard.
[23]
Low 2002, pp. 297, 313.
[24]
Gordon 1990, pp. 420–428.
[25]
Hayes 2011, pp. 65–67.
[26]
Hayes 2011, p. 152.
[27]
Hayes 2011, p. 76.
[28]
Hayes 2011, p. 162.
[29]
Hayes 2011, pp. 87–88.
[30]
Hayes 2011, pp. 114–116.
[31]
Hayes 2011, p. 15.
[32]
Gordon 1990, pp. 344–345.
[33]
Hayes 2011, pp. 141–143.
[34]
Bose 2005, p. 255.
[35]
Lebra 2008a, pp. vii–ix, xvi–xvii, 210–212 From the Abstract (pp vii–ix): It (the book) covers the beginnings of the Indian National Army, as part of a Japanese military intelligence operation under Major Iwaichi Fujiwara, ... From the Introduction (pp xvi–xvii): Major Fujiwara brought India to the attention of IGHQ (Imperial General Headquarters, Tokyo) and helped organize the INA. Fujiwara established the initial sincerity and credibility of Japanese aid for the Indian independence struggle. Captain Mohan Singh, a young Sikh POW from the British-Indian cooperated with Fujiwara in the inception of the INA. From pages 210–212: Two events forced India on the attention of IGHQ once hostilities broke out in the Pacific: Japanese military successes in Malaya and Thailand, particularly the capture of Singapore and with it thousands of Indian POWs, and reports by Major Fujiwara of the creation of a revolutionary Indian army eager to fight the British out of India. Fujiwara presided at the birth of the Indian National Army, together with a young Sikh, Captain Mohan Singh. Two generals sent by IGHQ to review Fujiwara's project reported favourably on his proposals to step up intelligence activities through the civilian and military arms of the independence movement.
[36]
Lebra 2008b, p. 100 Hot-headed young Bengali radicals broke into the convention hall where Fujiwara, the founder of the INA, was to address the assemblage and shouted abuse at him.
[37]
Gordon, Leonard (2008), "Indian National Army" (PDF), in William A. Darity Jr. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition, Volume 3, pp. 610–611, archived (PDF) from the original on 1 November 2021, retrieved 1 November 2021, The Indian National Army (INA) was formed in 1942 by Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in Singapore. It was created with the aid of Japanese forces. Captain Mohan Singh became the INA's first leader, and Major Iwaichi Fujiwara was the Japanese intelligence officer who brokered the arrangement to create the army, which was to be trained to fight British and other Allied forces in Southeast Asia.
[38]
Low 1993, pp. 31–32 But there were others who took a different course, perhaps out of expediency, perhaps in an effort to hold on to their existing gains, perhaps because they could see no end to the Japanese occupation. Thus as early as 1940, the erstwhile Chinese revolutionary and one-time leftist leader, Wang Ching-wei, became premier of a Japanese puppet government in Nanking. A few months later Subhas Bose, who had long been Nehru's rival for the plaudits of the younger Indian nationalists, joined the Axis powers, and in due course formed the Indian National Army to support the Japanese. In the Philippines, Vargas, President Quezon's former secretary, very soon headed up a Philippines Executive Commission to cooperate with the Japanese; in Indonesia both Hatta and Sukarno, now at last released, readily agreed to collaborate with them; while shortly afterwards Ba Maw, prime minister of Burma under the British, agreed to serve as his country's head of state under the Japanese as well. ... As the war turned against them so the Japanese attempted to exploit this situation further. In August 1943 they made Ba Maw prime minister of an allegedly more independent Burma. In October 1943 they established a new Republic of the Philippines under the presidency of yet another Filipino oligarch, José Laurel. In that same month Subhas Bose established under their auspices a Provisional Government of Azad Hind (Free India)
[39]
Wolpert 2000, p. 339.
[40]
Gordon 1990, p. 517.
[41]
McLynn 2011, pp. 295–296.
[42]
Marston 2014, p. 124.
[43]
Wolpert 2009, p. 69.
[44]
Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 22.
[45]
Wolpert 2000, pp. 339–340.
[46]
Chatterji 2007, p. 278.
[47]
Bayly 2012, p. 283.
[48]
Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 21.
[49]
Marston 2014, p. 129.
[50]
Allen 2012, p. 179.
[51]
Stein 2010, p. 297.
[52]
Fay 1995, p. 522.
[53]
Corbett, Jim; Elwin, Verrier; Ali, Salim (2004), Lives in the Wilderness: Three Classic Indian Autobiographies, Oxford University Press
[54]
Roy, Baijayanti (2019), "The Past is Indeed a Different Country: Perception of Holocaust in India", in Ballis, Anja; Gloe, Markus (eds.), Holocaust Education Revisited, Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer VS, p. 108, ISBN 978-3-658-24204-6
[55]
Bose, Subhas Chandra (26 June 1943). "Speech of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Tokyo, 1943". Prasar Bharati Archives. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
[56]
"As Netaji turns 125, it's 'Dilli chalo' again for India's 'lost hero'". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
[57]
"Subhas Chandra Bose | Biography, Death, & Legacy | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2025-01-25. Retrieved 2025-01-31.

Discussion

I did the above to enable a discussion of whether the changes to the lead would make the article better or worse. The changes are too large for diffs to be much use. @Malhar1234: please could you tell us why you think your changes are a good idea. (By the way there are also changes to the Ideology and Quotes sections, but a diff enables us to see what they are.)-- Toddy1 (talk) 22:57, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

@Toddy1 In reality the changes aren't very complex; I suggest you turn on the improved diff viewer in preferences, which enables you to view diffs such as the one linked above properly. The only notable change to the lead was the removal of the clause "but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Fascist Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and military failure", which from an outside viewers perspective does not seem like a very uncontroversial removal. Flemmish Nietzsche (talk) 23:11, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

In first paragraph you can't write any secondary things for your personal satisfaction. Malhar1234 (talk) 04:45, 1 February 2025 (UTC)

Can you please move this page to the archives? In size it is way beyond any talk page post I have seen in my 18 years on Wikipedia. I believe is borders on disruption. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 13:56, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

Press-template

@Fowler&fowler, hello. On this:

"Reverted good faith edits by Gråbergs Gråa Sång: Sorry, but according to an RS/N thread, the newspaper (which is not the British or Australian Sunday Guardian) was founded not long ago by an Indian ruling-party politician and espouses Hindu nationalist views. There is no reason for this page to give them publicity: see RS/N post of Tayi Arajakate"

I'm aware of what paper it is, I wikilinked it in the template. The Sunday Guardian. WP:RS-ness doesn't matter, this is a talkpage. Adding a Template:Press does not mean "This is WP:RS/Good!", and if you don't believe me, see Template:Press. This talkpage ~~is looked at by about 11 people/day,~~ has about 11 views per day, and some of those will see the talkpage banner, but as "publicity" it sucks, and that is not the purpose of the addition the template. But it is potentially useful for Wikipedians to know that this coverage is out there, since it may affect this article, new editors can show up etc. Also, even someone who espouses Hindu nationalist views might have a relevant point on something. This is a political subject, and the writer is making a political comment. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:50, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

I disagree. Wikipedia should not be the instrument for publicizing an unreliable source, however indirectly or feebly. A media mention has encyclopedic value only if the media is reliable. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 12:09, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

Again, this is a talkpage, it has a different purpose than the actual encyclopedia/mainspace. Consensus will be what it will be. And that you disagree that even someone who espouses Hindu nationalist views might have a relevant point on something is potentially problematic. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:16, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

It is not the bias or slant that is the issue. There are major newspaper with a long history of a right-wing or left-wing slant, but also of reliable reporting on, say, factual matters. It is not clear that this is reliable in any avenue of reportage. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 12:22, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

Template states "X said this", and the original article is 100% reliable for that. There are quote marks and everything. IMO, we're in personal taste territory, but of course that goes both ways. And that essay is an essay. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:42, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

I just checked, and our SCB article says nowhere, "collaboration with Axis powers," which Singh has charged it does. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 13:36, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

We do say, "His collaborations with Japanese fascism and Nazism pose serious ethical dilemmas, 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." That, however, would be too uncomfortable a moral opinion for Mr Singh to set up as a counterpoise to Bose's mythology as an Indian freedom fighter. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 14:43, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

Btw, I'm not 100% sure the writer is Brijesh Singh or someone with the same name, do you know? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:47, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

I have no idea. I don't follow modern Indian politics or news much. There are 1.4 billion people there. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 13:47, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

There was also a Brajesh Singh who married (or was all set to be married to but not allowed by the then Communist Party machine in the USSR) the only daughter of Stalin, Svetlana Allilueva. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 14:50, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

Netaji was the first president in azad hind govt approved by nine countrys..

Frankenberg

Semi-protected edit request on 1 June 2025

Death of Subhas Chandra Bose

Semi-protected edit request on 9 July 2025

This edit request to Subhas Chandra Bose has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Change the opening paragraph:

From: "Subhas Chandra Bose[f] (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians,[g][h][i] but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Fascist Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism,[16][j][k][l] anti-Semitism,[19][m][n][o][p][q][24] and military failure.[r][27][28][s][t] The honorific 'Netaji' (Hindustani: "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.[u][31]"

To: "Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian nationalist whose leadership in the Indian independence movement, particularly through the Indian National Army (INA), made him a prominent and influential figure. He advocated for complete and immediate independence from British rule and was known for his radical approach, in contrast to the more moderate stance of the Indian National Congress. During World War II, Bose sought international support for India’s independence and aligned with the Axis powers, including Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, which remains a subject of historical debate. He led the INA in military campaigns against British forces in Northeast India. Although the campaigns were ultimately unsuccessful, Bose's actions inspired widespread nationalist sentiment. He is widely referred to as Netaji (meaning 'Respected Leader'), a title first used by Indian soldiers in Germany and now commonly used throughout India."

Justification: The current paragraph gives undue weight to controversies—especially authoritarianism, antisemitism, and military failure—without providing balanced context. It overlooks Bose's central role in the Indian independence movement, his enduring legacy, and the wide reverence he commands in India. Taruballs (talk) 07:17, 9 July 2025 (UTC)— Taruballs (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.

The first paragraph of the current version is 67% positive and 33% negative. Surely that is enough.-- Toddy1 (talk) 07:41, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

More than half of it is about Nazi collaboration (even the honorific part by relating it to a Nazi unit), incorrect to label this as overwhemingly positive or positive at all. Gotitbro (talk) 08:19, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

You cant talk positively about a figure, if reliable sources disagree. And for Bose, they do. Should Hitler's article be reworked too to make him look more positive? EarthDude (talk) 21:08, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

Most people who know him today would have never heard of him if it wasn't for his collaboration with Germany and Japan. It makes sense why the lead covers those parts of his life. Orientls (talk) 15:15, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 January 2024

Discussion

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