1. Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhash Chandra Bose was born on 23rd January, 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa (Odisha) to Prabhavati and Janakinath Bose. He was very intelligent. He stood 4th in the ICS exam in London in 1920. He returned to India and joined the Indian National Congress. He was arrested 11 times. He became President of the Haripura session of Congress in 1938 and again of the Tripura seesion in 1939. However, he was forced to resign from the Congress due to differences of opinion.
Subhash Chandra Bose formed a new political party named Forward Bloc (Block in textbook is wrong; it should be BLOC only) in May 1939. When World War II broke out the Forward Bloc launched an anti war propaganda. He was arrested and imprisoned. However, when he went on a hunger strike, the British government had to set him free. But they kept him under house arrest.
On January 17, 1941 at the stroke of midnight, Subhash Chandra Bose escaped from house arrest. After disguising himself as a pathan and travelling via Peshawar, Kabul and Moscow he finally reached Berlin (Germany) and then on to Japan via Sumatra.
When Captain Mohan Singh had to resign his post, Rasbihari Bose appoined Subhash Chandra Bose as the chief of the ‘Azad Hind Fauj’ on 4th July, 1943. He was given the honorary title of ‘Netaji’ who gave the slogans ‘Chalo Delhi’ and ‘Jai Hind’ to the Azad Hind Fauj. He toured countries of South-East Asia and appealed to Indians there to sacrifice all for India’s freedom with the words ‘You give me blood and I will give you freedom.’ (‘Turn mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azadi doonga.’)
Subhash Chandra Bose established the Aarzi Hukumat- e-Azad Hind (Acting Government to free India) in Singapore in October 1943. This government declared war against England and America. Subhash Chandra Bose reorganised the Azad Hind Fauj. He became the Chief of Army and of the Aarzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind. The soldiers were properly trained and divided into various battalions. The Fauj was victorious at many fronts on the Eastern Border of India, but had to retreat dur to shortage of food supply and heavy rain.
Subhash Chandra Bose had taken a vow that he would never enter subjugated India. Netaji left Rangoon and Bangkok. As per the reports published by Japanese government, Subhash Chandra Bose’s plane that took off from Taipei in Formosa on 18th August, 1945 crashed and Netaji being seriously burned finally succumbed to death.
2. The Partition of Bengal
The growing unity and integrity among Indians became a concern for the British. The British withdrew their support and to further weaken Indian unity Viceroy Lord Curzon adopted the ‘Divide and Rule’ policy and partitioned Bengal in 1905. Bengal was the largest province of British India and so its administration was difficult. So Viceroy Curzon partitioned Bengal, but the main intention was that he wanted to promote communal differences among the Hindus and Muslims thus weakening the momentum of political awakening among Indians.
However, Indian leaders and common people understood this and opposed it intensively. The song ‘Vande Mataram’ from the book An and Math’ written by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya became the popular slogan during the protest against Bengal partition. The day of Bengal partition was observed as Mourning Day’ (Day of National Mourning). On the suggestion of Rabindranath Tagore the day was also celebrated as ‘Day of Unity’.
3. The Home Rule Revolution
Between 1916 and 1918 when the First World War had just ended, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Madam Annie Besant along with prominent Indians like Joseph Baptista, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, G.S. Kharpade, Sir S. Subramania Iyer organised a national alliance of leagues in India to demand Home Rule within the British Empire for all in India.
Tilak was conferred the title of ‘Lokmanya’ for propagating the ‘Home Rule’ through his newspapers ‘Kesari’ and ‘Maratha.’ Madam Annie Besant wrote various articles in the weekly ‘The Common Will’ and the daily ‘New India’. She appealed to the British to share administrative powers and grant the ‘Home Rule’ to India at the earliest. Annie Besant was kept under house arrest at Ooty. Due to protests and demonstrations at various places, the British had to finally set her free. The ‘Home Rule Movement was supported by the Indian National Congress as well as the Muslim League.
