Chronological record of Chandra BOSE

1897	Born on 23rd of January 1887 in Cuttack, State of Orissa (now West Bengal).
1913	Went on to the University of Calcutta.
1916	A strike arose from violence by a professor of history on students protested against priority seating of British in tram cars. BOSE was regarded as the ringleader and rusticated.
1919	Graduated from the Department of Philosophy, Calcutta. University. Went on to the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
1920	Went back to India intend to lead independence of India though passed hard examination for Indian Civil Service.
1921	Started political activities in India as a responsible position of Bengal branch of Indian National Congress with the support by C.R.DAS, a famous lawyer who took anti-British activities with GANDHI.
1922	Appointed as the chief of executive officials of the city of Calcutta. (now Kolkata) by C.R.DAS inaugurated as the Mayer of Calcutta.
1924	Arrested on suspicion of attempting a violent revolution, and transferred to a prison in Mandalay, Burma (now Myanmar). C.R.DAS died suddenly.
1927	Fallen into a critical condition of a disease in the prison. Released after returning to India by popular movement for acquittal.
1928	Established Indian Independence Alliance together with NEHRU who became the first prime minister of India in later years.
1929	Arrested again on the charge of protest against oppression of political prisoners or revolutionists.
1930	Stood for mayoral election from a prison where imprisoned for anti-British movement, and elected as the mayor of Calcutta.
1931	Arrested again due to trouble in a demonstration march.
1932	Imprisoned again and tuberculosis recurred. Made a voyage to Vienna in Austria for recuperation. Restarted activities for independence after leaving hospital. Established an office in Vienna in order to promote cultural and personnel relationship with highbrows or diplomats in European countries.
1935	Janakinath, the father of Chandra BOSE died.
1936	Came back to India, and immediately imprisoned again.
1938	Inaugurated as the chairman of the National Congress. Made a proposal for a preparation for tangible plans towards the independence.
1939	resigned from the chairman of the National Congress due to confrontation with GANDHI. Started new activities by establishing the Forward Block apart from GANDHI.
1940	Arrested and imprisoned again. But house arrested after hunger strike.
1941	Escaped from house arrest, and moved in secret to Germany through Afghanistan in order to keep anti-British movement. Established the Free India centre.
1942	Disappointed at Hitler who was negative towards independence of India, and determined to move to Japan that was battling with the Allied Force.。
1943	Arrived at Japan after long voyage transferring to Japanese submarine from German U-boat in the Indian Ocean in rough. Obtained consent from Japanese government to cooperation for independence movement of India. Established the Provisional Government of Free India called Azad Hind in Singapore on 21st of October. Participated in the Greater East Conference hold in Tokyo as an observer, and gave a speech.
1944	Joined the Battle of Imphal with the Japanese Army. But the Operation was ended in failure, and came back to Rangoon.
1945	Departed with an airplane to grope a cooperation with the Soviet Union due to the capitulation of Japan. It is said that BOSE was killed by an airplane crash at Taipei on the way.

Activities in various places
（written by Surya Kumar BOSE, a relative of Chandra BOSE）

Activities in India

Subhas Bose resigned from the Indian Civil Service and after obtaining his degree from Cambridge University returned to India in July 1921, to immediately join the mass movement for independence led by Mahatma Gandhi. As, however, he did not believe that non-violent movement could ever achieve freedom for India, from the very beginning of his political life, he worked for an armed revolution. In October 1924 he, along with sixteen other revolutionary leaders of Bengal was arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy to smuggle arms from the Far East, and deported to Burma. His years in Mandalay Jail(in Burma) were really the years of his apprenticeship, and when he returned to India in 1927 he emerged as one of the leaders of Young India.

Bose´s rise during the next ten years of his life, was phenomenal. He was twice elected as President of the Indian National Congress. He took an active part in trade union and peasant movements. He not only thought in terms of an armed struggle for India´s liberation, but also of a socialist reconstruction of Free India. He was perhaps the only politician of his time, who had definite plans for the reconstruction of the country after independence. In fact, as early as 1938, when he was President of the Congress, he proposed that family planning be introduced to restrict the uncontrolled growth of population, which was a great hindrance in the path of progress. But, the Congress High Command, comprising of Gandhi, Nehru and others rejected his proposal, showing total lack of understanding and foresight, which has been primarily responsible for the pathetic situation in the country today. He introduced for the first time, the concept of economic planning and set up the All-India National Planning Committee. Bose made a strong plea for a lingua franca -which could only be Hindustani and a common script - preferably the Roman Script -this would simplify the learning process and cater for a wider acceptance of the language in a country which has a multitude of languages and scripts.

The War of 1939 gave Subhas Bose a God-sent opportunity to strike for India´s freedom. After his last arrest on July 2,1940, he wrote two letters from his prison, which he called his ´political testament´, to the Government of Bengal, and gave in them an outline of his future Programme, which included a threat of resorting to hunger-strike unto death. He was ultimately released on December 5, 1940 and removed to his Calcutta residence on Elgin Road. In the early hours of January 17, 1941, Bose left his residence in Calcutta in a car disguised as a ´Pathan´. He boarded the Delhi-Kalkata Mail at the Gomoh Railway Station and ultimately arrived in Peshawar, to cross the Indian frontier, accompanied by another Indian revolutionary. After reaching Kabul, he, with the assistance of the Soviet, German and Italian Governments, proceeded to Moscow and from there to Berlin.

Activities in Germany

In Germany he established a Free India Centre and raised an Indian Legion, by recruiting from amongst the Indian prisoners of war.

Azad Hind Radio was set up and programmes were broadcast daily in seven languages, i.e. English, Hindustani, Bengali, Pushto, Telegu, Tamil and in Gujarati or Marathi. A periodical "Azad Hind" was published regularly and had a circulation of 5000 copies.

The Free India Centre also took up the work of planning for social and economic reorganization of India after attainment of freedom. For this purpose, a Planning Commission was established. The Free India Centre developed contacts with all such diplomatic missions which were friendly to the Indian cause. On 2 November 1941, the Centre was ceremonially inaugurated and all the workers of the Organization gathered together to participate in its official opening. The Azad Hind movement received its own insignia, viz. the Congress Tricolor with the outline of the springing tiger embossed on it. The Centre also adopted Rabindranath Tagore´s "Jana Gana Mana" as the national anthem. And for the first time in modern Indian history, a common and universal Indian form of greeting, "Jai Hind" was introduced by Subhas Chandra Bose. He received the appellation of "Netaji" which combined a sense of both affection and honour. Officially, Hindustani in Roman Script was declared to be the national language of India.

On the 11th of September 1942, the "Deutsch-indische Gesellschaft" (Indo-German Association) was founded in Hamburg for the furtherance of Indo-German cultural, philosophical and economic relations, and for a better understanding between the two nations. The function was held at the Hotel Atlantic, in the presence of Subhas Chandra Bose, A.C.N.Nambiar, Dr.Adam von Trott zu Solz, various other members of the Free India Centre, a number of German dignitaries including the then Mayor of Hamburg, Dr.Krogmann and diplomats of other countries. On this occasion, the Chamber Orchestra of Radio Hamburg played for the first time the National Anthem "Jana Gana Mana" of the Free India Centre. More than 7 years later, on the 24th of January 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India, took over "Jana Gana Mana" as the National Anthem of the Republic of India.

On 8 February 1943, Netaji left Germany on board the submarine U-180 that had been waiting for him at the port of Kiel. Abid Hassan accompanied him. On 28th April 1943, after a heroic struggle through very dangerous terrain and against the surging waves of the Indian Ocean, Netaji and Hassan were transferred in a rubber boat to a Japanese submarine I-29 and ultimately arrived in East Asia. Such a perilous journey from Calcutta to Kabul, from Kabul to Moscow and then to Berlin and again by a submarine to East Asia, was an unprecedented quest for freedom.

Activities in Japan

On October 21,1943 Netaji established the Provisional Government of Free India in Singapore and assumed the Supreme Command of the Indian National Army. When the Japanese Government handed over Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the Provisional Government of Free India, Netaji visited the Cellular Jail, the Indian Bastille, in Port Blair, on December 29,1943. In 1944 the seat of the Provisional Government of Free India was shifted from Singapore to Rangoon and the Indian National Army marched into India in March 1944, and hoisted the flag of Independent India on Indian soil after almost 200 years of foreign domination.

Then the tide of war turned and the Indian National Army (INA) had to retreat from the Indo-Burma border. When the war ended, the INA officers and men were taken back to India as prisoners of war and the trial of INA officers for treason began in the Red Fort of Delhi, on November 5,1945. In a letter dated November 26,1945, General Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief of India, wrote to the Viceroy of India as follows :–
"I know from my long experience of Indian troops how hard it is even for the best and most sympathetic British officer to gauge the inner feelings of the Indian soldier, and history Supports me in this view. l do not think any senior British officer today knows what is the real feeling among the Indian ranks regarding the I.N.A. l myself feel, from my own instinct largely, but also from the Information l have had from various sources, that there is a growing feeling of sympathy for the I.N.A.".

On August 17,1945, Netaji left for an unknown destination by air from Saigon airport. As the British historian Michael Edwards said in his well-known book "The Last Years of British India": "Soon his name and the tales of his exploits were to help convert the emptiness of ´full self-government´ into the reality of independence. The Government of India (British India) had hoped, by prosecuting members of the I.N.A, to reinforce the morale of the Indian Army. It succeeded only in creating unease, in making the soldiers feel slightly ashamed that they themselves had supported the British. If Subhas and his men had been on the right side - and all India now confirmed that they were - then Indians in the Indian Army must have been on the wrong side. It slowly dawned upon the government of India that the backbone of British rule, the Indian Armed Forces, might now no longer be trustworthy. The ghost of Subhas Bose, like Hamlet´s father, walked the battlements of the Red Fort, and his suddenly amplified figure overawed the conferences that were to lead to independence."