Early life

Netaji with Gandhiji

 
 
"Millions of Indians, while agreeing that Mahatma Gandhi represented all that is noble in the country's spirit and soul, would insist that it is Subhas Chandra Bose who was India's man of the 20th century. He received from his followers an unabashed hero-worship as a kind of unifying national symbol; an embodiment of the secular modern aspirations of the nation."
 
 
 

Young Subhas

Subhas Chandra Bose was born in 1897 to an affluent Bengali family in Cuttack, Orissa. His father, Janakinath Bose, was a public prosecutor. Bose was educated at Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Cuttack, Scottish Church College, Calcutta and Fitzwilliam College at Cambridge University. In 1920, Bose took the Indian Civil Services entrance examination and was placed fourth with highest marks in English. Subhash was deeply disturbed by the Jallianwalah Bagh massacre and affected by this he resigned from the prestigious Indian Civil Service in April 1921 despite his high ranking in the merit list, and went on to become an active member of India's independence movement. He joined the Indian National Congress, and was particularly active in its youth wing.

His revolutionary ideals and the dream of independence continued to burn him inside. Inspired by the call of Mahatma Gandhi's Khadi Movement, he started selling Khaddar (dhoti made of homespun cotton) in the streets of Calcutta - an act that caused much displeasure with the rulers and he was put behind bars. Still, Bose's ideals did not match those of Mahatma Gandhi's single belief in non-violence. Netaji was by now fully convinced that civil disobedience alone was not going to be enough to bring freedom to India. Armed revolution was the answer! He joined and later was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the National Volunteer Corps. 

 

His Family

Bose and Emilie
Anita
 
Subhash Chandra Bose secretly married Emilie Schenkl, an Austrian born national, who was his secretary, in 1937. According to Schenkl, she and Bose were secretly married in Bad Gastein on 26 December 1937. They had one daughter, Anita Pfaff,born in 1942. Anita Pfaff, now an Economics professor in Austria, also continues to claim Bose as her father.
 
 
Sankalp Unit