Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose 125th Birth Anniversary: History And Significance Of The Great Freedom Fighter

PM Modi will install a hologram statue of Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate on his 125th birth anniversary on January 23.

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897 - 1945), former President of the Indian National Congress (File Photo/Getty Images)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, announced to install a grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 125th birth anniversary at India Gate in New Delhi.

 

The announcement of erecting a granite statue of the great freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose was made on the Twitter handle of Prime minister Narendra Modi. "At a time when the entire nation is marking the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, I am glad to share that his grand statue, made of granite, will be installed at India Gate. This would be a symbol of India’s indebtedness to him," read Narendra Modi's Twitter statement.

 

The Prime Minister also said that a hologram statue of Subhas Chandra Bose will be installed at India Gate till the granite statue is completed. "Till the grand statue of Netaji Bose is completed, a hologram statue of his would be present at the same place. I will unveil the hologram statue on 23rd January, Netaji’s birth anniversary," Modi wrote on Twitter.

Republic Day Tableau Controversy

Earlier, West Bengal's tableau themed on freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose for the Republic Day parade was rejected by the Central Government, which created a huge controversy. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee objected to it and wrote a letter to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention.

 

"I may like to inform you that all the people of West Bengal are deeply pained by this attitude of the central government. It is shocking to find that the contribution of its valiant freedom fighters finds no place in the nation's ceremony to celebrate the occasion of Republic Day on the 75th year of our Independence," wrote Mamata Banerjee in the letter.

 

However, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh in a letter to Mata Banerjee assured her that the selection of tableaux in the Republic Day parade was based on a fair and transparent process. In his letter, Singh said that after several rounds of evaluation by a committee consisting of experts from the fields of arts, culture, music, and dance the decision is taken.

 

The proposed Republic Day parade tableau of West Bengal commemorated Subhas Chandra Bose and Indian National Army on Bose’s 125th birth anniversary. Portraits of Rabindranath Tagore, Vivekananda, Vidyasagar, Chittaranjan Das, Birsa Munda, and Sri Aurobindo would have also featured on the tableau.

 

Freedom Fighter Subhash Chandra Bose

Born on January 23 ,1897, in Cuttack Odisha, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was one of the prominent faces of the Indian freedom struggle. In 1921, Bose Joined the nationalist movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. A few years later, in 1938 he became the Congress president but almost a year after that in 1939, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose resigned from his post due to differences of opinion and left the Indian National Congress.

 

A revolutionary, Bose believed that a strong army was needed to force the British out of the country. In 1941 Bose went to Germany to seek military help where he succeeded in forming a 3,000 strong Free Indian Legion. About two years later, in May 1943, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Tokyo, Japan. 

 

With Japanese support, Bose revamped the Indian National Army or the Azad Hind Fauj, which comprised Indian prisoners of war of the British Indian army captured by the Japanese in the battle of Singapore.

 

In October 1943, the Provisional Government of Free India was declared on the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In March 1944, Bose's Indian National Army alongside the Japanese troops crossed Yangon and marched into India but they were defeated near Imphal by the British forces and retreated. The INA and the Japanese troops reported heavy casualties. 

 

Netaji escaped but is believed to have died in a plane crash on August 18, 1945.