A Patriot Unmatched

Shampa Sen

Subhash Chandra Bose, the name brings forth an image of a true and selfless patriot who sacrificed everything for the love of his nation. A man who never craved for power, position, money or luxury. He gave up his civil service job because he could not bear to work under the Britishers who were oppressive towards Indians. Such was this man that Shakespeare’s famous lines in Julius Ceaser- “the elements of nature so well mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world-this was a man,” truly befits him. Subhash Chandra Bose lived in an era which saw some very great men like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindra Nath Tagore to name a few. This is perhaps one of the reasons he never stood out. But he had never longed for it either. Otherwise who else would have sacrificed the post of Congress president and the comfort of home for the sake of a bigger cause. But yes he could, because he was deemed to become everybody’s loving Netaji till times immemorial.Born on January 23rd 1897, he showed traits of being a true patriot right from childhood. Born in Cuttack to advocate Janakinath Bose and Prabhavatidevi, he was the ninth child among fourteen siblings. From the beginning he was a brilliant student and had topped the matriculation examination. He passed his B.A. from the famous Presidency College in Kolkata and did Philosophy from Cambridge. Much against his wishes, Netaji was sent to England to give the Civil Service exams. He qualified the ICS in distinction but refused to join the services. During that time the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre had taken place. Hearing about it, Netaji was deeply moved. He resigned from his job and came back from England. Under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi he joined the Indian National Congress. Gandhiji directed him to work with Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das whom Netaji considered his political guru. Netaji was a Communist in his ideology. He started his political career by being in the forefront of the trade union movement in India. He was the leader of the young wing of the Congress Party and also organised Service League, another wing of the Congress.Netaji was elected the President of Congress twice in 1937 and 1939. But his candidature was never supported by Gandhiji. Not that they did not respect each other but simply that their ideologies never matched. Gandhiji was against violence but for Netaji it was the only means to achieve independence. Gandhiji was more tilted towards rural methods rather than industrialisation, while he saw it as the route through which India could become strong and self-sufficient.