Bose arrived in Tokyo on June 13, 1943, and declared his intent to make an assault against the Eastern provinces of Bharat in an attempt to oust the British from control of the subcontinent. He moved to Singapore on July 2, and on October 21, 1943 formally announced the establishment of the Provisional Government of Free India. In defining the tasks of this new political establishment, Netaji declared: "It will be the task of the Provisional Government to launch and conduct the struggle that will bring about the expulsion of the British and their allies from the soil of India."
Bose, taking formal command of the demoralised and undermanned Indian National Army from Rash Behari Bose, turned it into a professional army with the help of the Japanese. He recruited Indian civilians living in Japanese-occupied territories of South-east Asia, and incorporated vast numbers of Indian POWs from British forces in Singapore, Malaya and Hong Kong to man the brigades of the INA.
A Natural Leader
Rightly called ‘Netaji’, Subhash Bose was a leader whom India wanted the most. Someone with a clear vision of how things must take shape in the future, he never compromised on the virtues and magnificence of the Indic civilisation.
In the words of Col SC Dhillon (INA), “Undoubtedly, Netaji's personality was our greatest strength which could sustain us inspite of our deficiencies in numbers, weapons and resources.” In an article, ‘The Last Straw That Broke the Back of British Empire’, Col Dhillon continues, “I remember an after dinner conversation with him in August 1944 after Imphal had been lost to us. As he was reviewing the war situation, I asked him that as war appeared to have been lost to us and to our allies and we had little hope of taking over the offensive again, what exactly was left for us to fight or what were we fighting for. Netaji's reply was quick, "To pay the price of India's liberty.”
Netaji had written a letter to Col Dhillon from Rangoon dated March 21, 1945, when Dhillon was fighting on the front, he repeated the same concept stating that “Whatever happens to us individually in the course of this heroic struggle, there is no power on earth that can keep India enslaved any longer. Whether we live and work or whether we die fighting, we must, under all circumstances have complete confidence that the cause for which we are striving is bound to triumph. It is the finger of God that is pointing the way towards India's freedom. We have only to do our duty and to pay the price of India's liberty. Our hearts are with you and with all who are with you in the present struggle which is paving the way to our national salvation.”
Contextualising Events
Jawaharlal Nehru, who went on to rule India, all he did manage was a ‘transfer of power’. A transfer that came loaded with ‘colonisation’ of new kinds. However, the real liberator of India, who was ready to die for her ‘complete independence’ believed that the ‘finger of God... is pointing the way towards India's freedom’. He didn’t believe in half-baked romantic literary metaphors like ‘tryst with destiny’. Netaji believed in action and karma, and that’s what he kept doing till the last moment, people saw him.
Netaji could have easily stayed in some Ahmednagar Fort; he may have embarked on writing a good piece of prose like Nehru did. But why did he choose to fight a mega-battle almost single-handedly? Because that’s what leaders do! They don’t sit idle when the world affairs are on a high. They collaborate, they find new allies, they open new diplomatic channels, and they strive to change the course of history. Netaji was a leader, Nehru was not.