[Answered]Elaborate the role of Subhash Chandra Bose in India’s struggle for independence.

 Subhash Chandra Bose was a prominent figure in India’s freedom struggle. He was not only an efficient leader but played an important role in the freedom struggle. He is remembered for his active and aggressive role in Indian freedom struggle. His style of leadership was not only attractive but was a motivating factor for many to take up the cause for Indian freedom struggle.

Role of Subhash Chandra Bose in India’s struggle for independence:

1. Political leadership: Subhash Chandra Bose played a very active role in India’s political life during most of the 1930’s. He was jailed in 1921-1922 because of his political activities.

• Immediately upon his release, he organised the All-Bengal Young Men’s Conference.
• He was twice elected President of the Indian National Congress (1938 and 1939).
• He established a separate political party, the All India Forward Bloc and continued to call for the full and immediate independence of India from British rule.

During his political career, India’s liberation from British rule remained Bose’s foremost political goal. By 1930, Bose had formulated the broad strategy to throw off the yoke of British imperialism and assume its rightful place as a leader in Asia.

2. Work with other nations: Both before and during the second world war, Bose worked tirelessly to secure German and Japanese support in freeing his beloved homeland of foreign rule.

• The Indian National Army: In July 1943 in Singapore, with Japanese assistance, he reorganised and later led the Indian National Army. It was formed from Indian prisoners of war and plantation workers from British Malaya, Singapore, and other parts of Southeast Asia, against British forces.
• Azad Hind Government: With Japanese monetary, political, diplomatic and military assistance, he formed the Azad Hind Government in exile.

3. Mass mobilisation: Subhash Chandra Bose played an important role in mass mobilisation and rousing feeling of independence among them. Realising that manpower was India’s greatest resource, he proclaimed that all Indians should actively participate in the fight for freedom. With the formation of provincial government of Azad Hind, he appealed directly for total mobilisation to the mass of Indians.
4. Women mobilisation: Bose called on both men and women for freedom struggle. Bose believed that women were equals of men, and should therefore be likewise prepared to fight and sacrifice for India’s liberation. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s he had campaigned in India to bring women more fully into the freedom struggle of the nation. After his return to Asia in 1943 he called on women to serve as soldiers in the Indian National Army. A women’s regiment (Rani of Jhansi Regiment) was formed in 1943, and came to number about 1,000 women.
5. Youth leadership: Bose was also deeply committed to the youth movement. Convinced that young people were by nature idealistic, restless and open to new ideas, Bose worked with and put efforts to the new Youth Leagues that were formed in a number of provinces during the 1920’s. He motivated youth to join the cause of Indian freedom struggle. Bose believed that India’s liberation would be achieved only through the efforts and sacrifices of the conscious younger generation.

Subhash Chandra Bose advocated complete freedom for India at the earliest, even when the Congress wanted it in phases, through a Dominion status. The organisation of the Azad Hind forces and INA are a milestone in the history of the Indian struggle for freedom, the formation of which was the brainchild of Subhash Chandra Bose.