A Staff Reporter
Dimapur, January 23
The Bengali community in Dimapur district paid homage to late Indian freedom fighter ‘Netaji’ Subhash Chandra Bose on his 119th birth anniversary on Saturday, January 23 in Dimapur, by organizing a memorial program at the Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) premises. Commandant of the 32nd Assam Rifles Colonel VS Shikawat attended the occasion as the chief guest.
Commemorating the 119th birth anniversary of freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose chief guest Col.VS Shikawat remarked Subhash Chandra Bose to be an intellectual, successful and dynamic leader who fought for the cause of the country.
Citing the sacrifices of Subhash Chnadra Bose, Shikawat called on the elders to advocate the younger generation to read the biography of the great leader as it will serve as an inspiration for all the younger generation.
Livingstone Foundation Higher Secondary School Dimapur Chairman Andrew Ahoto paying homage to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose with the Dimapur Bongs cited that a good deed a man does is never remembered but the wrongs are not forgotten. Likening this citation with Subhash Chandra Bose whose deeds have been forgotten, Andrew emphasized on creating consciousness for such personalities.
Recognizing Subhash Chandra Bose to be a true fighter who has brought reign and glory to the country, he stated that heroes should not be forgotten but honored.
On the occasion Andrew Ahoto speaking on the co-existence of human race advocated on leaving the religious indifference aside and live in co-existence as he believed that when a humanity grow there will be progress.
Making the 119th birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose, the Dimapur Bongs organized drawing competition and blood donation camp for the community.
Citizens’ Factfile: The Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897-18 August 1945) was an Indian nationalist whose defiant patriotism made him a hero in India, but whose attempt during World War II to rid India of British rule with the help of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan left a troubled legacy.
The honorific Netaji, (Hindustani: “Respected Leader”), first applied to Bose in Germany, by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin, in early 1942, was by 1990 used widely throughout India.
With Japanese support, Bose revamped the Indian National Army (INA), then composed of Indian soldiers of the British Indian army who had been captured in the Battle of Singapore. To these, after Bose’s arrival, were added enlisting Indian civilians in Malaya and Singapore.
The Japanese had come to support a number of puppet and provisional governments in the captured regions, such as those in Burma, the Philippines and Manchukuo. Before long the Provisional Government of Free India, presided by Bose, was formed in the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Bose had great drive and charisma—creating popular Indian slogans, such as “Jai Hind,”—and the INA under Bose was a model of diversity by region, ethnicity, religion, and even gender. However, Bose was regarded by the Japanese as being militarily unskilled, and his military effort was short lived.
In late 1944 and early 1945 the British Indian Army first halted and then devastatingly reversed the Japanese attack on India. Almost half the Japanese forces and fully half the participating INA contingent were killed.
The INA was driven down the Malay Peninsula, and surrendered with the recapture of Singapore. Bose had earlier chosen not to surrender with his forces or with the Japanese, but rather to escape to Manchuria with a view to seeking a future in the Soviet Union which he believed to be turning anti-British. He died from third degree burns received when his plane crashed in Taiwan. Some Indians, however, did not believe that the crash had occurred, with many among them, especially in Bengal, believing that Bose would return to gain India’s independence.
Update
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today made public digital copies of 100 secret files relating to Subhash Chandra Bose on his 119th birth anniversary, which could throw some light on the controversy over his death.
The files were declassified and put on digital display at the National Archives of India (NAI) here by the Prime Minister, who pressed a button in the presence of Bose family members and Union Ministers Mahesh Sharma and Babul Supriyo.
