Rash Behari Bose
Encyclopedia
Rashbehari Bose (May 25, 1886 – January 21, 1945) was a revolutionary leader against the British Raj
in India
and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar conspiracy
and later, the Indian National Army
.
. He had his education in Chandannagar, where his father, Vinodebehari Bose, was stationed.
(1908). Dehradun
he worked as a head clerk at the Forest Research Institute. There, through Amarendra Chatterjee
of the Jugantar
led by Jatin Mukherjee(Bagha Jatin), he secretly got involved with the revolutionaries of Bengal
and, thanks to Jatindra Nath Banerjee alias Niralamba Swami
, the earliest political disciple of Sri Aurobindo
, he came across eminent revolutionary members of the Arya Samaj
in the United Provinces (currently Uttar Pradesh
) and the Punjab
.
Following the attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge, Rash Behari was forced to go into hiding. He was hunted by the colonial police due to his active participation in the failed bomb throwing attempt directed at the Governor General and Viceroy
Lord Charles Hardinge in Delhi
(the bomb was actually thrown by Basanta Kumar Biswas
, a disciple of Amarendra Chatterjee
). He returned to Dehra Dun by the night train and joined the office the next day as though nothing had happened. Further, he organised a meeting of loyal citizens of Dehradun to condemn the dastardly attack on the Viceroy.
Lord Hardinge, in his My Indian Years, described the whole incident in an interesting way. During the flood relief work in Bengal in 1913, he came in contact with Jatin Mukherjee in whom he "discovered a real leader of men," who "added a new impulse" to Rash Behari's failing zeal. Thus,during World War I
he became extensively involved as one of the leading figures of the Ghadar Conspiracy
that attempted to trigger a mutiny in India in February 1915. Trusted and tried Ghadrites were sent to several cantonments to infiltrate into the army. The idea of the Jugantar
leaders was that with the war raging in Europe most of the soldiers had gone out of India and the rest could be easily won over. The revolution failed and most of the revolutionaries were arrested. But Rash Behari managed to escape British intelligence and reached Japan
in 1915.
In Japan, Bose found shelter with various radical Pan-Asian
groups. From 1915-1918, he changed residences and identities numerous times, as the British kept pressing the Japanese government for his extradition. He married the daughter of Soma Aizo and Soma Kotsuko, the owner of Nakamuraya restaurant in Tokyo a noted Pan-Asian supporters in 1918 and became a Japanese citizen in 1923, living as a journalist and writer. It is also significant that he was instrumental in introducing Indian-style curry in Japan. Though more expensive than the usual curry, it became quite popular, with Rash Bihari becoming known as Bose of Nakamuraya 中村屋. It is still one of the most popular curry restaurant in Tokyo.
Bose along with A M Nair was instrumental in persuading the Japanese authorities to stand by the Indian nationalists and ultimately to support actively the Indian freedom struggle abroad. Bose convened a conference in Tokyo
on March 28–30, 1942, which decided to establish the Indian Independence League
. At the conference he moved a motion to raise an army for Indian liberation. He convened the second conference of the League at Bangkok
on June 22, 1942. It was at this conference that a resolution was adopted to invite Subhas Chandra Bose to join the League and take its command as its president.
The Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in the Malaya
and Burma fronts were encouraged to join the Indian Independence League and become the soldiers of the Indian National Army
(INA), formed on September 1, 1942 as the military wing of Bose's Indian National League.He selected the flag called as azad and handed over the flag to subhash chandra bose when there some fight between subash chandra bose& gandhiji for freedom dispute But his rise to actual power and glory was unfortunately terminated by an action of the Japanese military command, which expelled him and his general Mohan Singh from the INA leadership. But though he fell from grace, his organisational structure remained, and it was on the organisational spadework of Rashbehari Bose that Subhash Chandra Bose later built the Indian National Army (also called 'Azad Hind Fauj'). Prior to being killed near the end of World War II, the Japanese Government honoured him with the Order of the Rising Sun
(2nd grade).
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar conspiracy
Ghadar Conspiracy
The Ghadar Conspiracy was a conspiracy for a pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army in February 1915 formulated by the Ghadar Party...
and later, the Indian National Army
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
.
Early life
Bose was born in the Subaldaha village of Burdwan, in the province of BengalBengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
. He had his education in Chandannagar, where his father, Vinodebehari Bose, was stationed.
Revolutionary activities
Though interested in revolutionary activities early in his life, he left Bengal to shun the Alipore bomb caseAlipore bomb case
The Alipore Bomb Case was an important court trial, during May 1908 to May 1909, in the history of the Indian Independence Movement. The trial involved more than 37 suspects, following a bomb attack, and was held in Alipore Sessions Court, in Calcutta, India, Judge C.P...
(1908). Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
he worked as a head clerk at the Forest Research Institute. There, through Amarendra Chatterjee
Amarendra Chatterjee
Amarendranath Chatterjee was an Indian independence movement activist. In charge of raising funds for the Jugantar movement, his activities largely covered revolutionary centres in Bihar, Orissa and the United Provinces....
of the Jugantar
Jugantar
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence.This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in...
led by Jatin Mukherjee(Bagha Jatin), he secretly got involved with the revolutionaries of Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
and, thanks to Jatindra Nath Banerjee alias Niralamba Swami
Niralamba Swami
The period between 1871 and 1910 during the Indian freedom struggle saw the dramatic rise of two great Indian nationalists and freedom fighters. One was Aurobindo Ghosh and the other was Jatindra Nath Banerjee . But the metamorphosis of both these persons from great active freedom fighters to great...
, the earliest political disciple of Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
, he came across eminent revolutionary members of the Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
in the United Provinces (currently Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
) and the Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
.
Following the attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge, Rash Behari was forced to go into hiding. He was hunted by the colonial police due to his active participation in the failed bomb throwing attempt directed at the Governor General and Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
Lord Charles Hardinge in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
(the bomb was actually thrown by Basanta Kumar Biswas
Basanta Kumar Biswas
Basanta Kumar Biswas was a pro-independence activist involved in the Jugantar group who, in December 1912, is believed to have bombed the Viceroy's Parade in what came to be known as the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy....
, a disciple of Amarendra Chatterjee
Amarendra Chatterjee
Amarendranath Chatterjee was an Indian independence movement activist. In charge of raising funds for the Jugantar movement, his activities largely covered revolutionary centres in Bihar, Orissa and the United Provinces....
). He returned to Dehra Dun by the night train and joined the office the next day as though nothing had happened. Further, he organised a meeting of loyal citizens of Dehradun to condemn the dastardly attack on the Viceroy.
Lord Hardinge, in his My Indian Years, described the whole incident in an interesting way. During the flood relief work in Bengal in 1913, he came in contact with Jatin Mukherjee in whom he "discovered a real leader of men," who "added a new impulse" to Rash Behari's failing zeal. Thus,during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he became extensively involved as one of the leading figures of the Ghadar Conspiracy
Ghadar Conspiracy
The Ghadar Conspiracy was a conspiracy for a pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army in February 1915 formulated by the Ghadar Party...
that attempted to trigger a mutiny in India in February 1915. Trusted and tried Ghadrites were sent to several cantonments to infiltrate into the army. The idea of the Jugantar
Jugantar
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence.This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in...
leaders was that with the war raging in Europe most of the soldiers had gone out of India and the rest could be easily won over. The revolution failed and most of the revolutionaries were arrested. But Rash Behari managed to escape British intelligence and reached Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1915.
Indian National Army
Pan-Asianism
Pan-Asianism is an ideology or a movement that Asian nations unite and solidify and create a continental identity to defeat the designs of the Western nations to perpetuate hegemony.-Japanese Asianism:...
groups. From 1915-1918, he changed residences and identities numerous times, as the British kept pressing the Japanese government for his extradition. He married the daughter of Soma Aizo and Soma Kotsuko, the owner of Nakamuraya restaurant in Tokyo a noted Pan-Asian supporters in 1918 and became a Japanese citizen in 1923, living as a journalist and writer. It is also significant that he was instrumental in introducing Indian-style curry in Japan. Though more expensive than the usual curry, it became quite popular, with Rash Bihari becoming known as Bose of Nakamuraya 中村屋. It is still one of the most popular curry restaurant in Tokyo.
Bose along with A M Nair was instrumental in persuading the Japanese authorities to stand by the Indian nationalists and ultimately to support actively the Indian freedom struggle abroad. Bose convened a conference in Tokyo
Tokyo Conference
The Tokyo Conference was a conference held between March 28 and 30, 1942 at Tokyo by South-East Asian Indian Nationalist groups including the Indian Independence League and the Indian National Council, as well as smaller local Indian associations and clubs. This conference led to the decision to...
on March 28–30, 1942, which decided to establish the Indian Independence League
Indian Independence League
The Indian Independence League was a political organisation operated from the 1920s to the 1940s to organize those living outside of India into seeking the removal of British colonial rule over India...
. At the conference he moved a motion to raise an army for Indian liberation. He convened the second conference of the League at Bangkok
Bangkok Conference
The Bangkok Conference was a conference held on 15 June 1942 by Indian Nationalist groups and local Indian Independence leagues at Bangkok to proclaim the formation of the All-India Independence league...
on June 22, 1942. It was at this conference that a resolution was adopted to invite Subhas Chandra Bose to join the League and take its command as its president.
The Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in the Malaya
Japanese occupation of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak
Throughout much of World War II, British Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak were under Japanese occupation.The Japanese Empire commenced the Pacific War with the invasion of Kota Bahru in Kelantan on 8 December 1941 at 00:25, about 90 minutes before the Attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii at 07:48 on 7...
and Burma fronts were encouraged to join the Indian Independence League and become the soldiers of the Indian National Army
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
(INA), formed on September 1, 1942 as the military wing of Bose's Indian National League.He selected the flag called as azad and handed over the flag to subhash chandra bose when there some fight between subash chandra bose& gandhiji for freedom dispute But his rise to actual power and glory was unfortunately terminated by an action of the Japanese military command, which expelled him and his general Mohan Singh from the INA leadership. But though he fell from grace, his organisational structure remained, and it was on the organisational spadework of Rashbehari Bose that Subhash Chandra Bose later built the Indian National Army (also called 'Azad Hind Fauj'). Prior to being killed near the end of World War II, the Japanese Government honoured him with the Order of the Rising Sun
Order of the Rising Sun
The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...
(2nd grade).