Issued by India

Issued on Feb 11, 2023

Issued for : Department of Posts is delighted to issue Commemorative Postage Stamp, on Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and salutes to the Spirit of India, proud of its rich past & heritage and committed to the future of Viswa Guru Bharat.

Credits :
Stamp/FDC/Brochure/Cancellation cachet : Shri Sankha Samanta

Type : Se–tenant pair of 2 Stamps, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 500 Paise (2)

Stamps Printed : 201600 each

Printing Process : Wet Offset

Printer : Security Printing Press, Hyderabad

About : 

• Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) is a landmark initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of independence and the glorious history of its people, culture, and achievements. This Mahotsav is dedicated to the people of India who have not only been instrumental in bringing India thus far in its evolutionary journey but also hold within them the power and potential to enable Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of activating India 2.0, fuelled by the spirit of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
• The official journey of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav commenced on 12^th March 2021 from Sabarmati Ashram where a symbolic ‘Dandi Yatra’ was flagged off by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. This started a 75-week countdown to our 75^th anniversary of Independence and will conclude, post a year on 15^th August, 2023.
• Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav has been powered by the enthusiasm, love for the nation and participation of all stakeholders. The events and initiatives of Amrit Mahotsav cover the length and breadth of India and the world. Till date more than 1.5 lakh events have been held under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. These events have happened across different locations within India covering all of the States and Union Territories as well as across 150+ countries, globally.
• Amrit Mahotsav events are high on Janbhagidari (people participation) bringing in people from all walks of life representing a ‘Whole of Society’ approach with many programmes and events being directly initiated by organisations and groups representing civil society.
• During the Har Ghar Tiranga initiative, held in August 2022, more than 6 crore selfies with flag were recorded and people from all walks of life joined the Tiranga Rallies being held across the length and breadth of India and across foreign locations.
• A key feature of Amrit Mahotsav is the commemoration of Unsung Heroes of freedom struggle & highlighting the role of people in our Independence movement. The AKAM website has a special section on Unsung Heroes which is an attempt to recall and remember forgotten heroes of our freedom struggle, many of whom might be renowned yet unknown to the new generation. Different events commemorating birth and death anniversaries of freedom fighters and important milestones connected to the struggle for Independence are an important part of the AKAM event calendar. Picture books that chronicle the contributions of women and tribals in the freedom struggle of India have also been released to enable children to easily connect with the stories that facilitated our freedom and progress over time.
• Digital District Repository is another special initiative of AKAM that chronicles district wise narratives of our history and heritage. It stemmed from the central thought that history is not only about the landmark events, it finds shape and character in the myriad events that led up to a flashpoint of change. Interesting facts that there are prison cells in IIT or that 2 freedom fighters were shot dead inside what is now an IIT in an incident, known later as the “Hijli firing”, when twenty nine rounds were fired on unarmed prisoners, have been highlighted over events.
• Amrit Mahotsav is also about looking towards the future as we navigate through ‘Amrit Kaal’ (the journey from Now to India@100). One important aspect of looking into the future is spotlighting and celebrating startups, entrepreneurs, and innovation. Smart India Hackathon 2022 is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving. Another part of fueling a growth culture in encouraging curiosity and celebrating the role of science & scientists in the progress of our nation. A week-long event titled ‘Vigyan Sarvatra Pujyate’ was held last year in 75 locations across the length and breadth of the country. To honor this intent, it will be repeated this year with increased scope and scale. ‘Swadeshi Scientists’ is a series of event curated as part of Amrit Mahotsav that chronicles the role of scientists in the freedom struggle and in helping realize India’s ‘Atmanirbhar’ goals.
• Text : Ministry of Culture.

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Issued by India

Issued on Jan 23, 2021

Issued for : The Government of India will commemorate the 125^th Birth Anniversary of Netaji on 23 January 2022. Department of Posts is pleased to issue a commemorative postage stamp on 125^th Birth Anniversary Year of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to begin the year long celebrations.

Credits :
Stamps, FDC and Brochure : Sh. Kamleshwar Singh
Cancellation Cachet : Smt. Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 2500 Paise

Stamps Printed : 504000

Printing Process : Wet Offset

Printer : Security Printing Press, Hyderabad

Name : Subhas Chandra Bose

Born on Jan 23, 1897 at Cuttack, Orissa Division, Bengal Province, British India [now in Cuttack district, Odisha, India]

Died on Aug 18, 1945 at Army Hospital Nanmon Branch, Taihoku, Japanese Taiwan [now Taipei City Hospital Heping Fuyou Branch, Taipei, Taiwan]

About : 

• Subhas Chandra Bose, fondly called Netaji who was born on 23 January 1897, was undoubtedly one of the most prominent Indian nationalist whose defiant patriotism made him a hero in India.
• He became President of the Indian National Congress in 1938. However, soon after being re-elected in 1939, he was ousted from Congress leadership positions following differences with the Congress high command. He was subsequently placed under house arrest by the British before bravely escaping from India in 1940.
• Netaji arrived in Germany in April 1941, where the leadership offered unexpected cold sympathy for the cause of India’s independence. However, he did not divert from his goal which was freedom for India. In November 1941, with German funds, a Free India Centre was set up in Berlin and soon a Free India Radio, on which he would make nightly broadcasts. A 3,000-strong Free India Legion, comprising Indians captured by Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps, was also formed to aid in a possible future German invasion of India. Later the same year, with German help, he was transferred to a Japanese submarine from which he disembarked in Japanese-held Sumatra in May 1943.
• With Japanese support, Netaji revamped the Indian National Army (INA). Before long the Provisional Government of Free India, presided by Netaji, was formed in the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Netaji had great drive and charisma. The INA under Netaji was a model of unity in diversity comprising a splendid mix of ethnicity, religion, and even gender from all regions of India.
• The Japanese also took possession of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1942 and a year later, the islands were renamed Shaheed (Martyr) and Swaraj (Independence). During Netaji’s only visit to the islands in early 1944, India hoisted its own tri-colour flag for the first time. On the Indian mainland, an Indian Tricolour, modelled after that of the Indian National Congress, was raised for the first time in the town of Moirang, in Manipur, in north-eastern India. On 6 July 1944, in a speech broadcast by the Azad Hind Radio from Singapore. Netaji addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the “Father of the Nation” and asked for his blessings and good wishes for the war he was fighting. This was the first time that Gandhiji was referred to by this honorific title.
• Netaji believed in the Bhagavad Gita as a great source of inspiration for the struggle against the British. Swami Vivekananda’s teachings on universalism, his nationalist thoughts and his emphasis on social service and reform had all inspired Netaji from his very young days. He believed that socialism in India owed its origins to Swami Vivekananda. He had clearly expressed his belief that democracy was the best option for India. The most famous quote of Netaji was “Give me blood and I will give you freedom”. Another famous quote was “Dilli Chalo” (“On to Delhi”). This was the call he used to give the INA armies to motivate them. “Jai Hind” or “Glory to India” was another slogan used by him and later adopted by the Government of India and the Indian Armed Forces. Netaji was considered a patriot even by some of his rivals in the Congress. Gandhi himself wrote that Bose’s “… patriotism is second to none”, and he was moved to proclaim after Netaji’s death that he was a “prince among patriots” – a reference, in particular, to his achievement in integrating women and men from all the regions and religions of India in the Indian National Army. Netaji wanted freedom for India at the earliest opportunity.
• Text : Sh. Pallab Bose.

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Issued by India

Issued on Dec 30, 2018

Issued for : Department of Posts is proud to release a set of three Commemorative Postage Stamps the total of whose denominations adds up to Rs. 75/- to mark the historic occasion of the 75^th Anniversary of the first flag hoisting at Port Blair.

Credits :
Stamps/FDC/Brochure : Sh. Sankha Samanta
Cancellation Cachet : Smt. Neenu Gupta

Type : Miniature Sheet, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 4100, 2200 and 1200 Paise

Stamps Printed : 500710 each

Miniature Sheets Printed : 1.20 lakh

Printing Process : Wet Offset

Printer : India Security Press, Nashik

About : 

• Port Blair in modern times, as the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is a picturesque tourist location and serves as the gateway to pristine beaches and exotic marine life. To those interested in history, the place is a constant reminder of “Kala Paani” housing the Cellular Jail as well as the stories of torture and inhuman acts meted out to the prisoners, most of them being Indian revolutionaries of the freedom struggle. The first batch of freedom fighters of First War of Independence was brought here on 10 March, 1858, thus marking the beginning of the penal settlement. Since then, the convicts brought here, mostly political prisoners, suffered life imprisonment and hard labour under cruel and degrading conditions. Many were hanged, while others died of disease and starvation.
• The Cellular Jail, now a National Memorial is a witness to the glorious contribution of revolutionary patriots in the history of the Indian Freedom Movement. Many charismatic personalities were imprisoned here. Veer Savarkar, Ganesh Damodar Savarkar, Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Ullaskar Dutt, Indu Bhushan Roy, Prithvi Singh Azad, Trailokyanath Chakravarthy, Mahavir Singh among others; the catalogue is long and distinguished. The stories of their suffering and sacrifice for India’s independence and their defiance and valour in the face of imperial oppression, have elevated the Cellular Jail to a place of pilgrimage in India’s collective national memory.
• The more significant fact however, is that Port Blair was the first Indian territory liberated from imperial British rule. In 1943-44 during World War II, this territory served as the headquarters of the Azad Hind government under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The island at the time was liberated from British rule by Japan which captured it during the World War-II.
• Netaji, accompanied by members of the Azad Hind Government and his staff had paid an official visit to the Andaman Islands from 29-31 December, 1943. He stayed at the former British Chief commissioner’s official residence on Ross Island. His visit followed the Japanese Prime Minister’s historic declaration at the Assembly of Greater East Asiatic Nations in Tokyo on 6 November, 1943 that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands would be transferred to the Provincial Government of Azad Hind.
• On 30 December, 1943 Netaji addressed a mass rally of Indians at the Gymkhana ground in front of the Andaman Club. On the same day, he hoisted the Tricolour for the first time at the Gymkhana Ground in Port Blair. He also announced the Islands as the first Indian Territory freed from the British rule.
• After the flag hoisting, Netaji visited the Cellular Jail the same afternoon. He spent two hours there going around the Indian Bastille. Describing his visit to the islands later, Netaji said, “For Indians the return of the Andaman represents the first territory to be liberated from British yoke. By the acquisition of this territory, the provincial government has now become a national entity in fact as well as in name. The liberation of the Andamans has symbolic significance because the Andaman has always been used by the British as a prison for political prisoners. Most of the political prisoners sentenced to servitude for conspiracies to overthrow the British Government – and there have been hundreds of them – were looked up in this island. Like the Bastille in Paris, which was liberated first in the French Revolution, setting free political prisoners, the Andaman where our patriots suffered is the first to be liberated in India’s fight for independence.” Netaji named Andaman Island as “Shaheed” and Nicobar Island as “Swaraj”.
• Today, the place where Netaji hoisted the flag stands as a great memorial.
• Text : Sh. Pallab Bose and material provided by the proponent.

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Issued by India

Issued on Jan 23, 1997

Issued for : The Department of Post deems it a great privilege to issue this special commemorative stamp to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Type : Stamp, Mint condition

Colour : Single Colour

Denomination : 100 Paise

Overall size : 4.06 x 2.73 cms.

Printing size : 3.71 x 2.38 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported un w/m Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper in Sheets 50.5 x 53.5 cms.

Stamps Printed : 0.4 Million

Number per issue sheet : 40

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nasik

Name : Subhas Chandra Bose

Born on Jan 23, 1897 at Cuttack, Odisha, British India

Died on —-

About : 

• “To my countrymen I say, ‘Forget not that the greatest curse for a man is to remain a slave. Forget not that the grossest crime is to compromise with injustice and wrong. Remember the eternal law – you must give life, if you want to get it. And remember that the highest virtue is to battle against iniquity, no matter what the cost may be’.”
  
• These lines by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose contain the essence of his life’s philosophy, a philosophy which permeated his actions and ensured a place of pre-eminence for him in the history of India’s struggle for freedom.
  
• Born on January 23, 1897, Subhas Chandra Bose was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda. He appeared for the Indian Civil Service competitive examination in 1920, and came out fourth in order of merit. He however resigned, responding to Mahatma Gandhi’s call to the nation, for sacrifice, in the wake of Jalianwala Bagh massacre.
  
• In June 1940 at the Nagpur Session of the All-India Forward Block, he called for immediate establishment of a provisional National Government. Soon after he was arrested and sent to jail. While in prison, he resorted to hunger strike whereupon he was released and kept under house arrest. His dramatic escape thereafter is recorded in history.
  
• Thereafter, Subhas Chandra Bose took over from Rash Bihari Bose the leadership of the Indian Independence Movement in East Asia, and organised the ‘Azad Hind Fauz’ – ‘Indian National Army’ and became its supreme Commander. He proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind on October 21, 1943. A rare personality in contemporary history, Subhas Chandra Bose was at once deeply involved in the spiritual history of India and actively concerned with the modern, social and technological advances around the world. He was driven by an overpowering sense of mission and sought to inspire his compatriots with the same dedication to the cause. In this he succeeded in a large measure and was hailed as Netaji, the leader.
  
• Gandhiji’s words, bear eloquent testimony to Netaji’s place of eminence, in the freedom struggle of this country –“Netaji’s name is one to conjure with. His patriotism is second to none. His bravery shines through all his actions….
  
  “His was a life full of perilous adventure and romance. His daring was unequalled.
  
  “He has rendered a signal service to India by giving the Indian soldier a new vision and a new ideal.
  
  “The lesson that Netaji and his army bring to us his one of self-sacrifice, unity irrespective of class and community, and discipline. If our adoration will be wise and discriminating, we will rightly copy this trinity of virtues……. Then we will be able to stand erect before the world.”
• Credits:
  1. Dictionary of National Biography edited by Sh. S. P. Sen.
  2. Netaji: A Pictorial Biography edited by Sh. S. K. Bose, Sh. B. N. Sinha.

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Issued by India

Issued on Dec 31, 1993

Issued for : The Department of Posts has the proud privilege of honouring India‘s great heroes who have made the advent of a free India possible. Two postage stamps have earlier been issued to commemorate the 67^th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in January 1964. With the present release, the Department salutes the India National Army for its glorious contribution to India’s prestige and honour.

Design : The stamp design by the artist Shri Shankha Samantha is based on photographs of Subhas Chandra Bose reviewing the troops of the Indian National Army.

Design Credits :
Stamp : Shri Shankha Samantha
FDC & cancellation : Smt. Alka Sharma, Artist, Dept. of Posts

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 200 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 x 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported un W/M adhesive gravure coated gummed stamp paper in sheets 50.8 x 53.5 cms.

Number of stamps Printed : 1 Million

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press

About : 

• INA occupies an important place in the history of India‘s freedom struggle. Formation of this force and its heroic expertise proved beyond doubt that the British could no longer rely upon the Indian sepoys to maintain their hold on India. The universal sympathy expressed all over India for the INA officers when they were tried for treason in the Red Fort Delhi gave a rude shock to Britishers, in as much as it clearly demonstrated that Indians of all shades of opinion put a premium on the disloyalty of Indian troops to their foreign masters and looked upon it as true and welcome sign of nationalism. So the members of the INA did not die or serve in vain and their supreme leader Netaji Subhas Bose has secured a place of exalted honour in the history of India‘s struggle for freedom.

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Issued by India

Issued on Dec 28, 1985

Issued for : The Department of Posts is happy to bring out a set of commemorative postage stamps on the Centenary of the Indian National Congress.

Description of Designs : The se-tenant set prepared by India Security Press, Nashik Road, based on a design by C.R. Pakrashi, presents a composite picture, depicting the portraits of A.O. Hume & 60 Congress Presidents starting from W.C. Bonnerjee, to the present President, Shri Rajiv Gandhi. The First Day Cover has been designed by C.R. Pakrashi. The cancellation has been designed by Nenu Bagga.

Type : Se–tenant Block of 4 Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 100 Paise each

Overall size : 9.66 x 8.12 cms.

Printing size : 9.66 x 8.12 cms.

Perforation : 14 x 14

Paper : Unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 15,00,000 each

Number per issue sheet : 12

Printing process : Photogravure

Printed at : India Security Press

About : 

• The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 and in the same year, the first session was held in Bombay under the Presidentship of Shri W.C. Bonnerjee. The illustrious sons of India like Dadabai Naoroji, Surendra Nath Bannerjee and Madan Mohan Malaviya laid the foundation of this organisation.
  
• From the very beginning, the aim of the Congress was to establish Parliamentary institutions in the country. Renowned Constitutional experts like Dadabai Naoroji, Surender Nath Bannerjee and Gopal Krishan Gokhale, worked untiringly for setting up Parliamentary system of Government and for the growth of a secular, multilingual and multi-religious nationalism. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Aurobindo Ghosh, Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Paul were the first to adopt the posture of radical nationalism and invoked their countrymen to adopt a more dynamic plan of action. Lok Manya Tilak was the first to declare “Swaraj is my birthright”. In 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru presided over the Lahore session of the Congress. In this Session, the Congress declared complete freedom as its ultimate goal. During the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930-31 and 1931-32, the Indians undertook agitations on the appeal from Congress and these movements shook the foundations of the foreign rule in India.
  
• The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi could feel the pulse of the nation. He asserted that to achieve freedom, it was essential to create political awakening among the masses and train them for a struggle through non–violence against the foreign domination. Thus, non-violence became the basic creed of the Congress. The historic Karachi Session of Congress in 1931 was held under the Chairmanship of Vallabh Bhai Patel in which the famous resolution of fundamental rights was adopted.
  
• In the Lucknow Session 1936, Nehru formulated the foreign policy for the country based on working for peace and freedom, support for freedom struggle elsewhere and raising our voice against colonialism.
  
• In the historic meeting of All India Congress Committee, held in Bombay in 1942, presided over by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Mahatma Gandhi gave the slogan ‘Do or Die’ and people of India stood as one force to fight the British Rule. Their struggle bore fruit in 1947 and India attained the long cherished independence.
  
• Smt. Indira Gandhi as Congress President in 1959 and from 1978 to 1984 worked for the cherished goal of a socialistic society. Decisions of her Government like Nationalisation of Banks and insurance companies, abolition of privy purses etc. were all aimed at removing economic disparity and increasing social control over the means of production and distribution. Great leaders have nourished and contributed to its growth and maturity.

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Issued by India

Issued on Oct 21, 1968

Issued for : The Indian P & T Department considers it a privilege to issue a commemorative stamp on the 25^th anniversary of the formation of the Azad Hind Government. The stamp depicts Netaji reading out the proclamation on that memorable occasion.

Description of Design : The design of the stamp is vertical and depicts Azad Hind Flag and the two Swords at the left and right side of the flag, against the background of which Netaji is shown reading the proclamation.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Blue Grey

Denomination : 20 Paise

Overall Size : 4.06 X 2.28 cms.

Printing Size : 3.80 X 2.0 cms.

Perforation : 14½ x 14

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked paper

Number Printed : 20,00,000

Number per issue Sheet : 50

Printing Process : Photogravure

Designed and Printed at : India Security Press

About : 

• The establishment of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind or Free India was announced on 21^st October, 1943. The proclamation was read by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at Singapore. This historic event marked the beginning of the concluding phase in India’s struggle for independence. It was generally thought earlier that independence was to be given to India by somebody else. The Quit India Movement of 1942 and the formation of Azad Hind Government next year convinced the Indian people that Swaraj was indeed their birthright and nothing could really stop them from attaining their ultimate goal. There was no looking back thereafter till the dawn of August 15, 1947.
• Azad Hind was thus the symbol of India’s invincible aspiration for freedom. That aspiration was given a tangible form by the leadership and sacrifice of Netaji and his band of dedicated patriots in East Asia and elsewhere. The formation of the Indian National Army and its battles with the British forces on India‘s eastern front in 1944 served to remind the Indian people that the banner of India‘s fight for freedom was still aloft; and although her leaders had been incarcerated since 1942, India‘s spirit could not be subdued. What was equally significant, the Indian National Army became an embodiment of the oneness of India, for it had in its ranks, officers and men drawn from all parts of the country and from all communities.
• The story of Azad Hind began dramatically with the disappearance from India of Netaji early in 1941. He travelled to Germany where he spent about two years organising a Free India Army from out of the Indian prisoners of war held in Europe. The entry of Japan into the war in December, 1941, brought the fighting to India‘s doorstep and gave a new opportunity to Netaji. Invited by the veteran revolutionary, Rash Behari Bose, Netaji arrived in Japan in June, 1943, after a ninety-day submarine voyage full of peril and adventure. Events moved fast thereafter and a real government of free India emerged, recognised by nine foreign powers and controlling a fighting force of its own, the Indian National Army. The Azad Hind Government also exercised physical dominion over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are integral parts of India.
• The fortunes of war turned, and the Japanese had to surrender to the Allies in August, 1945. At this juncture, Netaji passed from the scene while on his last-known flight from Saigon. The Azad Hind Government outwardly came to an end, but its indomitable spirit lived on during and after the trials of I.N.A. officers in Delhi. The magic words “Jai Hind” (Victory to India) are a living bequest of this glorious chapter in India‘s history in which Netaji played such a leading part.

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Issued by India

Issued on Jan 23, 1964

Issued for : The Posts and Telegraphs Department deem it a privilege to issue two special stamps to offer their tribute to Netaji on his 67^th birthday, when the entire nation joins in paying homage to the great leader.

“I am happy to know that the Department of Posts and Telegraphs is bringing out a set of special postage stamps in honour of the 67^th birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He was a valiant fighter for the country’s freedom and undaunted by difficulties and hardships he carried on the struggle with exemplary courage and devotion. There can be no better tribute to him than the determination of our people to maintain the unity and integrity of the country irrespective of social, communal and other differences.” – S. Radhakrishnan, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi-4, January 16, 1964.

Type : Stamps, Mint Condition

Colour : 15 n.p. :- Gold Green and 55 n.p. :- Blue Black & Crimson

Denomination : 15 & 55 naya Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.63 x 2.62 cms.

Perforation : 13

Watermark : All over multiple ‘Lion Capital of Asoka’

Number of stamps printed : 2 million each

Set : 35 stamps per issue sheet

Printing process : Photogravure

Designed and Printed at : India Security Press

Name : Subhas Chandra Bose

Born on Jan 23, 1897 at Cuttack, Odisha, India

Died on — at —

About : 

• In the history of India‘s epic struggle for freedom, the saga of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, his patriotism, sacrifice and gallantry will for ever be written in letters of gold.
  
• Born on January 23, 1897, the ninth child of a well-to-do family in Cuttack, Subhas Chandra Bose gave early evidence of an intrepid spirit. At the age of 17, he left home secretly on a lone trek of the Himalayas in quest of a spiritual guru, but returned home without finding one. The teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda, however, gave him the inspiration and the solace he needed.
  
• He was brilliant in his academic studies both in India and England. At the age of 23, when he appeared for the Civil Service Open Competitive Examination in London, he was ranked fourth among successful candidates. But with characteristic courage he threw away the chance of what might well have been a notable career, when he resigned, and entered instead the stormy arena of a relentless struggle for liberation of the motherland.
  
• His words about the reason for this act of self-denial are typical of the man : “National and spiritual aspirations are not compatible with obedience to Civil Service conditions.” Arriving in Bombay on July 16, 1921, he called on Mahatma Gandhi who had launched, by that time, the historic non-violent campaign, known as the Non-Cooperation Movement, for freeing the country of British rule. This meeting proved to be a turning point in the life of Subhas Chandra Bose. Of this significant phase of his life Gandhiji was to say, later, in touching terms :
  “Netaji was like a son to me. I came to know him as a lieutenant full of promise under the late Deshbandhu Das…… He preferred selfless service to selfish ambition.“
  
• From then on, Subhas Chandra Bose rose steadily in the galaxy of the nation’s leaders. Twice he became the President of the Indian National Congress, in 1938 and 1939. In the quarter of a century covered by his public life, during which he had become the stormy petrel of the Indian National Congress, Subhas Chandra Bose gathered round him the nation’s youth inspired by revolutionary zeal and fire. The British authorities tried to crush him by throwing him into prison nearly a dozen times. But this only steeled him further for the ultimate defeat of the Imperialist power. His uncompromising attitude to Imperialism and his open opposition to India’s participation in British war efforts led to his arrest by the British authorities after the outbreak of the Second World War. When, however, he started a ‘fast unto death’ in prison, he was released, but confined in his home in Calcutta and kept under close surveillance of the Secret Police. The story of his subsequent dramatic escape and his heroic exploits in the cause of the country’s liberation is best described in Gandhiji‘s words :
  “Netaji by great strategy gave the slip to the guard put over him by the Government of Bengal, and by sheer courage and resourcefulness reached Kabul and passed through European countries and finally found himself in Japan, collected from scattered material an army of brilliant young-men drawn from all communities and from all parts of India, and dared to give battle to a mighty Government. A lesser man would have succumbed under the trials that Netaji went through, but he in his life verified the saying of Tulsidas that ‘all becomes right for the brave‘.“
  
• This epoch of a gallant life dedicated to the country’s freedom has endeared him to the nation as ‘Netaji‘ and enshrined him in the hearts of millions of his countrymen.
  
• No greater tribute can be paid to this noble son of India than that from the Father of the Nation :
  • “Netaji‘s name is one to conjure with. His patriotism is second to none. His bravery shines through all his actions…
  • “His was a life full of perilous adventure and romance. His daring was unequalled.
  • “He has rendered a signal service to India by giving the Indian soldier a new vision and a new ideal.
  • “The lesson that Netaji and his army bring to us is one of self-sacrifice, unity irrespective of class and community, and discipline. If our adoration will be wise and discriminating, we will rightly copy this trinity of virtues…. Then we will be able to stand erect before the world.“

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