In news- 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was observed on 23rd January 2022.
Various initiatives of 125th birth anniversary-
- As part of the celebrations, the government has decided to install a grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate.
- The statue, made of black granite, would be made by a team of artists headed by National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi director-general Adwaita Gadnayak.
- Till the work for the statue is completed, a hologram statue of Netaji will be present at the same place, which was recently unveiled by the Prime Minister.
- The hologram was installed under the canopy where a statue of King George V had stood till its removal in 1968.
- During the programme, Prime Minister also conferred the Subhas Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskars or awards for disaster management, for the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 in the investiture ceremony.
- The winners for 2022 were the Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management and Prof. Vinod Sharma, a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Public Administration and the vice-chairperson of the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority.
- The award is announced every year on 23rd January and carries a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh and a certificate in case of an institution and Rs. 5 lakh and a certificate in case of an individual.
- The central government has decided to start the Republic Day celebrations from January 23 to include Bose’s anniversary, which will be celebrated as ‘Parakram Diwas’ (day of valour) starting this year.
A brief note on Subhas Chandra Bose-
- Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist and was born on January 23, 1897 in Odisha’s Cuttack.
- His parents were Janaki Nath Bose, a famous lawyer, and Prabhavati Devi.
- He did B A in Philosophy from the Presidency College in Calcutta.
- In December 1921, Bose was arrested and imprisoned for organizing a boycott of the celebrations to mark the Prince of Wales’s visit to India.
- Bose left for England in 1919 to appear for the Indian Civil Service Examination.
- Bose returned to India as he resigned from his civil service job in April 1921, and later joined the Indian National Congress to fight for the independence of India.
- In 1923, Bose was elected as the President of All India Youth Congress and as the Secretary of Bengal State Congress.
- By December 1927, Bose was appointed as the General Secretary of the INC.
- In 1938, he presided over the Haripura Congress session.
- However, due to his strong differences with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, he resigned in 1939.
- He escaped from India from house arrest in 1940 and came to Germany in 1941.
- In Europe, S C Bose sought help from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini for the liberation of India.
- During the Second World War, he moved to Japanese-held Sumatra in 1943 and revived the Indian National Army (INA) with the help of the Imperial Japanese Army, and also founded an Indian Radio Station called ‘Azad Hind Radio’.
- S. C. Bose was founder and President of the All India Forward Bloc, and founder and Head of State of the Provisional Government of Free India, which he led alongside the Indian National Army from 1943 until his demise in 1945.
- He started the newspaper known as ‘Swaraj’, and was also editor of the newspaper called ‘Forward’, founded by his mentor Chittaranjan Das.
- In 1934, he wrote the first part of his book ‘The Indian Struggle’, which was about nationalism and India’s independence movement during 1920–1934, but the British government banned the book.
- He was reportedly killed in a plane crash over Taipei, Taiwan (Formosa) on August 18, 1945.
Following Institutions have been named after him–
- Netaji Subhas University, Pokhari, Jamshedpur.
- Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata.
- Netaji Subhas University of Technology, New Delhi.
- Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala
Further reading: https://journalsofindia.com/legacy-of-subhash-chandra-bose/