Bose, Subhas Chandra (1897-1945), was a revolutionary Indian nationalist leader. He led Indian forces against the British during World War II (1939-1945).
Bose was born on Jan. 23, 1897, in Cuttack, in what is now the Indian state of Odisha, into a wealthy Bengali family. He studied in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. Although he was admitted into the Indian Civil Service, he chose to serve the Indian nationalist movement as a journalist, public speaker, and organizer. He was imprisoned several times and was exiled twice by the British for his political activities.
As president of the Indian National Congress in 1938, Bose drew up plans for India’s industrialization that conflicted with those of the Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi. In 1940, he was imprisoned but escaped to Nazi Germany. By 1943, he raised an Indian force of about 30,000 to fight with the Japanese against the British. He led his men through Burma (now Myanmar) as far as the Indian border, where they were finally defeated. Many people believe Bose died as a result of a plane crash in Taipei, Taiwan, on Aug. 18, 1945. However, the circumstances of his death are not known for certain. Taiwanese authorities have said that no plane crashes occurred in Taipei around that time. In 2006, an independent investigation commissioned by the Indian government in 1999 concluded that Bose was dead, but that he did not die in a plane crash in Taipei. The Indian government rejected the report.
