Why 23rd January going to celebrate this year as 'Prakaram Diwas'?

To commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Kolkata to be a part of the celebrations. This day will be celebrated as 'Parakram Diwas' all over India. This announcement was made to honour and remember Netaji's indomitable spirit and selfless service to the nation.

The Government of India has decided to celebrate his birthday on the day of January every year as 'PARAKRAM DIWAS" to inspire people of this country, especially the youth, to act with fortitude in the face of adversity as Netaji did, and to infuse in them a spirit of patriotic fervour," the government stated in its release.

A museum has also been set up on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at Delhi's Red Fort which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi on January 23, 2019.

When Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose joined Indian National Congress?

Bose went to England in 1919 to compete for Indian Civil Services. In England, he appeared for the Indian Civil Service competitive examination in 1920 and came out fourth in order of merit. However, Subhas Chandra Bose was deeply disturbed by the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre and left his Civil Services apprenticeship midway to return to India in 1921.

After returning to India, Bose came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and joined the Indian National Congress.

He showed his leadership mettle and gained his way up in the Congress hierarchy. Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress for two consecutive terms but resigned from the post following ideological conflicts with Mahatma Gandhi.

Bose believed that Mahatma Gandhi s tactics of non-violence would never be sufficient to secure India s independence, and advocated a more aggressive resistance.

Where Azad Hind Fauz was established?

The Indian National Army was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists and Imperial Japan in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. It aimed to secure Indian independence from British rule. It fought alongside Japanese soldiers in the latter's campaign in the Southeast Asian theatre of WWII. The army was first formed in 1942 under Mohan Singh, by Indian PoWs of the British-Indian Army captured by Japan in the Malayan campaign and at Singapore. .

     This first INA collapsed and was disbanded in December that year after differences between the INA leadership and the Japanese military over its role in Japan's war in Asia. Rash Behari Bose handed over INA to Subhas Chandra Bose. It was revived under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose after he arrived in Southeast Asia in 1943. The army was declared to be the army of Bose's Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (the Provisional Government of Free India). Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose named the brigades/regiments of INA after Gandhi, Nehru, Maulana Azad, and himself.

     There was also an all-women regiment named after Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmibai. Under Bose's leadership, the INA drew ex-prisoners and thousands of civilian volunteers from the Indian expatriate population in Malaya (present-day Malaysia) and Burma. This second INA fought along with the Imperial Japanese Army against the British and Commonwealth forces in the campaigns in Burma: at Imphal and Kohima, and later against the Allied retaking of Burma.

Who was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose?

• Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist whose defiant patriotism made him a hero in India.
• He is born on 23rd January 1897 at Cuttack, Orissa. With the Renaissance behind him, he grew up in harmony with the evolution of India’s national movement, responding and reacting to it positively since his early childhood. Even as a schoolboy in a foreign missionary school, he found the milieu foreign to his nature and was thus already a rebel at heart.
• The son of a wealthy and prominent Bengali lawyer, Bose studied at Presidency College, Calcutta (Kolkata), from which he was expelled in 1916 for nationalist activities, and the Scottish Churches College (graduating in 1919).
• He then was sent by his parents to the University of Cambridge in England to prepare for the Indian Civil Service. In 1920 he passed the civil service examination, but in April 1921, after hearing of the nationalist turmoils in India, he resigned his candidacy and hurried back to India.
• In 1921, Bose worked under Chittaranjan Das, a powerful politician in Bengal. He worked as the editor for Das’s newspaper, Forward, and later started his newspaper, Swaraj.
• He is also credited to be the first man to call Mahatma Gandhi “Father of the Nation”, in his address from Singapore.
• He also served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, with Das as mayor of Calcutta.

How he contributed to Indian Freedom Struggle?

• He joined the Non-Cooperation Movement which started by Mahatama Gandhi who made INC as a powerful non-violent organization. During the movement, he was advised by the Mahatma Gandhi to work with Chittaranjan Das who became his political guru. After that, he became a youth educator and commandant of the Bengal Congress volunteers.
• Bose was sent to prison in Mandalay for nationalist activities in 1925. He was released in 1927 and became the INC’s general secretary.
• He worked with Jawaharlal Nehru (Born on November 14 – 1889) and the two became the Congress Party’s young leaders gaining popularity among the people.
• He advocated complete Swaraj and was in favour of the use of force to gain it.
• In 1943, he left Germany for Japan disillusioned with the lukewarm German support for Azad Hind.
• Bose’s arrival in Japan revived the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) which had been formed earlier with Japanese help.
• Azad Hind or the Provisional Government of Free India was established as a government-in-exile with Bose as the head. Its headquarters was in Singapore. The INA was its military.
• The INA supported the Japanese army in its invasion of northeast India and also took control of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. However, they were forced to retreat by the British forces following the Battles of Kohima and Imphal in 1944.