Rash Behari Bose and Overseas Revolution

Rash Behari Bose was a master strategist and revolutionary leader who organized anti-colonial resistance both within India and across East Asia. Rising to prominence through his involvement in the 1912 Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy Case targeting Viceroy Lord Hardinge, he built secret networks connecting Indian revolutionaries with international anti-imperialist movements. Escaping to Japan in 1915, Bose laid the institutional groundwork for overseas resistance, establishing the Indian Independence League and raising the First Indian National Army (INA) before handing over its leadership to Subhas Chandra Bose during World War II.

Early Life and Underground Revolution in India

Early Background and Career

• Rash Behari Bose was born on May 25, 1886, in Subaldaha village, Purba Bardhaman district, Bengal Presidency.
• He completed his early education in Chandannagar and Kanpur, gaining fluency in French, Bengali, English, and Hindi.
• He worked as a head clerk at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, using his government position as a cover to build revolutionary networks across northern India.

The Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy Case (1912)

• Bose collaborated with revolutionaries from the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar groups, including Sachin Sanyal, Amir Chand, Awadh Behari, Bal Mukund, and Basanta Kumar Biswas.
• On December 23, 1912, during a procession in Delhi celebrating the transfer of India’s capital from Calcutta to Delhi, Basanta Kumar Biswas threw a bomb at Viceroy Lord Hardinge’s elephant.
• Lord Hardinge survived with injuries, but his attendant was killed.
• Bose evaded British intelligence by returning to Dehradun immediately after the attack and resuming his office duties to avoid suspicion.

The 1915 Ghadar Mutiny Plan

• Following the outbreak of World War I, Bose took charge of coordinating an armed insurrection within the British Indian Army alongside the Ghadar Party.
• Working with Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, and Kartar Singh Sarabha, he fixed February 21, 1915, as the date for a coordinated mutiny across army cantonments in Punjab, UP, and Bengal.
• The plan failed due to betrayal by a British mole named Kripal Singh, leading to widespread arrests.
• Bose escaped arrest by adopting various aliases, ultimately fleeing India from Calcutta aboard the Japanese ship SS Sado Maru in May 1915 under the assumed name “P. N. Tagore.”

Revolutionary Mobilization in Japan

Asylums and the Pan-Asian Movement

• Upon arriving in Japan in June 1915, Bose faced deportation threats from the Japanese government, which maintained an alliance with Britain under the Anglo-Japanese Treaty.
• Japanese Pan-Asianists, including Toyama Mitsuru (leader of the Gen’yosha secret society) and Soma Aizo, provided him shelter.
• He stayed hidden at the Nakamuraya bakery in Tokyo, where he introduced authentic Indian curry to Japan, later marketed as “Nakamuraya Curry.”
• He secured Japanese citizenship in 1923, marrying Soma Aizo’s daughter, Toshiko Soma, which protected him from British extradition demands.

Literary and Propaganda Activities

• Bose published articles, pamphlets, and books in Japanese to inform the Japanese public and political elite about British colonial atrocities in India.
• He translated Indian classics, including the Ramayana, into Japanese.
• He founded the Indian Club in Tokyo and served as a bridge between Asian nationalist movements.

Indian Independence League and the INA

Formation of the Indian Independence League (1942)

• Following Japan’s entry into World War II, Bose convened a conference of overseas Indians in Tokyo in March 1942.
• He formally established the Indian Independence League (IIL) during the Bangkok Conference in June 1942, bringing together representatives from Malaya, Singapore, Burma, and Japan.
• The conference adopted a resolution urging Subhas Chandra Bose to come to East Asia and assume leadership of the independence movement.

Creation of the First Indian National Army

• Working alongside Captain Mohan Singh and Japanese officer Major Iwaichi Fujiwara, Bose helped mobilize Indian Prisoners of War (POWs) captured by Japanese forces in Malaya and Singapore.
• The First Indian National Army (INA) was officially raised on September 1, 1942, with Captain Mohan Singh as its General Officer Commanding.
• Internal disagreements between Mohan Singh and Japanese military authorities over the operational independence of the INA led to Singh’s arrest and a temporary dissolution of the force.

Transfer of Leadership to Subhas Chandra Bose

• Rash Behari Bose reorganized the Indian Independence League and kept the patriotic spirit alive among Indian POWs and civilian expatriates.
• On July 4, 1943, at the Cathay Cinema Hall in Singapore, Rash Behari Bose handed over the presidency of the Indian Independence League and the supreme command of the INA to Subhas Chandra Bose.
• Subhas Chandra Bose conferred upon Rash Behari the title of Supreme Advisor to the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind).

Major Historical Milestones

Key Exam Facts

• Rash Behari Bose worked as a clerk at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun while organizing underground revolutionary activity.
• He was the master mind behind the December 1912 bomb attack on Viceroy Lord Hardinge during the capital transition ceremony in Delhi.
• He fled India in 1915 aboard the Japanese ship SS Sado Maru using the pseudonym “P. N. Tagore.”
• Japanese Pan-Asian leader Toyama Mitsuru and Soma Aizo sheltered him in Tokyo to save him from British deportation orders.
• He introduced Indian-style curry to Japan at the Nakamuraya bakery in Tokyo.
• He founded the Indian Independence League (IIL) at the Bangkok Conference in June 1942.
• He collaborated with Captain Mohan Singh and Major Iwaichi Fujiwara to establish the First Indian National Army in 1942.
• He handed over the leadership of the Indian Independence League and INA to Subhas Chandra Bose in Singapore on July 4, 1943.
• The Japanese government awarded him the highest civilian honor, the Order of the Rising Sun (Second Class), shortly before his death.
• He passed away in Tokyo on January 21, 1945.