Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Edition:Chapter 1 - Family History and Early Education (Part 1)

 After their first defeat at the hands of the British invaders in 1757 in Bengal, the people of India fought a series of hard and bitter battles for their lost liberty over a period of one hundred years. They fought their last battle as free men in 1857 under the flag of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah. All their heroism and self-sacrifice were, however, of no avail and bad luck and faulty leadership eventually brought about their final collapse and subjugation. After their defeat in this First War of Independence, the governance of India was taken over directly by the British Crown in 1858. British imperialism set out in a systematic manner to cast its stranglehold over India and a new era in the contemporary history of India began. The year of birth of Subhas Chandra Bose 1897 - has a significance of its own in the history of the critical ninety years that followed 1857. It was forty years earlier that the Indian people fought their first war of independence and it was forty five years later that Subhas Chandra Bose led the final armed battle for India's freedom. In 1897, as the British Empire was celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria's rule, the intrepid and legendary freedom fighter of India, who was to challenge the very basis of that Empire forty five years later, took birth in a small town in Orissa. In fact, Bose's birth marked the mid-point of the great crusade of the Indian people for their emancipation.

Subhas Chandra's father Janakinath Bose hailed from a small village in 24-Parganas district of Bengal but had settled down in Cuttack for legal practice. Cuttack, which later became the capital city of Orissa, was then a small town in a remote corner of the Bengal Presidency and did not even have rail connection with Calcutta. For Janakinath, to set out for Cuttack in search of a career was by itself an adventure. Fortune favours the brave and by the time Subhas was born, Janakinath had reached the top of the legal profession in his new domicile. He became Government Pleader and was elected the first non-official chairman of Cuttack Municipality. In 1912, he was a member of the Bengal Legislative Council. Even during the time that he was Government Pleader, he attended sessions of the Indian National Congress on account of which he incurred the displeasure of the authorities from time to time. In 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Civil Disobedience Movement and the British Government let loose a reign of terror and repression, Janakinath renounced the title of 'Rai Bahadur' in protest. He was a great philanthropist, deeply religious and a patron of khadi, Swadeshi and national educational institutions. When two of his sons, Sarat and Subhas, devoted them selves to Congress and national work, he supported them with all his heart.

Subhash's mother Prabhabati belonged to the tradition al Dutt family of Hatkhola of North Calcutta. She had eight sons and six daughters, Subhas being the ninth child. She was a woman of strong will and at the same time possessed a keen sense of reality and sound common sense. She dominated the entire domestic scene and ran a large household with exemplary competence. Both she and her husband put up with great fortitude with all the suffering and sacrifices that their two sons Sarat and Subhas had to undergo in the cause of country's freedom. When the news of the first arrest of Subhas in december 1921 reached his parents, his father said in a letter to the elder son, Sarat that they were "proud of Subhas and proud of you all". The mother commented that she was expecting the event any day because she believed in "Mahatma Gandhi's doctrine of self-sacrifice" and which, she believed, would bring our country Swaraj. The history of the family can be traced back to about twenty-seven generations, the founder of the lineage being one Dasaratha Bose. His descendants came to reside in a village called Mahinagar about fourteen miles to the south of Calcutta. Hence, the family was known as the Boses of Mahinagar. Eleventh in descent from Dasaratha, Mahipati Bose was an extraordinary person and attracted the attention of the then Nawab of Bengal who appointed him Minister of Finance and War. Mahipati was also given the title of 'Subuddhi Khan' and presented with a landed 'jaigir' as a mark of royal recognition. The village still carries the name of Subuddhipur. Mahipati's great great grandson Gopinath Bose was a person of exceptional ability and power and became the Finance Minister and Naval Commander under Sultan Hussain Shah towards the end of the fifteenth century. His honorific title was Purandar Khan and his 'jaigir' is still known as Purandarpur, not far from Mahinagar. As Purandar and his forbears functioned as ministers for generations, they wielded great influence and prestige as a family. And because Purander was a resident of Mahinagar, the place became the nerve centre of the Kayasthas of South Bengal. Purandar has also left his mark as a great social reformer. He convened a conference of more than a hundred thousand persons to deliberate over out-moded social customs among the Ka- yasthas and to take corrective measures for the social unification of the entire clan. For the purpose of providing pure water for this vast concourse of people, Purandar engaged a large number of workers to dig up a large tank. The workers used to pile up their spades, called Kodal in Bengali, after their day's work at a place adjoining Mahi nagar. At this place grew up the village Kodalia where Janakinath was born and which eventually became the abode of his family. Janakinath and his children including Subhas Chandra were deeply attached to Kodalia.