Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Edition: Chapter 1 - Family History and Early Education (Part 2)

 Till the end of his days, Janakinath maintained close links with the village and worked for its social upliftment. He made the Durga Puja an occasion to fraternise with his fellowmen and in this his children also participated every year. Even as a mere boy of fifteen, Subhas Chandra wrote moving letters to his mother Prabhabati about his experiences in their native village. Moving in the footsteps of his father, Sarat Chandra went out of his way to promote village reconstruction work in Kodalia. Besides the Boses, the tiny village of Kodalia produced a band of dedicated patriots and revolutionaries who sacrificed their all in the cause of India's freedom. Among them was M.N. Roy. Subhas Chandra wrote in his autobiography: "The earliest recollection I have of myself is that I used to feel like a thoroughly insignificant being". In his early years, he yearned for a more intimate relationship with his parents which was denied to him because of the largeness of the family and the awe-inspiring personalities of his parents. It is interesting to trace the significant steps in the evolution of the personality of one who considered himself in the beginning to be so thoroughly insignificant.

Subhas was sent, as others before him, to the Protes tant European School in Cuttack in 1902 for his primary education. The school was based on the English model and run on English lines. Thus, Subhas and those who studied there gained a superiority in the knowledge of English and English-oriented education compared to their peers in Indian-run schools. The other gains in being in such a school were that it inculcated a sense of discipline, correct conduct and deportment, neatness in work and punctual ity. Although Subhas was not unhappy the school, as his consciousness developed he began to realise that they were living in two distinct worlds which did not always match. In studies, he was always at the top though he did badly in sports. When the time came in 1909 to leave the European missionary school, he did so without any regret.

Thereafter, when he moved to the Ravenshaw Collegiate School, a complete mental and psychological change came upon him. The Indian atmosphere which prevailed in the school made him think better of himself and gave him new self-confidence. He was expected to do well in studies except, in the beginning, in his mother-tongue Bengali which he had not been taught at the primary stage. But he made good this deficiency by working hard and eventually scoring the highest marks in Bengali in the first annual examination. What is more, he started learning Sanskrit with zest. But sports still remained the neglected area of his activity, a fact which he regretted for the rest of his life. In the Ravenshaw Collegiate School, there were both Oriyas and Bengalis among the teachers and students and the relationship among them was extremely cordial. The same cordiality prevailed in the Bose house hold where a number of Oriyas, both Hindus and Muslims, were in domestic service. Subhas Chandra's parents were known for their liberality of mind and compassion and they directly influenced the entire family. Thus, Subhas and his generation could never think or feel in terms of parochialism or provincialism.

Of the teachers, the one who left a permanent impression on the youthful mind of Subhas, was the Headmaster of Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Benimadhab Das. The latter instilled into his pupil's growing mind "aesthetic and ethical values". The teacher told his pupil that in human life moral values counted for more than anything else. He asked him to surrender himself completely to Nature and let Nature speak to him. Subhas would seek out beauty spots on the river bank or on a hill or in a lonely meadow in the midst of enchanting sunset glow and practise contemplation. Benimadhab's teachings revealed to him the indissoluble ties between Nature and Man and helped him to concentrate his mind. Subhas Chandra was around fifteen years old when he entered one of the stormiest periods in his mental and psychical life. He felt within him acute mental conflict and suffering. The conflict was between the natural attraction of worldly life, worldly pursuits and mundane physical desires and his higher self trying to assert itself. Nature worship helped him but was not enough to resolve the conflict. It was at this point, when he was barely fifteen. that Swami Vivekananda entered his life. He had by a chance of circumstance stumbled upon the Swami's works. He devoured them avidly and a mental revolution took place. He found what he was groping for--a central princi ple on which he could hang his whole life. His study of Vivekananda led him to the decision that life's goal must be to work out one's own salvation and dedicate one's entire being to the service of humanity. He believed as Sister Nivedita believed that service to humanity included. service to one's country because, to Swami Vivekananda "the queen of his adoration was his motherland". He accepted the Swami's dictum that every Indian was his brother and further that India's salvation depended upon the rise of the "power of the people'. Subhas accepted the modern interpretation given to the ancient scriptures by the Swami that faith and strength alone could lead to salvation.

From Vivekananda, Subhas turned to his master Ramakrishna Paramhansa, the essence of whose teachings was that only through renunciation was realistion or salvation possible. He got together a Ramakrishna-Vivekananda group of young people. Both inside the family and outside, the group aroused concern and opposition but to no avail. In defiance of family constraints, Subhas Chandra went ahead. As he fought contrary forces in the family and society, a battle royal was also in progress with inner forces of his lower self. At this most critical period, Subhas felt more at home when away from home. He eagerly read all kinds of books on yogic practices, thinking that all that mattered was mental and spiritual exercise. He experimented with such practices on the sly. Whenever a monk of any description came their way, Subhas and his group would rush to him. After some months of such experimentation, he realized the futility of such practices and re turned to the precepts of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda. Be fore he was sixteen, Subhas had direct experience of rural reconstruction work and was convinced that religious life did not merely consist of individualistic yoga but of service to humanity which included service to the motherland. Vivekananda was also of great help to him in freeing his mind at an early age of superstitions because the Swami's mission was based on a rational philosophy, a reconciliation between science and religion.

The first political impetus Subhas received was at the very end of his school career when an emissary of a Calcutta-based group met him at Cuttack. The twin aims of the group led by a medical student was spiritual uplift and national service which were quite consistent with the ideological direction that Subhas's mind was then taking. This connection was to last several years.

As the Matriculation Examination drew near, his parents and others were genuinely concerned that a boy of such promise and brilliance had turned wayward, eccentric and obstinate. However, when results were published, it was found that Subhas Chandra had secured the second rank in the whole university. Happy with the thought that a change of environment in the realistic atmosphere of Calcutta would do Subhas good, the family packed him off to Calcutta for further studies.