Begin of Second World War 1939 & Subhash Chandra Bose’s Escape

The Second World War broke out on September 3, 1939 and on the same day Lord Linlithgow declared India as belligerent and at war with “Germany”.

Bose advocated a campaign of mass civil disobedience to protest against Viceroy Lord Linlithgow’s decision to declare war on India’s behalf without consulting the Congress leadership. He approached Gandhi to persuade on this matter , but was not successful. Gandhi had different ideas. He organized protests in Calcutta and called for removal of the ‘Holwell Monument’, which commemorated the Black Hole of Calcutta.

In 1940, he was arrested and was put behind the bars. In Jail, he sat on a hunger strike. When his condition deteriorated, he was released by the British and was taken under surveillance to his home in Calcutta. He left the house in disguise and reached Peshawar by Train. From there he crossed India’s border and reached Kabul. From Kabul, he went to Moscow and From Moscow he reached Germany to take Hitler’s help.

• In Berlin, he established Free India centre and raised a unit of Indian prisoners of War in Germany.

  Later he came to know about Japan’s phenomenal success in the war. So to take advantage, he moved on to Japan. However, things did not come up as expected and thus India lost a True Hero in disarray. (Discussed later)