Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had deep faith in Sanatan Hindu religion. He believed in the worship of Gods and Goddesses and religious rituals. The influence of Hindu religiosity was also evident on his freedom struggle. She also went on a hunger strike for the right to Durga Puja in Mandalay jail. Netaji considered Hindutva and Indianness as one, and his daughter has also denied considering him an atheist.
Netaji had deep faith in Sanatan Hindu religion.
Hunger strike for Durga Puja in Mandalay jail.
Hindutva and Indianness were considered to be the same element.
Bhairav Lal Das. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had deep faith in Indian cultural and religious concepts. He believed in the eternal Hindu Gods and Goddesses worship system and religious customs. The influence of Hindu religion is clearly reflected in their freedom struggle and political concepts. Being born in a Hindu Sanatani family, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was always steeped in Hindu religious values. Netaji said with great confidence that both Hindutva and Indianness are one and the same thing.
Netaji got himself enrolled in Presidency College. There were many people in his circle of friends who considered themselves the spiritual successors of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda. Netaji himself wrote that for the first two years of coming to college, he was becoming intellectually and morally sharp under the influence of these people. Apart from preaching, these people considered social service as spiritual development. But in Netaji's view, the meaning of social service was not limited to the construction of schools and hospitals but also included the development of nationalism in the educational field.
During his college days, Netaji was very interested in organizing public Durga Puja. A clear glimpse of Netaji's religious and spiritual concepts is found in a letter sent by Verma from Mandalay jail to his sister-in-law on December 26, 1925. In the letter he wrote that I do not know for how long we will be kept in jail. But if one gets the privilege of worshiping and seeing Maa Durga once a year, then it becomes easier to spend the jail term. Netaji wrote that in Durga Mata we see mother and motherland.
On October 16, 1926, while explaining the importance of worship of Maa Durga to his elder brother, Netaji wrote in a letter that it also gives us satvik and spiritual beauty, intellectual entertainment and permanent religious solace. Netaji wrote that today is Vijaya Dashami and today people in Bengal will be lovingly embracing their relatives, friends and even their enemies. Netaji wrote a letter to his friend Dilip Kumar Rai on March 5, 1933 that he was entangled in the conflict between devotion to Shiva, Kali and Krishna. I believe that God is one but there is diversity in the methods and traditions of divine worship.
He wrote that I am swinging between the faith in Shiva and Shakti because Shiva is Adi Yogi and Kali is the mother of the world. Netaji further wrote that for the last four-five years I have started believing in the power of mantra a lot. I have experienced that there is some special power in chanting mantras and it helps in achieving concentration. He further wrote that continuous recitation of a particular mantra energizes certain parts of the brain. But due to my inclination changing sometimes towards Shakta and sometimes towards Vaishnava, I am not able to take full advantage of the mantra power.
In October 2025, Netaji was lodged in Mandalay jail and Durga Puja was about to take place at that time. Netaji applied to Jail Superintendent Major Findlay that he should be allowed to organize Durga Puja in the traditional manner and funds should also be made available for it. He clarified that such facilities are provided by the government to Christian prisoners lodged in Indian jails. The Superintendent accepted Netaji's request, even though the government's permission had not yet been received.
A few days later, the government not only rejected the request of the Jail Superintendent but also punished the Superintendent for considering Netaji's request. Netaji again applied that if he is not given permission and support to perform Durga Puja inside the jail, then he will go on hunger strike inside the jail. The government remained adamant and Netaji also started a hunger strike inside the jail. This example proves that Netaji used Hinduism and worship system not only as a personal belief but also as a political tool.
Throughout his life Netaji believed in religious practices related to Hinduism. Not only this, INA There have never been any restrictions on the practice of religious beliefs and practices of people belonging to the religion. In Netaji's autobiography, Leonard Gordon, quoting Swami Stitanand and Swami Siddhantanand of Singapore, writes that Netaji used to go to the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram on Norris Road and sit for hours practicing yoga. During the Second World War, on one hand Berlin was being bombed and on the other hand Netaji used to practice yoga in his house till late night.
Even after the Japanese occupation of Singapore, Netaji continued to practice religious education and yoga in the company of a monk of the Ramakrishna Society. His daughter Anita, who considered Netaji a completely religious Hindu, while addressing the function organized on Netaji's 125th birthday, said that it is wrong to consider Netaji an atheist. Integrating religion, motherland, freedom struggle and Indianness, Netaji had written that no matter where you go to any part of India, the worship methods, methods, verses, religious conduct and traditions etc. are the same.
All the Hindus living in India from North to South and from East to West consider India as their holy land. They have deep faith in the sacred rivers here and this sentiment is found equally throughout India. Many people have misleadingly mentioned that Netaji was an atheist. Although Netaji never gave religious lectures, yet they were filled with elements of Indianness and Hindutva. Swami Vivekananda, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh had made successful attempts to link nationalism and Hinduism with India's independence movement.
In 1932, Netaji went to Vienna for health checkup. There he met Vitthal Bhai Patel. After long discussions between the two leaders, it was concluded that for success in the Indian freedom struggle, it was necessary to link it with the freedom struggles of other countries. It was also decided that it is necessary to include India's independence with the political ideological issues of major countries of the world so that Britain feels pressure on its foreign policy.
This generosity was not in Gandhiji's political vision because after the Nagpur Congress session held in 1920, he had also closed the small office of Congress opened in London. Through the pamphlets published by this office, information about the real situation in India was easily being given to the intellectuals of England and other countries. After the strict control of the British government on the news agencies working in India, some American journalists visited India and published facts about the situation here.
But the most light on this subject is found in the articles of Carl Henry von Wiegand of 'Hearst' newspaper. Being forced, the British government, by giving a lot of financial incentives, got an American writer named Katherine Mayo to publish a book named 'Mother India' in which the image of the main agitators of the Indian freedom struggle was tarnished. It is worth mentioning in this matter that no such mechanism was developed by the freedom fighters of India through which the real situation of India could be informed and attracted to the world public opinion.
A subtle difference is that while other people display their religious beliefs publicly, Netaji considered it a personal sentiment only. This is the reason why many scholars have made an unsuccessful attempt to blame Netaji as influenced by leftist socialist ideologies. Referring to a handwritten letter written by Sri Aurobindo's brother Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Sumeru Roy Chowdhury has implied that Netaji was a supporter of class struggle.
Gandhiji's principles of liberating India through non-violence were not able to satisfy Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and the new generation students and youth of his age. ICS Even after scoring excellent marks in the preliminary examination, Netaji gave priority to India's independence.
Netaji, who had a keen interest in the study of language and Indian philosophy, wrote a letter to Chittaranjan Das on February 16, 1921 that Congress should maintain a permanent office, experts doing research and data related to every person in India. He also stressed on the establishment of Intelligence Department and Publicity Department in the Congress Office so that scientificity can be brought in India's policy making. Netaji thought that after attaining independence, the Government of India would face a big challenge of policy making.
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