Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and military failure. The honorific 'Netaji' was first applied to Bose in Germany in early 1942—by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin. It is now used throughout India.
Bose, c. 1930s
Janakinath Bose, Prabhabati Bose, and their family, ca. 1905. Sarat Chandra Bose (standing, centre) and Subhas Bose (aged 8, standing, extreme right).
A photograph (1851) of Presidency College, Calcutta which Subhas Bose entered in 1913, but from which he was expelled in 1916
Subhas Bose (standing, right) with friends in England, 1920
The Indian Legion, officially the Free India Legion or 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment, was a military unit raised during the Second World War initially as part of the German Army and later the Waffen-SS from August 1944. Intended to serve as a liberation force for British-ruled India, it was made up of Indian prisoners of war and expatriates in Europe. Due to its origins in the Indian independence movement, it was known also as the "Tiger Legion", and the "Azad Hind Fauj". As part of the Waffen-SS it was known as the Indian Volunteer Legion of the Waffen-SS.
Indian POWs in Derna, Libya, 1941.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel inspecting a unit of the Indian Legion at the Atlantic Wall in France, 10 February 1944.
Shooting at sea targets from the Atlantic Wall in France, February 1944.
Troops of the Indian Legion at the Atlantic Wall near Bordeaux, France, March 1944.
