Subhas Chandra Bose

Born into a wealthy Bengali family in Orissa in 1897, Bose aced the Indian Civil Service exam in England but refused the final step, choosing nationalism over colonial administration. He returned in 1921 to join Gandhi and the Congress, rose to president by 1938, then clashed with the leadership over his impatience with non-violence and his appetite for concentrated power - leading to his ouster. In April 1941 he surfaced in Berlin, where the Nazis funded a Free India Centre and helped him recruit a 3,000-man legion from Rommel's Indian POWs. By 1943, frustrated with Germany's stalled Russian campaign, he took a submarine to Japanese-held Sumatra, revamped the Indian National Army from captured soldiers, and declared a provisional government on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Japanese thought him charismatic but unskilled; his INA offensive into India collapsed in early 1945 with half his force dead. Fleeing toward Manchuria on 18 August 1945, Bose died of burns when his plane crashed in Taiwan - three days after Japan's surrender, leaving a legacy split between patriotic fervor and the stain of fascist alliance.