Revolutionary Rashbehari Bose, who tried to organise the freedom movement from Japan for decades and lived an extraordinary life, died on this day.
He was born in Subaldaha, a village in Burdwan district. He went to school there and later studied at Dupleix College in Chandernagore. An accused in the Alipore bomb case of 1908, he left Calcutta for Dehradun. In 1912, he authored a plan to assassinate Governor General Lord Hardinge in Delhi. Three years later, with police still looking for him, he left for Japan from Kidderpore in Calcutta.
In Tokyo, when the British wanted him extradited, he hid in the basement of Nakamuraya bakery, owned by the affluent Soma family. Rashbehari later married his host’s daughter, Toshiko. They had two children.
In 1942, in Tokyo, Rashbehari established the Indian Independence League, which would organise an army to fight for India’s freedom. Later in Bangkok in 1942, he suggested handing over the charge of the league to Subhas Chandra Bose. The Indian National Army that Subhas would lead was born from the league.
Rashbehari has left another legacy, a culinary one. At the Nakamuraya bakery, he had taught the chefs an Indian curry that is still much-loved.