Rash Behari Bose: From Delhi Bomb to Tokyo Exile

In December 1912, a bomb was thrown at the Viceroy’s procession in Delhi. The man behind the plot was Rash Behari Bose.

He avoided arrest, fled to Japan in 1915 and spent decades abroad. There he built the Indian Independence League, which later backed the Indian National Army.

1Who was Rash Behari Bose?

He was a Bengali revolutionary who later lived in Japan.

• He was born on 25 May 1886 in Subaldaha village, Bardhaman district.
• That area is now in West Bengal.
• His father was Binod Behari Bose, and his mother was Bhubaneswari Devi.
• His childhood nickname was Rasu.
• He studied at Dupleix College in Chandernagore.
• Chandernagore was then a French colony.
• Stories from his grandfather and teachers drew him toward revolution.
• He later worked as a head clerk at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun.
• Through that job he met revolutionaries from Bengal, the United Provinces and Punjab.
• He died in Tokyo on 21 January 1945, aged 58.

2What happened in Delhi in 1912?

The plot targeted the highest British officer in India.

• In 1912 the capital of British India was moved from Calcutta to Delhi.
• On 23 December 1912, Viceroy Lord Hardinge rode in a ceremonial procession through Chandni Chowk.
• He sat on an elephant.
• The procession marked the Viceroy’s formal entry into the new capital.
• Crowds lined the street to watch it pass.
• A bomb was thrown at the procession.
• Hardinge was badly hurt.
• His mahout was killed.
• Bose planned the attack. Basanta Kumar Biswas is credited with throwing the bomb.
• The plot is known as the Delhi Conspiracy, or the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy.
• The attempt failed to kill the Viceroy. Even so, it shocked British India.

3How did he stay free?

He went back to work as if nothing had happened.

• After the attack, Bose took the night train back to Dehradun.
• He joined his office the next day.
• He even helped organise a meeting of loyal citizens.
• That meeting condemned the attack on the Viceroy.
• Police found no link between him and the bomb for some time.
• His calm behaviour in Dehradun helped him avoid suspicion.
• In 1913 he met Jatin Mukherjee during flood relief work in Bengal.
• He found in Jatin a leader he could follow.
• By 1915 he was a leading organiser of the Ghadar plot.
• That plot also involved Kartar Singh Sarabha and Sohan Singh Bhakna.
• See Kartar Singh Sarabha and Sohan Singh Bhakna.

4How did he live in Japan?

He arrived as a fugitive and later became a Japanese citizen.

• The Ghadar plot failed in 1915, and many revolutionaries were arrested.
• Bose escaped and reached Japan in 1915.
• He travelled under the name Priyanath Thakur, or “P. N. Tagore”.
• He posed as a relative of Rabindranath Tagore.
• Britain pressed Japan to hand him over.
• Between 1915 and 1918 he changed his residence and identity many times.
• Pan-Asian groups sheltered him, and he changed homes often.
• Aizo and Kokko Soma, who ran the Nakamuraya bakery in Tokyo, helped him.
• He married their daughter, Toshiko Soma, in 1918.
• He became a Japanese citizen in 1923.
• He worked as a journalist and writer.
• He shared a chicken curry recipe with the Somas.
• Nakamuraya sold it as “Indo Curry”.

5What did he build in Japan?

He built a framework that others later used.

• In March 1942 he convened a conference in Tokyo.
• It decided to form the Indian Independence League.
• A second conference at Bangkok in June 1942 invited Subhas Chandra Bose to lead it.
• The Indian National Army was formed in September 1942.
• Mohan Singh led it at first.
• Japan had captured many Indian soldiers in Malaya and Burma.
• Bose encouraged these prisoners to join the League.
• The League became the political body behind the Indian National Army.
• He also helped choose the flag of the Azad Hind movement.
• In 1943, he handed the League and the INA framework to Subhas Chandra Bose.
• For what came next, see Subhas Chandra Bose and the Forward Bloc.
• Japan honoured Rash Behari with the Order of the Rising Sun.

6What are the exam traps?

Two famous Boses are easy to mix up.

• Rash Behari Bose built the Indian Independence League.
• Subhas Chandra Bose took it over in 1943.
• Rash Behari Bose never led the Indian National Army in the field.
• The Delhi bomb was thrown at Lord Hardinge, not at a lower official.
• He escaped abroad. He was not hanged or jailed like Sarabha or Bhakna.
• He reached Japan in 1915 and became a citizen in 1923.
• His alias was Priyanath Thakur, a supposed relative of Rabindranath Tagore.
• He died in Japan, before India became free.