Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was never held in Fort William, kin dismisses false claims
Telegraph | 26 March 2025
A member of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family has clarified that the leader was never held in Fort William.
In Saturday’s edition, The Telegraph carried a report headlined “Fort William now Vijay Durg, ‘tribute’ to 1971 feat”.
The report said that the Dalhousie barracks inside the fort had been named the Netaji barracks. “In December 1940, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was kept in the Dalhousie barracks,” it said, based on conversations this newspaper had with army officers.
Sumantra Bose, professor of international and comparative politics at the London School of Economics; the younger son of Sisir and Krishna Bose; and director of Netaji Research Bureau, said: “Netaji was never held in Fort William, in December 1940 or any other time. This false claim has been in circulation in recent years. On July 2, 1940, Subhas Chandra Bose was arrested from his residence, 38/2 Elgin Road, and imprisoned in Presidency Jail. On December 5, 1940, he was released from Presidency Jail after going on hunger strike, and taken directly in an ambulance from Presidency Jail to 38/2 Elgin Road. He then started planning his escape from India with my father, which happened six weeks later (the night of January 16-17, 1941) from 38/2 Elgin Road (Netaji Bhawan).”.
Bose, however, does not have a problem with the barracks being named after Bose.
“It’s fine to rename the Dalhousie barracks as Netaji barracks in Netaji’s honour. Dalhousie Square was renamed BBD Bag a long time ago,” he said.