Report on Field Trip to Netaji Bhawan

The Department of Political Science organised a field trip to Netaji Bhawan for the students of Semester IV on 5th April, 2023. A total of 55 students accompanied by 5 teachers visited the ancestral house of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose that has been converted into a museum under the aegis of the Netaji Research Bureau since 1961. As a part of their course on Indian Political Thought, the students visited the museum and saw various artifacts, photographs and newspaper reports to gain a better understanding of Netaji’s life. The students witnessed the iconic German-made Wanderer car that was used by Netaji in his escape from India in January 1941. They even saw Netaji’s bedroom and office used as Congress President (1938-1939) with the walls painted in tricolour and the charkha at one side of his desk, preserved just the way it was left before his escape. The students were guided by the curator of the museum, Shri Anirban Bhattacharya in the Central Gallery, Europe Room, Asia Room and Sarat Bose Hall of the museum that document Netaji’s life as an adolescent, as a student in Cambridge and as an ambassador of the Indian freedom movement in Europe in the 1930s. They got a glimpse into his journey in Europe between 1941-43 under the Italian pseudonym of Orlando Mazzotta through various photographs clicked in Germany, including one with Hitler. The Asia Room documented the last lap of Netaji’s role in Indian independence, as the commander of the Indian National Army in Singapore, with the Rani of Jhansi regiment of INA and the last available photograph of Netaji alighting from his plane at Saigon airport on August 17, 1945. The students were keenly interested to see exhibits of the military uniform hat he wore as the GOC of Volunteer Corps at the Congress’s Calcutta conference in 1928, the silk dhoti and chadar which Netaji wore while taking his last meal, boots, cap and belt Netaji wore as the INA’s Supreme Commander and the desk and chair he used in his Singapore residence. This field trip was a success as the students were fascinated by the life and times of Netaji and also gained an insight into the political scenario at the time of the Indian freedom movement that shaped Netaji’s political ideas.