History & Civics (Projects & Notes) for ICSE Class 10

History and civics (Projects & Notes) for ICSE Class 10.

ICSE HISTORY PROJECT (Grade:10), Word Limit: 1200-1500
Highlight the influence of Gandhian Principles on Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Illustrate the same using suitable pictures.
Prep/research. Information. Concepts. Thinking Skills. Presentation

History Projects:

• Indus Valley Civilization
• Indus Valley Civilization -2
• Benito Mussolini
• Mahatma Gandhiji
• Adolf Hitler
• Subash Chandra Bose
• World War I (Project)
• World War II
• World War II (another project)
• Cold War

Civics Projects:

• India’s relation with its neighbours

Important topics in history and civics:

Causes and effects of the Revolt of 1857
Objectives, methods and contributions of the early and assertive nationalists
Factors leading to the formation of Muslim League, objectives and the Lucknow Pact
Please prepare the entire chapter on Mahatma Gandhi and the National Movement
Cabinet Mission Plan, Quit India Movement, Cripps Mission, Mountbatten Plan and the Indian Independence Act of 1947
Reasons and effects of the two world Wars
Rise of dictatorship in Germany and Italy
United Nations-objectives, composition and functions of important organs
Functions of the major agencies of the UNO

Civics
Powers and functions of the Prime Minister, President and Speaker
Powers and functions of the Indian Parliament
Powers and functions of the subordinate courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court

However, its recommended that you prepare all chapters and topics in History and Civics to score well in ICSE Class X History/civics exams.

Project on UN/WHO/UNICEF

Prepare a report on the agency of United Nations (UN) with reference to a brief introduction of the purpose and objective of UN. Purpose and objective, history of WHO, Functions, programmes, activities of the WHO, and UNICEF to partner on pandemic response
through Covid-19.

History Project Topic: WORLD WAR I

World War I: Causes, consequences, strategies

NETAJI SUBASH CHANDRA BOSE

INTRODUCTION

Subhas Chandra Bose was born on January 23, 1897; presumed to have died August 18, 1945 although this is disputed ), popularly known as Netaji (literally “Respected Leader”), was a leader in the Indian independence movement .

Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress for two consecutive terms but had to resign from the post following ideological conflicts with Mahatma Gandhi and after openly attacking Congress foreign and internal policy. Bose believed that Mahatma Gandhi’s tactics of non-violence would never be sufficient to secure India’s independence, and advocated violent resistance. He established a separate political party, the All India Forward Bloc and continued to call for the full and immediate independence of India from British rule. He was imprisoned by the British authorities 11 times.

His stance did not change with the outbreak of the Second World War , which he saw as an opportunity to take advantage of British weakness. At the outset of the war, he went away from India and travelled to the Soviet Union , Germany and Japan , seeking an alliance with the aim of attacking the British in India. With Japanese assistance, he re-organised and later led the Indian National Army , formed from Indian prisoners-of-war and plantation workers from British Malaya, Singapore , and other parts of Southeast Asia , against British forces. With Japanese monetary, political, diplomatic and military assistance, he formed the Azad Hind Government in exile and regrouped and led the Indian National Army in battle against the allies at Imphal and in Burma .

His political views and the alliances he made with Nazi and other militarist regimes at war with Britain have been the cause of arguments among historians and politicians, with some accusing him of fascist sympathies, while others in India have been more sympathetic towards the inculcation of realpolitik as a manifesto that guided his social and political choices.

Bose advocated complete freedom for India at the earliest, whereas the Congress Committee wanted it in phases, through a Dominion status. Other younger leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru supported Bose and finally at the historic Lahore Congress convention, the Congress had to adopt Purna Swaraj (complete freedom) as its motto. Bhagat Singh ‘s martyrdom and the inability of the Congress leaders to save his life infuriated Bose and he started a movement opposing the Gandhi-Irwin Pact . He was imprisoned and expelled from India. But defying the ban, he came back to India and was imprisoned again.

He is presumed to have died on 18 August 1945 in a plane crash over Taiwan . However, contradictory evidence exists regarding his death in the accident.

EARLY LIFE

Subhash Chandra Bose was born on January 23 1897 in Cuttack (Odiya Bazar), the ninth child among 14, of Janakinath Bose, an advocate, and Prabhavati Devi. Bose studied in an Anglo school, Cuttack until standard 6 which is now known as Stewart School and then shifted to Ravenshaw Collegiate School of Cuttack. A brilliant student, Bose topped the matriculation examination of Calcutta province in 1911 and passed his B.A. in 1918 in Philosophy from the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta .

Bose went to study in Fitzwilliam Hall of the University of Cambridge , and his high score on civil service exams meant an almost automatic appointment. He then took his first conscious step as a revolutionary and resigned the appointment on the premise that the “best way to end a government is to withdraw from it.” At the time, Indian nationalists were shocked and outraged because of the Amritsar massacre and the repressive Rowlatt legislation of 1919. Returning to India, Bose wrote for the newspaper Swaraj and took charge of publicity for the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee. His mentor was C.R. Das, spokesman for aggressive nationalism in Bengal . Bose worked for Das when the latter was elected mayor of Calcutta in 1924. In a roundup of nationalists in 1925, Bose was arrested and sent to prison in Mandalay , where he contracted tuberculosis.

He was a devout Hindu and spent much time in meditation. Strongly influenced by Swami Vivekananda ‘s teachings, he was known for his patriotic zeal as a student.

ROLE IN NATIONAL POLITICS

In this famous photograph the Nazi official along with Bose is often mistakenly identified as General Rommel .

Released from prison two years later, Bose became general secretary of the Congress party and worked with Jawaharlal Nehru for independence. Again Bose was arrested and jailed for civil disobedience; this time he emerged Mayor of Calcutta . During the mid-1930s Bose traveled in Europe, visiting Indian students and European politicians, as well as Hitler in 1936. He observed party organization and saw communism and fascism in action.

By 1938 Bose had become a leader of national stature and agreed to accept nomination as Congress president. He stood for unqualified Swaraj (independence), including the use of force against the British . This meant a confrontation with Mohandas Gandhi, who in fact opposed Bose’s presidency, splitting the Congress party . Bose attempted to maintain unity, but Gandhi advised Bose to form his own cabinet. The rift also divided Bose and Nehru. Bose appeared at the 1939 Congress meeting on a stretcher. Though he was elected president again, over Gandhi ‘s preferred candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya , this time differences with Gandhi led to Bose’s resignation. “I am an extremist, ” Bose once said, and his uncompromising stand finally cut him off from the mainstream of Indian nationalism . Bose then organized the Forward Bloc aimed at consolidating the political left, but its main strength was in his home state, Bengal.

When war erupted in Europe , Bose was again imprisoned for civil disobedience and put under house arrest to await trial. He escaped and made his way to Berlin by way of Peshawar and Afghanistan . In Europe, Bose sought help from Germany for the liberation of India. He got Nazi permission to organize the Indian Legion of prisoners of war from Africa, but the legion remained basically German in training. Bose felt the need for stronger steps, and he turned to the Japanese embassy in Berlin, which finally made arrangements for Bose to go to Asia. In an unusual joint operation, he was transferred from a German to a Japanese submarine off the coast of Madagascar.

INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY AND PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

Arriving in Tokyo in May 1943, Bose attracted the attention of the Japanese high command, including Hideki Tojo , Japan’s premier. The Japanese agreed to cooperate in founding an Axis-supported Indian National Army (INA) in Southeast Asia. Bose was flown to Singapore and became commander of the INA and head of the Free India provisional government ( Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind ).

The INA included both Indian prisoners of war from Singapore and Indian civilians in Southeast Asia. The strength of INA grew to 43,000 and fought Allied forces in 1944 inside the borders of India at Imphal and in Burma . For Bose any means and any ally were acceptable in the struggle to liberate India. By the end of World War II none of Bose’s Axis allies had helped, and Bose then turned to the Soviet Union. Three officers of the INA were tried after the war in Delhi; the trial attracted much popular sympathy, including statements by Nehru and Gandhi that the men were great patriots. DISAPPEARANCE AND ALLEGED DEATH

Officially, Bose died in a plane crash over Taiwan , while flying to Tokyo on 18 August 1945 . It is believed that he was on route to the Soviet Union in a Japanese plane when it crashed in Taiwan , burning him fatally. However, his body was never recovered, and many theories have been put forward concerning his possible survival. One such claim is that Bose actually died in Siberia , while in Soviet captivity. Several committees have been set up by the Government of India to probe into this matter.

In May 1956, a four-man Indian team (known as the Shah Nawaz Committee) visited Japan to probe the circumstances of Bose’s alleged death. The Indian government did not then request assistance from the government of Taiwan in the matter, citing their lack of diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

However, the Inquiry Commission under Justice Mukherjee , which investigated the Bose disappearance mystery in the period 1999-2005, did approach the Taiwanese government, and obtained information from the Taiwan Government that no plane carrying Bose had ever crashed in Taipei. The Mukherjee Commission also received a report originating from the U.S. Department of State supporting the claim of the Taiwan Government that no such air crash took place during that time frame. The revelation makes it clear that disappearance of Bose is a mystery which cannot be simplified by the story of his death.

The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry submitted its report to the Indian Government on November 8, 2005 . The report was tabled in Parliament on May 17, 2006 . The probe said in its report that as Bose did not die in the plane crash, and that the ashes at the Renkoji Temple (said to be of Bose’s) are not his. However, the Indian Government rejected the findings of the Commission, though no reasons were cited.

Bose was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna , India’s highest civilian award in 1992, but it was later withdrawn in response to a Supreme Court directive following a Public Interest Litigation filed in the Court against the “posthumous” nature of the award. The Award Committee could not give conclusive evidence on Bose’s death and thus the “posthumous” award was invalidated. No headway was made on this issue however.

Bose’s portrait hangs in the Indian Parliament , and a statue of him has been erected in front of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

MYSTERIOUS MONK

Several people believed that the Hindu sanyasi named Bhagwanji , who lived in the house Ram Bhawan in Faizabad , near Ayodhya at least until 1985, was Subhas Chandra Bose in exile. There had been at least four known occasions when Bhagwanji reportedly claimed he was Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The belongings of the sanyasi were taken into custody after his death, following a court order. These were later subjected to inspection by the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry . The commission refuted this belief, in the absence of any “clinching evidence”. The independent probe done by the Hindustan Times into the case provided hints that the monk was Bose himself. Some people belive that Bhagwanji died on 16 September 1985, while some dispute this. The life and activities of Bhagwanji remain a mystery even today.

BOSE MYSTERY IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

Mission Netaji is a Delhi-based Indian non-profit trust that conducts research on Subhas Chandra Bose’s disappearance. Some documents the organisation has dug out have information connected to Bose’s disappearance. This lead to more documents that remain classified.Several Indian ministries, including the Indian Prime Minister’s Office , have refused to make public the documents under the Right to Information Act campaign lauched by Mission Netaji, on the ground that their disclosure will affect India’s relations with foreign countries.

POLITICAL VIEWS

Subhas Chandra Bose, believed that the Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita were the sources of inspiration for the struggle against the British. Swami Vivekananda’s teachings on universalism, his nationalist thoughts and his emphasis on social service and reform had all inspired Subhas Chandra Bose from his very young days. The fresh interpretation of the India’s ancient scriptures had appealed immensely to him. Many scholars believe that Hindu spirituality formed the essential part of his political and social thought through his adult life, although there was no sense of bigotry or orthodoxy in it .Subhas who called himself a socialist, believed that socialism in India owed its origins to Swami Vivekananda . As historian Leonard Gordan explains “Inner religious explorations continued to be a part of his adult life. This set him apart from the slowly growing number of atheistic socialists and communists who dotted the Indian landscape.”

Bose’s correspondence (prior to 1939) reflects his deep disapproval of the racist practices of, and annulment of democratic institutions in Nazi Germany. However, he expressed admiration for the authoritarian methods (though not the racial ideologies) which he saw in Italy and Germany during the 1930s, and thought they could be used in building an independent India.

Bose had clearly expressed his belief that democracy was the best option for India. The pro-Bose thinkers believe that his authoritarian control of the Azad Hind was based on political pragmatism and a post-colonial recovery doctrine rather than any anti-democratic belief. However, during the war (and possibly as early as the 1930s) Bose seems to have decided that no democratic system could be adequate to overcome India’s poverty and social inequalities, and he wrote that an authoritarian state, similar to that of Soviet Russia (which he had also seen and admired) would be needed for the process of national re-building. Accordingly some suggest that Bose’s alliance with the Axis during the war was based on more than just pragmatism, and that Bose was a militant nationalist, though not a Nazi nor a Fascist, for he supported empowerment of women, secularism and other democratic ideas; alternatively, others consider he might have been using populist methods of mobilisation common to many post-colonial leaders.Bose never liked the Nazis but when he failed to contact the Russians for help in Afghanistan he approached the Germans and Italians for help. His comment was that if he had to shake hands with the devil for India’s independence he would do that. CONCLUSION : BOSE’S CHAIR AT RED FORT

The following words are inscribed on a brass shield in front of the chair which is symbolic to the sovereignty of the Republic of India, as also to the Psychological upkeep of the Armed Forces of India. The chair rests in a glass case and is a symbol of pride as well as national heritage.

“Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in order to free India from the shackles of British imperialism organized the Azad Hind Government from outside the country on October 21, 1943. Netaji set up the Provisional Government of Independent India (Azad Hind) and transferred its headquarter at Rangoon on January 7, 1944. On the 5th April, 1944, the “Azad Hind Bank” was inaugurated at Rangoon. It was on this occasion that Netaji used this chair for the first time. Later the chair was kept at the residence of Netaji at 51, University Avenue, Rangoon, where the office of the Azad Hind Government was also housed. Afterwards,at the time of leaving Burma, the Britishers handed over the chair to the family of Mr.A.T.Ahuja, the well known business man of Rangoon. The chair was officially handed over to the Government of India in January 1979. It was brought to Calcutta on the 17th July, 1980. It has now been ceremonially installed at the Red Fort on July 7, 1981.”

Famous Speech of ‘DILLI CHALO’ at military review of the Indian National Army, 5 July 1943

“Soldiers of India’s Army of Liberation!

Today is the proudest day of my life. Today it has pleased Providence to give me the unique privilege and honour of announcing to the whole world that India’s Army of Liberation has come into being. This army has now been drawn up in military formation on the battlefield of Singapore, which was once the bulwark of the British Empire.

This is not only the Army that will emancipate India from the British yoke, it is also the Army that will hereafter create the future national army of Free India. Every Indian must feel proud that this Army, his own Army, has been organized entirely under Indian leadership and that when the historic moment arrives, under Indian leadership it will go to battle.

There are people who thought at one time that the Empire on which the sun did not set was an everlasting empire. No such thought ever troubled me. History had taught me that every empire has its inevitable decline and collapse. Moreover I had seen with my own eyes, cities and fortresses that were once the bulwarks but which became the graveyards of by-gone empires. Standing today on the graveyard of the British empire, even a child is convinced that the all mighty British empire is already a thing of the past.

When France declared war on Germany in 1939 and the campaign began, there was but one cry which rose from the lips of German soldiers–“To Paris, To Paris !” When the Brave soldiers of Nippon set out on their march in December 1941 there was but one cry which rose from their lips-“To Singapore. to Singapore !” Comrades ! Soldiers ! Let your battle-cry be-“To-Delhi To Delhi ! ” How many of us will individually survive this war of freedom, I do not know. But I do know this, that we shall ultimately win and our task will not end until our surviving heroes hold the victory parade on another graveyard of the British empire, the Lal Kila or Red Fortress of ancient Delhi.

Throughout my public career, I have always felt that though India is otherwise ripe for independence in every way, she has lacked one thing, namely an army of liberation. George Washington of America could fight and win freedom, because he had his army. Garibaldi could liberate Italy, because he had his armed volunteers behind him. It is your privilege and honour to be the first to come forward and organize India’s national army. By doing so, you have removed the last obstacle in our path to freedom. Be happy and proud that you are the pioneers, the vanguard, in such a noble cause.

Let me remind you that you have a two-fold task to perform. With the force of arms and at the cost of your blood you will have to win liberty. Then, when India is free, you will have to organize the permanent army of Free India, whose task it will be to preserve our liberty for all time. We must build up our national defence on such an unshakable foundation that never again in our history shall we lose our freedom.

As soldiers, you will always have to cherish and live up to the three-ideals of faithfulness, duty and sacrifice. Soldiers who always remain faithful to their nation, who are always prepared to sacrifice their lives, are invincible. If you, too, want to be invincible, engrave these three ideals in the innermost core of your hearts.

A true soldier needs both military and spiritual training. You must, all of you, so train yourselves and your comrades that every soldier will have unbounded confidence in himself, will be conscious of being immensely superior to the enemy, will be fearless of death, and will have sufficient initiative to act on his own in any critical situation should the need arise. During the course of the present war, you have seen with your own eyes what wonders scientific training, coupled with courage, fearlessness and dynamism, can achieve. Learn all that you can from this example, and build up for Mother India an absolutely first-class modern army.

To those of you who are officers, I should like to say that your responsibility is a heavy one. Though the responsibility of an officer in every army in this world is indeed great, it is far greater in your case. Because of our political enslavement, we have no tradition like that of Mukden, Port Arthur or Sedan to inspire us. We have to unlearn some of the things that the British taught us and we have to learn much that they did not teach. Nevertheless. I am confident that you will rise to the occasion and fulfil the task that your countrymen have thrown on your brave soldiers. Remember always that officers can make or unmake an army. Remember, too, that the British have suffered defeats on so many fronts largely because of worthless officers. And remember also that out of your ranks will be born the future General Staff of the Army of Free India.

To all of you I should like to say that in the course of this war you will have to acquire the experience and achieve the success which alone can build up a national tradition for our Army. An army that has no tradition of courage, fearlessness and invincibility cannot hold its own in a struggle with a powerful enemy.

Comrades ! You have voluntarily accepted a mission that is the noblest that the human mind can conceive of. For the fulfilment of such a mission no sacrifice is too great, not even the sacrifice of one’s life. You are today the custodians of India’s national honour and the embodiment of India’s hopes and aspirations. So conduct yourself that your countrymen may bless you and posterity may be proud of you.

I have said that today is the proudest day of my life. For an enslaved people, there can be no greater pride, no higher honour, than to be the first soldier in the army of liberation. But this honour carries with it a corresponding responsibility and I am deeply conscious of it. I assure you that I shall be with you in darkness and in sunshine, in sorrow and in joy, in suffering and in victory. For the present, I can offer you nothing except hunger, thirst, privation, forced marches and death. But if you follow me in life and in death, as I am confident you will, I shall lead you to victory and freedom. It does not matter who among us will live to see India free. It is enough that India shall be free and that we shall give our all to make her free. May God now bless our Army and grant us victory in the coming fight !

Inquilab Zindabad ! Azad Hind Zindabad ! “

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