The name of Netajee Subhash Chandra Bose fills every Indian with pride and with emotions of patriotism. Everyone acknowledges that he was a great leader, who changed the course of history of
India.
Janakinath Bhawan, the ancestral house of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, is located at Oriya Bazar in
Cuttack city of
Orissa. Subhas Bose was born in this house on 23.1.1897 and spent his early childhood at Cuttack. He lived in this house with a large family of eight brothers and six sisters. His father Janakinath Bose was a lawyer by profession and a man of repute during his time. Subhas Bose passed Entrance examination from Ravenshaw Collegiate School in 1913 and thereafter went to Calcutta to pursue higher studies.
The house complex consists of an old two storeyed L-shaped building with the main block running from West to East. There is a small temple on the back of the building on east side. Another row of houses is located close to the eastern boundary wall, which was used as the stable. There used to be a garden on the north side of the building with an open courtyard on the south of the main building. Each floor has four living rooms. Each floor had running long verandahs in front of the living rooms with openings on south side. There had been additions and alterations in later times in the complex.
The Janakinath Bhawan has been now converted into the Netaji Birth Place Museum of National standard with change of the present
Ambience into that of late 19th and early 20th century. The livings rooms have been converted into galleries displaying the different stages of life and activities of this great personality of our country through photographs. The other important exhibits in the Museum include old furnitures, house hold articles, documents, books and other objects of use found in the house and collected from various sources.
Interesting collections in the Museum include 22 original letters written by Netaji from Geneva, Milan in
Italy,
Shillong, Mandalay Jail, Rangoon Jail in
Myanmar, Presidency Jail, Alipore New Central Jail in Calcutta and Berlin to his parents and family members. The other exhibits of importance are the old household furnitures, books on Veda, Upanisad, Epics, Jurisprudence and Law.
