He had been arrested early in July 1940 and temporarily released after his hunger-strike in prison had seriously impaired his health. His plan to leave India had to be, therefore, carried through in great secrecy and with complex preparations involving a very small number of persons.

The risks were great. But the majority of the Congress Working Committee and Mahatma Gandhi had rejected in 1939 and also in 1940 his plan of a renewed mass non-violent civil disobedience movement if Britain would not set a date for India's independence.

The Congress Left Wing consisted of elements which were guided by directives received from Moscow through the leaders of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

There were also those of the Congress Socialist Party who were unwilling to disobey Mahatma Gandhi. Jyapraskash Narayan, General Secretary of the Congress Socialist Party, and Acharya Narendra Dev, in thought and assessments of the world situations, were at one with Subhas on what India's response to the war should be.

Subhas Bose founded the Forward Bloc within days of his resignation as Congress president. The party was meant to be an internal Congress grouping of all those who wanted to give primacy to Indian independence, above all other considerations, during the Second World War.

But before he could reorganise this body, British Indian government began its pre-emptive repression. His departure was precipitated by the imminence of his imprisonment for an indefinite period. He was also desperate about meeting the leaders of the Soviet Union and Germany before any "peace" settlement with Britain would again perpetuate British rule over India.

So, he left India in January 1941.