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“It is blood alone that can pay the price of freedom. Give me blood, and I shall give you freedom.” - Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Reverberated a fervid patriotism on July 4th, 1944, to a large gathering of Indians in Burma (present day Myanmar), underscoring the ‘Total Mobilization’ program's accomplishments in the previous year and tracing his demands for Indians in East Asia in the forthcoming year.

The voice was of the nonequivalent proprietor of what we now title as the PARAKRAM DIWAS pronounced by our Government of India (GoI) to be celebrated on his birthday every year— Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

It goes without saying, one of the world's pre-eminent leader's' nativity or heritage had always been equally prodigious, etched in the core of every Indians’ hearts and beyond.

Concomitantly, the born visionary's quietus was not without its fair share of nonpareil curiosity either.

To delve deeper into why, or rather what were those curiosities, let us revisit history lessons to commit to memory facts we have known forever.

WHAT HISTORY BOOKS DO TELL US ABOUT NETAJI?

Formed on May 3, 1939, the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) of the Indian National Congress was a left-wing, nationalist political party, established by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Makar Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, who had resigned from the presidency of the Indian National Congress on 29 April after being outmanoeuvred by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gandhiji or Bapuji). Forward Bloc emerged as a faction, accepting Scientific Socialism as its objective, and believing in class struggles in their fullest implications, alongside introduction, led also by Bose;

A key anti-imperialist figure, an unconventional freedom fighter, great Indian nationalist, Indian revolutionary prominent, in addition with ‘Netaji’, translated ‘Respected Leader’. Rabindranath Tagore, it is said, furthermore bestowed upon Bose the title of ‘Desh Nayak’, as recognition towards Netaji's contributions and leadership to the Indian Independence Movement.

The founder of ‘Forward Bloc’ hailed from Cuttack, Odisha, on January 23rd of 1897, offspring to Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati Devi. From a very raw age, Subhash demonstrated exceptional wits, excelling in his fields of studies. He graduated from Cambridge University in England.

In 1921 onwards, the fighter, after learning of the injustices committed by the British Raj in India, made a commitment to liberate his motherland. Bose led several campaigns to unfetter India from the shackles of colonialism. He left his prestigious, well-esteemed job in the administrative service in England and returned to India to begin his freedom struggle.

WHAT MAINSTREAM HISTORY BOOKS SELDOM TELL US ABOUT NETAJI?

(Aka lesser known facts about the chief of leaders)

It might purely be subjective but I, for instance have never read the brought up attributes beneath.

  • Subhash Chandra Bose was brought up among fourteen siblings.
  • Bose came across the teachings of Swami Vivekananda only at the age of 16. Vivekananda's ideologies on universal brotherhood, emphasis on social services and reform, and nationalistic viewpoints enticed Netaji.
  • Winding up his BA in Philosophy with a first class score, Bose evidenced himself to be a brilliant student. He cracked the ICS examination in 1920, howsoever, withdrew from the job a year later, indisposed to be a servant to the British.
  • Notwithstanding Bose's academic scholarly prowess, he was expelled from Presidency College, due to defiance to the British by allegedly assaulting Professor Oaten who remarked anti-Indian comments.
  • Bose quit the All India National Congress in the year of 1939, ensuing after his fallout with Gandhi. He was elected as the president the same year preceding.
  • While staying in Germany, Bose married a woman of Austrian origin, named Emilie Schenkl, with whom he had a daughter, Anita Bose. Anita Bose is a renowned economist, who had formerly been a Professor of economics at the University of Augsburg as well as a politician in the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
  • Not only was India's slogan ‘Jai Hind’ coined by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, he was also the one to plump for ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as India's National Anthem.
  • Bose was jailed 11 times in 20 years, during the timespan of 1921 and 1941. In the year of 1941, while under house arrest, Bose concocted his disguised escape with Sisir Bose as his companion.
  • Only one year following Bose's plan of disguised escape, he approached Hitler with a proposal to manumit India, albeit Hitler showed no interest and made no promises.
  • In 1943, Bose established Azad Hind Radio and Free India Central in Berlin.
  • Azad Hind Bank issued notes, including an one lakh rupee note featuring a photograph of Netaji himself.
  • Reportedly, the chief leader's demise came to pass in 1945, in a plane crash at Taiwan, when Bose was flying to Japan. His bodily remains were neither discovered, nor corroborated.
  • With Netaji's concluding remnants unfounded, associations blossomed of Bose living a life after death, with identities of a number of ‘babas’ — one particularly accented among them was GUMNAAMI BABA, alias BHAGWANJI.

Where controversies prevail, a genre of established verity is a must.

WHAT THE WORLD KNOWS, BROUGHT AN END TO NETAJI - THE VERITY

According to historian Leonard A. Gordon: “A disinfectant, Rivamol, was put over most of his body and then a white ointment was applied and he was bandaged over most of his body. Dr. Yoshimi gave Bose four injections of Vita Camphor and two of Digitamine for his weakened heart. These were given about every 30 minutes. Since his body had lost fluids quickly upon being burnt, he was given Ringer solution intravenously. A third doctor, Dr. Ishii gave him a blood transfusion. An orderly, Kazuo Mitsui, an army private, was in the room and several nurses were assisting. Bose still had a clear head which Dr. Yoshimi found remarkable for someone with such injuries.”

By the second week of August 1945, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ensured Japan's quick resignation. Japan's allies in Asia knew they had to be prepared for whatever was to come.

Japan had just a few days before its soldiers laid down their armaments. The war was over. But Netaji, Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Free India (PGFI), and chief of the INA had other plans, surrendering was not one of them.

Bose returned to Singapore from Seremban on the evening of August 13 and conferred immediately with his military and civil chiefs. The cabinet discussion went on all across August 14. Bose's cabinet wanted him to go somewhere, anywhere.

Netaji, then, bearing enough contemplations, arrived at Bangkok, then the seat of the PGFI, before noon on August 16, 1945. He went to the headquarters of the Indian Independence League (IIL) and met members of the Azad Hind Government and informed them of Japan's surrender.

On midnight of August 16-17, Bose collected all officers at his residence and discussed with them the plan of flying out with him to a safe place for the time being. But Netaji stressed his primary objective was to continue the struggle for India's freedom and not just to hide himself, pellucid from Netaji telling General Isoda that it was essential that he be accompanied by a number of officers, when General Isoda conveyed qualms on the capability of concealing such a big party.

The officers assembled at Bangkok airport at about 6 a.m. The team took off for Saigon in two planes, accompanied by some Japanese officers. They reached Saigon at around three hours, from 8-9 a.m. The Japanese in Saigon could not provide a separate plane for the INA men. The Allied Powers had instructed them not to fly any plane without permission.

There was one plane, nevertheless, at the aerodrome, twiddling its thumbs, to fly to Tokyo with 11 Japanese on board already. The plane was a two-engine bomber with the capacity of carrying one tonne load. They could carve out one space for Netaji from there. The INA officers, for the sake of Bose's safety, agreed to let Netaji go with one person for company. Netaji chose Habibur Rahman.

The bomber took off from Saigon at 5:20 p.m. on August 17.

At a time of passengers having their nights’ halt at Tourane, the pilot detached the machine guns, its ammunition and anti-aircraft guns that were fixed to the plane, to reduce weight.

On August 18, the plane took off from Tourane at sunrise. It reached Taihoku (Taipei) at noon. The bomber plane was filled with gasoline to capacity. The team was aiming for Dairen (Dalian) in Manchuria to drop off General Shidei. Netaji agreed to go with him to Mukden (Shenyang), the capital of Manchuria. It took off at around 2-2.30 p.m.

Even so, no sooner was the plane elevating, at about an altitude of 20-30 metres, there was a sound of an explosion followed by three-four loud bangs. The propeller on the left side of the plane fell off. The bomber nosedived. On crashing beyond the concrete runway, the plane split into two.

Netaji, in particular, was soaked in petrol and had to rush out of the debris through the fire. Rahman followed suit.

Shortly afterwards, Netaji with the other injured passengers were taken to a small first-aid treatment centre. Netaji's condition was the worst. He was burnt all over, and his skin had taken on an ashy colour. His heart too had suffered burns. His face and eyes were swollen. He, in multiplication of his misery, had a high fever.

In spite of administering stimulants, his heart rate and pulse did not improve. Inchmeal, his life ebbed away, and the shutter on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's entity tumbled only moments after 8 p.m.

  • Cremation

Netaji was cremated on August 20 in Taihoku. In the maelstrom of shambled communications and utter confusion in the ranks and files of the Japanese, the local authorities avoided taking responsibility for recording or declaring the death of the leader of a foreign friendly nation. It is believed that they swapped the name of the death certificate to Ichiro Okura.

According to Dr. Li Fu Chen of Aletheia University of Taiwan— after Bose's cremation, a part of his bone ashes was preserved in the famous Nishi Honganji Temple in Taiwan for some time.

On 7 September, a Japanese officer, Lieutenant Tatsuo Hayashida, as per broadly accepted accounts, carried Bose's ashes to Tokyo, and the following morning they were handed to the president of the Tokyo Indian Independence League, Rama Murti. On 14 September, a memorial service was held for Bose in Tokyo and a few days later the ashes were turned over to the priest of the Renkoji temple of Nichiren Buddhism of Tokyo. There they have remained to this day.

  • Official Announcement

The official Japanese radio announcement on Netaji's gut wrenching death was made on August 23, 1945. The Japanese news agency Domei anchored the news of Bose and Shidei.

Ordinary, right? Well, that would have been the circumstance, on the provided assumption that the anterior chronicle was the exclusive chronicle. That is not the case. What are the disparate contextual panoramas, therefore? Discussed below—

SPECULATIONS CIRCULATING NETAJI'S DEATH

Following what goes in history, on August 18, in the year 1945, after Bose's boarded Japanese bomber plane crashed in Japanese-ruled Formosa, a region now known as Taiwan, Bose suffered third degree burns, leading to his death in a Japanese military hospital. Subhash Chandra Bose boarded the plane at Taipei to leave for Dairen, Manchukuo, now Dalian, China.

Thousands and lakhs of conspiracy theories, however, cover the facets, traipsing from the real date, actual location, and to in fact as far as the year of his passing away.

What, in that case, are the main theories that ripple to this day? There are primarily five conspiracy theories:

  1. Netaji's death in Taiwan was a hoax with a motive of distraction and convincing.
  2. Netaji escaped to Russia and was liquefied by Stalin, while imprisoned.
  3. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose adapted identifications of a number of ‘babas’ or ‘sadhus’ (ascetics or hermits).
  4. Netaji's presence in Red China.
  5. There could be a tooth of Subhash Chandra Bose in his remains in Tokyo.
  6. The Tashkent man's resemblance with Netaji and if Lal Bahadur Shashtri hinted at Netaji's sentience before his untimely death.

Let us now focus in depth, on the three most prominent theories from a wider vantage point.

NETAJI'S DEATH IN TAIWAN: A 1945 HOAX?

The first and foremost, dementedly recognized theory of the plane crash accused of stealing Netaji's life never having come to pass in the first place. But what brought forward these postulations?

1. Comments and claims of Netaji's family:

  • Suresh Bose

“I consider myself exceedingly fortunate to have succeeded in securing some top secret reports. . .and in my being able to secure a few photographs, sketches and other papers were indispensably necessary for writing my report and which our Government has intentionally withheld from me.”

Nothing concrete was ever documented. Nothing barring secret government documents in Suresh Bose's book ‘Dissentient Report’, where he had without assent, violated the Official Secrets Act.

Suresh Bose was part of the three-man Netaji Enquiry Commission, headed by Shah Nawaz Khan, which was constituted in 1956, to investigate the death of Suresh Bosh's brother Subhash Chandra Bose. The cessation of Netaji having died in a plane crash was deduced by two members of the Commission. Suresh Bose rejected that theory. Bose also challenged the decision to appoint Shah Nawaz Khan as Chairman of the Commission, since, according to Suresh Bose, Khan was chosen owing to the fact he had already made up his mind that a plane crash had occurred, in line with Nehru's belief.

Suresh Bose's dissenting reports, dated October 9, 1956, concluded that the aircraft accident did not take place and Netaji did not die, containing personal allegations. It was also tabled in parliament.

A decade later, in February 1966, Suresh Bose cryptically declared to the press that his brother, Subhash Chandra Bose would return in March.

  • Sarat Chandra Bose & Roma Roy

In a strikingly similar mannerism, Sarat Chandra Bose, Netaji's elder brother, never believed that Netaji died in the 1945 mid-air mishap. He told his daughter Roma, son Amiya Nath and Netaji's wife Emilie Schenkl that the leader would reappear, as per the declassified intelligence files.

“My father never believed the air crash theory and was always sure that my uncle had spread the word about the crash to evade the Allied forces. He suspected (Colonel) Habibur Rahman (of the Indian National Army of Netaji) was lying on purpose under instruction from Netaji,” said 86- year old Roma Roy, daughter of Sarat Bose to HT.

  • Emilie Schenkl

Subhash Chandra Bose's wife Schenkl, in her first letter in 1946, had introduced herself as Netaji's widow. However, after her first meeting with members of the Bose clan, which involved Sarat Bose, in Vienna, in late 1948, Emilie Schenkl seemed to have changed her mind. In a letter written to Sarat Bose, dated May 5, 1949, Emilie wrote: “We can only hope that our feelings may become reality one day and that your brother will return. This is the only thing I'm praying for.”

  • Chandra Bose

“My grandfather got the watch tested at a London laboratory to find the nature of burn marks on its band (proof that the plane caught fire and Netaji suffered third degree burns). The lab ruled the burn marks were caused by acid. Sarat Bose was then convinced his brother had deliberately spread the news of his death,” Chandra Bose, Sarat Bose's grandson said he had learned from his father Amiya Nath Bose that Sarat Bose was suspicious about an apparent statement made by Rahman.

Sarat Bose received the deputy premier of Vietnam in Calcutta (present day Kolkata), and requested him “to help Netaji's reappearance in the East”, as per an IB report, dated February 25, 1948.

The Vietnamese leader assuaged Sarat Bose of shielding Netaji from UN's attempts to try him as a ‘war criminal’.

2. Taiwan Government denying any air crash in the year of 1945, on August 18:

February 2005, Justice M. K. Mukherjee, heading the one man commission of inquiry, was informed that Subhash Chandra Bose could not have died in a plane crash that never took place, by the External Affairs Ministry of Taiwan, cited by BBC reports.

“During the period of August 14 to October 25, 1945, no evidence shows that one plane had ever crashed at the old Matsuyama Airport (now Domestic Taipei Airport) carrying Mr. Subhash Chandra Bose,” Justice Mukherjee said, quoting an email from Lin Lin Sang, Minister of Transportation and Communication, Taiwan Government to Anuj Dhar, a journalist.

Justice Mukherjee further stated his demands regarding Taiwanese authorities to provide him some documents such as daily newspapers or resembling, in and from Taipei during August 18 to 24, 1945, containing any reference to Bose. Alongside documents related to cremation of dead people through that same period at the old crematorium in Taipei and some records from the national archives for the years 1943-45, 1956, 1967 and 1973.

‘The commission, which provided two e-mails reportedly sent by Taiwanese authorities to Dhar, said

“the Mayor of Taipei and the External Affairs Ministry of Taiwan government confirmed to us the e-mails to be genuine”.

According to one email, there was no air crash during that period while the other made a reference to a crash on September 20-23, 1945, involving a USC-47 Transporter plane carrying 26 people, most of them believed to be former American POWs just released from camps in the Philippines.

That plane, the email said, crashed on Mount Trident in Taitung area, about 200 nautical miles away from Taipei.’ (Desh Kapoor, drishtikone).

3. Radio Broadcasts

P.C Kar, who was monitoring the radio transmissions in Governor House in 1945, heard the declassified file no. 870/11/P/16/92. Kar told Governor R.G Casey that those broadcasts came 4 months 8 days after Netaji’s supposed untimely demise, on Dec 26, 1945; it said—

  • Broadcast #1

“I am at present in the shelter of great world powers. My heart is burning for India. I will go to India on the crest of a Third World War. It may come in ten years or even earlier. Then I will sit upon judgement upon those trying my men at the Red Fort.”

  • Broadcast #2

The second broadcast was on January 1, 1946, and conveyed as follows:

“We must get freedom within the next two years. British imperialism has broken down and it must concede independence to India. India will not be free by means of non-violence. But I am quite respectful to Mr. Gandhi.”

  • Broadcast #3

The ultimate broadcast was on February 1946:

“I am Subhash Chandra Bose speaking, Jai Hind. This is the third time I am addressing my Indian brothers and sisters after Japan's surrender…The PM of England is going to send Mr. Pethick Lawrence and two other members with no object in view other than to let the British imperialism a permanent settlement by all means to suck the blood of India.”

4. Gallacher & Netaji's meeting with De Valera:

President of Ireland De Valera, in the year of 1948, paid a visit to India. When asked about Netaji, De Valera said he had hoped to meet Bose in India.

Gallcher, British Communist leader, on the flip had definite information that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had secretly visited the United Kingdom in 1946 to meet the president of Ireland, who in turn happened to also be Bose's close personal friend.

5. Bose of the South:

Three times elected to the National Parliamentary Constituency, Ukkirapandi Muthuramalinga Thevar, or sometimes known as Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, was a politician, patriarch of Thevar community. Aside from being the patriarch, Muthuramalinga was a staunch loyalist of Netaji and was called the ‘Bose of the South’, farther, a Forward Bloc leader. He said that in 1950, he managed to cross over to China on being requested by an ailing elder brother of Netaji, Sarat Bose. There, Muthuramalinga met Subhash Bose in January 1950, and stayed with him for sometime in an unknown location in China. Thevar also claimed the possession of evidence of his travel to China, which he could have presented on request.

6. Deben Sen

Ex M. P Deben Sen was quite acquainted with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in India. While travelling with Joglekar, a trade union leader of Bombay, in the year 1946, to attend a Labour Conference in France, they beheld a Netaji lookalike. The ‘lookalike’ was attired in military uniform. When Deben Sen tried to approach him, the ‘lookalike’ forbade the former from coming any closer, through gestures. Deben Sen accounted to Sarat Chandra Bose, who advised Sen not to disclose this story publicly. Gallacher's statement of Netaji dropping by Ireland to meet De Valera lent support in favour of Deben Sen's chanced meeting with Netaji. Sen later revealed this incident to Chapalakanta Bhattacharya of Hindustan Standard Patrika.

7. Paradox of main plane crash witness Habibur Rahman

“Let him (Netaji) come back, we'll have double gain- we'll have him and it will expose those who are trying to declare him dead,” noted Habibur Rahman to Sunil Krishna Gupta privately while he came to testify in front of the Shah Nawaz Committee.

8. Nizamuddin, Netaji's previous driver

Nizamuddin, the erstwhile driver in Azad Hind Government, proclaimed that he met N.G Swami, one of the top secret service agents of Netaji's Azad Hind Government, in Varanasi in 1971. Swami told Nizamuddin that Netaji was alive and was in Uttar Pradesh as a saadhu (more about it in proximate segments).

9. A planned accident ft. Aswini Kumar Gupta

Aswini Kumar Gupta, Jt. editor of Hindustan Standard, stated that in May 1951, he met Naga leader Mr. Phizo, when he was in the Naga Hills area. The Naga leader told Kumar Gupta that he had made known beforehand that a plane crash involving Netaji would be declared, but Phizo was not to believe it, deeming the crash as barely above a facade of distraction. Mr. Aswini Kumar Gupta also said that he heard from the Mishmi Tribe leaders, they were told by the Chinese Commanders that one great Indian leader (with speculations of the leader being none other than Netaji) was with them. The Mishmi Tribe was led to a place by the Chinese, where they saw a person in military clothes, resembling Netaji's picture. The Chinese told the tribe the man was Netaji himself.

10. French Secret Intelligence Report

J.B.P More, the reputed Paris-based historian had found a French secret intelligence report dated Dec 11, 1947 in the National Archives of France. According to More, the French intelligence report did not buy the theory of Netaji's death caused in an air crash.

“He escaped from the Indo-China border alive and his whereabouts were unknown as late as December 11, 1947, as reported in the secret document. This implies that he was alive somewhere but not dead in 1947,” More said in the ET report, with reference to a French report written for the “Haut Commissariat de France for Indochina”, under the title “Archival Information on Subhash Chandra Bose.”

J.B.P More added, “In this report, it is clearly stated that he was the ex-chief of the Indian Independence League and a member of Hikari Kikan, a Japanese organisation. It is further stated clearly that he escaped from Indochina, though it does not state how.”

  • ‘Three Big Personalities’

Another French secret service report, dated September 26, 1945, as was informed too by J.B.P More, was sent by the Control Commission of the Allies in Saigon to the Supreme Allied Commander in Singapore, Lord Mountbatten. It stated that seven persons including ‘three big personalities’ were arrested by the authorities, mentioning that they were also members of Hikari-Kikan. More sternly had faith that two of those persons were Bose and the other one was More's step-grandfather Leon Puruchandy, who was a close associate of Bose.

Mr. Puruchandy's confinement in September 1945 influenced More's aforementioned beliefs. Puruchandy was released three months later, although he was severely tortured, as a result to which he slithered into amnesia. More's step-grandfather's condition, after his release, stayed put at a vegetative condition till his death in 1968.

Contrary to the pronunciations of Habibur Rahman and Japanese witnesses of the plane crash, Bose apparently sheltered himself in Leon Puruchandy's house on the night of 17th of August in Saigon instead, and not in Tourane.

11. Blitz

Mumbai-based tabloid ‘Blitz’ headlined yet another mind-churning news, recounting that the British reported Bose alive in the Red Continent in 1949.

So to speak, it was not strange enough in itself, a new hypothesis gained traction. And what that hypothesis was? Netaji's life was snatched by Stalin, in the course of incarceration.

DEATH IN CAPTIVITY: NETAJI ESCAPED TO RUSSIA?

1. What did Babajan Gouffrav and Prof. Late Ram Rahul have to say?

“Netaji had crossed over to the Soviet Union somewhere on the Soviet Manchurian border, where he was taken into custody by the Soviet Frontier Guards. This was stated by none other than Babajan Gouffrav, a member of the Soviet Union’s Politburo — the highest policy making authority in the Soviet Union. Gouffrav was also the Director of the Institute of the Oriental Studies in Moscow, and a leading member of Uzbek politics. Babajan Gouffrav had visited India several times and was conversant with the political scene in India. He was a close friend of Professor Ram Rahul of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, who visited the Soviet Union Several times, and who I also knew for years.

According to Babajan Gouffrav, India’s Ambassador in Moscow Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan was allowed to see Netaji somewhere in the Soviet Union on the condition that the Ambassador would not talk and mutely converse in any manner with Netaji. After this strange meeting, Ambassador Radhakrishnan informed Prime Minister Nehru about Netaji’s presence in the Soviet Union. This fact came to be known and speculations were rife in New Delhi about the ways and means of securing the release of Netaji from the Soviet custody, but nothing was done at the official level to secure Netaji’s release,” Late Rai Singh Yadav had said so to journalist Anuj Dhar in a note.

Late Rai Singh Yadav, the Director of erstwhile Information Service of India, was a close chum of Prof. Late Ram Rahul.

On his deathbed, Prof. Ram Rahul, summoned his friend Rai Singh to intimate professor's discussions with Gouffrav. Babajan Gouffrav was one of the right-hand men of Josef Stalin. Prof. Ram Rahul related that Gouffrav said “Netaji had crossed over to the Soviet Union in 1945 via Manchuria. As a collaborator of the Axis Powers, he would have been executed. But Josef Stalin wanted to use Netaji as a bargaining chip in his future dealings with Britain and India. Thus, he ordered Netaji's detention in a labour camp in Siberia.” (Pg: 217-18, Back from Dead, by Anuj Dhar.)

2. Testimony of Dr. Satyanarayan Sinha (a snippet)

Khosla Commission: I want you to be more specific about this information which you received. Who gave you the information and what were the exact words used by him as far as you can remember?

On October 17, 1960, a diplomat and Congress MP Satyanarayan Sinha, under oath, told the Khosla Commission that in 1954 he had met Kozlov, who was close to Indians during Stalin's time.

Satyanarayan Sinha: Kozlov was the name of the man who was connected with the training of Indians till 1934. The same man was later treated by Stalin as a Trotskyist and sent to Yakutsk prison. From there, after the war, he had come back. I met him in Moscow. He said that he had seen Bose in Cell No. 45 in Yakutsk.

Khosla Commission: Did he name Bose or did he say some important Indian?

Satyanarayan Sinha: He knew Bose. He had been a Soviet agent in India in the 30s. He had met Bose in Calcutta and he knew his residence.

3. Back from Dead by Anuj Dhar

Netaji's fight was with the British forces to unshackle India from colonialism, not the Soviets. For a matter of fact, the Soviets and Netaji were ostensibly close, on likeable terms. Towards the end of the war, with Japan priming to yield, in late 1944, Netaji wrote to the Soviet Ambassador in Japan and met him in December in order to get safe passage to Russia. Part of Japan's Government was on board with his plan.

On August 9th, the Red Army (the armed force first organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. Later, this name was used by the army of the Soviet Union) entered Manchuria and asked Netaji to be prepared. Netaji went to Saigon and met General Shidei of the Kwantung Army which was surrendering to the Red Army. Netaji worked with Field Marshal Terauchi for the transfer of Subhash Chandra Bose to the Russians to bear avail. A plane had taken off on August 17, and crashed, which, as mentioned earlier in this very article, was rebutted by Taiwanese Government to Mukherjee Commission. Japanese General Isoda himself told Netaji’s special aide SC Sengupta, “Don't worry, His Excellency Chandra Bose is in safe custody!”

Consequently, Netaji's venture to the Soviet Union via Manchuria along with the Red Army remained obscure. The world knew Subhash Chandra Bose had given up on his last breath while on his way.

In his extensively researched book, Back from Dead, Anuj Dhar has unfurled evidence, plethora of potential witnesses, and the entire case in an unbiased approach. Another book of the same author, journalist Anuj Dhar, concerning the same interest would be India's Biggest Cover Up .

4. Nehru's letter to British PM Clement Attlee

(To avoid controversy, I would not provide the contents of the letter itself here)

The contents of the letter were detailed to the Khosla Committee by Shyamlal Jain, the confidential steno of the INA Defense Committee— constituting Asaf Ali, Bhulabhai Desai, and Jawaharlal Nehru. Jain deposed that Nehru described Netaji as a ‘British War Criminal’, besides, Nehru said that Stalin's act of sheltering Netaji was no less than betrayal and an act of treachery.

5. Moradoff

The Russian Vice Consul General in Tehran, Moradoff unveiled that Netaji was in Russia, secretly organising a group of Russians to work towards the freedom of India.

6. Rathin Maharaj

In 2013, Rathin Maharaj, in charge of the Ramakrishna Mission, Moscow, admitted that he had knowledge of Netaji spending his days in a Siberian prison. The monk claimed that Vijayalakshmi Pandit witnessed Netaji in the prison with his health rapidly deteriorating. To weigh his assertions, he laid plausibility of documents in the Russian archive which were later stolen.

Similarly, Dr. Purabi Roy, laid the claim of Netaji dying in a Russian cell. Historian Hari Vasudevan provided that Subhash Chandra Bose's emissary had been traced in Moscow.

7. Narendra Sindkar's affidavit

Narendra Sindkar was in Moscow for 25 years, from the year 1966, to 1991 as an announcer in Radio Moscow. Sindkar came in close proximity with Nikhil Chattopadhyay, who was not only an Indian revolutionary or brother of Sarojini Naidu, but also an interpreter for Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Nikhil took refuge in Russia in the early 1920s, and travelled to Berlin via Moscow in 1941. Following Sindkar's affidavit, Nikhil had claimed of Nehru to conspire to keep Netaji in Russia in a long exile.

8. Top secret documents possessed by the Soviet Government

Dr. Y.S Yurlova of the Soviet Institute of the Oriental Studies told press reporters in Calcutta in 1990 that the Soviet Government possessed certain top-secret documents on Subhash Chandra Bose.

9. Bengali engineer, Ardhendu Sarkar & German employee Zerovin

A Bengali mechanical engineer working for the Ranchi-based public sector Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) in Ukraine was Ardhendu Sarkar. In 1962, Ardhendu Sarkar was sent on deputation to the Gorlovka Machine Building Plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). Sarkar there met a German employee, Zerovin. Zerovin told Ardhendu that he was sent to a gulag for indoctrination, and had met Netaji in the same gulag (The Gulag was a system of Soviet labour camps and accompanying detention and transit camps and prisons) in 1947-48.

Enlivened, Sarkar rushed to Moscow and the Indian Embassy, clutching at the soonest available opportunity.

The lace curtain, soon though, was drawn on all of Sarkar's aspirations regarding Netaji— “Why have you come to this country? Does your assignment involve poking your nose into politics? Don't share this information with anyone. Just do what you are sent for,” officials there reprimanded Sarkar. As narrated by Sarkar in presence of the Mukherjee Commission, no before than the year 2000, he was repatriated back home after that incident.

10. Letter to Mikhail Gorbachev

In a secret report, the British intelligence had stated that Ghilzai Malang had been coupling with Bose in Russia. In December 1945, a report said that the Governor of Eastern Afghanistan province Khost had been informed by the Russian Ambassador in Kabul that there were many Congress refugees in Moscow, Bose being one among them— highlighted by Professor Samar Guha in a letter to President Gorbachev in the year 1988. In the same letter, Guha had alleged that the second Indian Ambassador in Moscow, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, confided in his close friend Dr. S. Das, then head of philosophy department in Calcutta University, and remarkable historian R.C Majumdar, to take the lid off of his knowledge of Subhash Chandra being held hostage at Stalin's Russia.

And neither the last, nor the least, bizarre conjectures of Netaji happening to be hiding behind the masquerade of one of these ‘Babas’ (seers).

A NEW IDENTITY: NETAJI IN INCOGNITO?

1. Gumnaami Baba/Bhagwanji (an anonymous ascetic)

“We are only 13 to see him off on his last journey, there should have been 13 lakhs!” Ram Kishore Panda cried out. Ram Kishore Panda had been looking after the saint Gumnaami Baba alias Bhagwanji for some time.

On the night of 19 September, 1985, the body that had been wrapped in tricolour was moved out of Ram Bhavan was accompanied by 13 people including Dr. RP Mishra, Dr. Priyabrat Banerjee, and Saraswati Devi Shukla. The deceased corpse was of Bhagwanji. Bhagwanji's funeral pyre was lit on where Lord Rama supposedly shed his body— on the banks of Saryu at the Guptar Ghat.

The thirteen people present during the cremation had no bargain with one belief, the person cremated at Guptar Ghat on that fateful night was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

  • Forensic evidence of Bhagwanji

Too many loose ends, too many to garner enough boiling suspicions. To begin with, the Central and State appointed experts gave wishy-washy reports and refused to appear to the Mukherjee Commission along with B. Lal, a former Chief Examiner of Questioned Documents, for proper questioning.

In terms of the DNA evidence, when the teeth of Bhagwanji were examined, the Government appointed officials released inconclusive reports and steered clear of any cross-examination.

In defiance of, three handwriting experts scrutinised Bhagwanji's handwriting. The former Chief Examiner of Questioned Documents (highest post for a handwriting expert in government) B Lal, among the three, gave a positive match for Bhagwanji and Netaji's handwriting. Once the reports were deemed positive, B Lal duly appeared at the Mukherjee Commission and gave a descriptive, first rate report backed by loads of exhibits.

The central government report, in lieu, first admitted that there were similarities in the handwriting but went off track in the end. That did not show up before the Commission in Delhi where their ergo boss B Lal was also present at the time of hearing.

In yet another instance, two DNA tests were conducted on some teeth which were assumed to be of Bhagwanji's. From the two reports, the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) Kolkata report bore negative and the Hyderabad lab gave an inconclusive report.

Strangely, for some unknown reasons, the expert was unwilling to crop up before the Commission, not at least without repeated summons.

  • Leela (Nag) Roy

In 1970, Bhagwanji paid homage to Leela Roy through a letter. The handwriting starkly resembled that of Netaji's. Leela Roy was a staunch feminist, a radical leftist woman politician and reformer, and also a close associate of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. In 1962, Leela Roy formulated contacts with Bhagwanji and sent the items required by him. Leela Roy was in constant touch with Bhagwanji, beginning 1963 till the last days of her life in 1970. On 25 March, 1963, Bhagwanji told a person called Srikant to convey to Leela Roy, “My coming out is not in country's interest. It would not do anyone any good if I emerged now.”

  • Recovered belongings of Gumnaami Baba

The inventory of Baba's belongings was being prepared by a 10-member administrative committee led by Faizabad district magistrate Yogeshwar Ram Mishra, and the proceedings were photographed and videographed in detail. Baba's belongings were to be publicly displayed in a museum, in compliance with an Allahabad High Court order.

Two members of Bose's family, Chandra Bose and Samiran Bose, both of them grand-nephews of Netaji communicated reservations over the Babaji angle adhered to the freedom fighter.

Regardless, many believe the probe pointed at Gumnaami Baba is linked to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Letters, telegrams, pictures, uniforms, postage stamps, books were few of the 197 items figured at the district treasury of Faizabad, some providing an uncanny reference to the INA founder. A few of them were:

  1. On the 67th birth anniversary of Netaji, photographs of two postage stamps were released. Both the photographs were in possession of Bhagwanji.
  2. “When my father saw the German binocular on the news channels, he was surprised and told me that Netaji and other members of the INA used the same make, as it was comparatively superior to the Japanese brands,” spoke Akram, son of INA veteran Nizamuddin to Times of India. Akram said that in heed to identifying a pair of German-make binoculars used by Netaji and other members of the Azad Hind Fauj.
  3. Shakti Singh, the owner of Ram Bhawan, the place where Bhagwanji spent his final days, said that the investigation of items and inventories were going on. “A handmade map of Bangladesh mentioning Padma river and some other rivers was also found,” Singh said. Singh also drew attention to a telegram dated March 31, 1985, sent by Dr. P M Roy, reading, “Accept our pranaam on the day of Basanti Durga Puja.”
  4. A newspaper cutout mentioning Bose went to Russia and was still alive in 1978 was discovered. It was a write-up by Samar Guha, published on March 13, 1978.
  5. A letter from M. S. Golwalkar, director of RSS was found where he had addressed Bhagwanji as ‘Pujyapad Shrimaan Swami Vijayanandji Maharaj’. The letter read, "I received your letter written from August 25 to September 2 on September 6, 1972. If you point out one particular location out of the three places mentioned in the letter, then my job will certainly become easier.” Many different letters were found, written to Bhagwanji from former Indian National Army officers and primarily Dr. Pabitra Mohan Roy. Some letters were jotted by Netaji's family members. Another letter was from famous revolutionist Trailokyanath Chakraborty, who in a 1963 letter to Bhagwanji, reminisced many accounts of spending his time with Netaji in Mandalay jail and concluded that he along with thousands of ill-treated people of East Pakistan, were waiting for Netaji to come back.
  6. A large collection of books in Bengali, English, Sanskrit and Hindi were recovered. Which proved Bhagwanji was no ordinary ascetic. Complete works of Rabindranath Tagore, Saratchandra Chatterjee, William Shakespeare were few to mention. Bulletin of Netaji Research Bureau of January 1966 was one among the many.
  7. Among other artefacts, framed photographs of Netaji's parents, his school teacher Benimadhab Das, elder brother Suresh Chandra Bose draped in Bengali silk, group photo of Netaji's family, single photos of Netaji's parents, INA uniform, Netaji's photo in INA uniform, photographs of INA colleagues, an English made typewriter, needles, European crockery set, vintage porcelain tea set, medals and insignia, a Rolex golden watch, smoking pipes, 3 US made Sheaffer pens and similar to what Netaji's father gifted to his fan, two golden round Omega watches were found.

  • Correspondence with famous people

In independent India were some of the notable names in politics who had met Bhagwanji.

Sunil Krishna Gupta, brother of renowned revolutionist Dinesh Chandra Gupta, first visited Bhagwanji in 1963. Later on he was accompanied to Gumnaami Baba by his nephews Surajit Dasgupta and Jagatjit Dasgupta, along with Tarun Kumar Mukhopadhayay. They testified to the Mukherjee Commission that Bhagwanji was Netaji.

Proceeding, associated with Jayashree Publications started by Leela Roy, Sunil Das, Santosh Bhattacharya, Dulal Nandi and Bijoy Nag was in contact with Bhagwanji. Bijoy Nag testified in front of Mukherjee Commission that Bhagwanji undoubtedly was Netaji.

Noted were also unconfirmed news of visits from famous people viz. Dr. Sampurnanand, Anandamayi Maa, Pranab Mukherjee, and Charan Singh.

  • Mahakal Kathan

“I take the liberty of addressing these few lines to you in the matter of the widely prevalent belief that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is not dead. Mine is not mere belief but actual knowledge that Netaji is alive and is engaged in spiritual practice somewhere in India. Not the sadhu of Shaulmari, Cooch Behar, in West Bengal about whom some Calcutta politicians are making a fuss. I deliberately make the location a little vague because from the talks I had with him for months together not very long ago, I could understand that he is yet regarded as Enemy No. 1 of the Allied Powers, and that there is a secret protocol that binds the government of India to deliver him to Allied 'justice' if found alive,” upon being convinced of the truth, professor Atul Sen and an ex-MLA from Dacca (now Dhaka), Bangladesh, stated the letter to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

But because of Sen's overzealousness, Bhagwanji limited Sen from meeting him again. Sen, however, undeterred, shared pieces of Bhagwanji's whereabouts to Dr. Pabitra Mohan Roy in Kolkata. In turn, Pabitra Mohan Roy, who was a physician by profession and also an intelligence officer in INA, posted this information to Leela Roy. On his subsequent visits to Bhagwanji during March 1962 at Neemsar till September 1985, Pabitra Mohan Roy began taking written notes delivered by Bhagwanji himself, and transcribed it in the form of secret diaries. The contents were unpublished as late as 2019.

Preserved by Sunil Krishna Gupta, Dr. Pabitra Mohan Roy's notes compiling from 1965 to 1969, were published as a book named Mahakal Kathan on January 23, 2020.

  • Counter Claims

“It is a ‘criminal offence’ to term ‘Gumnaami Baba’ as Netaji in disguise without any documentary or photographic evidence to support it,” observed Netaji's grand-nephew Chandra Kumar Bose.

The mere thought or plausibility of Netaji's association with Bhagwanji has always abhorred Subhash Chandra Bose's family on every possible occasion, for reasons both fathomable and unfathomable.

Another grand nephew, Sugata Bose, called it a ‘travesty of history’.

Dr. Purabi Roy, a proponent of the ‘Gumnaami Baba’ controversy, mentioned about Vishwambhar Nath Arora, a former principal of a college in Faizabad, visiting Gumnaami Baba's residence post Bhagwanji's departure from life and having beheld cartons of cigarette and bottles of Scotch Whiskey.

On Netaji, as offered by his family, was never known to be an alcoholic in his entire life.

2. The Saulmari Sadhu or Sadhu Saradananda

The sadhu who had covered his face with a woollen wrapper upon a doctor's visit or dismissed to give a blood sample or take an X-Ray examination to stash his identity away from prying eyes, was the Baba of Saulmari.

In 1959, an ascetic at Saulmari in Cooch Behar, district of north West Bengal was the first to be canvassed as Netaji in disguise. His given name was Saradananda-ji, popularly known as Saulmari Sadhu.

According to a report in ‘Hindustan Times’, detectives snooped on Sadhu Saradananda, for several years in his 60s’ because of The Saulmari Sadhu's strange aversions to being photographed or leaving fingerprints anywhere.

Two leaked Intelligence Bureau (IB) documents laid that the Jawaharlal Nehru government had kept a constant keen eye on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's family for a minimum of 20 years.

Another set of declassified reports showed the West Bengal intelligence branch had snooped on ascetic Saradananda on the theory of Bose in hiding.

But what propelled the belief? There are no concrete proofs;

  • Major Satya Gupta, the leader of Bengal Volunteers (an organised group of volunteers during the 1928 Kolkata session of Indian National Congress), of which Subhash Chandra Bose himself was the General Officer Commanding, claimed Sadhu Saradananda to be Netaji.
  • Uttam Chand Malhotra, in whose house Netaji lodged for 46 days in Kabul, at the outset declined that Saradananda was Netaji. But subsequently he propagated the view that Sadhu Saradananda was Netaji and collected funds for his ashrama.
  • Former Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru sent Surendra Mohan Ghosh, an active member of the noted revolutionary organisation Jugantar (1907-1938), to investigate.
  • Central and State governments, who officially had declared Netaji to be dead, were unconvinced themselves. Evident from the fact they spent eminent resources to get information about the Saulmari Sadhu.

Sadhu Saradananda himself declared in the latter half of the 60s that he was not Netaji. Notwithstanding, his followers insisted he very definitely was. The Saulmari Sadhu reportedly shifted base to Dehradun, where he ejected his last breaths in 1977.

3. Sadhu Jyotirdev

In Pandora village in the Sheopur Kalan district of Madhya Pradesh, it is said that during wartime, a plane-crash landed in the vicinity. There loomer another ‘Netaji’ reappearance. Among the plane-crash survivors was the sadhu carrying the name of Jyotirdev. Sadhu Jyotirdev used to correspond regularly with senior officers and used to go out of the village frequently.

Jagannath Prosad Gupta of Nagda village of Sheopur Kalan, paired with four other witnesses testified that Sadhu Jyotirdev was Netaji.

These claims too, were, fortunately or unfortunately banished by the Mukherjee Commission of inquiry of 1999-2005.

4. Laldhari Mutya

‘Laldhari’ is the name of the village where the ashram is situated abutting the Kalaburagi-Bidar Srirangapatna highway near Humnabad. Whereas ‘Mutya’ means an elderly person.

There roomed one very old man, who some said to be a centenarian, others thought he was in his nineties. The elderly man always used to show Netaji's photo to visitors of the Laldhari settlement and asked them to identify. “Of course. That's Netaji,” as soon as visitors had uttered, a grin would grace the old man's countenance.

‘Laldhari Mutya’ was alive until his kidney ailment confiscated the old man's life in a hospital at Umarga town, in neighbouring Maharashtra, on May 13, 2001.

  • Why was he associated with the ‘Netaji’ identity?

Mr. Santharam Murjani, a cloth merchant, who hailed from Umarga, found a suitcase after fifteen years of the old man's speculated death, in January 2016 in a secret room in the huge building built by the old man, a model of the Parliament (the Laldhari Ashram). Investigators broke open the entrance to the room, and raided the suitcase.

Among the findings in Laldhari Ashram, it included some foreign currency, military badges, an olive green military uniform, cap, jackets, a pair of binoculars made in France, a 1932 model compass, a German-made wrist watch dating back to World War.

Santharam's father Atmul Murjani had found the old man, in his military dress, in 1971 at Solapur bus stand. Amul took him to his house and kept him as guest till 1985, from when he shifted to Laldhari.

Mr. Santharam is understood to have written a letter to the Osmanabad deputy commissioner requesting him to take measures to find out whether the materials belonged to Netaji or not.

Santharam also convened many more surprising things from the secret room. For example, a tooth and some hairs of Laldhari Mutya. Mr. Santharam had felt, with the availability of his possessions, a DNA test would establish the true identity of Laldhari Mutya, if indeed the old man chanced to be our esteemed Netaji.

  • Mutya's family refutes the ‘Bose in hiding’ allocation.

The Umadi family from Rajeshwar in Basavakalyan rubbished the ‘Netaji’ aspects and said the Mutya was Revanappa Umadi, their eldest son. Leading to a heated debate between devotees of the seer who founded the Ashram.

Some devotees of the late seer said they would take a delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a DNA test to verify if he really was ‘Bose in hiding’. Devotee Santharam Murjani, who held the meeting, announced that Ravindra Gaekwad, MP from Osmanabad would take lead of the delegation.

Lakshman Umadi, the Mutya's younger brother given the Mutya was Revanappa Umadi and not Netaji, and his nephew Vijay Kumar Bammani, a member of the Chitaguppa town municipal council countered the claims and asked them to stop the campaign that Revanappa was Netaji.

“Collecting foreign currency and coins was his hobby. He had kept his army uniform as a memory of his service. He must have been only 80 years old when he died and not 105 as some of his devotees claim,” Revanappa's grand-nephew Shankar Umadi, a banker in Bidar told. He had also told ‘The Hindu’ that the ex-servicemen welfare office in Hyderabad had relevant records of Revanappa's army services.

As indicated by the seer's disciples, Mutya used to celebrate Independence day and Republic Day by hoisting the tricolour at the Ashrama. He was said to have confided in some of his devotees that he was Netaji. Even though that comment of Mutya was believed to have evoked sniggers, if anything.

5. Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena (SBSS) & Jai Gurudev

“Those men always shouted Azad Hindustan and cursed the government. They relayed messages about a different country where one rupee would fetch 60 litres of diesel and 40 litres of petrol. We used to laugh,” said a local resident about the Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagraha, and its armed wing Subhash Sena.

In April 2014, Ram Vriksha Yadav, a small, greying man in dhoti and kurta, once a follower of Jai Gurudev, occupied a park site in Mathura with a group of around 500 armed followers to turn it into what appeared to be the headquarters of a self styled revolutionary group. The local people called them ‘Naxalites’.

With ‘Jai Hind, Jai Subhash’ as their motto, Yadav appeared to have forged a militant outfit that sought to indoctrinate and give arms training to local teenagers, seeking to barter the modern day political system for their own vision of a Bose infused world.

When police pieced together information on the group, what emerged was a picture of a rag-tag organisation coalesced around a cult of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose with a warped view of the world.

On June 2, 2016, in an armed spar between the squatters and policemen at Jawahar Bagh Park in Mathura city in Uttar Pradesh, 2 policemen and about 27 squatters were killed ruthlessly. Of whom, one of them was Mathura's Superintendent Mukul Dwivedi.

For about 2 years, the Jawahar Bagh was their home. Nearing residents called them land grabbers and thugs.

SBSS's demands were bizarre to say the least. They were as listed below:

  1. Scrap all electoral processes to appoint the President and Prime Minister. Set up a new one.
  2. Make available 60 litres of diesel and 50 litres of petrol at Re. 1 each.
  3. Replacement of current Indian currency with “Azad Hind Fauj” currency.
  4. Make all documents related to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose public.

Apart from Yadav being a follower of a powerful religious figure Jai Gurudev, not much is known.

The real question lies, who was this powerful religious seed Jai Gurudev and why was he sewed to Netaji?

  • Who was Jai Gurudev?

On January 23, 1975, a crowd of approximately 20,000 had gathered in Kanpur's Phool Bagh area for a rally/meeting by Jai Gurudev.

Jai Gurudev took the stage and delivered something unanticipated to his followers. If accounts are to be believed, he proclaimed he was ‘Netaji’, hiding in plain sight.

Instantaneously, an irate crowd pelted him with stones, forcing the wannabe harbinger of change to be rushed off.

Jai Gurudev, as it could be assumed, knew of the tales of Subhash Chandra Bose as Gumnaami Baba. Jai Gurudev sought to cash from the naivety of the masses who were desperate for the slightest possibility of Netaji being alive.

After the Emergency and a political crisis compounded by the Janata Party fiasco, people were jaded with politicians and were seeking a saviour. Jai Gurudev wanted to mark himself as ‘the saviour’.

Jai Gurudev entered politics with his outfit Doordarshi Party (translating to ‘a party with far sight’) but his political quest ended in failure.

By the time Jai Gurudev died in the year of 2012, he had managed to amass assets worth Rs. 1,200 crore. Gurudev had various luxurious ashrams with standard swimming pools, spas, one on the Delhi-Mathura highway and another in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district. He was also believed to own land worth Rs. 4000 crore along with cars worth 150 crore, donated by his devotees.

There were a few more ‘Baba’ approaches to Netaji's disappearance, for instance, Mouni Baba (Sant Samrat Yogi) or Santal Dal guru (Balak Brahmachari). Due to lack of extensive information and evidence, I would be barring from discussing them any further.

What we now must take into consideration next is, how did Netaji's political ‘murder-mystery’ investigations unfold? Follow me to the next segt.

INVESTIGATIONS

Brought-upon theories must withstand the tests of investigation inevitably, all the more so when they are tagged ‘conspiracy’, copious amounts of satisfactory evidence in each of their support.

1. Early investigations

Mukherjee Commission, Shah Nawaz Committee, and Khosla Commission, if asked, could be recalled by anyone that had been digging into the multifaceted death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Before the first of these was appointed in 1956, however, six formal investigations were carried out on the plane crash at Taihoku.

And these were carried out by the British Army, the government of British India, the government of Japan and the Allied Forces.

2. Investigations by the Allied Forces

  • After Japan embraced its defeat on August 30, 1945, the Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asian Command, Admiral Mountbatten, sent a request to General MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for Allied Powers in Japan, for an enquiry about the death of Netaji.
  • On September 19, 1945, the Japanese government submitted a preliminary report to MacArthur's office. Among other details, Bose's injury in an air crash on August 18, 1945 and his death on the same fateful day was narrated.
  • Independent of the Americans, in September 1945, the British India government sent two Superintendents of police, Finney and Davis, with the assistance of inspector H.K. Roy and K.P. Dey, to Bangkok, Saigon and Taihoku to investigate. Davis and Roy interrogated the in-charge of the Saigon airport, the military officers at Taihoku airport and the chief medical officer at the NanMon military hospital of Taipei. The Bangkok team retrieved a telegram, dated August 20, 1945, sent from the chief-of-staff of Japan's southern army to Hikari Kikan. Using the code ‘T’ for Bose, the telegram read: “‘T’, while on his way to the capital (Tokyo), as a result of an accident to his aircraft at Taihoku at 2 pm on the 18th was seriously injured and died at midnight on the same date.”
  • Relieved from the declassified GOI files, it has come to the break of dawn, in mid-1946, Colonel John G. Figgess, a senior British intelligence officer, wrote: “...Bose asked him (Dr. Tsuruta) in English if he would sit with him throughout the night. However shortly after seven o'clock (in the evening) he suffered a relapse and although the doctor once again administered a camphor injection, he sank into a coma and died shortly after.” Figgess interrogated six Japanese officials in Tokyo. The most apposite testimony he gathered was of the aforementioned Japanese doctor, Toyoshi Tsuruta, who was present in the NanMon hospital after the crash. Figgess submitted his report on July 25, 1946, with a closure: “It is confirmed for certain that SC Bose died in a Taihoku Military Hospital sometime between 19:00 hours and 20:00 hours local time on the 18th (of) August 1945.”
  • “When he was laid on the bed, I personally cleaned his injuries with oil and dressed them. He was suffering from extensive burns over the whole of his body, though the most serious were those on his head, chest and thighs. There was very little left on his head in the way of hair or other identification marks,” Captain (Dr) Yoshimi Taneyoshi, the medical officer in charge of the military hospital at Taihoku recorded such a testimony. He had been imprisoned at the Stanley Gaol in Hong Kong. His testimony was recorded there by Captain Alfred Turner of the War Crimes Liaison Section of Taiwan, in October of 1946. “As most of his speaking was in English, a request for an interpreter was made, and one was sent from the civil government offices named Nakamura. He informed me that he had very often interpreted for (Subhash) Chandra Bose and had had many conversations with him. He appeared to have no doubt that the man he was speaking with was Chandra Bose,” Dr. Yoshimi added. “After the fourth hour, he appeared to be sinking into unconsciousness. He muttered and muttered in his state of coma, but never regained consciousness. At about 11 p.m he died.” In one of his later interviews in 1995, Yoshimi said: “A lieutenant called Nonomiya told me, this is Mr. Chandra Bose, a very important person, and that I should save his life at any cost. That's how I knew who he was.”
  • In January of 1956, Japan shared another report, comprising interviews with 13 witnesses, that assembled Netaji’s co-passengers and the doctors who attended on him in the Military hospital in Taipei. The reports noted that when the pitch of the propellers were hiked, upon the plane reaching a height of 20 metres, “one petal of the three-petaled propeller of the left wing was suddenly broken, and the engine fell off. The airplane, subsequently unbalanced, crashed into ballast piles beside the strip of the airport.” “Immediately after the plane's fall, the passengers on board escaped from it but as the persons in the front deck were soaked with gasoline in auxiliary tanks all over their bodies, they suffered serious burns. Lt. Gnl. Shidei and two other men died within the plane.”
    “Mr. Bose, wrapped up in flames, got off the plane: Adjutant Rahman and other passengers exerted themselves to take his clothes off but as his thick sweater for cold weather was permeated with gasoline, his whole body was seriously wounded by burns.”
    In compliance to other findings, the report mentions that Bose's cremated remains “were handed over to Mr. Ayyer, and the articles left by Mr. Bose to Mr. Murty,” by Lt. Col. Takakura on September 8, 1945, at the Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo.
  • In June 1956, on India's request, the UK asked the Formosan government to interview employees of the Military Hospital and Taipei Municipal Health Centre. The Formosan report cast no doubts on the details of the crash or the subsequent death of Netaji.

3. Private investigation

“He died here. I was by his side… He died on 18 August last year, Chandra Bose,” Tsan Pi Sha, a nurse at the NanMon hospital testified to Harin Shah's investigative journalism. She confirmed what was accounted for by Figgess in September 1946.

“I am a surgical nurse and took care of him till he died… I was instructed to apply olive oil all over his body and that I did.”

The first Indian private investigation was conducted by the war correspondent of Bombay's ‘Free Press Journal’, Harin Shah. Shah visited Taihoku in September 1946, and published his findings in his book Verdict from Formosa: The Gallant End of Netaji, Subhash Chandra Bose.

Tsan Pi Sha also led Harin Shah to the ward Netaji had been in and where she said Bose had passed away.

4. Indian Independence League (IIL)

Based on circumstantial evidence and individual contact, members of the Indian Independence League carried out an investigation in 1953.

The IIL confirmation corresponded with the previous reports that Netaji had passed away on August 18, 1945. The only difference retained was the IIL confident that the air crash had been an act of sabotage to “save herself from the wrath of both India and the occupation forces”, and not merely a wretched accident.

Japanese officials could neither risk shielding Netaji from the Allies in case he resurfaced, nor hand him over and endanger relations with India.

Japan still maintains three Netaji files as ‘Secret’, while other countries have declassified them.

5. First GOI inquiry (Netaji Inquiry Committee)

“to inquire into… the circumstances concerning the departure of Netaji… from Bangkok about the 16th (of) August 1945, his alleged death as a result of an aircraft accident,” in 1956, the government formed Netaji Inquiry Committee for an official probe into Netaji's fate. The committee consisted of a former Major General in the INA, and the then parliament secretary Shah Nawaz Khan, Netaji's older brother Suresh Chandra Bose, and S.N. Maitra of the Indian Civil Service.

The committee observed 67 witnesses including 11 eyewitnesses, who were dyed-in-the-wool of Netaji's death as a result of burn injuries. The committee, albeit could not visit the crash site at Taihoku as India and Formosa were not not on diplomatic terms yet.

On concluding its inquiry, the committee prepared a three-page draft report. It contained the “Principal points agreed to”, which all three members signed. The agreed upon points were:

  1. There had been an air crash at Taihoku on August 18, 1945, in which Netaji met his death.
  2. Netaji was cremated there.
  3. The ashes lying in the Renkoji temple in Tokyo are of Netaji's.

Absurdly, though, soon after signing the draft report on July 2, 1956, Suresh Bose sidetracked and did not sign the final report submitted on August 3, 1956, and had already been signed by Shah Nawaz Khan and S.N. Maitra. It was accepted by the Indian parliament in September 1956.

Refer back to the ‘comments and claims of Netaji's family’ column to shed illumination on Suresh Bose's sudden altercation in perspectives.

6. Second GOI Inquiry

The Justice Khosla Commission was formed by GOI in the year 1970, under retired Justice G.D. Khosla to “inquire into all the facts and circumstances relating to the disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in 1945.”

The results, as always, persisted unchanged. Justice Khosla interviewed four of Netaji's co-passengers, and five eyewitnesses to the crash. Over a period of four years, he also interviewed Shah Nawaz Khan, Suresh Bose and 224 other witnesses. For all that, it was once again moulded into what others had put forth before him, that Netaji had been grievously injured by the aircraft mishap at Taihoku and subsequently died the same night.

In a pattern as if, Khosla Commission also patiently recorded new sightings of Bose— of the MP's chance meeting with Bose at Marseilles airport in 1946 (para 7.3, 7.4 of JKCI Report); of an ardent admirer of Bose, who claimed that a Soviet Army officer saw “a well-dressed Bose publicly going to the Kremlin with high dignitaries on 24 Dec 1956” (para 6.52), and another MP's claim about “Bose languishing in cell no. 45 of a prison in Siberia.”

Others again submitted photographs showing Bose visiting Peking in 1952 with a Mongolian Trade Union delegation (para 6.45), and in the same year, a Socialist Party member met Netaji dressed as a Burmese monk at Rangoon's Ena Lake (para 7.10).

When counsels for the Forward Bloc party and the Bose family argued that the general disbelief was due to “glaring discrepancies in the statements of witnesses”, Justice Khosla recorded the counterargument “the discrepancies do not falsify the crash. They are due to passage of time and the memory of witnesses becoming somewhat vague regarding matters of detail.”

WHAT THEN IS THE ULTIMATE TRUTH?

Unknown. Just unknown. In the crude, unrefined truth, whatever the accurate truth may be, it will always remain elusive, for this cause or that.

In an authoritative biography of the Bose brothers, Brothers Against the Raj, Dr. Leonard Gordon delineated, “The tremendous weight of evidence, I believe, supports his death following the crash.”

Gordon had conducted his own interviews with witnesses and co-passengers, done in 1979.

He also noted, “those who want to dispute this heavy weight of evidence… will do so… Their claims are usually based on emotion, not reason, and so any reasoning will not suffice.”

Now, I, at first at the take off, thought of cataloguing the three different Commissions and their verdicts namely Mukherjee Commission, Khosla Commission and Shah Nawaz Committee. But, I would refrain, since a thought crossed my mind; to flare out the other three conspiracy theories (or mysteries) in deliberation first. So I may (or may not) make a second part on the theme of this very article.

Pro tem, pore over the prescribed books that would help us understand this discussion better.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC:

  1. India's Biggest Cover-Up by Anuj Dhar.
  2. What Happened to Netaji by Anuj Dhar.
  3. Back from Dead by Anuj Dhar.
  4. Oi Mahamanab Ase by Charanik.
  5. Prisoner of Yakutsk: The Subhash Chandra Bose Mystery final chapter by Shreyas.
  6. Netaji, Dead or Alive? by Prof. Samar Guha.
  7. Conundrum by Anuj Dhar and Chandrachud Ghose.

For movie or video buffs out there, I recommend the movie ‘Gumnami Baba’ produced by Shrikant Mohta, Pranay Ranjan and Mahendra Soni under the banner of Shree Venkatesh Films. And one YouTube channel by the name of Chandrachud Ghose.

CONCLUSION

The veracity of Subhash Chandra Bose's survival following the purported plane crash, whether as a ruse to hoodwink Allied Forces or he indeed made a conscious decision to end his life at a critical juncture in the nation's best interests, remains an enigma shrouded from the annals of history to the common populace, and will always be so.

Be that as it may of Netaji's vacant physical presence, Netaji continues to live on in the centre of the hearts of Indians and embody the spirit of nationalism. In honour of our revered icon Netaji's memory and to commemorate his contributions, I present an excerpt from one of Netaji's profoundly acclaimed orations:

“It will be a fatal mistake for you to wish to live and see India free simply because victory is now within reach. No one here should have the desire to live to enjoy freedom. A long fight is still in front of us. We should have but one desire today - the desire to die so that India may live the desire to face a martyr’s death, so that the path to freedom may be paved with the martyr’s blood.

Friends! My comrades in the War of Liberation! Today I demand of you one thing, above all. I demand of your blood It is blood alone that can avenge the blood that the enemy has split. It is blood alone that can pay the price of freedom. Give me blood and I promise you freedom!”

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