India's greatest suspense: 5 things to know about the Netaji mystery
According to one popular version of events, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in an air crash in Taiwan in 1945. But many of his relatives, friends and followers have disagreed with this narrative, forcing the Indian government to commission three different inquiries into the event between 1956 and 1999.
Last year, the Indian government refused to provide information on Netaji's reported death under the Right to Information Act. The possibility of obtaining closure to the mystery was again lost.
Such has been the controversial discourse that the reported death has been called 'India's Biggest Cover-Up' in a recent book.
Here are five things about the controversial reports of Netaji's death that you must know:
What the official Japanese version says about the fatal crash
When Netaji flew out of what's now Taiwan on August 18, 1945, after the defeat of Japan in World War II, the plane crashed while taking off and he was badly burnt. He died a few hours later in a local hospital and his body was cremated within two days. His ashes were taken to Tokyo and handed over to the Renkoji Temple where they remain to this day.
As Netaji's family and friends disagreed with this sequence of events, the British government set up an inquiry, which ultimately corroborated the Japanese account.
The crash: Questions which led to controversies
Even as a multitude of "what if" possibilities have been explored in conspiracy theories, there were a set of critical questions that remained unanswered regarding the supposed plane crash, as journalist Vir Sanghvi pointed out in an analysis.
"Most of Bose's lieutenants who had accompanied him on his travels were not allowed to get on the plane with him. They never saw a body. No photographs were taken of Bose after the crash. There are no photos of the body. And there is no death certificate. So it is possible to argue that the Japanese faked his death to allow him to escape the advancing British army," Sanghvi wrote.
The legend of the sadhu and the USSR connection
A few years after Netaji's disappearance, reports emerged that he had returned to India and lived in the disguise of a sadhu in north India.
Some reports even claimed that this sadhu was sighted at Jawaharlal Nehru's funeral, though no such claim could ever be substantiated.
Though the sadhu story was never proved, it resurfaced again when the Mujherjee Commission (1999-2005), led by Supreme Court judge M K Mukherjee, explored the possibility of Netaji living in the guise of a hermit in India. The report brought into light a sadhu named Gumnami Baba or Bhagwanji living in Uttar Pradesh.
The Mukherjee Commission's report, which questioned the claim that Netaji died in a plane crash, was, however, rejected by the government.
Last year, the Indian government refused to provide information on Netaji's reported death under the Right to Information Act. The possibility of obtaining closure to the mystery was again lost.
Such has been the controversial discourse that the reported death has been called 'India's Biggest Cover-Up' in a recent book.
Here are five things about the controversial reports of Netaji's death that you must know:
What the official Japanese version says about the fatal crash
When Netaji flew out of what's now Taiwan on August 18, 1945, after the defeat of Japan in World War II, the plane crashed while taking off and he was badly burnt. He died a few hours later in a local hospital and his body was cremated within two days. His ashes were taken to Tokyo and handed over to the Renkoji Temple where they remain to this day.
As Netaji's family and friends disagreed with this sequence of events, the British government set up an inquiry, which ultimately corroborated the Japanese account.
The crash: Questions which led to controversies
Even as a multitude of "what if" possibilities have been explored in conspiracy theories, there were a set of critical questions that remained unanswered regarding the supposed plane crash, as journalist Vir Sanghvi pointed out in an analysis.
"Most of Bose's lieutenants who had accompanied him on his travels were not allowed to get on the plane with him. They never saw a body. No photographs were taken of Bose after the crash. There are no photos of the body. And there is no death certificate. So it is possible to argue that the Japanese faked his death to allow him to escape the advancing British army," Sanghvi wrote.
The legend of the sadhu and the USSR connection
A few years after Netaji's disappearance, reports emerged that he had returned to India and lived in the disguise of a sadhu in north India.
Some reports even claimed that this sadhu was sighted at Jawaharlal Nehru's funeral, though no such claim could ever be substantiated.
Though the sadhu story was never proved, it resurfaced again when the Mujherjee Commission (1999-2005), led by Supreme Court judge M K Mukherjee, explored the possibility of Netaji living in the guise of a hermit in India. The report brought into light a sadhu named Gumnami Baba or Bhagwanji living in Uttar Pradesh.
The Mukherjee Commission's report, which questioned the claim that Netaji died in a plane crash, was, however, rejected by the government.
Another conspiracy theory which gathered steam was that Netaji went to the USSR post his reported plane crash. In the political climate of the World War II, he thought that Russia could be a safe haven.
What the CIA thought 19 years after the disappearance
In 1964, the CIA still believed that Bose was alive!
According to media reports, declassified documents showed that the Central Intelligence Agency was told in 1964 that Bose survived an air crash of 1945. The documents also showed that the US spy agency was not convinced of the veracity of the official Japanese version.
The reports said that in May 1946, a CIA agent wrote to the US secretary of state saying he had been told that "should (Bose) return to the country, trouble would result which would be extremely difficult to quell".
The CIA document said: "There now exists a strong possibility that Bose is leading a religious group undermining the current Nehru government."
PMO's refusal to share Netaji files
In December last year, the NDA government, in its response to an application under the RTI law by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, declined to declassify files related to Netaji's death and claimed such a move would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries.
The PMO's "top secret" files on Netaji are believed to include documents on the Mukherjee Commission's report, on correspondences with and about Netaji's widow and daughter and the purported transfer of his ashes to India.
What the CIA thought 19 years after the disappearance
In 1964, the CIA still believed that Bose was alive!
According to media reports, declassified documents showed that the Central Intelligence Agency was told in 1964 that Bose survived an air crash of 1945. The documents also showed that the US spy agency was not convinced of the veracity of the official Japanese version.
The reports said that in May 1946, a CIA agent wrote to the US secretary of state saying he had been told that "should (Bose) return to the country, trouble would result which would be extremely difficult to quell".
The CIA document said: "There now exists a strong possibility that Bose is leading a religious group undermining the current Nehru government."
PMO's refusal to share Netaji files
In December last year, the NDA government, in its response to an application under the RTI law by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, declined to declassify files related to Netaji's death and claimed such a move would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries.
The PMO's "top secret" files on Netaji are believed to include documents on the Mukherjee Commission's report, on correspondences with and about Netaji's widow and daughter and the purported transfer of his ashes to India.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/five-things-that-you-must-know-about-the-netaji-mystery/article1-1335778.aspx
- HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi |
- Updated: Apr 10, 2015 14:20 IST
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MK Gandhi speaks with Subhas Chandra Bose, president of the Indian National Congress, on 02 March, 1938, during a political meeting in Haripura (Photo: OFF/ AFP/Getty Images)
The Union government spied on relatives of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose for nearly two decades, according to two intelligence files that were recently declassified.
The files, which were sent from the West Bengal government’s intelligence branch to the Intelligence Bureau, show that several members of Bose's family were kept under surveillance between 1948 and 1968. The files were sent to the National Archives after being declassified in 2012.
Anuj Dhar, the author of “India's Biggest Cover-Up”, a book on the mystery surrounding Netaji’s reported death in a 1945 plane crash, found the two intelligence files at the National Archives a few months ago. “These files were declassified by mistake. When there is a large-scale declassification of files, some files come out by mistake,” Dhar told Hindustan Times.
The files show that West Bengal’s intelligence branch mounted surveillance on two Bose family homes in Kolkata at 1 Woodburn Park and 38/2 Elgin Road. Sleuths also intercepted and copied letters written by Bose's kin and kept tabs on who they met and what they discussed.
Source: National Archives
Among the Intelligence Bureau officials who were kept informed about the surveillance of the Bose family were R N Kao, who went on to found the Research and Analysis Wing, and M M L Hooja, who later became the head of the domestic spy agency.
Much of the surveillance focussed on Netaji’s nephews Sisir Kumar Bose and Amiya Nath Bose, the sons of Sarat Chandra Bose. Both nephews were considered to be very close to Netaji.
The files contain many handwritten records of telephone messages regarding the movements of Amiya Nath Bose in Kolkata and Indian other cities such as Delhi as well as his foreign trips.
The sleuths intercepted letters from Netaji’s German wife Emilie Schenkl to Sisir Kumar Bose and others in Japan, Europe and America, such as historian Leonard Gordon. These letters were opened and copied.
Source: National Archives
In a letter sent to his aunt Emilie in July 1955, Sisir wrote: “If you were in India today, you will get the feeling that in India’s struggle two men mattered – Gandhi and Nehru. The rest were just extras.”
“Even ten years after Netaji’s reported death, a report from the intelligence branch referred to Emilie Schenkl as his ‘wife’. These files have very precise information, they are meticulously written,” said Dhar.
“The BJP had said before coming to power that they would declassify all the Netaji files. But now they are acting just like the Congress. The BJP must fulfil its promise about declassifying these files,” he said.
Source: National Archives
Bose was the president of the Indian National Congress in 1939 but quit following differences with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. He escaped from India, and travelled to Germany and Japan, where he built up the Indian National Army to take the fight to the British in India.
Bose reportedly died in a mysterious air crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945 at the age of 48 but this has been disputed by members of his family and others. There are also reports about Netaji being spotted in the erstwhile USSR many years after the plane crash.
Source: National Archives
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/subhas-chandra-bose-s-kin-were-kept-under-surveillance-between-1948-and-1968/article1-1335732.aspx