Netaji: Living Dangerously, by Kingshuk Nag.

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Netaji: Living Dangerously

by Kingshuk Nag.

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Reading this might be shocking, bringing several unpleasant surprises, and quite a few disillusioned.

It definitely leaves one with a heartache, for someone so loved and venerated and yet so alone through his life to the end. But the heartache is just as much for his own near and dear, forever away, and finally but not least, for everyone of India deceived by the lies for decades.

Certainly worth a read for anyone who cares about the subject. Or about India, or about justice. And almost an antidote to the poison that some books, pretending to be on the subject, are, in merely using the base in title and face on cover to sell the book, as for example is Netaji In Europe by Jan Kuhlmann, one this reader went through painstakingly thoroughly to find tidbits about the subject anywhere at all but was severely decimated in the process.

Kingshuk Nag is, on the other hand, very thoroughly and even extremely informative on the subject; he even goes through the vital questions of his disappearance, search for whereabouts of, and inaction or worse by the then government of India, before going into his life story.

The biography of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose by his grand-nephew is more informative regarding his earlier life, which is only appropriate, coming as that one does from a clan so intimate, and having suffered much together. But of course, it would have been silly to repeat all of that by copying, except for the most essential parts that are public knowledge anyway.

However, author could have been a tad more sensitive on some topics, such as marriage of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, of which he'd written immediately to his family informing them, and a copy of the letter given by him to his wife was finally seen by the relatives too, to their satisfaction; in any case, India does have the most ancient traditions respect a marriage conducted in any of the several possible forms, and rest of us must respect his choice in this if we have any respect for him at all. Or even otherwise, since there's no reason and no excuse for disrespect for his one and only wife.

Another subject where author falls short, or flounders, is when he discusses spiritual life. That's only expected, from anyone with no experience thereof, and it rather reminds one of an episode of Big Bang Theory where laughter of audience is about two scientists in process of working together - which, most of the audience being not quite scientists or thinkers, is only natural.

But the severe floundering by the author is when, in later chapters, he makes incorrect statements on matters relating to private lives; or when he goes into history of India, from thirties on to just after independence, and questions of whether presence of Subhash Chandra Bose would have stopped partition from happening, or whether a separate Bengal was preferable to a divided India (seriously, he doesn't see the contradiction!), and all the more so in fudging details of massacres during and before partition. His leftist leanings as per leftists of India, away from objective logic or facts, is only visible in this last bit.

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One must say, regarding the search for truth about whereabouts of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and raising questions for search, the family did what they could; it's the colleagues, INA and politicians, who failed.

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"The battle for India’s freedom took a new turn in December 1929 at the annual session of the Congress party in Lahore under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, which passed a resolution for Poorna Swaraj or complete independence. Nehru, and Bose represented the more radical sections of the Congress party in those days—Nehru was forty-one years old and Netaji was thirty-three. The formal demand for Poorna Swaraj came after a year of internal struggle within the Congress.

"In December 1928, at the Congress session in Calcutta, Mahatma Gandhi had proposed a resolution calling for the British to grant dominion status to India within two years. It was decided that if the British failed the deadline, the Congress would call upon all the Indians to fight for complete independence. But Bose and Nehru objected to the resolution, they pressed Mahatma Gandhi for immediate action. Gandhi then proposed a resolution reducing the time given from two years to one. Nehru voted for the new resolution and fell in line but Bose abstained. Ultimately, the AICC passed the resolution 118 to 95. Soon thereafter Bose moved an amendment at an open session that sought a complete break with the British. Gandhi admonished Bose and their differences became public. Gandhi’s word carried more weight: the amendment was defeated.

"The Poorna Swaraj resolution was formally promulgated with a ‘Declaration of Independence’ by Mahatma Gandhi on 26 January 1930, the day declared as Independence Day by the Congress. This time round Gandhi gave the British two months to leave India. When the foreign rulers ignored this missive as had been expected, Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy Lord Irwin on 2 March 1930 informing him of his intent to launch a non-violent civil disobedience movement. On 12 March 1930, Gandhi along with seventy-eight followers set out from the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on a 241-mile padayatra—journey on foot—to the coastal village of Dandi in south Gujarat. ... ""

Surprisingly, author let's slip the opportunity to inform readers of Gandhi’s having admitted later, that he'd conducted this March to wipe out the strong impression created by Bhagat Singh and his group, especially amongst young people, throughout India.

" ... Gandhi was arrested but realizing that they were on the back foot, the Mahatma was invited to join the second Round Table Conference in London, where representatives from other political parties and the Indian princely states were invited. The Conference held between September and December 1931 had no concrete outcome. The Congress had boycotted the first conference held between November 1930 and January 1931. In effect, the Civil Disobedience Movement had come to naught. ... "

Except, it wasn't- Gandhi had managed to reestablish congress leadership in Indian minds, even if not quite wiping off Bhagat Singh and his group.

" ... Bose was incarcerated in Alipore Central Jail when the Salt Satyagraha commenced in March 1930. Such was the British anger against Indian political prisoners that Bose and others like Jatindra Mohan Sengupta, Kiron Shankar Roy were mercilessly beaten with batons for attempting satyagraha in jail. Bose was thrown down and rendered unconscious for more than an hour.

"On his release from jail Bose travelled to Bombay to meet Gandhi. He wanted to discuss the Delhi pact of 5 March 1931 between Irwin and Gandhi which had offered a rather vague offer of ‘dominion status’ for India and paved the way for the Round Table Conference later that year. ... "

This was the moment when, due to the huge pressure from people of India, Gandhi did raise with the viceroy the question of cancellation of execution of Bhagat Singh and his group, but instead of refusing his much needed signature, he merely made an "if you please" empty gesture of having asked, and on being refused, gave his signature anyway, in effect signing their death warrant.

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"That Bose was very critical of Gandhi becomes clearer from a reading of Indian Struggle. Asking the question why Gandhi had failed to deliver freedom to India, Bose said that while the Mahatma understood ‘the character of his own people, he has not understood the character of his opponents.’ He added, ‘We have to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’, implying that force was the only language that the British would understand. Bose also noted that Gandhi had failed because the ‘false unity of interests that are inherently opposed is not a source of strength but a source of weakness in political warfare.’ This means that different interest groups could align together in name but in reality would work at cross purposes and the purpose of coming together would be lost."

This is contradictory to the reservation of 80 percent jobs and 50 percent political positions by Bengal government for muslims, supported by Bose. This led later to increasing never-ending demands by them, not ending with partition, and never-ending appeasement by Congress, including an assertion in 2004-2014 by the then PM Manmohan Singh, that muslims had first right to everything in India.

"Subhas also noted, ‘The Congress Cabinet of today is a one man show. Congress Working Committee (CWC) is undoubtedly composed of some of the finest men of India. But most of them have been chosen primarily because of their “blind” loyalty to the Mahatma and there are few among them who have the capacity to think for themselves or the desire to speak out against the Mahatma when he is likely to take a wrong step.’ He lamented the premature death of Chittaranjan Das, Motilal Nehru and Lala Lajpat Rai, three outstanding intellectuals who could reason with Gandhi."

"At the same time Bose conceded that Gandhi was hugely popular and attributed it to his practices of asceticism, simple life, vegetarianism and adherence to truth, which gave him a halo of saintliness. ... "

Wonder if he noticed that Hitler shared a good many of these, in fact all but the adherence to truth? Which, in case of Gandhi, was at best partial, but done skilfully so few noticed the sleight of language and action.

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"On 16 January 1941, Subhas Bose told his family members that he would like to go into seclusion to pray and meditate and that he should not be disturbed in his retreat. The bedroom was partitioned with a small aperture for serving food. Nobody suspected anything because Bose had a spiritual streak in him and this was well known. In fact, at the age of sixteen, as a college student, he had disappeared for a year on a pilgrimage to places like Mathura, Vrindavan, Benares (Varanasi) and Haridwar—merely informing his guardians through a postcard that he was travelling. In An Indian Pilgrim: An Unfinished Autobiography Subhas has written about his thirst to find a guru (spiritual teacher). He writes of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda’s influence, and their teaching that there could be no realization, without renunciation."

Was he related to, a first cousin (or a first cousin once removed, a nephew in Indian terms) of, Sri Aurobindo?

"Late at night, either on 16 or 17 January 1941, Bose tiptoed down the rear staircase of the house to a car parked on the driveway disguised as a Pathan in a closed-collar brown long coat, broad pyjamas and a black fez. His two nephews Sisir and Aurobindo were with him. Sisir was to drive him down to Gomoh, 240 km away in Bihar where he would board the Howrah–Kalka Mail. Bose did not want to risk taking the train from the crowded Howrah station because he could well be identified in spite of his disguise. Gomoh was a wayside railway station with hardly any traffic. Moreover, he would board the train there in the dead of night."

His nephew being named Aurobindo seems to indicate otherwise, as per Indian custom.

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" ... Hitler himself was a colonialist and his battle with the British was for the redistribution of colonies. Hitler was quite content to leave India to Britain and to see the continuation of the British Empire if only Germany was given a free hand in Eastern Europe and Russia. ... "

This is only as true as any of the prior pronouncement when demanding or taking yet another slice of Europe, to the effect that that was the last demand. Hence allies straining for a pact with Poland and declaring war, having learned their lesson only post Munich.

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" ... When Netaji went down in the submarine he bid adieu to his wife with whom he had spent time together in Berlin. In fact, he would never see her again. ... "

" ... As the submarine slunk up the Norwegian coast and slid into the Atlantic, Bose was putting the confinement to good use. He busied himself dictating future speeches to Hasan to help clarify his thoughts. The notes were only for the purpose of future preparedness. Bose never spoke from written speeches—his delivery was always extempore. Otherwise, it was a tough life—the smell of diesel and sweat of mariners compounded by lack of any proper food that would suit the Indian palate. There was a close call once when the submarine surfaced to breathe and brushed across a British tanker, Corbis, that was sailing straight towards it. The submarine jerked and there was panic all through. But Netaji was unperturbed. He went on with his dictation and even chided Hasan for not paying full attention to what he was saying. For the record, the German submarine sank the tanker. It seems that the Indian leader used to get radio messages on board the submarine, which kept him abreast of the war situation.

"Sailing past West Africa, around the tip of Africa, the submarine entered the Indian Ocean. On 26 April 1943, over two and a half months since the U-boat set sail from its home base, the German and Japanese submarines sighted each other. But the weather was inclement and the seas were rough. It took more than a day to manoeuvre the transfer of Bose and Safrani from one submarine to the other. Tied with a rope and afloat on a rubber dinghy that bobbed from side to side, a drenched Netaji along with his aide made it into the Japanese submarine and were welcomed by Captain Masao Teraoka and Lieutenant Commander Izu Juichi. The Japanese submarine I-10 was a little roomier and a little over ten days later Netaji disembarked at Sabang, a group of islands off Sumatra.

"It was good that Netaji took a decision to shift to Southeast Asia when he did. As Netaji embarked on his voyage, the Germans lost the Battle of Stalingrad and the German commander surrendered to Soviet forces on 2 February 1943. This was a decisive battle that turned the tide against the Germans. ... "

Tide had turned at onset of Operation Barbarossa, but they weren't to know until they lost Leningrad, just as it takes a little prescience to know that summer solstice is when day begins shortening, even though it's unclear until leaves turn.

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"The British had for long been sowing the seeds of communalism in the country. This was to culminate in the formation of Pakistan, with its western border perilously close to Afghanistan, through which it was feared the Soviets could descend. But having themselves promoted the Communal Award decreeing separate electorates for different religious groups in the country (introduced for the first time after the Minto–Morley report of 1909) there was nothing that the British could do now to turn back the communal clock. ... "

It's an illusion- due to British propaganda - that they intended turning it back.

" ... Contrary to public perception the first choice of the departing British was not a divided India exposed to Soviet influences through the northwest. There were signs that the Cold War was beginning and the British knew that Soviet expansionist dreams would have to be checked. ... "

Quite to the contrary, this was fully intended - else Pakistan wouldn't have included any part of Punjab or NWFP, which didn't vote for it. Sindh was evenly divided in vote, and only Bengal a clear majority vote for Pakistan.

But UK and US needed free use of military bases against USSR, and Jawaharlal Nehru wouldn't promise them; Jinnah did, promptly. This sealed it.

Else, when offered PM position of an undivided India by Gandhi, why did he step back and demand complete cabinet for muslim league? He knew that would be unacceptable. Whereas his dream Pakistan was no worry, guaranteed funding due to its geostrategic situation, as he explained to a junior of his.

" ... For the Labour government, the Congress party with worthies such as Jawaharlal Nehru with his leftist leanings was closest to the philosophy of the party. It was also useful that the Congress leader was a product of the English public education system and therefore, the British found it comfortable dealing with him."

He wasn't elected by Indian elected representatives, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was, to lead India as first PM; Gandhi insisted Sardar step aside in favour of Jawaharlal Nehru. Democratic principles demanded that Sardar not oblige, but congress was an autocracy, since Gandhi arrived.

"The fact that Mountbatten and Nehru were personally close was an added factor. In fact, more than Mountbatten, Nehru was closer to the Viceroy’s wife Edwina, and by all accounts had an affair with her. ... "

This comes as shocking, until one reads further.

" ... This fact is not disputed. Veteran Indian diplomat and former Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh wrote in The Hindu on 14 November 2008 that he had asked Vijayalakshmi Pandit of the purported affair. ‘Of course,’ she had confirmed. The only point of dispute was the nature of the relationship: was it sexual or was the affair purely platonic. But that is just a matter of detail."

This is silly - would anything short of a total Burma then satisfy anyone enough castigated any woman? And unless one admits misogynistic double standards, would one describe Gandhi’s preference for Jawaharlal Nehru in same terms?

Fact is one ought to pay attention to the book by Pamela Mountbatten on her family and life, which includes that period of time, and is very plain. It leaves one in no doubt, if any entertained before, that the relationship was no diffferent from that between any two friends, regardless of gender.

It's unclear if Nehru and Mountbatten knew one another personally before Mountbatten arrived in India, though. Any friendship that is supposed to be is post arrival of Mountbatten in India.

But the author does refer to Pamela Mountbatten.

"In an interview to Indian journalist Karan Thapar in July 2007 in the programme Devils’ Advocate on the CNN–IBN television channel, Lady Pamela Hicks, the younger daughter of the Mountbattens admitted that her father did use his wife’s influence over Nehru on tricky matters of state. Lady Hicks said, ‘My father, just in dry conversation, mightn’t have been able to get his viewpoint over. But with my mother translating it for Panditji, appealing to his heart more than his mind … that he should really behave like this. I think probably that did happen.’ Thus Edwina became a bridge between the two men. In this particular instance, Lady Hicks was talking in the context of whether the issue of Kashmir should be referred to the UN. According to Hicks, the relationship was platonic. She writes as much in her book India Remembered: A Personal Account of the Mountbattens During the Transfer of Power and reiterated this in the interview with Thapar."

Since the daughter is very frank about her parents and their separate private lives, there's no reason to doubt her word on this, especially since she also recounts an incident where a racial separation at a party in India was disapproved of, and demolished, by her parents; and another, when a group of angry pathans in Northwest was disarmed by Edwina Mountbatten going with arms spread out and hugging them.

"Over a period of time, the three became so close that when the Mountbattens left India, Nehru broke protocol and did the unthinkable. Natwar Singh reveals in his article in The Hindu that in a letter dated 21 May 1948 Nehru wrote to King George VI of Great Britain in terms unbecoming of a prime minister of a sovereign country, ‘Shri Jawaharlal Nehru presents his humble duty to His Majesty. Lord Mountbatten made an outstanding contribution to the early and peaceful realization of Indian independence; as her first Governor-General, his advice and aid to his Ministers have been equally notable for their wisdom, sympathy and understanding. … it is earnestly suggested that His Majesty be graciously pleased to confer upon the retiring Governor-General and his lady, some mark of recognition commensurate with these services’. ... "

He seems to have forgotten they were close relatives! Second cousins, in fact, and in a clan kept close by their great-grandmother Queen Victoria! This letter must have come as a totally comic lapse on part of someone who was a stranger.

" .... Not satisfied with merely writing such a letter, Nehru followed it up with the King’s private secretary through V.K. Krishna Menon, the first Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. On 29 July 1948, the King’s private secretary wrote back to Nehru, in what can only be construed as a snub, ‘His Majesty is of the opinion that adequate recognition has already been given (to Lord Mountbatten) and any further recognition would not be justified.’ ... "

One could hardly expect anything else from a proper descendent of not only Queen Victoria but also a proper son of her cousin ( first cousin once removed?), Queen Mary.

" ... It is said that Nehru was so smitten with Edwina Mountbatten that he used to write to her almost every day and to ensure fast delivery Air India, India’s national airline would ferry the letters across to the UK and bring back the reply on the return journey."

At worst, this was lack of propriety and formally correct conduct, but not what anyone would interpret at worst.

"The point of relating all this is that Lord Mountbatten, who was not only aware of his wife’s relationship with Nehru but also found it acceptable, used this proximity to influence the Partition of India and the future of Subhas Chandra Bose (as would best serve the British interests). The concept of Pakistan—a new homeland for the Muslims of India—was first propounded in 1933 and the Muslim League adopted a resolution in favour of the new country in 1940."

Author said a few paragraphs back that British couldn't turn the clock back, imying they didn't want or do the partition; now, he implies opposite. If Mountbatten was charged by his government to achieve it at any cost, all he had to do was see to it that Jinnah never agreed with Gandhi. This required neither Jawaharlal Nehru nor Edwina Mountbatten and any influence she had.

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"Mountbatten’s inner desire was to shoot Netaji on sight. In fact, these were the orders of the British Government at the insistence of war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The instruction had been issued to the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) as far back as March 1941 and was never withdrawn. A 13,000 strong covert group, the SOE was set up to execute special tasks like subversion of the enemy, espionage, sabotage, special reconnaissance and assassination of select targets. Nicknamed the ‘Baker Street Irregulars’, the SOE was headquartered in London and had offices in Delhi and Cairo. The Delhi office was later shifted to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and a mission came up in Singapore. The SOE decoded some intelligence in early 1941 (on the basis of an Italian telegram that it had intercepted) that Subhas Chandra Bose was travelling from Afghanistan to Germany via Iran, Iraq and Turkey. On receipt of this intelligence, Churchill ordered that Bose be assassinated. The plan was to finish him off in Istanbul but as it happened, Bose took a different route to reach Germany and the SOE could not carry out the order. After Bose reached Berlin and the British came to know of it, the SOE personnel in Istanbul asked if the orders to assassinate Bose still stood. The British foreign office confirmed that it did.

"Mahatma Gandhi was the tallest figure in the Congress but by 1946 he had ceased to be the most important person in the party. Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had marginalized the Mahatma and his views had very little relevance. Soon Nehru was to overshadow even Patel and in league with Mountbatten determine the destiny of millions of denizens of the country as it became free."

Seeing that Gandhi managed to set aside democratic election of PM of India by cabinet, this is questionable. What he couldn't make Nehru and Patel do was agree to hand over whole power to Muslim league as per last demand by Jinnah, when Gandhi offered him PM position. Clearly such a capitulation before that demand eould have amounted to massacres of over ten times the eleven million Hindus and one million Sikhs that did take place, while that of less than half a million Muslims might have gone up to about twice that much, or the other way around.

"On 3 June 1947, Lord Mountbatten convened a press conference and announced some momentous decisions. Firstly, India would become free by 15 August 1947. Secondly Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims in the Punjab and Bengal legislative assemblies would meet and vote for a possible partition of the country. If a simple majority of either group wanted partition, these provinces would be divided. The province of Sindh would take its own decision. The fates of the North-West Frontier Province and Sylhet district of Assam would be decided by referendum. Mountbatten also announced that a boundary commission would be established to determine the line dividing India and Pakistan in the event of the assemblies voting for Partition."

None of that was carried out in the event, because US and UK needed military bases for use against USSR, and sindh alone with Bengal partly or whole was useless; they had to have clear flight path, and both Punjab and NWFP were separated from India against the vote by people.

"Mountbatten made this announcement fully aware that the Congress party would back the decision to partition India. Mahatma Gandhi had said a number of times, ‘If the Congress wishes to accept Partition it will be over my dead body. Nor will I if I can allow Congress to accept it.’ In the event he baulked and acquiesced. On the day that the announcement was made, Gandhi went on a maun vrat (literally, a vow of silence). The Congress party itself approved the proposal to partition India—a few days later—on 15 July after a vote was taken in the All India Congress Committee. ... "

This is not the whole truth, since author is omitting Direct Action Day massacre of Hindus in Calcutta as per ordered by jinnah, to the tune of ten thousand, with only knives, no modern weapons, in less than three days. That, and not arguments or inclinations of Nehru or anyone else, broke Gandhi’s resolve, apart from Jinnah demanding whole cabinet for muslim league when offered PMO.

"On the question of Partition, the most interesting view came from Bengal where the assembly voted 126:90 in favour of unity of the province. ... "

Tarek Fateh claims opposite, but without numbers.

" ... When representatives of the Hindus and Muslims voted separately the latter were found to be against division and the former for it. ... "

Understandable, after Direct Action Day massacre of Hindus.

" ... In reality the majority opinion was for the province to be united but outside the Union of India. In public debates this view was championed by the most important Muslim League leader Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Sarat Chandra Bose. However, Mountbatten in his 3 June proposal clarified that there could not be an independent Bengal outside the Union of India. So the idea of an independent Bengal did not get through leaving many in the province disappointed."

"The Cabinet Mission to India of 16 May 1946, initiated by Attlee, had come up with a proposal that could have avoided partition of the country. The Mission proposed that an Indian federation be created based on three groups of provinces. They were free to secede from the groups that they were placed in by a vote in the first general elections after the scheme took effect. However, they could not secede from the Union of India. Thus, by this scheme, the unity of India would have been maintained. The government at the Union level would only deal with defence, foreign affairs and communications. The remaining subjects would be dealt with by the governments for each of the groups. However, they were permitted to confer other subjects upon the Union if they so wished.

"Group A constituted territories that are all within present-day India—United Provinces, Central Provinces, Bombay, Madras, Bihar & Orissa. Group B consisted of Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province that are in present-day Pakistan. Group C comprised of Assam and Bengal.

"Both the Muslim League and Congress were opposed to the proposals. ... "

"Whatever the consequences of the proposal, if this plan had been accepted, India would have gained freedom without division and the subsequent dislocation and loss of life would have been prevented."

That's far from obvious. After all, Kerala massacre of over fifteen hundred Hindus was while India was still United and decades away from partition; Noakhali massacre of 150,000 Hindus was while partition was imminent but not yet a reality. In either case, as later about Punjab and rest of Pakistan, Gandhi asked Hindus to not protest, not retaliate, and not hate the Muslim killer, but die with love for them, and he demanded government of India force refugees to return to Pakistan, even if they were certain to be massacred. This last was one of his demands on his last hunger strike.

Why would it be different if the ABC plan was instead put in place? It could, would, be Direct Action Day every day, everywhere through India, instead of just three days in Calcutta.

"In such a situation it is a moot question why Nehru and Patel were so eager to compromise with the British by agreeing to Independence at the cost of Partition. The commonly accepted logic is that they feared that they themselves could be pushed out from their dominant position by more representative public opinion. ... "

No, that's a lie pushed by someone who was only nominally with Congress but in reality saw partition as dividing, not India, but Muslims. He blamed the two Indian Hindu leaders and opined that only jinnah should've been the PM of India, and thus has been parrots ad nauseum, however big a fraud, by those who close their eyes to reality of massacres of Hindus, Sikhs and others in Pakistan.

"Nehru compromised and became the first prime minister of India. Mountbatten won his spurs with his masters back home since he had steered Britain through a tricky patch. But Subhas Chandra Bose remained locked up in a Soviet prison as all this happened. His presence would have changed the entire situation. It is easy to figure out that he would not have agreed to the Partition and would have strived earnestly to make common cause between the Hindus and Muslims. He would actually have waited for an appropriate opportunity to ‘kick’ the British out—literally."

Having instituted an 80 percent reservation in jobs and 50 percent in political office for muslims at beginning of his career, it's unclear what he could have done faced with Noakhali, Lahore and other massacres by Muslims of non-muslims. An army is another matter.

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Author speaks of the Calcutta massacre as riots, with blame only for Jinnah who called it, but glossing over and calling it riot, as if it went equally both ways rather than a hugely one way butchering of Hindus.

"The British police commissioner of Calcutta stood inert and his forces watched as the communal cauldron boiled over. He seems to have taken a detached view. As far as he was concerned the British were on their way out at the prodding of both Hindus and Muslims and he saw no reason to take active steps to control what according to him were their internal conflicts. The army had also not been deployed adequately and in time. The British governor of Bengal, Sir Fredrick Burrows, had answered this charge by asserting that he had deployed the army as soon as enough numbers could be mustered. It was only on 19 August that 45,000 British troops were deployed but by then much of the mayhem had already taken place.

"Suhrawardy too did not cover himself with glory. In the midst of the riots, he and some of his men were said to have stationed themselves in the police control room raising suspicions that they might have been trying to influence police operations. ... Among the Hindus, he never had a following, and was especially hated by the Marwari community who controlled trade and commerce. They alleged that Suhrawardy was communal and had connections with the underworld in the city. There was huge suspicion that he had played a role in exacerbating the effects of the Bengal famine of 1943 that had left a staggering 3 million dead. Suhrawardy is said to have patronized the black marketing of scarce grains by criminal elements and profiteering traders."

" ... The Great Calcutta Killings are now essentially seen as an effort to gain control over the city and its resources."

That's a typical Indian leftist diatribe, slanted to free muslims of blame and attempting to reduce it to trade and economy.

"Bengalis, specifically the Hindus among them, who were special beneficiaries of British rule in India and had empowered themselves through education, government jobs and business opportunities, were upset. ... "

That "special beneficiaries" bit amounts to no longer being routinely massacred in millions, no longer bring transported as slaves outside India, and so on; in reality, Hindus progress via education was due entirely to Hindus own values, and any preferences from British between the two communities applied regardless of other factors was in favour of muslims, as a fellow abrahmic conversionist creed, a closer and more easily comprehended faith.

The British caste system from India was British caste system at top, Europeans next, then Anglo-Indians, Eurasians next, Christians, Muslims, and last, others. Possibly Parsees were preferred, but that's unclear, and in any case they were no threat to Hindu lives.

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"The bloody Calcutta riots were followed by the Noakhali genocide two months later in October 1946. ... "

Author proceeds to equivocate by saying

"Whosoever may have been responsible for starting the Calcutta killings, rumours had reached Noakhali, a largely rural area in the Chittagong division in eastern Bengal, that Muslims had been targeted in Calcutta. ... "

That "whosoever" is the lie by author, in perhaps an attempt to appease; the rumours that he holds responsible for Noakhali riots are lies whether spread then or later after the Noakhali massacre to justify the killing of Hindus

" ... Slowly anti-Hindu sentiments started building up in Noakhali with poets and balladeers whipping up the sentiments further. On 10 October 1946, on the auspicious first full moon night after Vijaya Dashami, when Kojagori Lakshmi Puja was being observed, a reign of terror was unleashed on the Hindus starting with the local zamindar. The violence continued over the next few weeks and affected an area of some 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometres). In an orgy of organized violence, thousands of Hindus were killed ... "

Minimal number is 150,000 as spoken of then.

" ... and hundreds of women raped in the villages. Many people were forcibly converted to Islam and many Hindu women married off to Muslims. Properties were systematically destroyed. There are no estimates of the deaths but it was only the Hindus who were killed. ..."

That last is true, while the forced conversions or marriages might be a lie intended to soften the massacre picture.

" ... Nearly 1.5 lakh people lost their possessions, as the police were largely ineffective. ... "

That was number killed. If any survived without possessions, it's not known.

" ... The British Government instead of trying to control the violence gagged the press. As a result, the outside world received versions of what had happened from informal sources with the possibility that they were exaggerated and incorrect too. ... "

That's the usual method to discredit Hindus.

" ... Of course, the riots were possible because the Hindus were outnumbered 4:10 by Muslims in the area. If the population had been balanced the chances of riots occuring would have been less. ... "

Hindus then outnumbered muslims in Calcutta, but nevertheless were majority of victims of Direct Action Day massacre, ordered as it was by Jinnah.

" ... In this context it could be asked, if Subhas Bose had been present, how would he have reacted to the Calcutta riots and the Noakhali genocide? It is a no-brainer that the presence of a towering personality like Netaji would have gone a long way in cooling frayed tempers in Calcutta. Even a populist leader like Suhrawardy would have had to take cognizance of Netaji’s views. ... "

Then again, author has quoted sources to the effect that British forces had shoot at sight orders regarding Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and British were still ruling as both Calcutta and Noakhali massacre were perpetrated. Ditto Kerala, decades before that, and as for later, Mountbatten said nothing having inspected Lahore homes of Hindus burnt with help of fire department.

So if Netaji were there, it'd be his life in danger from both British forces and muslim rioters, and who'd protect him is a huge question. As it is Pakistan told India they couldn't promise protecting Gandhi’s life, so his plans of travel North-West were switched to East instead. And whatever danger existed, it'd be worse for a younger, active Netaji than an old man on a fast restricted to bed.

"On 20 May 1947, Bengali leaders formally announced a proposal for a united and independent Bengal. ... "

"Suhrawardy thought a little differently; he knew that with a Muslim majority, he could control Bengal along with Calcutta if this plan was executed. ... "

And he'd supervised Calcutta massacre; he could repeat.

" ... Sarat Bose gave his assent to the plan ... He felt that Bengal would progress only if the province remained intact. The apprehension may not have been off the mark because West Bengal’s fall from grace in the pantheon of Indian states began with Independence."

This is a bit of nonsense. Bengal and it's delusions of grandeur were entirely due to being British capital of India, but as fir losses after independence, Bengal wasn't the only state to lose. Punjab lost its best agricultural land, Sindhis were without a home state, Maharashtra bore brunt of refugees and much more.

On the other hand, Hindu population of both sides of Pakistan went down from 24 percent at Independence to less than ten percent after seven decades, chiefly due to genocides and enforced exodus, while muslim population of India is up, helped by unchecked reproduction. And intentional focused illegal migration into India, too, with plans of clearing Hindus out of territories settled.

"On 3 June 1947, barely fifteen days after the plan for a united Bengal was given concrete shape, Lord Mountbatten announced that India would be declared independent on 15 August 1947. The concept of an independent United Bengal was rejected."

"But the million dollar question is whether Subhas Bose would have been inclined to accept an independent Bengal as proposed by his elder brother? It seems unlikely that he would have agreed. Subhas Bose was too big a leader to restrict himself to Bengal. A sovereign socialist independent India was the vision of Netaji—not a sovereign socialist independent Bengal. Thus the concept of a free Bengal would in all likelihood not have appealed to him. However, Sarat Bose’s original idea of a socialist Bengal with its own constitution in federal India may have been agreed to by his younger brother, if a sovereign socialist independent India was not possible under any circumstances."

It doesn't seem to occur to author that a separate Bengal is still a partition of India, just not along religious lines. As it is that experiment is going on, what either East Bengal now an independent nation. And it's chosen to be islamist rather than socialist or secular. Whereas socialist or not, India largely is as he claims Netaji wished - sovereign, independent, and much more, while the separated parts either side are islamist and to a large extent jihadists.

" ... When Bengal went to polls in March 1946, the Muslim League virtually made it a referendum on partition. On this basis the League got 115 of the 250 seats in the assembly but fell far short of winning a majority. So the majority was still not in favour of partition. ... "

So it was enforced due to fear of another Calcutta and more Noakhali?

................................................................................................

" ... The Banerjee family became close to the Baba and were the only ones who had free access to him. In fact, Rita disclosed to Arunav Sinha that Gumnami Baba used to address her affectionately as phulwa rani (flower queen) and her husband Priyabrata as baccha (child). After Dr Banerjee passed away in 1983, Priyabrata took over from his father as Baba’s physician. In a video interview to Mission Netaji—a group of young Indians trying to uncover the mystery behind the disappearance—Priyabrata recollected the day his father went to meet Baba for the first time. He said that his father went in to meet the Baba sometime at 11 am or 12 noon but came out only around 4 pm and on returning exclaimed that he had just met Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The son asked, ‘How do you know?’ The father replied that he recognized Netaji because he had seen him earlier but that Baba had forbidden him to talk about the meeting."

"Gumnami Baba died on 16 September 1985. If indeed he was Subhas Chandra Bose—as it now seems likely—he was a grand old man of eighty-eight when he passed away. ... Another poignant fact: in Uttar Pradesh and across north India bodies are never cremated at night. However, in Bengal bodies are cremated at night. So, was this funeral that of a Bengali gentleman, and was he Netaji?"

"Much after his death, stories began to circulate that Baba had been seen in many other places of Uttar Pradesh. One version has it that he had lived in Naimisharanya (Neemsar) in the Sitapur district near Lucknow before he moved to the Ayodhya-Faizabad area. This is an ancient Hindu religious site and is even mentioned in the Ramayana and considered an ideal location for undertaking spiritual exercises. This version says that before Naimisharanya, Baba had lived in Basti. Perhaps he had shifted to Basti once again before ultimately going to Ayodhya. He is supposed to have left Basti because the local populace had started speculating whether he was Netaji. Three witnesses testified before the Mukherjee Commission that they had met him in Basti. Apurba Chandra Ghosh who had known Subhas Bose from his Calcutta days testified that he had met the Baba in 1965 when he was living as a sannyasi in Basti and twice after that. Ghosh claimed that the Baba had asked him about Bahadur, the durwan (watchman) at the Bose residence on Elgin Road in Calcutta and wondered whether he was still there. He also inquired if there was a calendar with Goddess Kali’s image in the guard-room. A second witness Durga Prasad Pandey testified that he used to meet the Baba regularly—almost every night—for a long period in 1967 in Basti. Another witness Shrikant Sharma said that he had met the Baba in 1963 in Naimisharanya. Both Sharma and Pandey had seen Subhas Bose before he had disappeared from India in 1940. All these witnesses asserted that the Baba was indeed Netaji but could not provide any photographic evidence of their meeting that would have helped the Commission to come to a decisive conclusion. According to a story titled ‘Netaji, The Saint?’, published in The Times of India on 5 September 2015, a follower of Subhas Bose discovered Baba by pure chance. Atul Sen was visiting various places in Uttar Pradesh in 1962 when he heard of a Bengali mahatma living in an ancient Shiva temple in Neemsar. Curious, Sen went to the temple and it took just a few interactions for him to realize that this man was none other than Netaji."

" ... More importantly, the possessions of the Baba that were found in Ram Bhawan showed that he was no regular monk. The collection included books such as Alexander Solzenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, Brigadier J.P. Dalvi’s Himalayan Blunder (which provides an account of the Indian debacle at the hands of the Chinese in the 1962 war), the Dissentient Report by Suresh Chandra Bose and the dissenting view of Justice Radhabinod Pal in the trial of Japanese war criminals. Also found—the complete works of Shakespeare, many classics written by Charles Dickens including A Tale of Two Cities, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, novels written by P.G. Wodehouse and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Maulana Azad’s seminal book India Wins Freedom, Sitaram Goel’s Nehru’s Fatal Friendship and many books on contemporary politics written by Kuldeep Nayar were also part of the collection. Long-playing records of K.L. Saigal, Nazrul-geeti (songs by Kazi Nazrul Islam), Bismillah Khan’s sehnai and Ravi Shankar’s sitar recitals were also found in the Baba’s abode. This list is not exhaustive but there were German binoculars, a Corona typewriter, a Rolex wristwatch, maps and numerous newspaper cuttings including a series on how the Taihoku plane disaster was a concocted story.

"The details of these possessions became public after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court asked for the preparation of an inventory of these items through a court commissioner, in its interim order on 10 February 1986. S.N. Singh, the president of the Bar Association of Faizabad, who was appointed as the commissioner was stunned to find a lot of objects relating to the INA, framed family photographs including that of Subhas Bose’s parents and reports of committees set up to probe his disappearance. Incidentally, the photograph of Bose’s parents were adorned with flowers everyday by the Baba, confirming in a way that the latter was none other than the Indian leader, says journalist V.N. Arora, who along with a few others had represented to the district magistrate to break open the locks of the Baba’s quarters that were sealed on his death. Arora told this writer that when he examined the room it became clear to him that all the belongings that one would expect to find in Netaji’s room were there. Moreover, the man who had lived in that room had been a highly spiritual person and was certainly not an imposter."

" ... After the cremation, Dr Mishra put his lock on the Baba’s quarters, angering other followers. Two other followers then put their own locks on the quarters leading to confusion. By this time word was spreading that the Baba was none other than Subhas Bose in disguise, leading to considerable curiosity. It was then that many concerned citizens of Faizabad including Arora had the district administration break open the locks. ‘We concerned citizens were allowed to get into the room for half an hour. But we came out after eight hours, so vast was the range of things in the Baba’s rooms. It was an amazing exercise.’"

Did no one think of calling his daughter?

Wife, if she was alive?

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"It was the middle of the night in the dead of winter in Ayodhya. The temperature was low—barely a degree or two above freezing point. Gumnami Baba was sleeping inside the room. Panda Ram Kishore was sleeping outside with an angeethi to stay warm. Suddenly he realized that the Baba might be cold too. He got up with a start and went inside and asked: ‘Baba do you need the angeethi?’

"Baba answered: ‘This body has lived in Siberia. You keep the angeethi. I don’t need it.’"

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Author mentions Sri Aurobindo in context of Netaji in particular, and a revolutionary in general, turning from an active life to one spiritual; he gives one detail incorrect.

Sri Aurobindo did devote himself completely to spiritual life after his arrival in Pondicherry, but his spiritual life began much earlier, in Baroda, if not yet earlier than that.

Author mentions his turning to spiritual life during incarceration by British, which sounds like an escapist attempt to escape travails of freedom struggle, and this description is as ridiculous as - very comparable to -saying that someone became a Nobel award winning physicist due to being in jail.

People using their time to think, read and write, while in solitary life of any dort, including incarceration, is known to happen; but it can only bring out the latent possibility within, and turning to spiritual life isn't quite as simple as, say, turning from being a couch potato to a WWF wrestler due to the enforced one hour of exercise per day in most facilities of incarceration.

In short, if Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose did turn to spiritual life, it was because the possibilities existed, were only latent, and this is true of several of those involved in the independence struggle.

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"Chitra Bose, daughter of Sarat Bose, told The Times of India in April 2015 that she recollected a visit by Nehru to their residence in Calcutta shortly after the air crash. ‘Panditji showed father a rectangular wrist watch with a charred band and said with teary eyes—this was the watch Subhas was wearing when the crash took place.’ In response Sarat Bose replied, ‘Jawahar, I don’t believe the crash story. Subhas never wore such a watch. He wore one with a round dial that mother had given him.’"

This is positively bizarre. It's one thing to snoop to keep tabs on family, to find out if they knew, but this level of horrible lying is unbelievable. What would be the point? If then Stalin had Netaji brought to New Delhi on August 16, say, on an Aeroflot flight, and brought him out at a public reception, what could such a lie avail but a complete loss of face? And whatever the family did or didn't do would have little if any effect on fate and future of someone in custody of Stalin!

Besides, if Gandhi said what he did after meeting Habibur Rahman, and sent a message to family of Netaji to not conduct his rites, what did Jawaharlal Nehru achieve by lying?

"A good example of putting the lid on any information going out to the public on Netaji’s whereabouts is provided by the case of Ardhendu Sarkar, a mechanical engineer with the Ranchi-based public sector Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC). In 1962, Sarkar was sent on deputation to the Gorlovka Machine Building plant in Ukraine (which is now an independent country but was then part of the Soviet Union). Here he met a German called Zerovin employed there. Zerovin told Sarkar that he had met Netaji in a gulag in 1947–48 and they had even exchanged a few words in German. Zerovin had been sent to the gulag for indoctrination. An excited Sarkar, on the first available opportunity, rushed to Moscow and the Indian Embassy. If Sarkar had thought that the officials there would be equally excited he was mistaken. He was reprimanded and asked to shut up. ‘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,’ Ardhendu Sarkar was told. A few days later Sarkar was repatriated back home. A shaken Sarkar narrated these facts only in 2000 in his deposition before the Mukherjee Commission."

Are we lucky that these people were not bumped off? That the state was forever in a limbo between fascists repression of people and truth on one hand, and trying to maintain a Gandhian image of Truth and nonviolence on the other?

"The government continued to insist that Netaji had in fact died in the air crash and went to ridiculous lengths to prove this. Not only were two pre-biased commissions of inquiry (Shah Nawaz and Khosla) set up to prove his death, the government was going ballistic even in the early 1990s. In the 1980s, the government’s intelligence wing trained their sights on Gumnami Baba’s visitors and even trying to dissuade curious analysts from calling on him. V.N. Arora of Faizabad who has been quoted in an earlier chapter reveals that one day, out of curiosity—this was sometime in the year 1980—he had decided to call on Gumnami Baba. He was told to come the following day at 4 p.m. The next day, an intelligence official dropped into his house in the afternoon, enquiring why he wanted to meet Baba. Not only this, he insisted on sitting with Arora till late in the evening so that Arora could not step out of the house. ‘How did they know that I was to meet Baba? Obviously they were keeping tabs on who ever visited his house,’ Arora says, pointing out that Gumnami Baba, in those days was living in a dilapidated building that had no electricity."

Orwellian indeed.

"The P.V. Narasimha Rao government which came to power in 1991 tried hard to convince Emilie Schenkl, Subhas Chandra Bose’s wife and other family members that he had in fact died in an air crash and therefore sought their consent to bring home the ashes of Netaji kept in the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo. The desperation is obvious going by the notes written on file by the Union home secretary, K. Padmanabhaiah. He noted, ‘It would therefore be necessary to take the members of Netaji’s family into confidence in the first place by convincing them as to the genuineness of the ashes. It should be then easier to handle opposition from other quarters like the Forward Bloc.’ The note went on to add, ‘Netaji’s wife and daughter are at present in Augsburg, Germany. It is felt that they can be approached through another nephew of Netaji, Dr Sisir Bose. Shri Amiya Nath Bose, the most vociferous sceptic of the air crash theory, needs to be brought around by approaching at an appropriately high level. There is a good chance that if reasonably approached, the family members may drop their opposition. The question of an appropriate memorial involving the mortal remains shall also have to be addressed in due course.’

"When this writer asked K. Padmanabhaiah the basis on which he was so sanguine that the ashes were that of Netaji, he pleaded that the event was two decades old and he did not remember the exact sequence of events. ‘Some materials were brought before me on which I based my note. What the contents were, I do not remember now,’ the retired home secretary said."

Mind-boggling!

How could, how did the Bose family stand all this pressure, and retain their sanity?

And what did the government achieve by subjecting them to this, on top of a trauma of uncertainty of the very existence and whereabouts of their own, Subhash Chandra Bose?

Did the Nehru family prosper by the lie? Looking back, it would seem true only, possibly, in terms of the suitcases of cash given by KGB, as claimed not only by a retired member thereof, but on record in archives in US.

Is it worth losing your name? Goodwill?

"The zealousness of the government to prove that Netaji had died in an air crash was presumably because of the fear that declassification of records in Russia might lead to the truth tumbling out. As is known, the Soviet Union broke up after 1991 in the wake of glasnost or openness. In this scenario, many secret archives were expected to be thrown open. The panic in the Indian establishment is clear after Asia and Africa Today, a journal brought out by the Oriental Institute in Moscow announced in 1993 that it would publish some material relating to Subhas Chandra Bose which was culled from the archives of the KGB. Probably at the behest of none other than Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, the Indian ambassador to Russia, Ronen Sen tried to use diplomatic pressure on the Institute to stop the article from being published. A counsellor of the embassy, Ajay Malhotra went to meet the deputy chief editor of the magazine V.K. Tourdjev to prevail upon him to refrain from publishing any such article."

One recalls that the family who the then PM of India, Narasimha Rao, was protecting, subsequently refused to allow even last rites of his remains - as the PM of India - to be conducted in New Delhi, and nor were any high-ups of the party were present at the venue in the then state of Andhra where it was permitted to be performed. It was made totally ignominious. Is there even a memorial?

"The government’s reluctance to open the Netaji files continued even after the installation of Narendra Modi as prime minister in 2014. When Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy asked Home Minister Rajnath Singh when the files that the government had on Netaji would be opened, the minister of state for home, Haribhai Chaudhary replied—on 17 December 2014—that there were fifty-eight files with the Prime Minister’s Office and twenty-nine files with the External Affairs Ministry. The minister said that the government had no plans to declassify any of these files because their contents were of a ‘sensitive nature’ and could lead to problems in ‘India’s relations with other countries.’ In an RTI reply, the Prime Minister’s Office also refused to declassify the files arguing that ‘the disclosures would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries.’ A recent RTI query by a freelance journalist Choodamani Nagendra, seeking to know whether the GOI had any records relating to Subhas Bose being declared as a war criminal and what steps the government had taken to get his name removed from this list, has drawn a blank. The Home Ministry to whom this query was directed ducked the query citing some obsolete governmental provisions not to make public this information. This was before Modi met Netaji’s family members and announced his decision to open the files."

That last is the vital key to this government and the difference.

"In fact, the people of India and Netaji lovers aver that the files relating to Netaji are not being opened because they contain information that would portray leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi in poor light. In a way, Kamal Pande’s affidavit brought the cat out of the bag by pointing out that the files could not be declassified because it had annotations by ministers and officials. In other words, the then home secretary was scared of what opinions Nehru and his mandarins had of Netaji. The revelations would adversely affect the image of Nehru and his close circle, and not of Netaji as Kamal Pande made out. It is also possible that the declassification of the files would bring out more instances of the government’s eavesdropping on Netaji’s relatives. Official sources also aver that intelligence officials in their various reports in the past have demonised Netaji and this would also become public. For instance, intelligence reports claim that Bose never married Emilie Schenkl and she was just his live-in partner. Moreover, Netaji had a passionate affair with a lady politician from Bengal and later with someone in Burma. Most of them are based on hearsay and have no bearing with reality. These reports were just to character assassinate Subhas Bose and to portray him poorly vis-à-vis Congress politicians like Nehru who came to rule the country after Independence."

People do recall that, even apart from WWII, bombings, and overall destructions wrought, which could have destroyed inessential documents such as records of marriages, there was the anschluss annexing Austria, which then was merely a part of Germany, subject to its racial laws, whereby the couple was in danger if they were declared married? That they, including the baby, could have been sent to an extermination camp, as millions of others were, just for being different racially?

And since when did India convert and denounce Hinduism, throwing away Hindu heritage of an ancient culture, insisting on a centralised institution sanctifying birth and marriages? Whatever the formal rites Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and his wife went through, in privacy and secrecy, are as valid as was marriage of say, parents of the very Bharata who the very nation is named, Bhārata, after, in fact.

As for allegations of other involvements, he was then not subject to law binding monogamy, and could very well have married any number of times, legally. There's no reason to use lies fir slander to tarnish his image.

Recall that the most venerated Rāma had, at the very least, three mothers.

There might very well have been more.

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Contents

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Preface to the Second Edition

Preface

Introduction: The Pilgrim’s Progress

1.The Air Crash Story

2.Surrendering to the Russians

3.Stalin, Nehru and Netaji

4.Why Nobody Lobbied for Netaji’s Freedom

5.The Rise of Subhas

6.Gandhi Coterie and Subhas Bose

7.Escape from Calcutta

8.In Hitler’s Germany

9.INA and Azad Hind Government

10.Nehru, Mountbatten and Freedom

11.Divided Bengal

12.The Mystery of Gumnami Baba

13.The Transformation

14.Was Netaji Forsaken by His Own Government?

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Review

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Preface to the Second Edition

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"On the eve of the declassification of the first tranche of secret government files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, something strange happened. Anita Bose Pfaff, the 73-year-old daughter of Subhas Bose gave an interview to the Hindustan Times that was published on 22 January 2016, a day before declassification of the records. In the course of the interview, Anita said, ‘Netaji’s death in the plane crash was the most likely thing to have happened.’ She said that she was open to other possibilities supported by evidence and went on to say (talking about the air crash) that she had not seen any evidence that is more convincing.

"More than what Anita said, what raised the hackles was the timing of her interview. This was especially as it came close on the heels of a concerted attempt being made by the London-based journalist Ashish Ray, grand-nephew of Subhas Bose, to prove that his grand-uncle indeed did die in the air crash. In fact to prove his theory, Ray, whose mother Rama Ray was the daughter of Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Bose, unveiled a site called www.bosefiles.info that seeks to ‘unravel the truth of Subhas Bose’s disappearance.’ Ray’s disclosures that are still continuing, relate to old stuff—much of which was examined by the Shah Nawaz Committee. This includes witness accounts like that of Habibur Rahman, Netaji’s aide and other ‘eyewitnesses’ of the air crash. The conclusion by Ray is that ‘the data is overwhelming and irrefutable’, that Netaji died in the air crash and his remains are preserved on the altar of Tokyo’s Renkoji Temple in an urn wrapped in white cloth with Netaji’s name written on it with indelible ink and interred in a small golden pagoda.

"Whatever be Ray’s motives for launching into a fresh exercise to (as if ) kill Subhas Bose once again in the air crash, his contentions—unfortunately—have many takers. This is not surprising. Being a journalist, Ray is able to effectively communicate his point of view. Moreover with an organised site—full of documents and pictures—set up to purvey his contentions, Ray appears authentic. His close relationship to Netaji also adds to this reputation and credibility. ... "

" ... Anita wants the controversy around her father’s death to end so that there is a closure on the matter that has gone on for over seventy years. To end this Anita also wants a DNA test on the ashes kept in the Renkoji Temple and if proven to be that of Netaji’s, then for them to be brought to India. In the Hindustan Times interview she said that an Indo-Japanese joint approach towards testing the ashes ‘would work out best.’ She also added that she was hesitant to seek the test before ‘because I felt that the Japanese would feel very insulted.’ (Anita hinted that the Japanese believe that the ashes are that of Netaji’s and sending them for DNA testing would mean questioning their belief.)"

"In light of claims made by some scholars about the existence of archival materials in Russia which had created new doubts, Anita in the conversation with Ronen Sen also wondered whether the government could take the initiative of asking a small group of independent scholars, without any ideological bias, to study all Soviet archival materials related to all aspects of Indo-Soviet contacts up to the end of the Second World War, including that but certainly not restricted to INA activists. Needless to add, nothing came off the request. The Government of India at the turn of the century was in denial mode and not at all keen to go all out and ferret evidence about what had happened to Netaji.

"With the government in New Delhi possibly no longer looking at hiding facts about Subhas Chandra Bose, it would have expected that the truth about Netaji would start tumbling out quickly. That has not happened because the entire truth about Netaji is not hidden in secret Indian files but probably in various archives in Russia and Great Britain. Indian files have useful details but with the penchant for classifying important or unimportant documents, they include a large number of petitions from truth seekers, questions asked in Parliament about Netaji and their answers, details of some unreliable sightings and also newspaper clippings.

"How ludicrous it is to keep some of the stuff in classified files is clear from a question that an MP, S.C. Dixit, asked on 4 December 1967. Dixit asked whether the attention of the government had been drawn to the fact that one ‘Dr Dithelm Wiedman of the Institute of International Relations of East Berlin has found some important documents connected with Netaji that disclose that he was much opposed to Hitler and the Nazis.’ The answer to this unstarred question was: ‘Government have no definite information on this subject. We have only seen a press report.’ Both the question and answer, the files detailing the jottings of various officials, the draft and the final answer were kept classified.

Among the other articles kept classified was a letter from Swami Nirvananda, from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh to the then Foreign Minister Swaran Singh. The letter written in August 1974 sought to know whether Netaji was being treated as a war criminal according to international law. Also it asked whether Netaji ever married and what his better half’s name was."

"A starred question by two MPs, P.C. Mitra and G.L. Kapoor, in Rajya Sabha replied on 17 August 1965 is interesting. The MPs sought to know whether the government was aware about the utterances of Dr Satyanarayan Sinha (former Lok Sabha MP) at a public meeting in Calcutta’s Maidan where he reportedly said that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was kept in Cell 46 in a prison in Siberia. It also sought to know what the government proposed to do about this. The reply came from Deputy External Affairs Minister Dinesh Singh who said that the government was aware of the statements made by Sinha but since the government was satisfied with the report of the Shah Nawaz Committee that Netaji died in the air crash, there was no further need to do anything.

"Many files relating to intra-government discussion about the feasibility of bringing back the ashes from Renkoji Temple to India were discussed at different points of time. Each time however caution was advised—because it was felt that bringing back the ashes would open up a Pandora’s box and so long as the ashes were kept in Tokyo, the government could effectively signal (without having to say so directly) that it did not fully subscribe to the theory of Netaji’s death in the air crash."

"Outlandish though it may seem, one of the most interesting documents in the classified files is a book and affidavit filed by a certain Usha Ranjan Bhattacharya who claimed that Netaji Subhas Bose was killed at 00-00 hours on 15 August 1945 at the Red Fort. He claimed that some confidantes of Netaji tricked him and led the British to Seremban in Malaya (200 miles from Singapore) where he was present at the end of World War II. The British forces then brought him secretly in a military aircraft to Delhi and after incarcerating him for a few days bumped him off! It was further claimed that the air crash story had been cooked by the British and the Japanese to divert attention from the reality. The affidavit was filed before the Justice Mukherjee Commission which in turn passed it on to the Government of India for comments. The government then decided to keep the documents classified.

"On a more serious note, the process of declassification has sparked an unsavoury row: between Nehruvian liberals and Modi-bhakts. Any attempt made by the Modi establishment to open up files relating to Netaji is being seen as a move to demolish the image of Nehru and demonise the latter. This is why some liberals who otherwise would have an open mind also caution that one has to be circumspect about Netaji’s papers. ‘Modi wants to release Netaji’s papers only to beat down the image of Nehru and damage the reputation of the Congress party. Why should we fall for this?’ asks a leading intellectual. Though this argument is fallacious, many liberals are falling to this ploy. The result: the cause of Netaji and the truth is getting overridden. Thus, with the declassification of the first round of files with the Government of India, we are no closer to unravelling the mystery of the disappearance of Subhas Bose than before."

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April 08, 2022 - April 08, 2022.

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Preface

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"The first salvo has been fired by the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, who bit the bullet and ordered declassification of sixty-four files relating to Netaji that were in the custody of the West Bengal state intelligence department. Releasing the files in the middle of September 2015, she said that from a reading of the documents it was clear that Netaji had lived beyond 1945. By doing this she created history because this is the first official statement confirming the survival of Netaji beyond 18 August 1945. Of course, the Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry into Netaji’s disappearance had also said in its report submitted in 2005 that he could not have died in the air crash on that fateful day because there was no evidence of such a crash. But the report was rejected by the Union government in New Delhi. The files opened by Mamata add up to a staggering 12,744 pages and they have now been kept for public viewing at the Police Museum in Kolkata.

"The declassification of the files has had a salutary effect: pressure has mounted on the Union government to open up the files in its custody—including those in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Not only have relatives of Netaji stepped up their campaign but so have other private groups like the Rashtriya Sainik Sanstha (an organization comprising civilian patriots and more than one lakh ex-servicemen). Retired intelligence officials, their lips sealed even after superannuation, have started speaking out even if only in off-the-record conversations. All of which is throwing more light on the Netaji mystery.

"On 14 October 2015 talking to thirty-five family members of Netaji who had called on him in a much publicized meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he found no reason for the Netaji files to remain secret and announced that paying heed to requests made by Netaji’s relatives, the Government of India would start declassifying them beginning 23 January 2016. This will be the 120th birthday of the patriot. Modi also said that he would write to foreign governments—beginning with Russia in December—to declassify any Netaji-related files that they might have in their archives. He said that the other countries to be approached would include the United Kingdom, USA, Japan, China, Singapore and Malaysia. Later Modi tweeted, ‘there is no need to strangle history. Nations that forget their history lack the power to create it’. Independent researchers till date have faced huge barriers while dealing with foreign governments. They have repeatedly been told that a government-to-government request might yield better results. But all previous Indian governments have preferred to remain silent. If the current Indian government acts on the Prime Minister’s statement and puts in a request to foreign governments, it might well induce the latter to part with information.

"Thirteen of the declassified files reveal the shocking fact that Netaji’s close relatives were subjected to round-the-clock surveillance by intelligence sleuths with their mail being intercepted on a regular basis. This included correspondence received as well as sent out by members of the Bose family. A team of fourteen sleuths were deployed for this purpose. This was an incredibly large and complex operation and had obviously been mounted because the intelligence department was keen to trace Netaji’s whereabouts. The operation was carried on till the late 1960s, confirming that they believed that he had not died till then. While the government deployed this massive intelligence operation, the official committees set up to investigate the disappearance of Netaji were being encouraged to report that he had died in the air crash, which now seems to not have happened at all.

"These declassified intelligence files reveal that the sleuths were searching far and wide for Netaji and had even been examining a lead that he had escaped from Singapore at the end of World War II in a submarine. They were also trying to figure out whether he had escaped to China and mingled with Mao Zedong’s forces. The Chinese angle may have caught the fancy of the intelligence community because close relatives of Netaji were themselves trying to investigate whether he had made it to China. On 5 March 1948, Chow Hsiang Kungg, apparently an Indian official, or perhaps an interpreter who worked out of the Old Secretariat in Delhi wrote to Amiya Nath Bose, son of Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose informing him that a quick search of Chinese newspapers had not thrown up any leads that the leader was in Nanking (Nanjing). The letter was written in response to a specific query from Amiya. Addressed to his Calcutta (Kolkata) address, it never reached him since it was confiscated by intelligence at the post office. Adding to the mystery was a report published in the tabloid Blitz on 26 March 1949 that Bose was alive in Red China. A few years later in 1956, Suresh Chandra Bose, another elder sibling of Netaji’s, wrote about the possibility of his brother’s presence in China. In his dissenting report as a member of the Shah Nawaz Committee set up that year to investigate the circumstances of Netaji’s death—but published independently—Suresh Bose wrote that two witnesses had submitted to the Committee that Netaji had made attempts at contacting the Chinese Communists through the Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. They had also placed on record that crossing over to Yan’an, Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s headquarters, was one of the options considered by Netaji. Both witnesses were officers of the Indian National Army (INA)—an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in Southeast Asia in 1942 and led by Netaji—of which Shah Nawaz Khan was also a senior member. Suresh Bose also cited evidence (that seemed stronger) that Netaji was trying to contact the Russians. In fact he concluded, ‘It was their (Netaji’s and the Japanese) joint and agreed plan that Netaji would finally move to Russian territory. In accordance with this plan, the Japanese government took Netaji to Manchuria from where he evidently moved into Russian territory.’

"One of the declassified files reveals a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) report from Howrah that quotes a British and US intelligence filing that Netaji was alive after 1945 and ‘might have undertaken training in Russia.’ One of the files contains an intercepted letter dated 18 November 1949 written by Amiya Nath to his brother Sisir Kumar Bose that says, ‘For the last one month we are getting this broadcast on the short wave near 16 mm. The broadcast only says Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose transmittere kotha bolte cheyechen (wants to transmit his message over the radio). This sentence is repeated for hours.’ Other files from this lot show that between 1942 and 1945 there were a series of reports from intelligence agents that claimed that Netaji had perished in an air crash, but each time the leader was found to be alive.

"The extensive surveillance on Bose had a political objective, according to a top official of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), who now lives a life of quiet retirement. ‘Subhas Bose was alive and if he had appeared in India in the mid-1950s, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s position would be at risk. Subhas Bose had the charisma to win the elections and upstage Nehru. Thus, IB was deployed to find out where he was and what he was doing,’ the officer told this writer, breaking his silence of many years.

"Having served his entire career with IB—from the early 1950s to the early 1990s—the officer was privy to many facts and said that it was none other than Bhola Nath Mullick, the director of IB for a record twenty years, who organized the surveillance. The official added that Mullick, who is dubbed as the father of the Indian Intelligence Service and served at the helm of IB from 1948 to 1968, had the total trust of Nehru and ‘could even lecture’ the prime minister. Incidentally, Mullick hailed from the Shyambazar area of Kolkata, Netaji’s hometown.

"The snooping on relatives was carried out in the hope that wherever he was, Netaji would try and contact them. The tabs on the family were kept through the Calcutta office of IB. The officer added that IB believed that Bose was hiding either in the Soviet Union or Japan. The latter country had not been ruled out because he had last been seen on Japanese territory in Saigon. Although the regime changed after World War II, the Japanese Emperor continued to hold sway and so did top functionaries like Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, who continued in that position until the mid-1950s, much after the Japanese defeat.

"In the end, according to the retired official, IB could never establish the whereabouts of Netaji.

"Even as Netaji was lost to the world, some of his former associates were feted by the Nehru government and made hay as the sun shone. Shah Nawaz Khan, who headed the Committee which declared that Netaji had perished in the air crash in Taiwan, not only became a deputy minister in the central government but was apparently also allowed to set up a huge farm in the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The farm was next to a reserve forest and there are allegations that he encroached on forest land as the government looked the other way. It seems that a railway station was also established in the vicinity for Khan’s benefit. Anand Mohan Sahay, part of Netaji’s Azad Hind government became a diplomat in the Nehru regime. Strangely in his memoirs, Stirring Times: An Autobiography of a Nationalist, the chapter on the INA period was compiled by his daughter and is a rather generalized account. She claimed that Sahay had lost his notes on the INA and so she had done the honours by referring to the remaining material she had encountered while staying with her father. But one gets the impression that this was a deliberate underplaying of one of the most important episodes of Sahay’s life, possibly in order to negate Netaji’s contributions.

"Those who tried to reveal the truth about Netaji did come under pressure to desist from their quest. Suresh Bose in his Dissentient Report wrote, ‘I regret very much to state that hindrances, obstructions and pressure were brought to bear on me by some of the highest government officials with the sole intention of making it impossible for me to write it. With that purpose in view and after I had dissented from the opinion of my colleagues, which was also the opinion of the prime minister, not a single piece of paper necessary for writing my report was given to me.’ Suresh Bose’s grandson Amit Mitra, the present finance and industry minister of West Bengal, remembers how Shah Nawaz Khan visited his grandfather at home to try and convince him not to dissent from the main report, which would declare that Subhas had died in the air crash.

"Although it is possible that with renewed interest in Netaji’s disappearance, the long-standing mystery will be solved, many think that the declassification of the files may not yield anything. In fact, the central government may have very few files which would throw light on the matter. India’s first Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah was quoted in various reports in press, in July and August 2015, saying that the bulk of files on Netaji in the custody of the PMO were unlikely to have survived. While he did not rule out a conspiracy, he speculated that they may have been ‘lost’ due to the poor record-keeping system in the PMO and government offices. He said that in his tenure he had come across many instances where government records could not be traced. Habibullah said that the government had accepted the plea that relations with Russia would be severely affected if the files were declassified.

"The declassified files from West Bengal also have pages that are missing. West Bengal government sources claim that the pages have been missing for a long time and may have been damaged during an earlier regime. But a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from West Bengal who had also served in the IB claimed that the files are sought to be kept secret because they contain ‘many truths’ that may ‘expose the activities of important people whose reputation is still untainted’.

"This IPS officer who had done a detailed study of Netaji during his intelligence days says that Subhas Chandra Bose was a man who was single-minded about securing freedom for India and that ‘everything else was secondary for him.’ The officer added: ‘He was direct and did not beat around the bush. Because of this trait many thought he was arrogant. But this was not arrogance, it was only that he was supremely confident.’

"Suresh Bose says, ‘Subhas was made of different stuff and something above the ordinary. Religion was ingrained in him and love and sympathy for all living beings were part of his nature. Even as a boy, he was of a reserved, sober and thoughtful type who generally spent some time in meditation secretly.’

"This is ultimately what made Subhas Chandra Bose the person he was."

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April 08, 2022 - April 08, 2022.

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Introduction: The Pilgrim’s Progress

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"Sometime in late June 1993, Ronen Sen, then India’s ambassador to Russia, was startled to hear from the Indologist Albert Belsky that the forthcoming issues of Asia and Africa Today, a bimonthly journal devoted to social and political affairs, based in Moscow, would publish a series of articles portraying Subhas Chandra Bose as an agent of MI6 (the secret intelligence service of the British Government responsible for gathering foreign intelligence, while the security service or MI5 is responsible for internal security). Sen was informed that the articles would be based on classified archival material belonging to the KGB (the intelligence arm of the Government of the Soviet Union). Wary of the damaging consequences of the revelations, Sen wrote to Foreign Secretary Jyotindra Nath Dixit on 24 June 1993, informing him that a few Indian journalists in Moscow had got wind of the forthcoming stories. Sen also despatched Ajai Malhotra, then Information Counsellor at India’s embassy in Moscow, to meet the deputy chief editor of the magazine, V.K. Tourdjev, unearth the information he had about Bose and try to dissuade him from publishing scurrilous stories about the Indian patriot.

"Malhotra met Tourdjev on 29 June 1993. The editor confirmed that his magazine would publish the articles, the first of which was to be titled ‘The Secret Behind the Death of S.C. Bose’. He showed Malhotra—though displayed at a distance—a letter dated 11 December 1943, marked ‘Top Secret’ and addressed to Colonel A.P. Osipov, a Soviet intelligence officer. Written by Colonel G.A. Hill of British intelligence, it said that Bose had ‘cooperated’ with MI6 and that one of his close associates was a KGB agent. Tourdjev told Malhotra that his contacts in the KGB had provided him with all the inputs for the planned articles and that he was exhibiting the communication as proof that the articles would be based on evidence.

"Malhotra was also told that the articles would argue that Bose had escaped from house arrest in Calcutta in January 1941 and made his way to Kabul with the full knowledge of the British and that is why he could survive in the distant capital of Afghanistan for a whole month without being arrested by the security forces. None of Netaji’s India-specific orders given out from Germany—like subversion activities on India’s western frontier—were ever meant to be carried out. After all, it was all part of a British plan, with Bose acting on their orders."

" ... The establishment in the Indian capital failed to gauge the importance of the information emanating from Moscow. They did not understand that Netaji had become the ‘fall-guy’ in a ‘great game’ between intelligence departments which have a penchant for planting misleading information in their quest to ‘destroy’ enemies."

" ... instead of taking up cudgels for one of India’s greatest freedom fighters and asserting that the purported evidence against him had been circulated by the MI6 with an ulterior motive, the mandarins of South Block and North Block of the Government of India’s secretariat on New Delhi’s Raisina Hill fell back on an old stratagem. They decided the best way to bring about a resolution to the disquieting information would be to prove once over that Netaji had, in fact, died in the air crash in Taiwan and that the ashes stored in an urn at Tokyo’s Renkoji Temple were that of the patriot. ... "

"Towards this end, in October 1993 orders went out from Amar Nath Verma, principal secretary to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to settle the controversy about Netaji’s ashes before his birth centenary in January 1997. Home Secretary K. Padmanabhaiah tried hard to persuade members of the Bose family to accept that it was indeed Netaji’s ashes that were stored at Renkoji Temple. A high-profile minister of the government also called on Emilie Schenkl, Netaji’s widow who was then living in Germany, to accept once and for all that her illustrious husband had died in Taihoku (Taipei) airport.

"Nothing came of the effort."

Author goes back, into the history when Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose escaped from British house arrest.

"The British still had no clue about Bose’s whereabouts and their first instinct was that he had boarded a ship out of Calcutta and was headed to Japan. Later they figured out that he could be on his way to Germany. Immediately instructions were issued to the Special Operations Executive—a war-time irregular force created on the orders of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for various subversive activities—to execute Bose on sight. The British expected Bose to cross over to Germany via Istanbul and planned to target him there. As it turned out, Bose’s first choice was not Germany, but the Soviet Union.

"The 1917 October Revolution in Russia had raised hopes amongst the underdogs of the world and Bose—though not a Communist—believed that for India to move forward in a progressive manner, feudal forces would have to be eliminated through land redistribution in tandem with the growth of modern industries, in a planned manner. In fact, as Congress President, he had set up the Planning Committee, forerunner to the Planning Commission instituted after Independence. In fact, Bose ran afoul with the coterie that controlled the Congress because of his radical ideas: he wanted genuine reforms in land relations but the party bosses were quite content to merely replace the British as new masters of the country. They were not willing to destabilize the status quo beyond pushing out the British and did not seem inclined to push through reforms.

"From Kabul, Bose tried hard to cross the border into the Soviet Union but failed. At that time, although Germany was still not at war with the Soviet Union—a non-aggression pact had been signed by the foreign ministers of the two countries—there were some expectations that this would soon be breached.

"More importantly Soviet intelligence was spreading rumours that the Red Army would attack India from its northwest border and liberate it. When it was learnt that Bose could also be trying to push into the Soviet Union, British apprehensions became more pronounced which they countered with rumours that they would attack Baku in southern Soviet Union. Now in Azerbaijan, the city on the western coast of the Caspian Sea was the Soviet Union’s energy and oil hub. The Soviets then developed cold feet about granting refuge to Bose fearing that it would strengthen the feeling that an India invasion plan was on. All Bose could manage was a transit visa through Soviet territories on the way to Germany, which was valid for a very short period, 23–31 March 1941. Even this visa came to him courtesy the Italians, who had a better opinion of him than the Germans.

"Adolf Hitler was obsessed with the British—his declarations of hostilities notwithstanding—he aspired to be like them. He believed that the Asiatic races and non-Aryans were inferior races and had declared this in Mein Kampf, the autobiographical manifesto published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926 respectively. The German leader was so race conscious that he allowed the 1936 Olympic Games to be held in Berlin only to prove white race supremacy. As it turned out, the African-American athlete Jesse Owens dominated the tracks and won numerous gold medals and a fuming Hitler stomped out of the stadium. Bose, who had earlier sojourned in Austria for a long period, had condemned Hitler’s views on race in a press conference and demanded withdrawal of these views.

"Thus Bose would have expected that things would not be very smooth in Germany. When the Germans attacked the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, less than three months after his reaching Berlin, Bose realized that his options had been severely curtailed. He voiced his protest against the German incursions into the Soviet Union and refused to be cowed down, although he was, metaphorically speaking, in the lion’s den. He said that in India there were sympathies for the Soviet Union among the people and the German invasion would be viewed adversely in his country.

"Though the Indian cause did not mean much to Hitler, his intelligence reports had suggested that Bose was a popular figure in his own country and had great potential. Thus he was willing to tolerate Bose and to even provide financial assistance to set up the Free India Legion. Hitler also had no objection to handing over Indian prisoners of war (POW) of the British Indian Army to Bose for retraining and deployment in a future invasion of India. A Free India Radio to beam Bose’s messages fortnightly was also permitted.

"Bose’s rhetoric was decidedly anti-imperialist. Bose also did something in Berlin that was sacrilege for Hitler: he lived openly with his Austrian partner Emilie Schenkl, whom he was introduced to in Vienna. In Hitler’s Germany, inter-racial marriages and cohabitation was strictly prohibited. But Bose could not care less and Hitler seems to have looked the other way. Apparently they married secretly in 1937 in a Hindu ceremony though there is no civil record. They seem to have married in the gandharva tradition of ancient India, which is based on mutual attraction between a man and a woman. They would have probably got together, exchanged garlands and simply declared themselves man and wife. Their daughter Anita was born in November 1942.

"There were liberals in Hitler’s establishment who, unlike the Führer, saw India as a country with a rich and ancient culture. They were willing to patronize and protect Bose in a country where there was no rule of law. There was always the danger of Bose being picked up and despatched to a Nazi concentration camps and exterminated. In fact, one of Bose’s closest supporters, Friedrich Adam von Trott zu Solz, an important functionary in the German foreign office was hanged in 1944—along with many others—for being part of a plan to oust Hitler. By then Bose had left Germany.

"Whatever assistance Hitler’s regime might have been giving to Bose, Hitler himself was not willing to meet the Indian leader, who was kept under constant surveillance. Bose had to wait a year for an appointment which came about in May 1942. The meeting turned out to be a near disaster with Bose reiterating his demand that Hitler withdraw objectionable sections from Mein Kampf and the Führer launching into an extended monologue.

"Bose was, however, able to convince Hitler to facilitate his move to the Far East, and was to transfer to Southeast Asia in an epic underwater journey in a German submarine. The journey involved a submarine-to-submarine transfer mid-ocean, with Bose and an associate transferring from the German U-boat to a Japanese submarine near the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar."

"Bose’s appearance in Tokyo and the warm welcome shown to him by the imperial Japanese Government set alarm bells ringing in His Majesty’s Government. British intelligence agencies began to conjure various strategies to foil Bose’s plans. This resulted in a nefarious plot to portray him as a British agent. Of course, the agencies knew that describing Bose in this way would draw derision all around. Thus, in the usual fashion of intelligence agencies, they resorted to a cloak and dagger game.

"When Bose arrived in Tokyo and even after he had moved to Singapore to head the Indian National Army (INA), Japan was not at war with the Soviet Union, the two countries having entered into a non-aggression pact in April 1941. Engaged in intense hostilities with Germany on their western front, the Soviets did not want to be hemmed in from the rear by the Japanese. At the zenith of its power, Japan had never lost a war till then. It had occupied Manchuria on the border of the Soviet Union and what is more, had given a bloody nose to Russia in conflicts in the earlier part of the twentieth-century.

"It did not take much for British intelligence to figure out that Bose would contact the Joseph Stalin regime. Their field reports must have also indicated that Bose was trying to contact the Soviet leadership via their ambassador in Tokyo, Yakov Alexandrovich Malik (who was known as Jacob Malik in the non-Soviet world). So the best way to sow doubts about Bose among the Soviets was to portray a confused picture of his intent. Through inferences and suggestions, fabricated documents and misleading leads, Bose was made out to be a British agent. Of course, projecting outright that Bose was a paid agent of MI6 would not wash. The Soviets were not foolish enough to fall for this bait. Yet, this attempt was a subtle one, enough to create apprehensions in the minds of the Soviets.

"During World War II a large part of the Soviet administration had moved to Omsk in Siberia to be far away from the Germans. It is here that Netaji despatched his representative to establish a consulate of the Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (Provisional Government of Free India). The representative—Kato Kochu—went without proper credentials. History does not record Kato’s identity. In all probability he was an Indian with an assumed Japanese identity. Netaji had already written to Jacob Malik—a copy of that letter was recently declassified from the KGB archives.

"And it is Omsk that Netaji sought to travel to once it seemed that the end of the War was imminent and the Japanese would surrender. On 18 August 1945, when Bose took off from Saigon supposedly en route to Tokyo, he was actually headed for Omsk. His immediate destination was Dairen (Dalian) in Manchuria, which until the end of the War was under Japanese occupation with a puppet regime. Manchuria was captured by the Soviets after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki even as they declared War on the Japanese on 9 August 1945. Netaji wanted to surrender to the Red Army in Dairen in the hope that he would be allowed to establish the headquarters of the Azad Hind Government in Omsk. This is why Bose went into Soviet territory with two trunks full of Azad Hind treasure. The treasure—which was the sum total of the donations that he had received in Southeast Asia—would meet the monetary needs of the government. However, Netaji had more treasures with him, from the INA, but could not carry them all because the Japanese bomber which ferried him had reached its weight limit. The remaining treasure was left back in Saigon and to give an impression that there was actually an air crash a part of it was taken to Tokyo. It was suggested that this was recovered from the wrecked aircraft. We will return to the story of the INA treasure later in this chapter.

"For Bose entering Soviet Russia was a leap of faith into the unknown, a step fraught with many imponderables. What he would not have known was that British intelligence had foreseen his possible course of action and had probably poisoned the minds of the Soviets against him already. This was not a difficult feat, as Stalin and his men knew very little about India. Stalin’s knowledge of India was particularly appalling—he was confused as to whether the primary language of India was Gujarati or Hindi and was under the impression that the island nation of Ceylon was a part of India. Stalin had a poor opinion about Indian Congress leaders who he believed were stooges of the British. He seems to have been misinformed that they were merely fighting for limited independence and that this stance would lead to a continuance of indirect British rule in India with the British Army continuing to protect Indian territories. In Soviet intelligence dossiers, Bose was described as coming from a huge landholding feudal family. This was hardly expected to endear him to Stalin, a man with a fetish for collectivisation of agriculture.

"It is true though that after India’s Independence, some Soviet representatives observing the country had identified Bose as a leader that they could work with because of his radical views. Even if this could have persuaded Stalin to look favourably at Bose, it was undone by British reports that described him as their agent. The secret ways of Bose and his changing stances in choosing partners—its sole objective being the service of the nation—was something that could be understood only by his countrymen. But for outsiders this raised suspicions about Bose’s actual motives. Bose did not have any friends within the Kremlin who could have allayed the misapprehensions of the regime. He was depending on his luck, audacity and sincerity of purpose. But the deceitful British had already played their games. What harmed Bose was that his trusted man on the Afghan frontier, Bhagat Ram Talwar, gave away his plans. Subhas Bose had depended on Talwar for assistance in crossing the frontier into Soviet territory. But unknown to Bose, Ram was a double agent—spying for both Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The Soviets knew that he was periodically double-crossing them. If Bose was using such a man for his purpose, then could he be depended upon?"

" ... Bose was not the only person to have been penalized in this manner. The most well-known example is that of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg who was posted to Budapest during the War. The third Reich held sway in Hungary and Wallenberg had been going out of the way to prevent thousands of Jews from being despatched to extermination camps. He did this by issuing Swedish passports to Jews in trouble. In January 1945, the Soviets walked into Budapest and captured Austria. They arrested Wallenberg the day they entered Budapest on charges that he was an American spy. Wallenberg was swallowed up behind the Iron Curtain, never to emerge again. Many years later, under intense Swedish pressure the Soviet Government did admit that the diplomat had perished in a Moscow prison.

"In the run-up to India’s Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru had started wooing the powers-that-be in the Soviet Union. In 1946 he wrote a letter to Stalin and gave it to Soviet agent V.G. Sayadiants who was based in Bombay (Mumbai) and was known to be the eyes and ears of Moscow. The contents of the letter are not known but Nehru requested Sayadiants that he hand it over to Stalin personally. Once an interim government had been appointed in 1946, Nehru tried to approach the Soviet regime with the help of V.K. Krishna Menon, a known Communist who was later to be his defence minister. Nehru also appointed his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit as the first Indian ambassador to the Soviet Union. Interestingly in his report to Stalin, Sayadiants had spoken glowingly about Gandhi and approvingly of Nehru but advised that the Soviets could work with Bose and the Forward Bloc, which Bose had founded.

" ... India’s relations with the Soviet Union developed into a close and cosy arrangement only after the death of Stalin in 1953.

"In all probability Bose was held in a gulag, the massive system of forced labour camps found in Siberia during the time of Stalin. He was probably kept alive because the Soviets wanted to use him for furthering Soviet interests in India if required. He had been dispatched to the gulag after some internal discussions. Bose’s credentials possibly came into question as a result of the false rumours against him spread by British intelligence. By implication, when the Soviets built their long-lasting relationship with India after 1955 it was by sacrificing the cause of Subhas Bose. By 1957, the Swedes had been able to get an official confirmation from the Soviets that Raoul Wallenberg had been in their custody. But the Indian government did nothing to obtain information about Netaji."

"The Indian public did not take kindly to the attempts made by the Indian Government to prove that Netaji was dead. He had achieved a cult status in the country by then and many people—especially in his home state of Bengal—expected him to surface anytime and deliver the country from chaos. Stories had begun to surface about his captivity in Siberia. Other reports claimed that he was in China and even Vietnam. The clamour for information on Netaji’s fate grew with time and unable to contain them, Indira Gandhi set up another commission in 1970—under Justice Gopal Das Khosla, former Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court—to enquire into the circumstances of Netaji’s disappearance. The single member Khosla Commission was biased and ignored many important pieces of evidence that was submitted to it. This included a testimony by Shyam Lal Jain, a stenographer of Congress leader Asaf Ali who testified that in 1945 Jawaharlal Nehru had dictated a letter to him addressed to British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, informing that ‘your war criminal’—Subhas Bose—had taken refuge in the Soviet Union. The diplomat and former parliamentarian Satya Narayan Sinha also testified that he had come across information that Netaji could have been locked up in Siberia and that he had informed Nehru of this. Nehru had dismissed him while Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was India’s ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952, had asked him to keep his own counsel. Needless to add—and possibly just as it was planned—the Khosla Commission came to the conclusion that Bose had indeed died in the air crash at Taipei."

"Glasnost and Perestroika led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union as it broke up into Russia and other successor states. But the same openness did not pervade the corridors of India’s External Affairs Ministry. They continued to sing the same old tune. It was as if investigating Netaji in Russia was tantamount to destabilizing the bedrock of the Indo–Soviet relationship and would adversely impact ‘national interest’. Nobody knew what this national interest entailed except that it was about the establishment’s resolve to maintain the status quo. The documents regarding Netaji are, in all probability, hidden in archives in Russia or one of the former Soviet Republics. Naturally, the Government of India does not want to ferret out the truth by doing what is required. A little way forward has been made by independent Russian researchers but their interest in Netaji is limited. The Russian archives are not open to Indians. Moreover, there are few Indian researchers who have a good grasp of the Russian language.

"A team of researchers from the Asiatic Society of Kolkata did visit the Soviet Union in the mid-1990s and came across evidence that would suggest that Bose was present in the Soviet Union after the end of World War II. The team had, however, gone to research Indo–Soviet relations and was not looking into the whereabouts of Netaji."

"A significant step forward was also taken by the Mukherjee Commission. Although the Commission’s operation was hampered by an uncooperative Indian Government which refused to declassify files on Netaji in its custody, it was able to establish that Bose did not die in the air crash. The reason: there had been no air crash in the first place. This was the first time that the official version purveyed since the early 1950s was sought to be proved wrong. The Commission also found that the ashes at Renkoji Temple were that of a dead Japanese soldier who had died a natural death in Taiwan the day the air crash was supposed to have taken place. The Commission’s report submitted in 2005 was rejected by the United Progressive Alliance government in power at the Centre."

" ... was the sannyasi (monk), Gumnami Baba, the Indian leader in disguise? The holy man—who lived in the Uttar Pradesh town of Faizabad, the twin city of Ayodhya—was equally at ease speaking in English, Hindi and Bangla but was secretive, limited his interaction with a chosen few, and remained confined behind a curtain. When he died in September 1985, his quarters were searched by a few local citizens who were astonished by the items they found there. These included photographs of Netaji’s parents that hung on the wall behind Gumnami Baba’s bed, a copy of the Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and numerous books on contemporary Indian politics. There were also a pile of newspapers from 1964–65 onwards, many of which had been annotated, among them Suresh Chandra Bose’s Dissentient Report and literature pertaining to Netaji’s life. The material was later locked up in the Faizabad treasury by the government. No proper inventory has been made of the records till date. The Mukherjee Commission probing the leads on Gumnami Baba visited Faizabad and took samples of handwriting of the holy man to compare it with that of Subhas Bose. One top handwriting expert said that indeed it was the same but two others did not confirm in the affirmative. A DNA test of old teeth in a match box in Baba’s possession, however, did not match with samples taken from some of Subhas Bose’s relatives. This anomaly apart, the match between Gumnami Baba and Subhas Bose seems to be close and thus the possibility of the holy man being the patriot in disguise cannot be ruled out. Justice M.K. Mukherjee was also caught on television saying that the Baba was in fact Bose. This was an off-record comment that was captured by mistake.

"With the Uttar Pradesh government now allocating a separate budget to set up a museum to house Gumnami Baba’s collections—after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court passed an order in January 2013—hopes have soared that the mystery of the holy man’s origin will be solved to conclusively prove whether or not he was Subhas Chandra Bose. ... It is believed that Baba has also left behind a map outlining the path he travelled from Siberia to north India that could go a long way in lifting the veil over Bose’s last years."

" ... the final blow to the British Empire was delivered by Netaji. The unprecedented surge of emotions witnessed at the trial of INA soldiers at the Red Fort demonstrated how the entire country idolized Netaji. But often such realizations come with the benefit of hindsight. It had not become clear to Bose himself that the end of the War had paved the way for Independence and that he had been instrumental in the whole exercise. He disappeared into the Soviet Union to fight a new battle for India’s freedom not realizing that he had no need to hide anymore. Had he come to India, he would have received a superhero’s welcome and would have been unassailable. No British master or his Indian lackey would have dared touch him."

"A close follower of Gumnami Baba found him in a sombre mood one day and asked him whether he was angry. The Baba replied in Bangla: ‘Jaar bhai thekey bhai neyi, Ma thekey Ma neyi, Desh thekey desh neyi, jaar adhikar neyi. Taar ki rag hotey parey? Taar sudhu hotey parey abhiman.’ (‘Can a man who does not have brothers in spite of having them, who does not have a mother in spite of having her, who does not have a country or any rights, can such a person be angry? He can only have a deep sense of hurt.’) If indeed Baba was Netaji, this was the state to which he had been reduced by the country for whose freedom he had so earnestly fought."

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April 08, 2022 - April 08, 2022.

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1.The Air Crash Story

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"On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered to Allied forces, effectively marking the end of World War II. Germany had surrendered unconditionally around three months earlier—on 8 May. Netaji was then based in Singapore as the head of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind. ... "

"Netaji called for a Cabinet meeting the same night. After deep confabulations it was decided that Netaji and the Cabinet would have to evacuate from Malaya immediately to avoid falling into the hands of the British forces. Located at the tip of the Malay peninsula, Singapore was being frequently bombed by the US Air Force and the Royal Navy was preparing to capture it. The Japanese had themselves told Netaji to move out to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) before it was too late and even the INA chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Jagannathrao Krishnarao Bhonsle had proffered similar advice.

"Netaji’s choice was to get onto Russian held territory, if not Russia itself. This was a country that held a special place in Bose’s heart. When he escaped from Calcutta in January 1941, Russia had been his preferred destination. When he could not contact the higher authorities in Moscow, he made his way to Berlin. At this point it appears that he felt that there were no other options left."

"That Subhas Bose held great hopes regarding the Soviet Union is also clear from his radio speech to Indians from Bangkok on 14 June 1945. He said: ‘Since the fall of Germany, Soviet Russia has become more outspoken about her plans of post-War reconstruction and she has made a number of moves on the Asiatic chessboard which have been exceedingly irritating to the Anglo–American powers. At the San Francisco Conference, the Soviet foreign minister challenged the credentials of the representatives of India and the Philippines who were puppets of Britain and the United States, and he openly talked of a Free India and Free Philippines.’ This was the United Nations Conference on International Organization held between April and late June 1945, which led to the establishment of the United Nations Charter. India, though still under British suzerainty, had a representation in the conference."

" ... The day after the announcement of the Japanese surrender, Netaji informed the Japanese of his plans and asked them for assistance in travelling to Russian-held territory. There was consternation amongst the Japanese—with many feeling that he was about to forsake them after having obtained their full cooperation. There were others who felt that Bose’s entry into Russia could work to Japanese advantage. After all, Russo–Japanese relations had been maintained on an even keel till the Russians declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945, a day after the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima. After the nuclear bomb attack that sealed the fate of Japan, some top leaders of the country were planning to lobby the Soviet supremo Joseph Stalin to secure favourable terms of negotiations for their country. Moreover, after the two atomic bombs decimated millions, the Japanese were now wary of the United States. The Japanese had immense faith in Bose, who they thought was an ‘Indian samurai’ who might soften the Russians in their favour. After the end of the War, a Japanese interpreter, whose offices were used for meetings between Netaji and Japanese officials was interrogated by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in November 1945. His narration (the record of which was declassified by India’s Ministry of Defence in 1997) quotes Subhas Bose as telling the Japanese: ‘In order to destroy a common enemy, Britain, both Japan and the Provisional Government should try every possible move and help each other. Therefore, I earnestly request Tokyo to act as “go-between” and let me approach Soviet Russia. I have perfect confidence in my success in persuading Russia to help our Independence movement and at the same time I am sure I can do something to improve relations between Japan and Russia.’"

" ... Field Marshal Hisaichi Teruachi, commander of the Japanese forces in Southeast Asia who was stationed in Saigon, decided to help the Indian revolutionary. Teruachi could afford to take his own decisions because he controlled a crucial part of the Japanese army and his cooperation would be needed to get his men to surrender. The Field Marshal—a wizened old aristocrat approaching seventy—had been closely associated with Netaji for two years and was sympathetic to him. He organized a plan for Netaji that would take the latter to Dairen in China. Here Bose would surrender to the advancing Soviet army and try his luck. Teruachi himself would give himself up to the Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia, Lord Louis Mountbatten, two months later. This was after the formal document confirming the surrender of Japanese forces was signed on 2 September on the deck of the USS Missouri. Soon after, he died as a prisoner of war."

"From Singapore, Netaji flew to Bangkok, where he deplaned for a few hours to confer with members of the Indian community, who had great hopes of his success. After that he reached Saigon. A Mitsubishi Ki-21 heavy bomber was waiting at Saigon to fly to Tokyo. A place was found for Bose in the plane. The other occupants were a group of Japanese army men and a crew of about five people. Although Netaji had many members of the INA with him, such as his secretary Lieutenant Colonel Habibur Rahman Khan, and members of his Cabinet Subbier Appadurai Ayer and Abid Hasan Safrani (Netaji’s personal secretary and interpreter in Germany), there was only one vacant seat. Another seat was soon found for Rahman, Netaji’s most trusted aide. The remaining members of the team remained in Saigon with the understanding that they would be accommodated in later flights to Tokyo. Among the Japanese on the flight was Lieutenant General Tsunamasa Shidei, Vice-Chief of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria. Netaji and Shidei were to deplane at Dairen and the Japanese general would negotiate and facilitate the INA chiefs surrender to the Soviet forces. Shidei was earlier the commander of Japanese forces in Burma but had been deployed to Manchuria just to facilitate Netaji’s surrender before the Russians. Shidei had been included in the plan at the insistence of Field Marshal Teruachi, since he was fluent in English, Japanese and Russian. He was also deeply knowledgeable about international war procedures, including the norms of surrender.

"By all accounts the bomber was overloaded and later in the evening it stopped at a place called Tourane in Vietnam. It seems that during the stop-over, Bose confabulated with Habibur Rahman, making him swear that he would propagate the false story of an air crash. Rahman was never to let out the truth, even under the most severe pressure. The story to be disseminated was that the plane had crashed because it was carrying trunks with gold bars and other valuables that Indians in Saigon had handed over to Netaji towards the INA’s efforts for India’s independence. How would Rahman live to tell the tale? It would be said that the aircraft had crashed at a low height, as a result of which Rahman escaped without any injuries but Bose succumbed to third degree burns. Lieutenant General Shidei was also included in the plan."

" ... According to the air crash story that has been handed down the years, it was not just Netaji who perished that ‘fateful’ afternoon. The General’s death was also announced along with that of Bose by Domei. Since he was the man who was to make Bose’s surrender to the Russians possible, a cover was needed for him, and what better cover for both than to have died in the crash?

"Although Subhas Bose was a stickler for details, there were some holes in his plot. According to the story, Netaji sustained burns as he was running out of the aircraft while it was on fire. Habibur Rahman also ran out of the plane, through the same fire, without any injuries. There are no pictures of an injured Bose in the hospital or for that matter any images of his mortal remains. Many years later, due to the intrepid efforts of an Indian journalist and Right to Information activist Anuj Dhar—who has researched in depth on the circumstances of Bose’s disappearance—it is now known that no plane crash took place at Taihoku airport during that period.

"In response to a specific query from Dhar in 2005 the minister for transportation and communication of Taiwan, Lin Lung Som, wrote back, ‘During the period 14 August to 25 October 1945 no evidence shows that one plane had ever crashed at the old Matsuyana airport (now Taipei domestic airport) carrying Subhas Chandra Bose.’ The genuineness of the email was verified by Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee, the retired judge of the Supreme Court appointed by the Government of India in 1999 to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of Netaji. The Commission too rejected the air crash theory having found out that the only air crash that had taken place in Taiwan was on 20 September 1945, that of an US Air Force transportation plane carrying released American prisoners of war. This air crash was logged 200 nautical miles away from Taipei. The Mukherjee Commission also noted that the register of cremation of Taipei for the period 17–27 August 1945 did not record the names Subhas Chandra Bose and Lieutenant General Shidei. Neither did it contain the names of the pilots who were supposed to have perished in the same crash. There were no reports in the newspapers of the crash the following day. The Commission concluded that the ashes kept in the urn at Renkoji Temple were that of a Japanese soldier, Ichiro Okura who had died from cardiac arrest."

" ... since from the very first day, news of Netaji’s death in an air crash was treated with disbelief in India and amongst foreign intelligence agencies. People believed that given Netaji’s penchant for secrecy and use of aliases, this was the sort of story that he would fabricate so as to escape unnoticed and continue his mission. His legendary submarine journey from Germany to Asia and the fact that he escaped from India, throwing dust in the eyes of the British Indian police, had led to the belief that Bose was capable of any feat.

"In 1956, a three-member committee was set up under Shah Nawaz Khan to probe Netaji’s disappearance. ... The other members of the Committee were an Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer S.N. Maitra (who had been nominated by the West Bengal government) and Suresh Chandra Bose. The Committee examined witnesses in India, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan and came to the conclusion by majority opinion that Netaji had died in the air crash.

"Suresh Chandra Bose did not agree to this conclusion and wrote and independently published the Dissentient Report, which pointed out that crucial evidence was kept away from him and that the Committee had failed to acknowledge the conflicting testimonies of many witnesses. He also hinted that efforts were made to force him to sign the Committee’s report. Significantly in his dissent note, Suresh Chandra Bose pointed out that Lieutenant General Harukai Isayama, Japanese Chief of Staff in Formosa (Taiwan) with headquarters at Taihoku (who was, therefore, expected to know everything about the air crash) had testified before the Committee that he heard about the death of Netaji and Lieutenant General Shidei in the air crash only when he went to the office the next day. Stating that Shidei was his friend and former classmate, he said that he heard of the accident from his staff officer. It is strange that the General had been informed of his classmate and fellow officer’s sudden death a day later. Needless to say, the dissent note robbed the authenticity of the Shah Nawaz Committee report and made the former INA officer’s intentions appear suspicious. The Committee’s blatantly fixed report also had the impact of whetting public appetite for correct information about Netaji’s death: people wanted to know why the Indian Government was trying hard to prove that Netaji had perished in the air crash. ... "

" ... In 1970, the Indira Gandhi government set up a one-man inquiry commission to find some answers. Justice Gopal Das Khosla, a retired Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court was entrusted with the task. Justice Khosla was engaged with many other activities and was able to complete his report only four years later, concluding that Netaji had died in the air crash, ignoring crucial pieces of evidence. He went out of his way to discredit theories that suggested that Netaji was alive and questioned the motives of those who asserted that he did not die in the air crash, suggesting that they were driven by political considerations or were just seeking attention."

" ... Within a year of the alleged air crash, the British asked a political intelligence official Lieutenant Colonel John Figgess to investigate the matter. ... Figgess’ report was obviously not fixed; the intelligence official was really making efforts to find out the truth. But if he was fooled into believing that Bose had perished, this would mean that there was a pre-arranged Japanese collusion to tutor witnesses and agree on a consistent story. This would also imply that the Japanese collusion extended not only to the level of the regional Field Marshal but also included the IGHQ which had, as earlier stated in this chapter, rejected Bose’s plan to go to the Soviet Union. The denial to assist Bose had been possibly only for the record and elements in the Japanese establishment still impressed with the ‘Indian samurai’ were willing to assist him in the hope that he would also get a better deal for Japan. Either way, Japan had surrendered and there was nothing to be lost by pushing Netaji into Russia. Whatever the authenticity of the Figgess report, its conclusion convinced a section of Netaji’s family that he had indeed perished in the air crash.

"Yet the British had not been too sure. An IB communication in February 1946 from intelligence officers W. McKWright and Major Countenay Young (quoted in Suresh Bose’s dissent note) states: ‘We have at last completed an examination of the information available relating to the alleged death of Bose and the result is not entirely satisfactory for it reveals many discrepancies, which until clarified, make any definitive conclusion on the incident a little doubtful.’"

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April 08, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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2.Surrendering to the Russians

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" ... In an act that would hasten the end of the War in Asia, the Soviet Union unilaterally breached the treaty of neutrality, two years after a brief border war in 1939. The treaty signed in 1941 had stipulated that the two countries would desist from hostilities against each other in the midst of the World War.

"But behind Japan’s back—in February 1945, as the War was winding down—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin acceded to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s suggestion at the Yalta Conference that his country would begin hostilities against Japan within ninety days of the defeat of Germany. Accordingly, the Soviets began invading Japanese-controlled Manchuria on 8 August 1945—just two days after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Some 1.6 million Soviet troops were involved in the massive operation, which many historians now believe was the primary reason behind the Japanese capitulation (and not the nuclear attack). About 84,000 Japanese soldiers and 12,000 Soviet troops perished with the Red Army just 50 km from the northern island of Hokkaido as hostilities drew to a close."

" ... A series of border skirmishes from 1935 onwards led to the defeat of the Japanese in 1939 at the Battle of Khalkin Gol, on the border between Mongolia and Manchuria. The Soviets believed that this loss had led Japan to sign the neutrality treaty in 1941. In fact, after Germany attacked the Soviet Union later that year (breaking the non-aggression pact that the two countries had entered in 1939) Japan had also considered attacking the Russians. The Soviets, therefore, had an abiding distrust of the Japanese and this was not something that stacked in favour of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, as he gave up to the Soviet forces outside Dairen, sometime on 18 or 19 August 1945.

"The trail goes cold here. The circumstances of the surrender and what happened to Netaji in the immediate aftermath can only be recreated with the limited information available in the public domain. Netaji’s flight reached Dairen in the afternoon of a particular day in August 1945. After disembarking, Subhas Bose ate a modest meal of a banana and some tea. Thereafter accompanied by Lieutenant General Tsunamasa Shidei and two of his Japanese aides, Netaji started off in a jeep towards the point at which the Russian troops were garrisoned. After about three hours, the driver of the jeep came back and gave the green signal to the pilot of the flight from Saigon to proceed to Tokyo. This vital information comes from a very strange source. Shyam Lal Jain was a stenographer with Congress leader Asaf Ali in New Delhi. In his deposition before the Justice G.D. Khosla Commission in 1970, Jain said that he was summoned to the residence of Asaf Ali on either 26 or 27 December 1945 by Jawaharlal Nehru (who was then only a Congress leader) and given a letter to type that had an indistinct signature at the bottom. The letter read, ‘Netaji reached Dairen in Manchuria at 1.30 p.m. on 23 August 1945 by plane from Saigon. He had plenty of gold with him in bars and ornaments.’ The letter went on to recount how along with Shidei, Netaji hopped onto a jeep and drove towards Russian territory. After this Nehru asked Jain to type another letter, this time addressed to Clement Attlee, who had taken over as Great Britain’s prime minister after Winston Churchill lost to the Labour Party in the 1945 general elections in the United Kingdom. The letter said, ‘Dear Mr Attlee: I understand from a most reliable source that Subhas Chandra Bose, your war criminal, has been allowed to enter Russian territory by Stalin. This is clear treachery and betrayal of faith by the Russians, as they were allies of the British-Americans. Please take care and do what you consider proper and fit.’ This damning piece of evidence was not acknowledged by the Khosla Commission, which perhaps had its own reason to doubt the authenticity of the testimony. Perhaps the Commission felt that the testimony of a stenographer could not be taken so seriously."

" ... Lieutenant General Shidei’s fate remained unclear even as his service book showed that he had died in war on 18 August 1945 (this was discovered by Suresh Chandra Bose). This implies that he had not come back after facilitating Netaji’s surrender, otherwise he would have been registered as having surrendered before the Allied forces. In all probability the Japanese general remained in Russia along with Subhas Bose."

" ... On 25 October 1945, a note from the British Indian Government came to the British Cabinet and the latter approved that ‘Russia may accept Bose under special circumstances. If this is the case we should not demand him back.’ Prime Minister Attlee is reported to have said, ‘Let him remain where he is.’ ... On gauging the public mood, Mudie had figured out that it would not be easy to interrogate Bose and bring him to trial in India because of his high stature in the country. In fact an attempt to do this was bound to backfire. Thus the decision of the British Government not to fuss over the location of Bose was a practical way of dealing with the delicate situation and keeping the popular Indian leader away from the public eye."

" ... Incidentally, Shah Nawaz Khan had played a prominent part in the Imphal campaign of the INA and had come out with flying colours.

"The groundswell of opposition against the trial was unprecedented and had not been anticipated by the British. There was a huge public outcry and hundreds of meetings were organized across the country to express gratitude to the INA men. The main political parties, Congress and the Muslim League, made a huge political issue out of the trials. The Congress set up a defence committee under Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Kailash Nath Katju, Jawaharlal Nehru and Asaf Ali to appear for the accused. Even though the conservative sections of the press asked for clemency for what they termed as the misguided men, soon a campaign began, supporting ‘patriots, not traitors’. The British had expected the loyalty of the Indian forces that had fought on their behalf but soon realized that even this was doubtful and the ranks of such forces could not be relied on. A huge naval mutiny broke out on 18 February 1946 in the ranks of the Royal Indian Navy—from Karachi to Bombay and Calcutta to Visakhapatnam—which shook the foundations of British rule over India. There was an army mutiny in the last week of February in Jubbulpore (Jabalpur) and to the foreign rulers it seemed that an encore of the rebellion of 1857 was imminent."

" ... If the British had tried to revive memories of the historic trial of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, ninety years earlier at the Red Fort, they probably realized that Indians could not be browbeaten anymore."

"Netaji had close ties with Tojo and other high-ranking Japanese ministers and generals. In fact after reaching Japan from Germany, Netaji had called on Prime Minister Tojo to discuss his plans. The two apparently hit it off though Tojo was initially reluctant to meet Bose and made him wait for three weeks. Once Tojo had met Netaji, he was highly impressed and within days invited the latter to the Japanese Parliament (Diet). Tojo announced, ‘Japan is firmly resolved to extend all means…to achieve Independence of India.’ Incidentally, when Emperor Hirohito declared that he was surrendering, Tojo had opposed the plan. The other generals who were sent to the gallows, Heitaro Kimura, Iwane Matsui and Kenji Doihara, were all known to Netaji and had worked closely with him. Kimura, the commander of the Japanese forces, had a tough time convincing Bose to withdraw the INA forces in Burma after fortune turned against them. Kimura started withdrawing in April 1945 after Burmese rebel forces put his forces under pressure, but it took three days to get Netaji on board."

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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3.Stalin, Nehru and Netaji

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"Joseph Stalin believed that the freedom of India was a ruse created by colonial powers that intended to exit India before the rising wave against them turned into a tide. The British would be replaced by Indians who represented the same interests—there would only be a change of power in the upper echelons and India would continue to be part of the British–American lobby. Stalin also had doubts about whether all the British occupiers would leave. Would armed forces in independent India be controlled by Indians or the British? Stalin’s impression was that the elimination of foreign imperialism was inextricably linked to violent uprisings and the overthrow of feudal lords and the landed bureaucracy. Since the transfer of power in India did not involve a revolution, the freedom of India was a sham, a bourgeoisie conspiracy crafted by imperialists.

"Stalin’s views are reflected in a series of articles by analyst Valeriy Kashin published between May and June 2012 in the Russia & India Report, a publication promoted by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official daily newspaper of the Russian Government. In one of his articles, Kashin quotes the Russian Indologist, Grigory Kotovsky who said that Stalin thought Nehru was an agent of American imperialism and that the Soviet Union’s foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, considered Nehru to be a British intelligence agent. His dislike for Indian leaders was so strong that Stalin did not even think it necessary to send his condolences after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, although India and the Soviet Union had established diplomatic relations after India became free."

" ... As long as Stalin had a rather dim view of India’s new rulers, Bose stood a chance of getting assistance from the Soviet leader.

"But political assessments change. Novikov himself did a lot to change the assessment of the Nehru government in the eyes of the regime back home. He reported back that the freedom of India should not be viewed as the ‘political farce’ that Stalin believed it to be. Despite the manner in which India had won Independence, it was not being run by the erstwhile British rulers. He also gave a favourable opinion of Nehru, pointing out that he was a leader of the liberation movement, a subtle politician and a smart parliamentarian who was adept at gauging the national mood of his country and enjoyed immense authority."

" ... Both Radhakrishnan and his successor—career diplomat K.P.S. Menon—made a huge effort to engage with Stalin’s regime and successfully altered his views on India. Stalin was generally reluctant to meet foreign ambassadors but he received Radhakrishnan twice and K.P.S. Menon once. The French and Argentinian ambassadors were the only other national representatives to be granted an audience with Stalin. He also refused to meet India’s first ambassador to the Soviet Union, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, who served from 1947 to 1949."

"In a secret telegram, CCB No. 397 sent to the secretary general of the Foreign Ministry, Ratan Kumar Nehru, the ambassador recorded that he had apprised Stalin that India’s policy of neutrality was genuine and that India was anxious to avoid Cold War tactics and anti-communist pacts. Nehru had in fact affirmed this, Radhakrishnan had added, to which Stalin nodded in approval.

"In his conversation with the ambassador, Stalin said that he had been told that Nehru was visiting London—two days prior to this interaction—and had also wanted to visit Moscow, but changed his mind since he was unsure of the reception he would receive. Radhakrishnan told Stalin that he was unaware of this fact but that the Indian prime minister would be glad to visit Moscow anytime."

"At his next meeting with Stalin on 5 April 1952, ... Radhakrishnan said, ‘We are passing through critical times. We have got rid of various forms of exploitation, we have rid ourselves of foreign domination and we have got rid of princely rule. We hope to tackle the problem of our landlords equally successfully.’

"Stalin, who had been smoking heavily all through the meeting, said, ‘It will be good if you succeed in doing it.’ ... "

"Stalin had earlier told Radhakrishnan, ‘The United States and Britain look down on Asian people as backward. We treat them as equals. It helps us to conduct a correct policy. The Americans and British treat them superciliously.’"

" ... At a meeting with Menon on 17 February 1953, he had wanted to know if the primary language of India was Hindi, Urdu or Gujarati.

"Stalin also enquired about India’s relations with Pakistan and whether the two countries were planning a federation. The ambassador replied that this was not possible citing the bitterness between Hindus and Muslims and briefed Stalin on the basis for the creation of Pakistan. ‘How primitive it is, how absurd it is to create and run a state on the basis of religion,’ Stalin commented. ..."

"All the while that Stalin was being courted by Nehru’s men, he was aware of Netaji’s presence in a Soviet prison. Alexander Kolesnikov, a former Major-General of the Warsaw Pact countries, who accessed the Russian military archives in Paddolsk (40 km outside Moscow) in October 1996 found papers which suggested that in October 1946 Stalin and his men were discussing how to deal with Bose. Kolesnikov’s findings were presented before an Indian parliamentary delegation that visited the Russian Federation in 1996 and two members—Chitta Basu and Jayanta Roy of the All-India Forward Bloc (founded by Netaji in 1939) brought back the details to India. Subsequently, these findings were presented through an affidavit before the Mukherjee Commission. The affidavit was filed by Professor Purabi Roy, a researcher investigating Netaji’s case, who had visited Moscow and put Kolesnikov on the job. Roy accessed a 1946 report of a Soviet secret agent writing from Bombay, ‘It is not possible to work with Nehru and Gandhi. We have to use Subhas Bose.’ At the very least, this proves that Bose was alive in 1946.

"Even Nehru and Radhakrishnan were aware of the possibility of Netaji’s incarceration in a Soviet prison. Satya Narayan Sinha, who had served as an aide to Nehru and excelled in foreign languages, had deposed before the Khosla Commission in October 1970 that a former NKVD agent (NKVD was the precursor to the KGB) named Kuzlov had told him that Netaji was a prisoner in Cell Number 45 of Yakutsk Prison in Siberia. Kuzlov, suspected of being a Trotskyite, had been jailed in Yakutsk by the Stalin regime. He was later rehabilitated and provided Sinha with this information in 1954 in Moscow. Although the Khosla Commission had failed to acknowledge Sinha’s testimony, it had questioned him closely. The Commission asked Sinha whether Kuzlov had mentioned the name of Netaji or had merely said that he had seen an important Indian leader. Sinha stood by his statement that Kuzlov had stated that he had met Netaji in Calcutta. In fact, Kuzlov even knew the location of Bose’s ancestral home in the eastern Indian city. Till 1934, Kuzlov was in charge of training Indians for his country’s local intelligence operations.

"Sinha also told the Commission that he had been making enquiries about Netaji since 1949 and had run into Karl Leonhard, a former German spy who had served time in Siberia after the Germans lost the war to the Soviet Union. Leonhard had told Sinha, ‘I have come to know that your leader, Bose, is also a prisoner.’ On hearing this, Sinha met Nehru on 13 April 1950 and apprised him of what he had learnt. Sinha told the Khosla Commission that Nehru had not shown much interest but said, ‘I will check up the matter, but I think this is American propaganda.’ Sinha said that he again took up the matter with Nehru on 16 January 1951 on the sidelines of a meeting of ambassadors but to no effect. Sinha had also raised the matter with Radhakrishnan for whom he had worked as an interpreter in Geneva. According to Sinha’s deposition, ‘He (Radhakrishnan) told me not to meddle in these things. You will be spoiling your career.’ ... "

There's a twist next -

" ... Sinha had also met Georgy Mukherjee, son of Abani Mukherjee, an Indian communist who had joined Stalin but later fell foul of him and was packed off to Siberia. Sinha said that Mukherjee had told him that Netaji had been imprisoned in a cell adjoining his father in Siberia. He had also added that Netaji went by the name Khilsai Malang there. However there is a little discrepancy in this part of the testimony because Abani Mukherjee was executed in a Stalinist purge in October 1937. Since Netaji was in the Soviet Union only after August 1945 he could not have encountered Abani Mukherjee."

What if Abani Mukherjee wasn't, in fact, executed in 1937? Why is that bit of information to be considered reliably foolproof?

"Sensing opposition to his views from within the Indian establishment Sinha had desisted from deposing before the Shah Nawaz Committee in 1956. In this period his professional life also saw a transformation. After two years (1950–52) with the Indian Foreign Service, he joined politics and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bihar in 1952 as a member of the Indian National Congress, and went on to have a long career as a lawmaker. He seems to have been a man with a conscience and thus, when called upon by the Khosla Commission in October 1970—he was nearly seventy then—Sinha deposed before it and said that he had been rebuked in 1954 by Nehru for bringing up the subject of Netaji’s whereabouts. Sinha said that after an open debate in Parliament, Nehru had written to him enquiring after his frequent visits to the American embassy in Delhi and whether he was spying for them.

"The Khosla Commission also ignored Sinha’s revelations just as it failed to obtain the submissions from Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who had by then retired as the President of India and was living in Madras (Chennai). Another witness had deposed that Radhakrishnan had actually met Subhas Chandra Bose in Moscow in 1948, visiting the Soviet capital in a non-official capacity, as a participant in a philosophy conference. This was S.M. Goswami, a retired special officer of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the West Bengal government who said that Radhakrishnan had apprised him in 1954 about the 1948 meeting. Radhakrishnan had revealed that Netaji had requested him to arrange for his return to India. Goswami deposed that Radhakrishnan had told him that on his return to India he had spoken of his meeting with Netaji to ‘higher ups’ who did not want this information disclosed. Goswami had first met Radhakrishnan to present him a book, Netaji Mystery Revealed that he had written. Goswami also testified that he had again met Radhakrishnan in July 1962 when as President of India he was visiting Calcutta to attend the funeral of deceased West Bengal Chief Minister Bidhan Chandra Roy. Radhakrishnan had reaffirmed that he had indeed met Netaji. The President also said that if his meeting with Netaji was revealed and the Indian leader did not surface he would be left clutching at straws. Goswami also told the Khosla Commission, rather dramatically, ‘if Dr Radhakrishnan denies that he told me all this I will commit suicide.’ Goswami also said (but did not reveal how he knew) that Vijayalakshmi Pandit had also seen Netaji in Moscow when she was posted there as India’s ambassador. On her return to New Delhi, at a meeting in the Constitution Club, Pandit announced that she had some important information which if revealed would electrify the whole country. At this stage, her brother, Prime Minister Nehru, who was sitting next to her, pulled her sari and made her sit down, thereby silencing her."

" ... Khrushchev did not have ideological prejudices against India and Stalinist reservations began to melt away. The new bosses at the Kremlin began to view India as a great civilization with great potential as one of the largest countries of Asia. Nehru arrived in Moscow in June 1955 on a state visit which was followed in November and December that year with return visits by Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin and Khrushchev who was the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. The Soviet Union also began to endorse India’s policy of Panchsheel—five principles of peaceful coexistence and non-alignment. ... "

But the author goes on to say -

" ... This implies that even if Netaji still stood a remote chance of receiving justice at the time of Stalin’s passing, in the new era of Indo–Soviet bonhomie he was at best forgotten."

This implies, at the very least, that, for one, one must assume it as a foregone conclusion that Nehru wished him forgotten at any cost, or, st least, presumed dead; and two, that the Soviets valued him enough to comply!

But author returns, instead of proceeding with the assumption, to logic.

"The important question to ask would be: in the course of the Indo–Soviet entente, why did Nehru fail to lobby for the release of Netaji? This is a sixty-four-dollar question that will come up later in this book. Suffice to say, a request from Nehru would not have gone unheeded by the Soviet bosses, even Stalin. When Radhakrishnan first met Stalin he had raised the issue of the Moscow Radio correspondent stationed in New Delhi providing imperfect reports about goings on in India. Stalin had immediately told his aide who was present to ‘call him back.’ This is a good example of Stalin taking quick cognizance of an Indian request. So, why not in the case of Netaji?"

Once again, author proceeds with an assumption.

"Stalin probably never received any request from the India’s post-Independence leaders to set Netaji free, but what did Stalin have against him that impelled him to keep the Indian leader in jail? There are no easy answers what with documents from the archives of the erstwhile Soviet Union still not fully declassified. The answer may lie in the nature of the Stalinist state. Marx had propounded his philosophy of ‘from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs.’ But in practice, the Soviet Union was a gargantuan state, mirroring imperialistic Czarist Russia."

Rest is facts, and reasonable enough conclusions - but that Netaji was in prison for all that time, is an assumption, questionable in face of author's having said, to the contrary, that more that one person from India had seen (met?) him, in late forties in Moscow.

" ... Siberia with its hostile terrain and weather suddenly became very important to the Soviet state when huge deposits of gold and platinum were discovered there in the early 1920s. Stalin wanted to exploit these minerals to generate resources to fund his five-year plans. But Siberia was remote, 6,000 km from Moscow and had no connectivity. Roads were required and mining stations had to be set up. Political dissidents from states absorbed into the the Soviet Union (like Ukraine) who resisted communist rule, common criminals and others were forcibly conscripted. At its peak between 1940 and 1950, about 80,000 to 200,000 labourers worked in the gulags. The conditions of work were harsh and many died due to exhaustion and sicknesses. Others were shot dead for not working hard enough. An estimated half a million perished in the gulags during this period. Prisoners who died while working were buried under the roads that were then being built. For this reason, the Kolyma Highway that leads out of Yakutsk towards the west en route to Moscow, gained notoriety as Siberia’s ‘Road of Bones’.

"Living conditions at gulags have been graphically described in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. The author had himself been locked up there for eleven years. Incidentally, Yakutsk (where Netaji was interned as per Satya Narayan Sinha’s testimony) is the coldest place in the world with temperatures plunging to 50 degrees below freezing temperatures in winters. So cold it is that even taking off spectacles can peel off the skin."

" ... As mentioned earlier in this chapter, even Indian communists like Abani Mukherjee and Virendra Nath Chattopadhaya, the younger brother of Sarojini Naidu, who had been attracted by the movement also lost their lives in Stalin’s jails. ... "

" ... Thus, there was little value for life and sensitivity in Stalin’s Russia. In these circumstances Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose may have just been reduced to a statistic in the Soviet penal system. To use an analogy from Indian prison conditions, Netaji’s position was like that of an extremely poor man, languishing in jail without a trial for years together without any succour. It was as if in an insensitive jail system his case file had been lost and he had no lawyer or well-wisher outside to ring the bell of justice.

"So did Netaji survive Stalin’s gulag? Or does he lie buried under the ‘Road of Bones’? We have no way of knowing although it is a possibility that he did survive. But before we go on to that story—based on evidence that is still very thin and does not have many takers—it is instructive to figure out another aspect. Why did others who could have saved Netaji not move to bail him out of the situation that he was in? ... "

So far, yes. But then, author goes on -

" ... This would include his own family and others in India including those from his native Bengal. This is the story that we will read in the next chapter."

How and why does he include "his own family and others in India including those from his native Bengal" in the questionable conduct, is unclear, unless he's saying that anyone unsatisfied with the false story ought to have risked life to at least stage a fast unto death conducted publicly, taking on a government that seems to have been not as fair, benevolent, democratic or principled, as it seemingly was.

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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4.Why Nobody Lobbied for Netaji’s Freedom

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"The Bose’s were a huge clan. Subhas Chandra Bose had thirteen siblings, seven brothers and six sisters, not unusual in the early years of the twentieth-century. Amongst them, Subhas was politically closest to his second eldest brother, Sarat Chandra Bose. A barrister-at-law, Sarat was eight years older to Subhas and after practicing law for many years, joined politics and involved himself in the Independence movement. ... In 1946, a few months after Subhas had gone missing, Sarat was appointed a member of the interim government and was put in charge of Works, Mines and Power. In this way, Sarat became a man of influence although quite a bit of this lustre came by way of association with his illustrious younger brother.

"Sarat Chandra Bose was under detention when news about the air crash first broke out in August 1945. He found it hard to believe the story, especially as it was announced on 23 August 1945, five days after the supposed crash. An air crash makes for instantaneous news. Sarat would have found it strange that the announcement was delayed. Once out of detention he sought out Habibur Rahman to get an assessment from the ground. Netaji’s comrade-in-arms stuck to the script that he had been tutored to repeat. He told Sarat Bose, ‘The tragic news of Netaji’s death is unfortunately true.’ Rahman was a man of sterling character and there was no reason to doubt his intentions. Sarat came to the only logical conclusion, that Rahman was circulating this story on the instructions of his leader, who wanted to keep his whereabouts secret. Decades later, in the course of a parliamentary speech, Sarat’s son, Subrata Bose reminisced: ‘My father met Habibur Rahman for two and a half hours. After coming out of the meeting he said, “Habibur is not speaking the truth”.’ Habibur Rahman had also briefed Mahatma Gandhi on Netaji’s death. When the Mahatma was quizzed by the press on what had transpired, he had given a cryptic reply, ‘Habibur told me what his leader had ordered him to say.’ Significantly, when news first broke about the air crash, Mahatma Gandhi sent a telling telegram to the eldest among the Bose brothers, Satish Chandra, ‘don’t perform shradh (post-death ceremonies).’ Even the Mahatma had his doubts about Netaji’s death.

"The tenuous nature of the air crash theory was confirmed to Sarat Bose from another completely unrelated source. On a trip to Europe in 1948, Sarat met a journalist who had been in Japan at the time the country surrendered at the end of World War II. Lily Abegg, who was a correspondent of the Zurich-based Swiss weekly, Die Weltwoche told Sarat that she had contacted many important British and American sources while researching on the air crash and none of them believed of the accident that was supposed to have killed Netaji.

"After this Sarat Bose became even more suspicious about the air crash theory. ... Congress circles had been rife with rumours about Netaji’s live-in relationship which caused the elder Bose further angst. In the context of the conservative social mores of those times, this was nothing short of a scandal, which found the Bose family on the defensive. Many in the family even wondered whether the daughter was actually Netaji’s. The matter was resolved when the daughter came to Calcutta many years later. Suresh Bose saw the girl and had tears in his eyes. He said, ‘Look at her face. She has to be a Bose family girl’, and started weeping.

"Sarat Bose was unaware that Netaji’s wife Emilie Schenkl had written to him on 12 March 1946 regarding her marriage to Subhas in 1937 and the birth of their daughter in November 1942. Emilie wrote that she was in possession of a copy of a letter that Netaji had written to Sarat Bose on his marriage. He had obviously feared that one day he would not be in a position to tell Sarat about his wife. Emilie’s letter reached Sarat only two years later: it had been intercepted by British intelligence, which instead of forwarding it to Sarat, had begun circulating rumours about Subhas and his companion in Congress party circles. Sarat wrote back to Emilie on 10 April 1948, addressing her as Mrs Schenkl. He said, ‘It is difficult these days to trust many people here. Most of the eminent Congress leaders were political enemies of my brother and tried their best to run him down. The attitude does not seem to have changed even after all that happened after 1941.’ He also promised to visit Vienna, where she lived and meet her. The copy of the letter was published in the 10 February 2014 issue of the Indian newsmagazine Outlook. In the event, Sarat Bose called on Emilie in Vienna with his family and requested her to move to Calcutta to stay with them. But Emilie had her own mother to look after and politely declined the offer.

"Sarat, on his part, was disenchanted with the Congress party which he felt had lost its moorings and was besieged by corruption and nepotism. He resigned from the AICC over his disagreement on the partition of Bengal. ... "

" ... In those days, although stories were floating that Netaji may have escaped to the Soviet Union nobody would have imagined that he was held under inhuman conditions. In fact, the outside world knew little about the gulags, the existence of which came to light only after the death of Stalin. So there was no question of Sarat Bose having tried to get Subhas Bose out of imprisonment in the Soviet Union. Sarat did not live too long. He passed away on 20 February 1950, three weeks after India became a Republic.

"In the early 1950s as the country settled down after Partition and took baby steps as a Republic, questions about the whereabouts of Netaji began to be raised again. If his presence in Russia had only been speculated upon in the period 1946 to 1948, now this view became a little more prominent. A Member of Parliament from the Forward Bloc, H.V. Kamath led the voices calling for clarity on the whereabouts of Subhas Bose. The government was not open to investigating the matter. In reply to a query by Kamath, Deputy Minister for External Affairs Balakrishna Vishwanath Keskar, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on 19 April 1951 said, ‘government have not received any special communication or news or any kind of evidence which might lead to the possibility of Subhas Chandra Bose being alive.’ Keskar recalled the statement made by Nehru in 1946 that ‘after due enquiry for collection of whatever evidence that was possible there was little doubt that Subhas Bose had died on 18 August 1945.’ Keskar’s submission in Parliament added that the stated conclusion was confirmed by reports from the Japanese Government which included a medical report on the leader’s death. But Kamath was insistent and wanted an inquiry into the matter. Two months later, on 5 March 1952, Nehru himself answered a question from Kamath. He said, ‘I have no doubt in my mind and I did not have then and I have no doubt today of the fact of Subhas Chandra Bose’s death. There can be no enquiry at all.’ It does seem that Nehru was eager for a final resolution over the question of Netaji’s disappearance as can be gleaned from a note which was quoted by Subrata Bose when he spoke on the subject in Parliament in 2006. In the official note dated 26 September 1951, Nehru had written, ‘It is for us to consider whether we should issue a public statement or not about this (Netaji’s death). On the balance I am inclined to think that it would be desirable to issue some statement or make it in Parliament. This may lead to some controversy even with Shri Subhas Chandra Bose’s family. I think that the best course would be for us to draft some such statement and to send it to Shri Subhas Chandra Bose’s family. After hearing from them, we could take a final decision about the publication.’

"No statement was ever made. The reason for this appears to be caution, as advised by then Foreign Secretary K.P.S. Menon. He wrote on 27 September 1951, ‘I told the PM that it would be inadvisable to make a statement now. I think that there is significant reference in Habibur Rahman’s statement to Netaji Bose’s intention to get off the plane at Dairen and to the intention of the Japanese authority to let him cross over to Russian held territory.’ The foreign secretary, it seems, was also hinting that there were multiple versions—he pointed out that while Habibur Rahman had said that the departed leader was cremated on 20 August 1945, the municipal certificate put the date of cremation at 22 August 1945. The foreign secretary wondered of the need for a fictitious date for the cremation. With conflicting dates extant, Menon was probably trying to say that no purpose would be served by putting out a version whose credibility could be called to question easily.

"Realizing that the Nehru government was adamant in stalling any investigation on the disappearance of Netaji, civil society representatives thought that an unofficial committee could always be set up to go into the matter. Suresh Chandra Bose proposed the name of international jurist Radhabinod Pal as head of the Committee. Pal had made a name for himself as a member of the international tribunal that tried Japanese war criminals—and as had been stated in an earlier chapter—had found all of them ‘not guilty’. More importantly Pal, a former Calcutta High Court judge had spent many months in Tokyo for the tribunal and had used that opportunity to speak to important officers of the Allied forces. His understanding: nobody believed that Netaji had died in the purported air crash. In fact, an American member of the tribunal had shown him a copy of the report of the American intelligence agency party which had visited Taihoku in September 1945. According to this report there was no air crash in Taihoku and that Subhas Chandra Bose had safely made his way to Dairen on 18 August 1945.

"At this point in 1956, Nehru (who had been against the inquiry all along) got into the act and proposed the name of Shah Nawaz Khan to head the Committee. His reasoning: Khan was a former member of the INA top-brass who had faced trial at Red Fort which implied that his credibility would be high. But there was criticism against the co-option of Khan who was a parliamentary secretary in the Nehru government and could not be seen as independent. Since the Committee was an informal one, Nehru proposed that the West Bengal government should also nominate a representative of the Bengalis, Bengal being the state where Netaji’s influence was the maximum. Thus, S.N. Maitra, an Indian Civil Service officer, was appointed to the Committee. Nehru also induced Suresh Chandra Bose to join as a representative of Netaji’s family. Shortly after the Committee was conceived it became an official body.

"Suresh Chandra Bose like his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose and other family members was in two minds about whether Netaji had survived the air crash. But once he began investigating he realized that there was much more to the matter. The air crash had never taken place. So, where was the question of his younger brother having died? In the course of the Committee hearings, Suresh came to the conclusion that Netaji had indeed used Japanese contacts to push into Russian territory and surrendered there as per plan. Some contradictory statements by supposed eyewitnesses who deposed before the Committee caught his attention. Three of the Japanese witnesses said that they were navigators of the plane. But when asked where the crew sat in the plane, they were blank. One of the witnesses even said, ‘we got down from the plane in Taipei and after that the plane took off with Netaji.’

"The other two members had not realized that Suresh would take an independent line and tried to bring him around to the majority view—that an air crash had taken place and Netaji had perished in the accident. But Suresh was fired by the memory of his brother; he had been close to Subhas who was just about five years younger than him. In large families with scores of members, siblings often would be distant from each other. But it so happened that Subhas and Suresh stayed together in the Elgin Road house of the Boses in Calcutta, even as many other brothers had shifted out elsewhere—and this included Sarat Bose who stayed in a separate house. Starting his working life as a magistrate in Orissa (Odisha), Suresh had quit his job after being forced by a senior to write a judgment against a nationalist. Thereafter, he went to Germany and studied glass technology. Back home he dabbled in the refrigeration business and transportation of perishables like fish from East Bengal and from Chilika Lake in Orissa to West Bengal, but with poor success. Suresh may have been a poor businessman but certainly a man to call a spade a spade. He had married his daughter to a boy working for INA’s secret service—in fact his son-in-law was sentenced to death for aiding Subhas’ organization but let off at the last moment after Mahatma Gandhi pleaded for clemency.

"When efforts were being made to cajole Suresh Bose into the broad points of a general agreement that Netaji died in the air crash, he revolted and complained to Nehru. The prime minister, instead of taking cognizance of Suresh’s letter of 13 August 1956, replied, ‘it is difficult to understand what you have written’. Nehru added that Shah Nawaz Khan and S.N. Maitra had come to meet him on 3 August and said that Suresh Bose had left Delhi ‘without writing the report.’

"Suresh Bose had informed Nehru that he wanted to write a dissenting view and for that he needed access to the witness statements and other documents that the Committee had collected. Nehru refused this access saying that the Committee had already submitted the report and now they were part of the records of the External Affairs Ministry. Thus the records could not be given to Suresh: he would have to come to Delhi and could ‘see the documents’, nothing more. In fact, the Dissentient Report was supposed to be part of the main report though this was never allowed and was published separately. As a result of his investigative labours a lot of people who had doubts about Netaji’s demise realized that the air crash story was bogus. More importantly, the members of the Bose family also began veering around to this point of view.

"These were the times when Nehru’s popularity was enormous; he was going from strength to strength. With the demise of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in 1950, who had a tempering influence on Nehru’s assuming unbridled power, it was as if the prime minister’s words were virtually law. In these circumstances, for the Bose family to be heard was almost impossible. It was Sarat’s son, Amiya Nath, a lawyer who kept up the demand for unravelling the Netaji mystery, even suggesting the matter be handed over to the Chief Justice of India. As usual, Nehru stalled the matter. A few weeks before his death in a letter to Amiya dated 22 April 1964 Nehru said, ‘I agree with you that something should be done to finalise the question of Netaji’s death. But it is not clear to me how far it will be proper for me to ask the Chief Justice of India to look into this matter.’ Suresh Chandra Bose had also kept pursuing the matter and had a rather telling communication from Nehru. He had asked Nehru to show him conclusive proof of the death of Netaji. In a letter dated 13 May 1962, Nehru had replied, ‘You asked me to send you proof of the death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. I cannot send you any precise proof.’"

" ... The Congress party that represented the voice of the people was falling into the control of non-political persons who were little other than acolytes of Nehru. Bidhan Chandra Roy was West Bengal’s chief minister for fourteen years. Roy was reputed to be an excellent doctor and had two prestigious British medical fellowships under his belt—he was both Member of the Royal College of Physicians as well as Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. It was said that his nose for diagnosis was so strong that he would just have to glance at a patient to figure out the ailment. He was also a freedom fighter but then he had little political acumen and as chief minister he was merely a representative of the Delhi durbar. He could not articulate the aspirations of the growing stream of displaced persons from East Bengal and rehabilitate them, much less satisfactorily take up the issue of the disappearance of Netaji."

" ... The communists in India started revising their opinion about Subhas Bose only in the late 1970s. In the fifties, when they could have significantly added weight to the search for Netaji, they continued to hold the same opinion about the Indian leader. They did not lean on the Soviets to open the doors for a search.

"In the early 1950s, if there was any parliamentarian who could take on Nehru squarely it was Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Fed up with Nehru’s policies he wanted to set up a national development alternative to the Congress since it was felt that the party had not dealt with the problem of Partition properly. In 1951, Syama Prasad set up the Indian People’s Party, soon to become the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Syama Prasad, also from Calcutta could have effectively taken up the issue of Netaji even though they were from different ideological backgrounds. But Syama Prasad died mysteriously in June 1953 in Srinagar while under detention. Thus another quarter from where pressure to unravel the mystery could have been mounted was extinguished."

"... The Nehru government did the very best to obliterate the memory of the INA and marginalize their rank and file. In such circumstances there was no question of their being able to raise their voices. When India became independent there was talk of inducting the INA men who had been put up on trial into the Indian Army. They had all been part of the British Indian Army but had been cashiered after the War. Nehru had wanted free India to be a successor state to British India. So there was no question of re-inducting these men into the Indian Army. They would have brought their independent views into the army which carried on with all the trappings of the colonial forces. Nehru had consulted his bureaucrats and army officers on this matter. The former were all from the colonial Indian Civil Service. As to the latter they were officers like the Sandhurst-trained General Satyawant Mallannah Shrinagesh, the third chief of the Indian Army in independent India. They were all against incorporating the INA men. ... "

"J.K. Bhonsle, INA’s chief of staff and one of Netaji’s key aides is a good example of how the former members of the INA fell in line. After Independence, Bhonsle became deputy minister in the Nehru government and went by the official line that Netaji had died in the air crash. In any case he chose to keep his own counsel. This was the same Bhonsle who had been interrogated by the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (India) at the Red Fort in March 1946 at the behest of the Intelligence Bureau. The Bureau thought that he knew more than what he had earlier revealed: that Netaji had left for Tokyo on 17 August. On interrogation he had revealed that he was part of a closed door meeting with ‘Netaji, Habibur Rahman and Japanese officials that discussed how to get Bose to his destination.’ He revealed that it was Subhas Bose’s intention to try to find his way into Russia and that Bose was certain that once the Russians agreed to allow him in, they would give all the necessary protection. Bhonsle also said that in the event of an Anglo-American split with Russia, which Bose definitely foresaw, he could be of some service to the Russians which in turn would further the case of his country. A.C.N. Nambiar, Netaji’s deputy in Germany also joined the post-Independence establishment. After Independence he served as Counsellor to the Indian Legation in Switzerland, then India’s ambassador to Scandinavia and ultimately to the Federal Republic of Germany. Anand Mohan Sahay, another minister of the Azad Hind Government, after serving as Consul-General of India in some Southeast Asian countries was appointed as India’s ambassador to Thailand. Shah Nawaz Khan progressed rapidly after heading the Netaji enquiry committee and served as a cabinet minister in Congress governments well after the death of Nehru. Settled well in life, Netaji, who once inspired them for a higher cause remained a mere memory."

One must say, the family did what they could; it's the colleagues, INA and politicians, who failed.

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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5.The Rise of Subhas

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Author recaps the political life of Subhash Chandra Bose after his return from UK.

"Resigning from the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in May 1921, Subhas Chandra Bose set sail for India. Bose, then twenty-four, had cleared the ICS examinations conducted the previous year and had stood fourth. But with news trickling in about the non-cooperation movement in India initiated by the Congress, the emerging leader realized where his calling lay. ... "

"A day after disembarking at Bombay (Mumbai), Bose went to see Mahatma Gandhi who was then staying at Mani Bhavan in the city. It was the afternoon of 16 July 1921. ... As Bose has related in his book The Indian Struggle, he had, in essence, three sets of questions. The first: how would the different activities of the Congress (under the non-cooperation movement) culminate in the last stage of campaign, namely the non-payment of taxes? Secondly, how would the non-payment of taxes or civil disobedience force out the British Government and leave Indians free to govern themselves? Thirdly, what was the basis of Gandhi’s promise that India could attain swaraj (self-rule) within a year if the non-cooperation programme was fully implemented?

"Bose was disappointed with Gandhi’s answers, except the first one, and later related in his memoirs, ‘I had desired to obtain a clear understanding of the details—the successive stages—of his plan.’ He was clearly dissatisfied and noted, ‘My reason told me clearly, again and again, that there was a deplorable lack of clarity in the plan which the Mahatma had formulated and that he himself did not have a clear idea of the successive stages of campaign which would bring India to her cherished goal of freedom.’ In the footnotes he added, almost as an afterthought, that the Mahatma was probably relying on a change of heart amongst the British to leave India.

"Bose’s disappointment must have shown on his face because Gandhi asked him to report to Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das in Calcutta. ... He notes in his memoirs how his ‘mind was made up’ after the meeting. Bose writes, ‘I felt that I had found a leader and I meant to follow him.’ Bose began to work with Das, effectively kick-starting his own political career."

" ... The Prince of Wales was slated to visit India on the eve of Christmas 1921 and a month ahead of the event Das and Bose successfully organized a dress rehearsal of a boycott that they were planning against the British royal. The boycott was very successful and sparked off public enthusiasm. But the English-owned English-language papers The Statesman and Englishman taunted the government for allowing ‘the Congress volunteers to take possession of the city.’ Little wonder then that for their impertinence the duo were arrested that December and sentenced to six months imprisonment."

"The non-cooperation movement that started in 1920 was brought to an abrupt end in 1922 after the Chauri Chaura incident. ... Bose, who was disenchanted with Gandhi from day one, says in his book that ‘to sound the order of retreat just when public enthusiasm was reaching the boiling point was nothing short of a national calamity.’ He said that popular Congress leaders like Chittaranjan Das, Motilal Nehru and Lala Lajpat Rai shared this public resentment but they were all in jail. Bose adds that Rai in anguish wrote a seventy-page letter to Gandhi where among other things he challenged the idea of Ahimsa as propagated by the Mahatma and declared it to be an act of cowardice and unmanliness.

"Now active sections of Congressmen led by Chittaranjan Das proposed that the party should continue non-cooperation by entering the legislative assemblies and blocking government moves. But the no-changer group supported by Gandhi won the day at the annual session of the Congress held at Gaya in 1922. Das was president of the Congress at this time and quit in protest. Subsequently, he started the Swaraj Party (within the Congress fold) along with other members in favour of non-cooperation."

" ... Chittaranjan Das became the first elected Mayor of Calcutta. Bose was appointed as the chief executive officer of the Corporation and would assist Das in running the municipal administration. The appointment raised many eyebrows because Bose was just about twenty-seven. But Das was sure of his choice. He knew that his protégé was a young man with calibre, dedication and purpose."

" ... It was decided that, henceforth, 50 per cent of all appointments to government jobs would go to Muslims. Moreover, till the Muslims attained this level of representation, 80 per cent of the jobs would be filled by the community. The Bengal Pact of 1923, as this accord was named, was decried by moderate Hindu leaders like Surendra Nath Banerjee who held sway over public opinion. ... Das’ popularity was at its zenith and he became the uncrowned king of Bengal."

" ... Das also stayed in touch with the revolutionaries of Bengal who had turned out to be a thorn in the side of the British. Bose too maintained contact with them and was quite upfront about it.

"Charles Tegart, the Commissioner of Calcutta Police, was a notorious man, known for his harsh ways. In January 1924, a revolutionary named Gopinath Saha sought to kill him, but instead shot down Ernest Day, an English commercial manager. Saha was arrested and convicted to death by hanging. But on Bose’s prompting the BPCC passed a qualified resolution in support of Saha. A similar proposal was passed by the Corporation. The resolution appreciated Saha’s courage and spirit of sacrifice although it condemned the act of killing. Needless to add, this brought Bose into focus and the British decided that he was too dangerous a man to be allowed to continue with his political activities.

"In the early hours of the morning of 25 October 1924, Bose was roused from his sleep by policemen carrying a warrant of arrest. It had been issued under Regulation III of 1818 that allowed the police to arrest anyone and detain them indefinitely. Empowered by another warrant the police searched the Bose residence for any arms stowed away for revolutionary activity. Nothing was found. That there could be arms and ammunition in Bose’s residence was a ruse. The government was unnerved by the activities of the members of the Swaraj Party which was quite radical in its approach and was more in the face in its approach than the Congress party. According to Bose’s memoirs, the Corporation was running smoothly and the citizens were happy. It is possible that this could have irked the ruling establishment. That morning, many other Congressmen were also arrested.

"To avoid adverse public reaction, Bose was driven to the police headquarters in his car by the English deputy commissioner of police and from there to Calcutta’s Alipore Central Jail. Bose continued his work as chief executive officer of the Corporation from within the jail. His secretary would visit him now and then with the necessary files. This upset the British authorities so much that they transferred him to Berhampore Jail away from Calcutta. This was not to be his final destination. Two months later, in December 1924, Bose was transferred back to Alipore Central Jail and from there transported to the infamous Mandalay Prison in Upper Burma (Myanmar). This was a prison reserved for especially troublesome Indian political prisoners. Bal Gangadhar ‘Lokmanya’ Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Sardar Ajit Singh had served time here. There were other Indian political prisoners incarcarated there along with Bose.

"It was only two and a half years later on 16 May 1927 that Bose was released from captivity. He had stood for elections to the Bengal Legislative Council from jail hoping that a victory would force his captors to release him. He went on to win a thumping majority but continued to be in detention. In the interim, he had also served time in Insein Jail, where he was transferred after some trouble with the jail authorities in Mandalay. His health had deteriorated in captivity, his lungs were badly affected by a bronchial attack leading to tuberculosis. Although it seemed sensible to release him, the British authorities were too scared to set him free. They proposed that Bose set sail to Switzerland from Rangoon to rest and recuperate at a sanatorium, without a stopover in Calcutta. He refused to go along with this proposal. In the end, the British thought it would make sense to send him off to Almora in the Indian Himalayas and he was brought to Calcutta en-route. Here, the British had a change of heart and Bose was released. He was barely thirty."

" ... Chittaranjan Das had passed away suddenly in 1925 leaving a void among the Bengali nationalists. This most towering leader of Bengal, who had held disparate forces together, was there no more to minister to his flock. The conservative elements in the Congress party seized their chance to repudiate the Bengal Pact that Das had so assiduously nurtured. This drew howls of protest from Muslims who realized that they would have to look out for their hopes for the future in other political formations. The rejection of the Pact at the annual conference of the BPCC in 1926 at Krishnanagar set the tone for the division of Bengal nineteen years later."

"In 1928, possibly to emphasize his political philosophy and demonstrate how different it was from that of Sengupta and his mentor Gandhi, Bose appeared in military attire as the general-officer-commanding of the Bengal Volunteers at the Congress session held in Calcutta. This captured the attention of the youth and Bose was back in the political limelight. He would soon become a recognised figure across the country."

" ... Subhas was elected to the Mayor’s post on 22 August 1930. He had participated in this election from within the precincts of Calcutta’s Alipore Central Jail after being arrested in January that year. He was released from prison only a month after winning the election—on 23 September 1930—and sworn in as Mayor the next day.

"In recognition of his countrywide stature, Bose was nominated to the committee chaired by Motilal Nehru in 1929 to draft a report on the principles for a new Constitution of India. This exercise was being undertaken by the Congress to undercut the Simon Commission that had been set up by the British Government to suggest constitutional reforms for India. The Simon Commission was boycotted because it had no Indian members. The Motilal Nehru Committee made far-reaching recommendations—it pitched for universal franchise and elections through a joint electorate of all communities. It recommended reservation of seats for minorities for ten years (except in Bengal and Punjab where Muslims were in a majority), autonomy for provinces and a bicameral system of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Except, it wasn't- Gandhi had managed to reestablish congress leadership in Indian minds, even if not quite wiping off Bhagat Singh and his group.

" ... The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was ratified at the annual conference of the Congress at Karachi in 1931.

"One of Bose’s primary contentions was that the pact had delved into unnecessary details while avoiding the main issue of Poorna Swaraj. He was also opposed to the fact that Indian delegates to the Conference were to be chosen by the British Government and not the Indian people. Moreover there would be no finality to the points discussed at the Round Table Conference. They would have to be discussed and ratified afresh by the British Parliament.

"Bose evoked much fear in the British—they averred that he was planning an armed revolution in India—and they would not allow him to remain free and out of jail for long. In January 1932, on his way to Bombay to attend a Congress Working Committee meeting as a special invitee, he was arrested by police who stopped his train at Kalyan thirty miles short of the destination. He was shifted to Jubbulpore Jail from where he was shifted to a hospital in Lucknow after he suffered a nervous disorder. The English doctor who examined Bose said that his condition was not good and that he could survive only if he were taken to Europe. The British police put him up in a ship to Europe sailing from Bombay. He reached Vienna on 8 March 1933. The treatment was effective and the change of place improved his health and he travelled to Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. It is here that he penned the first part of the two-volume The Indian Struggle. He wrote it quite hurriedly, relying largely on his memory, since he had no access to records abroad. He also struck up a great friendship with Vithalbhai Patel, an Indian leader and elder brother of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was also undergoing medical treatment at Vienna. When Patel passed away in Vienna, he left behind his wealth to Subhas Bose so that he could use it for the Indian cause. Patel and Bose also released a joint statement condemning the withdrawal of the Civil Disobedience Movement by Gandhi in 1934.

"In late 1934, Bose briefly returned to India to see his seriously ailing father, who however passed away before the two could meet. The British authorities then put pressure on Bose to leave India and he went back to Vienna. On the way back he disembarked at Naples onwards to Rome where he met the Italian leader Benito Mussolini in January 1935. In 1936, on the invitation of Irish president Éamon de Valera, under whose leadership Ireland had thrown off the English yoke, Subhas visited Dublin. It was clear that Bose was now seeking to forge international alliances and thinking of gathering external support to free India.

"In this period, the British police were suspicious of Bose and kept a watch on him, although the Austrians were not very cooperative. At the end of 1936, Bose decided to come back to India. Getting wind of his plans, the British Consul in Vienna, J.W. Taylor wrote to Subhas, ‘Government of India has seen in the press statements that you propose to return to India this month and the Government of India desires to make it clear to you that should you do so, you cannot expect to remain at liberty.’"

"On returning to Bombay, Bose was arrested and transferred to Kurseong near Darjeeling and detained in his brother’s bungalow. His health was not showing signs of improvement and so he was sent to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital and finally released from house-arrest in 1937. As he had not fully recovered, Bose spent a few months in Dalhousie and then made a brief trip to Europe."

Would this be when he married his assistant in Austria?

" ... London, in an initiative aimed at taking the wind out of the sails of the freedom movement had passed the Government of India Act in 1935. An elaborate and lengthy Act, it sought to give Indians some say in local self-government. The balance of power remained with the British—the Viceroy and Governors—who could intervene in matters of state whenever they wanted. As mandated by the Act, provincial elections were held in the winter of 1936–37 and the results declared in February 1937. Some 30.1 million citizens including 4.25 million women were eligible to vote. Of these 15.5 million actually voted. The Congress won 707 seats out of 1,585 and also won absolute majority in Madras, United Provinces, Central Provinces, Bihar, Orissa and Bombay. In Assam and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the Congress was the largest party but in Bengal, Punjab and Sindh the situation was not too rosy for them. All the three states had a substantial Muslim population. With the Muslim League around, the Congress could not make much inroad into Muslim votes. ... "

" ... Back in India, between October and November 1939 all the Congress ministries resigned. This was in protest against the decision of Viceroy Lord Linlithgow, who declared India as a belligerent in the War without consulting the Indian people.

"When Bose returned from the brief Europe tour in 1937, he was sounded off by the Congress leadership about a term as president of the party. The prolonged incarceration and exile forced upon him by the British, that had destroyed his health, seems to have generated sympathy among his colleagues."

It must have been more his rising status in inflation among people, and a fear that if he formed his own party he'd decimate congress.

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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6.Gandhi Coterie and Subhas Bose

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" ... In 1938, for four days between 19 and 22 February, Haripura played host to the 51st session of the Congress which elected Subhas Chandra Bose, then forty-one, party president.

"According to contemporary reports, some 200,000 Congress delegates attended the annual session of the party, with Bose arriving in a chariot drawn by fifty-one bulls on the opening day. Each bull represented a year of the existence of the Congress party. ‘Mammoth crowds, estimated at more than half a million people, witnessed the procession and paid homage to the President-Elect Subhas Chandra Bose,’ wrote Ben Bradley, who was witness to this spectacular gathering, in the Labour Monthly in April 1938. By the time of this meet Bose had built a formidable reputation for himself. He had been to jail seven times in the past seventeen years, ranging from a few months to two and a half years. He had even braved the rigours of the notorious Mandalay prison in Burma where conditions were said to be abysmal. He was released prematurely from this jail because he had contracted tuberculosis, a dangerous disease in those days. All this had added to the stature of the upcoming leader who was seen as uncompromising in his attitude to the British."

" ... The membership of the Congress had increased from 600,000 to 3,100,000 in the year leading to the Haripura Congress. Not only the crowds but the entire venue reflected the party’s increasing clout, with the famous painter Nandalal Bose deployed to decorate the venue ... "

" ... Bose in his presidential address enthusiastically said, ‘the objective of the Congress is an independent and United India where no class and group or majority or minority may exploit one another to its own advantage and where all the elements in the nation may cooperate together for the common good and the advancement of the people of India.’"

" ... He said that there was no question of the Congress party withering away after Independence was attained. ‘It will assume responsibility for administration and put through its programme for reconstruction,’ he said. Addressing the apprehension in some quarters within the Congress that this could lead to a totalitarian regime, Bose clarified that such a case would arise if a one-party situation arose like in Russia, Germany and Italy in that era. Bose said that India would be a multi-party polity and this would ensure that leaders were not thrust from the top but elected from the bottom.

"Bose foresaw that the British would try to divide the country before leaving. He pointed out that the main feature of British imperialist policy in India was a policy of ‘divide and rule’ that set one community against another. He said, ‘It is a well-known truism that every empire is based on a policy of divide and rule. But I doubt if any empire in the world has practiced this policy so skilfully, systematically and ruthlessly as Great Britain. In accordance with the policy, before power was handed over to the Irish people, Ulster was separated from the rest of Ireland. Similarly, before any power is handed over to the Palestinians, the Jews will be separated from the Arabs. An internal partition is necessary in order to neutralise the transference of power.’ Netaji also felt that the changing nature of military technology would stem the unbridled power that the British once enjoyed. In his address at Haripura, Bose said, ‘Today Britain can hardly call herself “the Mistress of the Seas”. Her phenomenal rise in the 18th and 19th centuries was the result of her sea power. Her decline as an Empire in the 20th century will be the outcome of the emergence of a new factor in world history—Air Force.’"

"The presidency of the Congress in that era was largely ornamental and was passed on from one senior member to another senior member. The real power in the party was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and he ruled the roost. Congress members sought to be close to him so that they could share the glory. In fact, there was a coterie of leaders around Gandhi. These included Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Bhulabhai Desai. Bose did not fall in this category—he was a leader in his own right. Even as Bose and Nehru were both part of the young radical group in the Congress party they were as different as chalk and cheese. Nehru owed his position in the Congress hierarchy quite a bit of the way to his father Motilal Nehru who had been one of the top leaders of the party in the 1920s. Jawaharlal was also fast becoming a key member of the Mahatma’s coterie—that in later years transformed into the ‘Congress High Command’ (a term that was used to denote where power in the Congress lay).

"As president of the Congress, Bose believed he had the right to chart an independent line, but in consultation with the supreme decision-making body in the party, the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

"In line with this policy, Bose constituted the Planning Committee on 17 December 1938, which was to make a blueprint for the reconstruction of the country after Independence. A forward looking idea, it was construed as a far reaching move by political analysts of the day. The party president invited Jawaharlal Nehru, who had been Congress president the two previous years, to chair the committee which included luminaries like scientist Meghnad Saha, engineer and architect Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, and economist K.T. Shah. Incidentally, in his presidential speech Bose had said, ‘the State, on the advice of a Planning Commission, will have to adopt a comprehensive scheme for gradually socializing our entire agricultural and industrial system in the spheres of both production and distribution.’ The choice of Nehru was significant—he had the favour of Gandhi and Bose felt that by letting Jawaharlal chair the Committee, it would have the acceptability of the Congress’ supreme leader."

" ... Bose’s views leaned towards radical land reforms as a prerequisite for enabling the rural economy to grow. It was also essential to explain to the peasants where their economic interests lay. This understanding would allow them to steer clear of communal forces which focussed on unity of interests of homogeneous religious groups."

" ... Since he believed in no communal divisions on the basis of religion, or that of caste or class, in Bose’s vision there would be a joint electorate in elections. This view was important in that era since the British were trying to divide Hindus and Muslims by promoting separate electorates for the two communities.

"If the Gandhi coterie had elevated Bose to the presidency of the Congress for a year they soon realized that the young leader was mounting a challenge to the ideology espoused by the Mahatma. They alleged that Bose was baiting Gandhi. The immediate cause of the dispute was the successful provincial elections conducted under the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935. The British rulers wanted to take it to its logical conclusion and hold elections for establishing a federal government. Bose was opposed to this since he felt that this was a British ploy for establishing nominal governance structures to be run by Indians but with little say. The real power would remain with the Viceroy who could exercise veto powers on major government decisions. Bose’s view was that this was one way of stymieing the Independence movement: some moderates would be happy at the formation of governments with limited power and give up the fight for freedom. For Bose freedom meant throwing out the British out of the country, lock stock and barrel. Gandhi was also interested in this but did not come out so forcefully in the matter. Bose, in fact, did not even want the Congress to form the provincial governments. And now that they were in there, trouble was already brewing. In the run-up to the Haripura Congress, the prime ministers (the nomenclature used then, equivalent to chief ministers now) of the United Provinces and Bihar resigned over the refusal by the British Viceroy to sanction the release of political prisoners. This was an important point of agenda for the Congress party and subsequently the Viceroy agreed to allow the gradual release of political prisoners, with the provincial governments forwarding the requests to the provincial governors after evaluating them on a case-to-case basis."

" ... It seems that Subhas Bose believed that sections of the Congress—and these were influential sections—were not only amenable to the federal government as proposed by the British but had decided amongst themselves on who would be ministers and which portfolios they would hold.

"Subhas Chandra Bose realized that he would have to step in and offer his candidature for the post of president of the Congress party for a second term. Only this way he would be able to keep the British plan at bay. But there was an unwritten convention that a Congressman was the president only for one term. The Mahatma and his coterie decided upon the next candidate who would adorn the post. Needless to add, the Gandhi coterie was terribly upset when Bose put his hat into the ring for a second term. They realized that the young man challenged whatever Gandhi stood for and was thus a countervailing force. If he won, Gandhi’s influence ran the risk of being severely eroded. If the Mahatma’s importance was reduced, feared the coterie, where would they go? The coterie preferred that the Mahatma clear the appointment of the next party president as had almost become customary.

"The original plan was to nominate Maulana Abul Kalam Azad for the position, but seeing the confusion and realizing that a contest was imminent, he withdrew. Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya was now nominated as the new candidate for the presidency. It was made amply clear that Sitaramayya was Gandhi’s candidate.

"Bose was a consummate power player and he knew that the Gandhi group would try to marginalize him. He played up the election as a referendum on the federal scheme of government by the British. He argued that a vote for Sitaramayya would be a vote for moderation in Congress politics and for acceptance of the federal provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935. The moderates were on the backfoot: they asserted that they were as much as against the federal provisions as Bose and his followers. The moderates also claimed that they did not want to be part of an arrangement where they would technically be in power but in reality would be without any. But Bose had clearly struck a chord with Congress party members, and the Mahatma and his coterie were in a fix. They did not know how to counter the young leader. Gandhi now pitched an attack on the Indian princes who were oppressing their subjects. This was with an idea to change the focus.

"In the end Bose won, having polled 1,580 votes against the 1,375 polled by Sitaramayya. He released a statement thanking party members for the win from his hometown of Calcutta where he was awaiting the result. The coterie stood exposed, it was clear that they were not as formidable as was thought earlier, with Gandhi no longer the sole leader, popular though he might have remained.

"But Gandhi with all the simplicity of his lifestyle and outer countenance was a master politician. He lamented from Wardha, where he lived, ‘I was instrumental in inducing Dr Pattabhi not to withdraw his name when Maulana Saheb (Abul Kalam Azad) withdrew, this defeat is more mine than his… it is plain to me that the delegates do not approve of the principles and policy which I stand for. I rejoice in this defeat.’ This statement was a masterstroke. Gandhi was enormously popular and a statement that he believed that his policy had been defeated was made to generate a wave of sympathy.

"This was followed by a move that smacked of cheap politics more than anything else. Within a month, all the Congress Working Committee members resigned, save Bose and his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose. The eleven members who resigned included members of the Mahatma’s inner circle like Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel. The resigning members said that Bose was free to choose his own team. Bose pleaded with them, ‘If only we sink our differences, pool all our resources and pull our full weight in the national struggle, we can make our attack on British imperialism irresistible.’ He added (alluding to the World War that was imminent) that a rare opportunity presented itself to marginalize the imperialists and that it should not be missed.

"On 7 March 1939, the Congress session opened at Tripuri near Jubbulpore. Now the Congress coterie played another masterstroke. They got one of their sympathizers, Govind Ballabh Pant (who was the prime minister of United Provinces) to move a resolution that read, ‘The Congress expresses its confidence in the work of the working committee which functioned during the last year and regrets that any aspersions should have been cast against any of its members. In view of the critical situation that may develop during the coming year (the looming war clouds) and in view of the fact that Mahatma Gandhi can alone lead the Congress and the country to a victory during such crisis, the Congress regards it as imperative that the Congress executive should command his implicit confidence and requests the President to appoint the working committee in accordance with the wishes of Gandhiji.’

"The resolution was passed. Bose was now clearly cornered and had no option but to write to Mahatma Gandhi requesting him to nominate the working committee. But Gandhi did not oblige in spite of Bose writing to him multiple times. Instead, Gandhi threw the ball back in Bose’s court and asked him to nominate the working committee himself knowing full well that the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) resolution had empowered him to do so.

"The next Congress meeting was close at hand and Bose realized that Gandhi and his acolytes were out to marginalize him. There was no way they would allow him to run the party. Bose resigned at the AICC meeting in Calcutta on 29 April, recounting how it was now impossible for him to run the party and wondering whether the party could elect a new president. The Gandhi coterie was waiting for this opportunity. Rajendra Prasad, a key member of the Gandhi group was now chosen as the party president. The clique did not trust Bose and was bent upon keeping him down. A resolution of the Congress Working Committee banned Bose from holding any elective position in the Congress for three years. The coterie was wary that Subhas Bose could be elected as president of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee which would empower him and give him political leverage. The ban was carried out in the name of maintaining party discipline. Bose had allegedly made some derogatory references to Congress leaders. Thus Bose was marginalized in the Congress party at a very crucial time. World War II broke out on 1 September 1939 with Germany invading Poland. This was a golden opportunity to put pressure on the British as Subhas Bose had earlier pointed out. But the coterie was only interested in perpetuating its own influence. It did not matter to them that they were cutting their nose to spite their face."

Did Tagore write Son of Rashomoni before this? Else it'd seem he wrote about this!

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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7.Escape from Calcutta

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"Four days after he was forced to quit as president of the Congress party, Subhas Chandra Bose formed the Forward Bloc. As the name suggested this would be a section of the Congress with progressive, forward looking ideas. In that way the Congress party was democratic—it allowed all manners of men with different ideologies to be in its fold, almost like an Indian joint family where all members found a place under the sun but only the patriarch called the shots. That is how the Congress Socialist Party too had existed in the fold of the Congress. The idea was to spread the ideology of the Congress across a broad spectrum (even as leadership of the party was confined to a coterie). The formal announcement of the Forward Bloc was made at a rally at Calcutta on 3 May 1939 and Bose got the members to pledge that they would never ‘turn their back to the British’ and resolutely face the colonial rulers. They signed the pledge with their own blood. Out of his leadership position, Bose hoped that the Forward Bloc would develop an alternative leadership in the Congress by rallying left-wing forces and moved quickly, holding a conference in Bombay at the end of June. Thereafter, Bose started travelling across the country to popularize the Forward Bloc. He was also busy organizing various conferences: the Anti-Imperialist Conference held at Nagpur in October 1939, the All India Students’ Conference held at Delhi in January 1940 and the Anti-Compromise Conference held at Ramgarh in March 1940.

"The Forward Bloc held its first all India conference in Nagpur between 20–22 June 1940 and now Subhas Bose seemed to have decided that the organization would be a separate political party with a socialist orientation. To keep up the tempo of opposition to the British, Bose announced a march to the Holwell Monument in Calcutta on 3 July 1940. This edifice had been erected by the British to commemorate the Black Hole tragedy of 1756 that occurred in the aftermath of the sacking of Fort William, the headquarters of the East India Company in Calcutta, by the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah. Since the East India Company was not obeying his dictates, Siraj marched from his capital in Murshidabad and threw the English out of Calcutta. The story goes that a number of prisoners were locked up in a small room overnight. According to John Zephaniah Holwell, a prisoner, 123 of the 146 prisoners died because the room was too small to accommodate everybody. But the common belief was that the incident was highly exaggerated. Holwell’s claim provided the perfect ruse for the Company to attack Siraj a year later and take over the administration of Bengal. This was the beginning of the English conquest of India. Bose declared that the Holwell Monument was a symbol of colonialism and should be demolished.

" ... With World War II now in full swing, the British decided to invoke sections of the draconian Defence of India Act, 1939, that gave the Viceroy wide powers to ensure the defence of British India. Bose was arrested under the provisions of this Act on 2 July 1940 and could expect to remain in jail for an indefinite period, although this was not stated explicitly."

" ... Even before being incarcerated he had been planning to seek the support of foreign powers to free India from the British yoke. He had thought of Japan, a rising Asian power. Being Asian he thought the Japanese would have more empathy for the Indian cause. The Japanese vice foreign minister had visited Calcutta in 1938 and had met Bose confidentially at the house of a third person. Thus, Bose knew that the Japanese would not be hostile to his efforts. He immediately despatched Lala Shankar Lal, who had served as general secretary of the Forward Bloc for a year, to Japan. Shankar Lal’s brief was to talk to Japanese officials and assess whether Bose could move to Japan and whether the Japanese would help in his quest for India’s freedom. Shankar Lal called on the Japanese foreign minister and also the German, Italian and Russian ambassadors in Tokyo.

"By the time Shankar Lal returned to India, Bose was already in jail. Since non-family members were not allowed to meet him, Shankar Lal had to send a coded message through Bose’s nephew who entered the jail masquerading as an electrician. ‘All friends are happy and well and are anxious and waiting to welcome you. We see no reason for you to be where you are, when there is so much to be done outside.’ Bose understood the import of Shankar Lal’s confabulations with the Japanese. Since breaking out of the jail was not a logical option, he devised a brilliant plan to force the British to release him. Why not go on hunger strike? That way his health, which was not so good anyway, would deteriorate and the British administrators would be forced to release him."

" ... On 5 December 1940, the government finally decided to release their prisoner as doctors recommended that incarcerating him further would be risky. It was decided that he would be put under house arrest in his family home at Elgin Road in Calcutta. They had also made up their mind that once their prisoner regained his health he would be sent back to jail. Bose was carried out of jail on a stretcher, put on an ambulance and sent back home."

" ... Why not go to the Soviet Union and seek the help of Joseph Stalin to free India? The Soviet Union offered an alternative model of development—a socialist one—which was preferable to a capitalist model. In his mind, Bose was sure that the Russians would help, if only he could reach Soviet territory. He could possibly reach the Soviet Union through Afghanistan using the land route. He remembered his trusted associate, Mian Akbar Shah, who headed the Forward Bloc in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). A telegram was promptly relayed to Akbar Shah in his village in Nowshera district. It read: ‘Reach Calcutta—Bose.’"

Was he related to, a first cousin (or a first cousin once removed, a nephew in Indian terms) of, Sri Aurobindo?

His nephew being named Aurobindo seems to indicate otherwise, as per Indian custom.

" ... Driving through the night they reached Burari near Dhanbad in Bihar where another nephew worked as a coal mine manager. To maintain secrecy, Bose arrived alone in the morning at his nephew’s house posing as an insurance agent. The nephew was going out to work and asked Bose to wait till lunch time. At lunch Subhas, still posing as an insurance agent asked his nephew if he could wait till evening when he had a train to catch. This request was granted. In all probability, the nephew knew whom he was hosting, but the duo continued their role play to ensure that the suspicion of servants was not aroused. The servants and also some distant relatives in the Bose household in Calcutta were also CID informants and it was necessary to be careful.

"A little past midnight of 18 January, Bose boarded the Howrah–Kalka Mail at Gomoh. Sisir and Aurobindo Bose left him a little distance away from the station and watched as their uncle melted away in the distance. This was the last time they were to see him."

" ... Peshawar on the evening of 21 January 1941. He was received by Akbar Shah and put up at the budget Taj Mahal Hotel in the middle of the city. Next morning, he was moved to a rented house in the Kabuli Gate area of the city and introduced to Bhagat Ram Talwar who would be his guide through the tribal territories and also to Abid Shah who would drive them out of Peshawar.

"On the morning of 22 January, Abid Shah drove by in his 1932 model Chevrolet with Talwar and was joined by Bose, who had now decided to act deaf and dumb. This was because he did not understand any local language. Bose was now dressed in an old Pathani outfit. Subhas and Talwar alighted at the outskirts of the village Pishkam Maina, while Abid Shah turned back. Talwar had assumed the name of Rahmat Khan for the journey. He lived in the area and was familiar with the local customs and practices. He posed as Subhas’ uncle who looked every inch the Pathan with his good physique, sharp features and fair complexion. Both of them trudged to the village serai (inn) and took shelter there overnight along with twenty-five other travellers.

"The next morning—23 January—on Subhas’ birthday they began the long trek to the Afghan border. Bose was unused to these high altitudes and the rough terrain and was almost out of breath. At some places they hired a mule. Their progress was slow but Bose was determined and the duo crossed some mountain passes in the buffer zone of the tribal areas that lay between India and Afghanistan. Being January, some of the mountain passes were still covered with snow. In the end, they took two days to cross a distance that could have taken a few hours by car on the main road. This was a risk that Bose could ill-afford because of all the outposts manned by police. Once they crossed the Durand Line into Afghanistan in the morning, the duo came onto the main road to Jalalabad. They stopped a truck and requested a ride. Past lunch-time they entered Kabul through the Lahori Gate. It was 31 January. Kabul in those days was just an overgrown village with a few concrete houses and the duo took refuge in a local serai.

"Meanwhile, in Calcutta all hell had broken loose at the Elgin Road residence after it was discovered that Bose had fled. This was also part of a pre-arranged plan to confuse the British. Bose had taken a nephew and niece into confidence. The nephew used to eat the food sent into Bose’s room every day but on 26 January the niece ‘discovered’ that her uncle was nowhere to be found. The news was leaked through the sympathetic Ananda Bazar Patrika and the Hindustan Standard. Bose had written some post-dated letters before he had left and these had been posted to give the impression that he was still around. The British knew that the man under watch had given them the slip though they did not know where he was headed. They speculated that he had boarded a ship and was on the way to Japan via Penang, Singapore and Hong Kong based on intelligence reports of his connection with the Japanese. They did not realize that Bose had gone the other way and crossed over the Indian border (or was on the way to do so). In fact they never thought of looking for Bose in Peshawar or beyond. On their part, the Bose family started to propagate rumours that he had probably renounced the world and gone away to become an ascetic. The British Indian police was initially confused by these rumours but reasoned that such an assessment would be wrong: if Bose had disappeared it would only be to further the cause of India’s freedom."

" ... The Soviets were reluctant to offer any refuge to him: this was natural. The country was expecting an attack by Germany. This would mean that the Soviet Union would have to treat the British as an ally and in that situation the Russians did not want to harbour an enemy of London. These apprehensions would prove correct, because on 22 June 1941, the Germans invaded Soviet Russia. Bose was rather disheartened at the Soviet position because his first preference for assistance had been Moscow. After waiting for a few days and making no headway Bose barged into the German embassy in Kabul and sought their help. ... "

"The Italians provided Bose with an Italian passport in the name of Orlando Mazzotta. Bose was ready to leave. There were two ways to reach Europe: one was through Iran, Iraq and Turkey, the other way was to go through Soviet territory. The Italians and Germans pleaded with the Soviet Union to issue Bose a transit visa through their country. Moscow held off on issuing a travel document to Bose, even though the German ambassador in Moscow personally intervened in the matter. ... A particular Afghan policeman had to be bribed twice: once with cash and then with a favourite wristwatch, gifted to Bose by his father. It was not deemed suitable for Bose to remain in the serai for too long. Bhagat Ram approached an acquaintance of his, Uttam Chand Malhotra, a trader in Kabul for help. Bose took refuge in the home of Uttam Chand in the Indian quarters of Kabul. It was felt that he would be safer if he remained in the company of Indians.

"While Bose waited for his travel plans to coalesce he began penning a tract on the country’s political scenario. He wrote that the need of the hour was a leftist antithesis to the rightist thesis that held sway in Indian politics. He argued that Gandhi in the early 1920s had also been an antithesis to the status quo but had later changed. He asserted that the Forward Bloc had helped the Congress back onto the path of struggle, stimulated the party, and helped lift it back from stagnation. While leaving Kabul, Bose passed on the manuscript to Bhagat Ram with a request that he should go to Calcutta and hand it over to Sarat Chandra Bose. The manuscript was given a post-date and marked—‘Written from somewhere in Europe.’ Subhas Bose finally exited Kabul at dawn on 18 March—in a car provided by the Italians—the last two days of his extended stay in Kabul had been spent at the home of an Italian diplomat. Bose boarded a train a little later and reached Moscow via Samarkand. From Moscow he flew into Berlin. The date was 2 April 1941."

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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8.In Hitler’s Germany

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"On 3 April 1941, a day after he landed in Berlin, Subhas Chandra Bose arrived at the German foreign office on Wilhelmstrasse where he was received by the under-secretary of state, Ernst Woermann. Bose got to the point of his visit without delay. He said that he wanted to liberate India from British suzerainty and requested German help for this cause. He told his interlocutor that as a prelude to further assistance they could recognise a provisional government of India-in-exile that would be set up. Bose went on to make a detailed presentation of his plans. Woermann was struck by the well worked out plans but was too amazed to respond. While remaining more or less silent, he possibly realized that what Bose wanted, ran counter to the ideas of the Führer.

"Adolf Hitler thought very poorly of India and saw the Indian freedom movement as a rebellion of the inferior Hindu race against the valorous Anglo-Nordics. The latter, in Hitler’s world view, were the only ones who had the right to dominate the world. In Mein Kampf, Hitler had written, ‘Quite aside from the fact that I as a man of Germanic blood, would, in spite of everything rather see India under English rule than any other.’"

" ... Hitler’s comments about India in Mein Kampf had come to Bose’s notice in February 1933 when he was in Berlin. He had sought an audience with the German leader intending to urge him to revise his views on India. The meeting never materialized and Bose could only meet the mayor of Berlin. In 1936, when Hitler referred to white superiority in a speech, a livid Bose held a press conference in Geneva denouncing Hitler and advocated a trade boycott of Germany."

"Woermann did not throw out Bose’s request and did not apprise him on Hitler’s world view, especially those on Russia. Instead, he said that he would brief his bosses on the Indian leader’s plans. Bose himself promised to get back with a detailed plan in writing. A few days later, on 9 April, Bose put forth a detailed proposal that suggested that the Axis powers would sign a treaty with the Free India government-in-exile, guaranteeing India’s independence once World War II was won. He also proposed that an army consisting of 50,000 Indian soldiers could be established with recruits from prisoners of war taken by the Axis powers. Many British Indian troops had already been taken prisoner in North Africa. ... "

" ... Again, time was sought from him and Woermann indicated to Bose that the Germans were going out of the way to accommodate his needs.

"True to his nature, Bose would not allow this latest obstruction to demoralize him. Consumed by the passion to free India, Bose was back at the German foreign office a month later—on 13 May—with a draft declaration of India’s independence. The declaration envisioned that the people of India would themselves decide on their future Constitution after liberation of the country and that Germany should accept this absolute right. Germany would also take full responsibility to liberate India and would recognise the government of independent India. Even as there was nothing substantial in the proposal for the Germans, it was drafted in the expectation that the Germans would help India in return for the satisfaction of seeing their prime enemy, the British diminished."

" ... On 24 May, the German foreign office got back to Bose. They suggested that a Free India Centre in Berlin should be set up. A loan of 10 million Reich Marks for the purpose was approved with 12,000 RMs set aside for the personal expenses of Bose. To figure out what he was up to, Bose was put on surveillance, his phone tapped and correspondence opened. Bose was not aware of this although he may have suspected.

"Prior to this, Bose was in Rome on 5 May to reconnect with the Italian leaders, the country being aligned with the Axis powers. Bose had kept connections with the Italian leaders all through his sojourn in Europe in the early 1930s. He was hopeful of being received well because it was the Italians who had taken the lead in getting him out of Kabul. In Rome, Bose met Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano and discussed the draft declaration of India’s independence. In turn, Ciano, the son-in-law of Benito Mussolini took Bose over to meet the Duce. The Italian leader was willing to help but Italy’s power had weakened by then and there was no question of taking an individual stand without German concurrence. Mussolini politely told Bose that he should discuss the matter with the Germans and convince them to assist him.

"On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and Bose realized that any assistance from the Germans would be counterproductive. In India, the Soviet Union was held in great esteem with the communist model of governance looked at with approval by the intelligentsia. By implication, a Germany that had invaded the Soviet Union would be seen in poor light by Indians. So if the Germans came forward to liberate India, this would be taken with some scepticism by the Indians. This was especially so because Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were critical of the Nazi regime.

"Bose promptly decried the German attack on Russia in a letter written to German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in August 1941. Bose expressed his fear that this action would put a spanner in the works to the evolving plans of German intervention in liberating India. Bose also sought an appointment with the foreign minister and met him for the second time in a year in November 1941.

"In an earlier meeting at the end of April, Bose had sought a status quo in German policy towards the Russians till the British were totally cleared from North Africa. This meeting had helped establish good chemistry between Ribbentrop and Bose, if for nothing else, based on their mutual hatred of the British. Ribbentrop, who had been ambassador to London, thought rather poorly of the British.

"At the November meeting, Bose again made a demand that the Germans recognize independence for India. He also asked that the objectionable observations about Indians in Hitler’s Mein Kampf be expunged. Nothing substantial seems to have come out of the meeting, although the foreign minister promised to look into Netaji’s demands. Ribbentrop apparently told Bose that the guiding principle of German policy was not to promise anything which could not be carried out later. In other words, the Germans were doubtful if they would ultimately launch an offensive to free India.

"Bose also made a request for a meeting with Hitler. This time, he was given an audience, though he had to wait for many months. The meeting took place on 29 May 1942 at the Reich Chancellery.

"The meeting appears to have been disastrous. Besides Ribbentrop other German ministers were also present. Hitler who was at the zenith of his power was at his boastful best and as soon as Bose arrived he launched into a long lecture on world politics. Bose was hardly enjoying this although civility demanded that he keep quiet. Hitler was very dismissive about India and boasted that if the Germans were to conquer India they would only take a year or two to spread their influence across the country. If Indians were to take charge of India it would take them 100–200 years to put their house in order. He seems to have been briefed on the Indian political situation and said that Nehru’s anti-fascist and anti-Nazi approach would come to naught and at the same time brushed away Gandhi’s policy of passive resistance as ineffective. Hitler made no secret of his expansionist designs and condescended to invite Bose to join the Nazis in triggering India’s liberation. At the end of the meeting a slightly miffed Bose (on wrongly interpreting a statement by Hitler) told his interpreter Adam von Trot to tell the Führer, ‘Your Excellency, I have been in politics all my life and I do not need any advice from anyone.’ Bose also requested Hitler to expunge adverse reactions about India from his Mein Kampf. This does not seem to have had any impact on the German leader who merely mentioned that these opinions were of the past.

"Whatever illusions Bose might have had about the Germans were now broken. In fact, as he waited in Berlin indefinitely, Bose was getting very restive. He had come to Germany hopeful of assistance to fight against the common enemy—the British. But now it was clear to Bose that nothing more could be achieved by staying put in Berlin. He also realized that the only reason that Hitler had for supporting him had little to do with the independence of India. Hitler wanted to use India as a bargaining chip in his battle against Great Britain—if he could corner the British on India, then they would be compelled to exit from the War in Europe and allow him a free hand.

"Bose now expressed a desire to quit Berlin. Even though Hitler had behaved in a condescending manner towards Bose, he and also ministers like Ribbentrop had been impressed by Bose’s courage and leadership qualities. For Hitler and his followers, who habitually disapproved of people or ideas that did not match their view, to be impressed with someone was really significant.

"Though Bose’s mission in Berlin had been a failure, in some ways it had resulted in gains. The Indian Legion (Indische Legion), initiated by Bose after his arrival in Germany in 1941, was raised from among Indian prisoners of war and expatriates. Bose was to create a volunteer base of 10,000, which would go ahead of the German forces to invade India through Russia, Persia and Afghanistan. Bose visited different camps that housed Indian prisoners of wars of the British Indian Army and exhorted them to join the force that he was raising to liberate India. In most places, he got encouraging responses although there were refusals as well. The soldiers had taken an oath to serve the British Army and were not willing to switch over to the German side, especially after the reports they had heard of the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Eventually a fighting force of 3,000 was raised. Netaji was able to convince the Germans that the force would only be used to liberate India. At one stage when the force was sought to be deployed in Greece, Bose had protested and got the move rescinded.

"Bose went about building the Indian Legion with utter seriousness. In Berlin, in those days there were similar groups like the Cossack Legion, Turkish Legion and the Georgian Legion. These were formed by people from these regions whose countries had been swallowed by the Russians into the massive Soviet Union. But these groups did not exhibit the energy and organization that the Indian Legion came to be known for under the leadership of Bose. Its emblem, the springing tiger, aptly described what Bose wanted the body to do. It was the members of the Legion who began addressing Bose with the honorific Netaji, the epithet by which he has been immortalized. The salutation ‘Jai Hind’, so commonly used in India now, especially in the modern Indian Armed Forces has its origin in the Indian Legion. It is the shortened version of ‘Jai Hindustan Ki’ which was framed by Netaji’s secretary Abid Hasan Safrani as the Legion’s battle cry. It was Bose who shortened it to Jai Hind. There is an interesting anecdote about the slogan—apparently Safrani heard two Rajput soldiers wishing each other Jai Ramji Ki and conjured the slogan Jai Hindustan Ki.

"The Indian Legion, on the approval of Netaji, also adopted Jana Gana Mana as its anthem—to be adopted as the national anthem of the country after Independence. It was sung by the Legion for the first time on 11 September 1942, on the occasion of the foundation of the Indo–German society.

"The British Indian Army was organized on racial lines, the regiments raised on the basis of caste and community. Netaji understood that the force he was raising should be above caste and creed. He insisted that the units being raised must have a mix of men from different regions, castes and communities. A radical move, there were Rajputs with Marathas, Hindus with Muslims and Sikhs serving side-by-side.

"Probably the most daring action by the Indian Legion was Operation Bajadere which was launched in January 1942. Here, a contingent of a hundred highly efficient and trained soldiers (trained by the Brandenburgers—German special forces) were para-dropped into parts of Baluchistan that were being held by Persia. Their mission was to infiltrate into British India and foment trouble against the rulers. History does not record whether they were successful in their efforts."

" ... Azad Hind Radio that was established in Berlin. It was a propaganda radio station established to keep the morale of the freedom fighters high. The station broadcast weekly bulletins in various Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Pashto, and Urdu. Bose would himself broadcast messages from time to time and share his perspectives on contemporary events. The Azad Hind Radio began broadcasting from 19 January 1942 with the avowed objective of presenting world affairs from a purely nationalistic viewpoint and shorn of British propaganda. Netaji termed the British Broadcasting Corporation or the BBC as Bluff and Bluster Corporation. He said that the British broadcaster was the only choice for the Indian public to hook into international information and thus they were unconsciously imbibing British propaganda.

"On 28 February 1942, after the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, an exuberant Netaji went on air announcing that the fall meant that the collapse of the British Empire was imminent and the iniquitous regime that it symbolised would end. Bose announced that it signified the dawn of a new era in Indian history. ‘The hour of India’s salvation is at hand, India will now rise and break the chains of servitude that have bound her so long.’

"Netaji went on air again on 20 July 1942. This was after the declaration of Egyptian independence by the Axis powers. He said, ‘The British Empire has two lungs—Egypt and India. Without Egypt, the Empire would be reduced to one lung. If the other lung is also put out of action death will immediately follow.’"

" ... Netaji wrote to Ribbentrop in July of his desire to go over to Asia urgently. The Germans had no objection with this move but a prolonged discussion ensued on the modus operandi to move him to the distant continent in the midst of the War. One of the options discussed was to fly him out on an Italian plane taking off from somewhere in that country. In fact, in November, Bose journeyed to Italy to catch a plane. But the idea of flying out the Indian leader was finally given up upon Hitler’s orders who said that the Indian leader was too important a person to allow his life to be risked in such a manner. There were chances that his aircraft would be shot down by the Allied Forces. It was then that the plan for transporting him in a submarine came up: the initial idea was to take him to the French coast (France was then under German occupation) where he would board a Japanese I-10 submarine onwards to Asia. By the time the detailed plans were finalized, the sea off the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean was zeroed upon as the place where the Japanese would pick him up. The Germans would transfer Netaji to Madagascar in their own submarine. Initially, it seems the Japanese imperial navy had reservations about allowing Netaji into their submarine; their regulations prohibited carrying civilians. Only when they were told that Bose was no civilian but the commander-in-chief of the Indian liberation army, did they relent."

" ... When Netaji went down in the submarine he bid adieu to his wife with whom he had spent time together in Berlin. In fact, he would never see her again. ... "

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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9.INA and Azad Hind Government

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"The story of Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army (INA) begins with another Bose. No relative of Subhas Chandra, Rashbehari Bose was a revolutionary involved with the Ghadar Party and shot to fame because he was part of the group that threw a bomb at Lord Charles Hardinge who was Viceroy of India from 1910–16. On 23 December 1912, when a procession to celebrate the shifting of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi passed through the Chandni Chowk area in the new capital, one of the members of the group threw a bomb at the Viceroy who was mounted on an elephant. He was injured and before long a manhunt to nab the culprits was underway. Although the others involved were caught and later hanged, Rashbehari managed to dodge the police and escaped to Japan on a ship headed to that country, using a false identity. He lived underground in Japan for many years as the British discovered his whereabouts and pressed for his extradition—though unsuccessfully. He later married a Japanese lady and became a citizen in 1923. He is credited for having introduced Indian curry in Japan and even held a patent for the dish. Over the years, he became committed to the Japanese cause and a trusted advisor on Indian matters. When the Japanese overran Kuala Lumpur on 11 January 1942 and Singapore on 15 February 1942, and began planning to move against the British in India they looked towards Rashbehari for making this possible.

"Rashbehari took up the cue and convened a conference in Tokyo from 28–30 March to discuss matters relating to India. It was decided that an Indian Independence League would be instituted to give an impetus to the Indian freedom movement in East Asia. Rashbehari was appointed the head of the League and resolved military action against India through a national army comprising Indians and under Indian command. After the fall of Singapore, some 12,000 Indian prisoners of war (POW) were transferred to the command of Captain Mohan Singh (also a POW) for raising the INA, which was formally proclaimed in April that year. Rashbehari too came to Singapore to discuss with Mohan Singh and the Japanese army commanders on how the military action would be carried out."

" ... The headquarters of the Council were to be established in Singapore.

"However, within a few months the INA came apart with serious differences cropping up between Rashbehari Bose and Mohan Singh. In November, it was disbanded as Singh and his associates rose in rebellion against the leadership style of Rashbehari. The soldiers felt that Rashbehari was giving primacy to Japanese interests. Singh was subsequently put under arrest by the Japanese. The INA was, however, revived a few months later in February 1943 under Lieutenant Colonel Jagannathrao Krishnarao Bhonsle, also a POW. The need for Netaji was never more acutely felt among the Indian community in Singapore. They had all heard of his exploits in Germany and many INA soldiers said that they would be willing to continue if Bose took charge. The Japanese, who for long had put their trust in Rashbehari, began to feel that Netaji would be a better person to lead the Indian war effort.

"On arriving at the Sumatran islet in May 1943, Bose was received by Colonel Yamamoto Bin, president of the Hikari Kikan, the group set up by the Japanese to liaise with India. Soon thereafter, Netaji accompanied by Yamamoto, left for Tokyo by air, stopping en route at Penang, Manila, Saigon and Taiwan. The two landed in Tokyo on 16 May, Netaji going incognito by the name Matsuda. From the next day onwards Netaji began his meetings with important people in the government, including the chiefs of staff of the army, navy, the navy minister and the foreign minister, in the Japanese capital. A meeting with the Japanese prime minister took a while to take place. Hideki Tojo kept Bose waiting for at least three weeks and the two met only on 10 June. But once he met Subhas, Tojo was rather impressed and on 16 June announced in the Diet—the Japanese Parliament: ‘We are indignant that India is still under the ruthless suppression of Britain and are in full sympathy with her desperate struggle for independence. We are determined to extend every possible assistance to the cause of India’s independence.’

"Two days later, the presence of Netaji in Japan was announced by Tokyo Radio with the Indian leader holding a press conference on 19 June detailing his plans for the freedom of his country. He called for the Quit India movement back at home to be escalated to an armed struggle. ‘Only when the Indian people have received the baptism by fire on a large scale would they be qualified to achieve freedom,’ he said. The news about Netaji’s arrival in Japan electrified the Indians in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries. Soon Netaji was addressing them on radio. On 27 June 1943, Bose arrived in Singapore from Tokyo to a rousing welcome. He was accompanied by Rashbehari Bose. Singapore was destined to be Netaji’s base for a good part of the next two years.

"A week later on 4 July, at a public meeting, Rashbehari Bose officially passed over the mantle of leadership of the Indian Independence League and the INA to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose saying, ‘I have brought you one of the most outstanding personalities of our Motherland. I resign from my office as president of the Indian Independence League in East Asia. From now on Subhas Chandra Bose is your leader in the fight for India’s independence.’"

" ... ‘We have a grim fight ahead of us. In this final march to freedom, you will have to face danger, thirst, privation, forced marches and death. Only when you pass this test will freedom be yours.’ Netaji’s exhortations charged the environment and raised the morale of Indian nationalists in Southeast Asia. The Provisional Government of Free India was formally named as Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind. The official language of this government was chosen to be Hindustani. To give legitimacy to the struggle for freedom, the Azad Hind Government also developed its own civil code and released its own stamps. A bank was also formed a few months later in Rangoon."

These stamps were designed by Netaji while waiting in Germany, and, according to Jan Kuhlmann, printed by Germany for him.

"On 5 July 1943, Netaji renamed the INA as Azad Hind Fauj and reviewed a march-past by the troops. Standing alongside Netaji was Prime Minister Tojo, who was on hand with material and moral support. In his address to INA soldiers, Netaji said that every country that had won freedom had a liberation army leading the way. This included the United States under George Washington and Italy under Guiseppe Garibaldi. Netaji added, ‘My soldiers, let your battle cry be “Delhi Chalo”.’ Bose also chose an anthem for the Provisional Government of Free India—Rabindra Nath Tagore’s ‘Jana Gana Mana’. Since the song was composed in highly Sanskritized Bangla it was translated into Hindustani. Netaji understood the importance of music in inspiring a force into battle and the translated anthem titled ‘Subh Sukh Chain’ was set to martial music. The other great song ‘Vande Mataram’, which had inspired the Indian freedom movement, was consciously avoided as an anthem. Netaji was sensitive to the fact that ‘Vande Mataram’, originally a poem in the novel Anandamath written in 1882 by Bengali writer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and first sung by Tagore at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress, could offend Muslims since it was written in the context of Hindu uprisings against the Muslims."

" ... At the end of July, he began a tour of East Asian and Southeast Asian countries to enlist the moral and financial support of resident Indian communities. Netaji got a rousing reception wherever he went: from Rangoon to Bangkok to Penang and Saigon. The expatriate Indian communities wanted freedom from the yoke of the exploitative British as much as the people back home. Fired by the oratory of Netaji and convinced of his earnestness and belief in the mission that he propagated, these Indians vied with each other to donate to the cause of freedom. There was nobody who did not contribute—businessmen, merchants, traders and workers—Bose is believed to have secured more than $2 million. Faced with the herculean task of raising and maintaining an army, Netaji had to go back to the people over and over again for money. In this effort, he received support from unusual and unexpected quarters. For instance, in Rangoon a year later in 1944, when he urgently needed money he was pleasantly surprised when a local Gujarati Muslim Memon businessman Abdul Habeeb Yusuf Marfani donated his entire fortune of Rs 1 crore for the cause of India’s freedom."

" ... Bose began mobilizing forces for the INA—his immediate target was 50,000 soldiers. Most of them would be enlisted from the POW of the British Indian Army and supplemented by civilian volunteers. In a revolutionary step for an army for Indians or any Asian country at that time, Netaji set up a regiment for women. This was appropriately named as the Rani of Jhansi regiment after the revolutionary leader of the 1857 War of Independence. Lakshmi Swaminathan, a successful gynaecologist from Singapore who was imbued with a revolutionary spirit was enlisted as the chief of the regiment.

"It was a difficult task procuring weapons and ammunition for the fledgling national army and Netaji banked on the Japanese for assistance. Though willing to help, the Japanese were fighting their own battles and were constrained by resources. The Japanese said that they could provide arms for only 30,000 soldiers.

"Not to be deterred, Netaji went about setting up the provisional government that had to be operational before the Azad Hind Fauj went out to battle. The provisional government was officially announced on 21 October 1943 with Netaji as the head of the government and the supreme commander of the INA. It had five ministers: this included Anand Mohan Sahay who had migrated to the Far East in 1923 as a student and would become an activist with the Indian Independence League. On a trip back to India in 1927, Sahay had married the niece of the Indian nationalist Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and is said to have met Netaji who had just been released from prison in Mandalay. Sahay was put in charge of foreign affairs because he had been a resident of the region for a long time. ... One of the first declarations of the provisional government, which was taken a day after its promulgation, was to declare war against Great Britain and the USA. Some cabinet ministers were circumspect about declaring war on the United States but Netaji was insistent. Within days the provisional government began to be recognized by Axis countries and their supporters. This included Japan, Burma, Germany, Croatia, Italy, the Philippines and Thailand."

" ... Netaji had requested Prime Minister Tojo to place the Andaman & Nicobar Islands that had been captured by the Japanese in 1942 under the administrative jurisdiction of the Azad Hind Government. At the conference, Tojo announced the decision of Japan to hand over the administration of the two islands to Azad Hind Government. The handover took place in December 1943 and Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Loganathan was appointed chief commissioner. Netaji renamed the islands as Swaraj and Shaheed. It is said that the administration was nominally in the name of Indians and the Japanese rule continued. There are also reports of widespread violence by the Japanese on the civilian population of the islands. Netaji visited the islands just once but seemed to have been unaware of the Japanese high-handedness. The Japanese kept him away from the affected sections of the population."

From recent events, one may suspect that natives, of African rather than Indian origin, were more than equal to handle the intruders, except for modern weapons. Perhaps that's true of not every island, but would certainly be true of more than one.

"Soon Netaji focussed his efforts on an attack on the Indian mainland through its northeastern flank. With this in view he shifted the headquarters of the Azad Hind Government to Rangoon in January 1944. Burma had earlier fallen to the Japanese. The first division of the INA was also shifted to Rangoon the same month. Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi, the chief of the Japanese Burma Area Army was responsible for the offensive through the Northeast and very enthusiastic about the operation.

"The Japanese and the INA had agreed that an attack into India should begin with Imphal in Manipur. This would mean a trudge through the Arakan mountains that led to Chittagong. While the British would use their resources to defend the Arakans to prevent Japanese entry into Eastern Bengal, other sections of the Japanese army with the INA would be able to penetrate and reach Kohima in Nagaland and Imphal in Manipur. This had to be achieved before the monsoons of 1944. With the advent of the monsoons, the rivers and rivulets would be flooded making transportation difficult. This would mean that the British Indian Army would not be able to rush in reinforcements from the rest of India. During a lull in the monsoons, the Japanese would break into Assam and Bengal.

"Called ‘Operation U-Go’, the campaign was launched on 7 January 1944, but started rolling effectively only in the beginning of March. Before that Subhas had personally supervised the battle readiness of the INA infantry division that would be part of the campaign, constantly exhorting them to the nationalist cause through inspiring speeches. As per the plan, one unit of the INA—the Subhas Brigade or the 1st Guerrilla Regiment was sent to the Arakan. This was to cover the left flank of the 33rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army as it advanced. The 2nd Guerrilla Regiment of the INA was attached to the Japanese army’s 15th Division. The Special Services Group redesignated as the Bahadur Group acted as scouts and pathfinders to the advancing Japanese units. They were also given the job of infiltrating British lines and encourage units of the British Indian Army to defect.

"The combined campaign of the Japanese and INA took the British by complete surprise and they captured Kohima early on 6 April. Before that the Bahadur Group of the INA led by Colonel Shaukat Malik had broken through the British defences and set foot on Indian soil at Moirang in Manipur on 22 March. Netaji announced, ‘We have now reached Moirang, the ancient citadel of Manipur. Our commitment is to march to Delhi and unfurl the Tricolour there. The expulsion of the enemy from the sacred soil of India is a compulsion for us. Freedom of India is very near.’ Netaji was jubilant and in response to a call by him, Japanese Prime Minister Tojo announced that the conquered Indian territories would be put under the charge of the Azad Hind Government. Immediately Netaji announced that his minister for finance Lieutenant Colonel A.C. Chatterjee would be the governor of these newly captured territories.

"But soon the tide began to turn against the Japanese and the INA. There are many reasons for this including the fact that the Japanese had no airpower backing them. On the contrary, the British used the Royal Air Force to bomb enemy lines. Since the Japanese (along with the INA) had to cross difficult terrain and routes over the mountains and jungles, they did not bring in field artillery, the chief anti-tank weapon, in large numbers. This was also under the mistaken belief that the British Indian Army would not be able to use their tanks on the steep jungle covered hills around Imphal (which is located in a valley). But in the event, the tanks were used to devastating effect. The British Indian Army also benefitted from sorties run by transport aircraft that parachuted supplies to them. In contrast, the Japanese and the INA supply lines were stretched. The Japanese had placed their reliance on Chenghis Khan rations—the Great Mongol in his numerous campaign used to drive cattle along with his army and these used to be the source of food. The Japanese had driven cattle from Upper Burma but most of them died due to lack of forage on the way. The Japanese could also not rely on the enemy for rations by taking away what the British Indian Army had."

Bombing was not only by RAF but US too.

"Airpower stopped the advance of the Japanese and the INA troops and allowed the British time to move troops to Imphal. British airpower was used to disrupt Japanese supply lines. This caused severe problems for the Japanese and the INA. Very soon for the Japanese and the INA armies the offensive turned out to be defensive. After three months of siege in Imphal and at Kohima—some 150 km away from Imphal—the Japanese and the INA had to beat retreat. This was in the first week of July 1944."

Author omits mention of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose planting flag of India at Imphal, removed later by British, but the monument at the spot is a memorial.

"The retreat was disastrous as the monsoons had begun. The soldiers had to trudge through the wet jungles and the roads were cut off due to the rains. In fact, it rained so much that in some cases ammunition was swept off. Food was not available and disease broke out—from dysentery, cholera and malaria to beriberi and jungle sores. Many soldiers died of starvation and disease. Most of them were left unburied on the hills. The exact number of casualties have not been computed but conservatively was not less than 40,000 dead for the Japanese and the INA together."

" ... Analysts also believe that if the INA and the Japanese had launched the attack a year or two earlier, they would have been successful. In the first phase of World War II, the British were on the backfoot and attack into India from the eastern sector could have jeopardized them. Unfortunately, Netaji was in Germany that time and there was no INA. As far as the Japanese were concerned they did not want to launch an attack into India right after taking over Singapore in the fear that they would be seen as an army of occupation. By the time Netaji landed in Southeast Asia, it had probably become too late. Lastly, the most important point to be noted is that the British fended off the INA and the Japanese with the help of the Punjab Regiments and the Gurkhas along with Scottish soldiers. In other words, they used Indians to beat the revolutionary army of the INA. But this had been an old English device. In fact, they held the Indian Empire serving British interests only with the help of Indian soldiers and even the soldiers of the First War of Independence in 1857 were defeated by the British with the help of Indian troops. The Imphal disaster—news of which trickled slowly—acted as a dampener to the Indian population in Malaya who were keen that the INA emerge victorious. Their morale plummeted and many who had been supporters of the INA and the Azad Hind Government began shifting their allegiance fearing reprisals from the British. Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force began bombing Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in a move that demonstrated their ascendancy in the skies. Netaji was still reiterating that the Axis powers would ultimately win the War—these assertions continued till November 1944. His belief was not shaken till the British neared Rangoon (using Indian regiments like the Sikh and Gorkha). With their backbone broken, the Japanese were interested in withdrawing from Burma to consolidate forces to defend their homeland. Their air and artillery power had been greatly depleted. In reality, the British too were in a double mind about whether to recapture Burma or only parts of the country, realizing that the terrain was not favourable. However, the Americans were interested in opening a route to China through Burma and the British fell to the pressure.

"In September 1944, realizing that a herculean effort would now be required, Netaji raised the issue of suicide squads. The occasion was the death anniversary of the Indian revolutionary Jatin Das who had passed away after fasting sixty-three days in Lahore jail. Netaji said, ‘The Goddess of Liberty is not appeased. I shall tell you the secret of appeasing her. Today she demands not merely fighters or soldiers for the Fauj. Today she demands rebels—men and women—who will be prepared to join suicide squads for whom death is a certainty. Rebels who will be ready to drown the enemy in the streams of blood that shall flow from their own body.’

"But Subhas Bose was a realist too. Apparently, at a meeting of the INA top bosses in January 1945 in Rangoon the issue of new war materials arriving on the Burma front from the USA (that was superior to that of the Japanese) came up. Along with this, the subject turned to the increased incidence of desertions from the INA ranks. Netaji said, ‘Our army is a volunteer organization. We have joined it not for the lure of money or rewards, but for sacrifice for the cause of Motherland. If anyone from amongst us be afraid of this poverty, hardship and death, he should not be sent to the front against his will.’

"Bose continued to stay put in Rangoon and was not willing to leave the city. He felt that the city could be the staging post for another INA attack on India through Manipur once again. But this was not to be. As the British Army advanced into Burma and the Japanese began to leave, Bose was also forced to quit. But he did not quit with pleasure.

"Netaji left Rangoon on 24 April 1945. While retreating—to Bangkok—Bose left a message for his faithful followers. ‘Your brave deeds in the battle against the enemy on the plains of Imphal, the hills and jungle of Arakan and the oilfields will live in the struggle of Independence for all times. The future generation of Indians who will be born, not as slaves but as free men because of your colossal sacrifice will bless your name.’

"Most of his men left by foot while Netaji was in a car. But after proceeding for some distance, he realized that the ladies of the Rani of Jhansi regiment were also marching. They were not just on foot—they were marching bearing 20 kg loads. Upon learning this Netaji also started walking. On this march, Netaji was solicitous about the safety of the injured, weak and sick and ensured that they were put on trucks though their numbers were limited and not everybody could be accommodated. Thus, Netaji reached Bangkok only on 14 May 1945—on foot. From here he flew to Singapore, where he would stay put till mid-August, when he left for Saigon on what has been said to be his last journey. We know that this was not true."

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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10.Nehru, Mountbatten and Freedom

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"India’s date with freedom on 15 August 1947 came about exactly two years after the Japanese announced their intention to surrender in World War II. It was not pure coincidence that India was granted freedom on this day. For Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, 15 August was a day of victory and celebration. In 1945, Mountbatten was the Supreme Allied Commander Southeast Asia and was naturally overjoyed at the Japanese surrender."

This is the superficial level. Unless blessed by Grace, one would naturally see it this way. But of course, author is here explaining the subject related to the chapter title, not looking at or even suspecting that there's another level to world events.

" ... Although the British were leaving India they were not abandoning their imperial possessions elsewhere. Primary among these was Malaya, their most profitable territory. The fiction of the British Empire had to be maintained and this could only be effective if India under the Indians was administered in a way similar to that of the British. More specifically the powers that be in London wanted a free India to be part of the British Commonwealth. This would in some way reinforce the fiction of the continuance of the British Empire."

It's an illusion- due to British propaganda - that they intended turning it back.

But UK and US needed free use of military bases against USSR, and Jawaharlal Nehru wouldn't promise them; Jinnah did, promptly. This sealed it.

This comes as shocking, until one reads further.

It's unclear if Nehru and Mountbatten knew one another personally before Mountbatten arrived in India, though. Any friendship that is supposed to be is post arrival of Mountbatten in India.

But the author does refer to Pamela Mountbatten.

One could hardly expect anything else from a proper descendent of not only Queen Victoria but also a proper son of her cousin ( first cousin once removed?), Queen Mary.

At worst, this was lack of propriety and formally correct conduct, but not what anyone would interpret at worst.

"Nehru first met Lord Mountbatten and Edwina in 1946 in Singapore. ... Obviously Mountbatten saw a role for himself in India and had begun the spadework. Mountbatten ensured a hero’s welcome to Nehru and travelled with him in an open jeep with the crowds cheering lustily."

One would think so, since the poor and morganatic cousin in almost regal position and splendour is an image to impress; but as a matter of fact, he was pressed into the job, and hurried it, just so he could return, to achieve the position his father had lost, that of first lord of admiralty, chief of British navy. His father had lost it due to being a German, a Battenberg, although the king - a first cousin, and also just as German - retained his own position with only change of family name, from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.

"The overjoyed Indian community requested Nehru to place a wreath at the INA memorial, erected on the seafront—at the insistence of Netaji during his last days in Singapore—by an Anglo-Indian officer of the INA, Colonel Cyril John Stracey. On reoccupying the city, Mountbatten had ordered that the memorial be razed to the ground. Nonetheless, thousands of Indians used to throng the site every day and place flowers in remembrance of the departed warriors. Nehru was to visit the site to place a wreath the day after the parade but never did. Why?"

Obviously more loyalty to crown than to people of India!

"Amritlal Sheth, the eminent Gujarati nationalist and editor of Janmabhoomi newspaper was visiting Singapore around the same time as Nehru. On his return he reported to Sarat Chandra Bose that Mountbatten had informed Nehru that Netaji had not died in the so-called air crash and that he had authentic information to that effect. He had also told Nehru—in veiled language—that if Nehru demanded the absorption of INA men into the Indian Army, he ran the risk of presenting India on a platter to Bose when he reappeared. It is probable that this played on the mind of the ambitious Nehru, a political leader who had climbed the ranks of the Congress party on the coat-tails of Mahatma Gandhi. ... "

More due to his own father, if anything.

" ... At a public meeting that Nehru addressed at Singapore’s Jalan Besar Stadium before a crowd of 100,000, slogans of ‘Blood, Blood, Blood,’ were raised. This was the old INA chant but Nehru asked the crowds to refrain from mouthing such words and asked them to concentrate on constructive action.

None of that was carried out in the event, because US and UK needed military bases for use against USSR, and Sindh alone with Bengal partly or whole was useless; they had to have clear flight path, and both Punjab and NWFP were separated from India against the vote by people.

"On the question of Partition, the most interesting view came from Bengal where the assembly voted 126:90 in favour of unity of the province. ... "

Tarek Fateh claims opposite, but without numbers.

" ... When representatives of the Hindus and Muslims voted separately the latter were found to be against division and the former for it. ... "

Understandable, after Direct Action Day massacre of Hindus.

"Radcliffe marked his maps and went back to Great Britain. The borders of India and Pakistan were only officially declared on 17 August 1947, two days after Independence. On the day of Independence, people in Punjab and Bengal did not know whether they were in India or Pakistan. For instance, in Malda and Murshidabad in Bengal that had a majority of Muslims, flags of Pakistan went up on 15 August but two days later it was found that they were part of India. Similarly Khulna—in eastern Bengal—with a slight majority of Hindus was expected to be part of India but went to Pakistan."

No, Pakistan simply claimed another river as boundary, instead of the Ganga as marked officially; Gandhi insisted India let them have the several million extra square miles, without a word.

"The Partition brought mayhem in its wake and an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people were killed in the violence that accompanied the process. ... "

Try over eleven million Hindus alone; the lower number given by author is that of Sikhs, or muslims.

"Roy Chowdhury also points out how an anxious Sir Henry Joseph Twynam, governor of the Central Provinces wrote to Viceroy Lord Wavell on 10 November 1945 saying, ‘When the airborne division leaves Bilaspore, I shall be left without British troops’, while referring to frequent mutinies by Indian troops. Twynam also pointed out that in Jubbulpore (Jabalpur), when a speaker at a meeting asked which of those present would join the INA, all raised their hands.

"On 24 November 1945, Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, the commander of the British Indian Army, warned the British Government of a full scale rebellion. He wrote: ‘There are now large quantities of unlicensed arms throughout India and there will be many ex-INA men to use them.’ He added that there were also a considerable number of demobilized soldiers (of the British Indian Army) who could do the same. The Field Marshal pointed out that the principal danger areas were likely to be the United Provinces, Bihar and Bengal but trouble must also be expected in the Punjab, Central Provinces and Bombay."

Did he think NWFP was safe?

"Jayanta Roy Chowdhury quotes Lieutenant General Srinivas Kumar Sinha (who after retirement from the Indian Army served as governor of the states of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir) who as a young Captain had been posted in the Army headquarters in the late 1940s. Apparently, Sinha had managed to look into a note marked ‘Top Secret—Not for Indian Eyes’ prepared by the director of military intelligence Major General John Terence Nicholls O’Brien. In this report the emergency commissioned officers who were the largest body of commissioned officers in the British Indian Army numbering 12,000, were rated as ‘highly suspect’. Regular Indian commissioned officers in the army numbering 400 were also labelled as ‘not to be fully trusted.’"

Those who did trust India, remained.

"This note was sent to Auchinleck who in a report to the British Cabinet averred that ‘most Indian officers are nationalists’ and if the situation deteriorated they could not be relied on to defend India for the British. ... "

For the British, from Indians? War War over, Japan surrendered, who else threatened? They really thought Indians were the outsiders, and Indian Army supposed to defend India, for British? Not that different from US point of view regarding natives is it?

"Both the Muslim League and Congress were opposed to the proposals. ... "

Why would it be different if the ABC plan was instead put in place? It could, would, be Direct Action Day every day, everywhere through India, instead of just three days in Calcutta.

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April 09, 2022 - April 09, 2022.

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11.Divided Bengal

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" ... The Great Calcutta Killings are now essentially seen as an effort to gain control over the city and its resources."

That's a typical Indian leftist diatribe, slanted to free muslims of blame and attempting to reduce it to trade and economy.

" ... Huge protests had been triggered when the Viceroy, Lord Curzon bifurcated Bengal in 1905. ... "

"The division of Bengal largely had support—in Muslim majority East Bengal. The opinion amongst Muslims was that through this bifurcation, East Bengal that had been a mere hinterland of the western half could now develop. Industries could come up and educational institutions could be set up. As if to support the move, the Muslim League was formed in December 1906 at Dacca (Dhaka). Around 3,000 delegates attended. The Nawab of Dacca, Salimullah Khan, hosted the conference at his palace Ahsan Manzil and was one of the prime movers behind the formation of the party, though most of the delegates were from northern India where an unified Muslim consciousness was growing. The initiation of the League was a signal that East Bengal would also be a major centre for Muslim consciousness and identity."

"In 1909, the government, in a move to control the adverse effects of the partition of Bengal and as a concession to the growing political consciousness in the country brought in what is called the Minto-Morley reforms. This allowed more Indian presence in the legislative councils both at the federal level and in the provinces. An Indian member was also inducted in the Viceroy’s Executive Council. However for the first time, a separate Muslim electorate was created—by allowing Muslims to vote and elect Muslim councillors. This sowed the seeds of separatism and played a major role in affecting the politics of Bengal which we have seen earlier in this narrative.

"Finally, in 1911, the partition of Bengal was annulled but at the same time the capital of India was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. This was to undercut the importance of Bengalis.

"The bloody Calcutta riots were followed by the Noakhali genocide two months later in October 1946. ... "

Author proceeds to equivocate by saying

That "whosoever" is the lie by author, in perhaps an attempt to appease; the rumours that he holds responsible for Noakhali riots are lies, whether spread then, or later after the Noakhali massacre to justify the killing of Hindus.

Minimal number is 150,000 as spoken of then.

That last is true, while the forced conversions or marriages might be a lie intended to soften the massacre picture.

" ... Nearly 1.5 lakh people lost their possessions, as the police were largely ineffective. ... "

That was number killed. If any survived without possessions, it's not known.

That's the usual method to discredit Hindus.

" ... Of course, the riots were possible because the Hindus were outnumbered 4:10 by Muslims in the area. If the population had been balanced the chances of riots occuring would have been less. ... "

Hindus then outnumbered muslims in Calcutta, but nevertheless were majority of victims of Direct Action Day massacre, ordered as it was by Jinnah.

"On 20 May 1947, Bengali leaders formally announced a proposal for a united and independent Bengal. ... "

"Suhrawardy thought a little differently; he knew that with a Muslim majority, he could control Bengal along with Calcutta if this plan was executed. ... "

And he'd supervised Calcutta massacre; he could repeat.

So it was enforced due to fear of another Calcutta and more Noakhali?

Author goes into political scape of Bengal in thirties and forties, about hiw muslim league was maneuvered into power, and more.

" ... With the Japanese threat looming large (the Japanese had begun air raids on Calcutta and other parts of Bengal), the Muslim League began to poison the ears of the Governor that the provincial government should be dismissed because it had two ministers from the Forward Bloc whose leader Bose was a renegade who had joined the Axis powers. Finding that he was powerless, Syama Prasad Mookerjee also resigned. In his resignation letter he pointed out the chicanery of the British who were depending more on official advice than that of the elected government established after elections. Syama Prasad also accused the Bengal governor, John Arthur Herbert of holding a brief for the Muslim League. A few months later—in July 1943—Herbert outmanoeuvred Huq and had him ousted. Needless to add, a League government was established even as a man-made famine engulfed Bengal. It is believed that Herbert had a go ahead from the bosses in Delhi for his machinations. With Subhas Bose having landed in Singapore, the British were worried about him and averred that he would take Japanese help to attack Bengal. In these circumstances they did not want an independent premier like Fazlul Huq in Bengal. They wanted a pliant Muslim League man and they found one in Khawaja Nazimuddin. What marked the tenure of Nazimuddin’s government—which did have a few Hindu ministers—was the great Bengal famine which was man-made. Described as Churchill’s secret war, food grains were procured in huge quantities for allied soldiers and exported elsewhere, leaving little for the local population. In the meantime, apprehending a Japanese attack, all boats and various other means of navigation that could be used to transport grains were destroyed. At the same time large tracts of land were kept fallow—with the possible aim of depriving Japanese invading armies from accessing food grains. The famine was an unprecedented calamity for Bengal and as said earlier in the chapter resulted in millions of deaths. The English Raj in Bengal that started in 1757 was followed by a famine in 1770 that resulted in the wiping off of one third of its population. Now the Raj was coming to a close with a huge famine and loss of life."

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April 09, 2022 - April 10, 2022.

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12.The Mystery of Gumnami Baba

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"In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were rumours that a holy man had taken refuge in Faizabad town in the state of Uttar Pradesh. That man in all probability was none other than Subhas Chandra Bose. Although the rumors were more or less locally confined, word somehow reached Bose’s niece Lalita in Calcutta. The daughter of Suresh Chandra Bose, Lalita decided to travel to Faizabad and investigate the matter herself. What she saw put her in a quandary. ‘She got the impression that the holy man who went by the name of Bhagwanji could be her uncle. His mannerisms were the same and the handwriting matched exactly. But she had a little doubt. She said it’s too close to take a call,’ recalls her nephew Amit who lived in the United States in those days. Lalita is now dead. But it seems that the doubts arose because she was meeting her uncle after nearly forty years. In these long years, age had caught up and the appearance of the holy man appeared haggard, although he had a spiritual aura around him. Bhagwanji himself was not ready to reveal his identity directly."

"Going by whatever information is available, Bhagwanji who was also known as Gumnami Baba arrived in the ancient town of Ayodhya—Faizabad’s twin city—in 1974. The circumstances under which he arrived there and from where are not known precisely. However, it is believed that he came to Ayodhya from Basti, a district headquarters town some 70 km from Ayodhya on the Indo–Nepal border. There are multiple versions of his early days in Ayodhya. According to one version his first stop was the Gurudwara Brahmakund Saheb—located on the outskirts of Ayodhya—where he stayed for six months. The gurudwara—which is very old and had been visited by three Sikh gurus in their time—overlooks the river Saryu. Old timers recall that the Baba used to meditate at a spot in the gurudwara that had a view of the vast catchment area of the river. They also remember how he was quite disciplined about his meditation. The other version, however, is that on arrival in Ayodhya the Baba rented a part of a building in the Lakhnauti Mata area and stayed there for many years. This was a rundown dilapidated structure with no electricity and some of the people this author spoke with swore that they knew for sure that the Baba lived there. In those days, however, people referred to him as pardey wale baba—because he spoke from behind a parda (curtain)—a trait that was to define his interactions with outsiders."

" ... Word soon got around about the mysterious sannyasi and a police officer known to Shakti Singh evinced a keen interest in probing the mystery of who the holy man really was. One morning, the officer arrived with a few policemen but the moment he entered the compound of Ram Bhavan something seems to have happened and he abruptly turned back. He was probably overwhelmed by some unknown force. The same evening the Baba called Shakti Singh and asked him: ‘Why did your friends not come in this morning and introduce themselves?’ After that the Baba laughed loudly.

"In normal circumstances, the Baba spoke with a heavy voice and was crisp in his speech. Many who heard him wondered whether he had been a military general earlier on.

"Giani Gurjeet Singh of Gurudwara Brahmakund Saheb, who had seen Bhagwanji when he had stayed at the gurudwara remembers the glow and radiance on the face of the holy man. ‘The spiritual glow was blinding and cannot be described,’ he told Arunav Sinha. In an interesting incident, the Giani recollects that while Bhagwanji was there he realized that the children staying in the gurudwara premises were deprived of milk. Immediately he called for the chief priest and paid out money instructing him to buy a buffalo. In the video interview with Mission Netaji, Priyabrata Banerjee also spoke of Baba’s intense spirituality, which anyone in his presence could discern. Surajit Dasgupta of Kolkata who was introduced to the Baba by some of his disciples met him for the first time in 1982 and many times after that. He told The Times of India correspondents Saikat Roy and Shubro Niyogi that among other things Gumnami Baba predicted the disintegration of the Soviet Union and remarked that communism will die in the place of its birth. Dasgupta who was also under instructions to never look at the face of Gumnami Baba once had the irresistible urge to steal a glance. What he saw was a replica of Netaji but with thinning hair and flowing beard. But the eyes were powerful and Dasgupta says that he realized that the Baba had reached a higher place of existence and had become a mahatma (a venerable person)."

Did no one think of calling his daughter?

Wife, if she was alive?

" ... Strangely, the teeth which were sent off for DNA examination were found in empty match boxes. Moreover, the DNA test was undertaken some two decades after they were discovered. It is not impossible that the teeth were replaced by some interested party—who had knowledge of medical science—within days of the Baba’s death.

"In a strange twist of affairs, a video tape of an off-the-record conversation between Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee and a film producer captured the former saying that it was his belief that Gumnami Baba was in fact Netaji. In fact he had no doubt on this, the retired Supreme Court judge said. The producer Amlan Kusum Ghosh had been interviewing Justice Mukherjee for his documentary Black Box of History but after the interview had ended, the video had still been rolling and Justice Mukherjee made these comments without realizing this. In fact he said on tape, ‘Please do not quote me on this.’"

"Gumnami Baba was not the first holy man to be declared as Netaji. In fact, the stories about the Baba were only locally known in Faizabad and Ayodhya. But the legend of the sadhu of Shaulmari had spread far and wide. The story goes something like this: around 1959, a sadhu (monk) who was called Sharadanandji by his disciples set up an ashram at a place called Falakata in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. At first, nobody took notice of the ashram or the sadhu—till the area in which the ashram was located expanded dramatically to 100 acres. The number of residents in the ashram also went up—to about 1,000. What began to cause consternation were the armed guards posted at the gates of the ashram. At this point, rumours started spreading that the sadhu was none other than Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in disguise. Within a year or so—by 1961—rumours had spread like wildfire and this was remarkable considering that there was no television, internet or social media in those days."

"Although some of the witnesses before the Commission declared that the sadhu himself had discounted the possibility of his being Netaji, he had not made these claims loudly enough to be known publicly and allowed the rumours to persist. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight it seems that the sadhu was being directed by certain highly skilled people with a pre-determined strategy. This accounts for the sudden growth of the ashram and the military-like precision with which it was run. Though no conclusive proof can be produced, it is not inconceivable that this was a Government of India operation run through the Intelligence Bureau or a similar organization. In those days, Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister and was increasingly under attack for keeping the matter of Subhas Bose’ disappearance under wraps and not making efforts to unravel the mystery. Since Netaji’s spiritual inclinations was no secret, if a sadhu was set up as Netaji there would be many who would accept this story. This would take the focus away from the real Netaji—who the powers that be presumably knew had arrived in India quietly and was living in obscurity. Interestingly, the focus on Shaulmari Baba diminished after 1966 when he went to Dehra Dun and lived in relative obscurity. Notably by this time, Nehru had passed away."

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April 10, 2022 - April 10, 2022.

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13.The Transformation

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"Baba answered: ‘This body has lived in Siberia. You keep the angeethi. I don’t need it.’"

"It appears that Bose was imprisoned in two different labour camps in Siberia. In all possibility, Netaji was at first placed in the harsher labour camp in Yakutsk in Eastern Siberia."

" ... But he was probably shifted away from Yakutsk, to a gulag in the steppes of Central Asia, north of Mongolia where the climate was not as harsh. This internment camp was close to Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world which is now a UNESCO heritage site.

"That Bose was in Yakutsk can be deduced from the testimony of former diplomat and parliamentarian Satya Narayan Sinha to the Khosla Commission—that former NKVD agent Kuzlov had seen Bose in Cell 45 of Yakutsk Prison. That he was interned in a gulag close to Lake Baikal was also revealed by Gumnami Baba in the course of his cryptic conversations with his disciples."

" ... Whether Stalin’s men kept detailed records for posterity is at best a matter of conjecture. But as analyst Anton Vereshchagin—writing in a different context—says in an article published on 10 October 2013 in the Russia & India Report: ‘Joseph Stalin had relatively tense relations with Jawaharlal Nehru and could hardly miss an opportunity to influence him. Keeping Bose under his control could have been a nice trump card to use against India’s first prime minister.’"

" ... In another version, Netaji was imprisoned in Omsk in southwestern Siberia. The following anecdote might explain why he was shifted. Jyotiranand Maharaj, who has headed the Ramakrishna Mission in Moscow for the last two decades, revealed two years ago that his research indicated that after learning of Netaji’s presence in a jail, Vijayalaxmi Pandit had wanted to see the Indian leader. Although she was allowed to visit the jail, she was denied permission to go into the cell that housed Netaji. However in the course of her visit, says Jyotiranand Maharaj, she came across a totally exhausted prisoner who looked startlingly like Netaji. The person seemed to have been physically tortured and was in a somewhat mentally unstable condition. It seems that Pandit rushed back to India within a week of her visit to Omsk, ostensibly for consultations, but nothing came out of it. The Maharaj did not reveal the source of his information. Perhaps there is some record in India’s embassy in Moscow."

" ... In fact, even when Bose was in Germany, there was always a danger that he would be sent to a concentration camp. It is only because his friends in the Reich had kept him protected that Bose was safe. Perhaps in the Soviet Union, Netaji ran out of luck or could not find such friends to lobby for him at the Kremlin.

"Though Netaji may not have had the opportunity to meet Stalin, he had probably convinced some other functionary of the Soviet Communist party to allow him to raise an army like the INA to raid India from the northwest through Afghanistan. This seems to be a likelihood considering the report of Major Hugh Toye of British intelligence. In a report in 1946 he said, ‘The Governor of the Afghan province of Khost has been informed by the Russian ambassador in Kabul that there were many Congress refugees in Moscow and Bose was included in their number. There is little reason for such persons to bring Bose into fabricated stories. At the same time the view that Bose is in Moscow is supplied in a report received from Tehran. This states that Moradoff, the Russian Vice-Consul General, disclosed in March 1946 that Bose was in Russia where he was secretly organizing a group of Russians and Indians to work on the same lines as the INA for the freedom of India.’ (This report has been quoted by Netaji researcher Purabi Roy in her article ‘Tracing the Footprints of Bose’ published in the Pioneer on 24 September 2005.)"

"It can be safely concluded that Bose would not have been in Yakutsk beyond 1949 or 1950. Life in the camp near Lake Baikal was probably somewhat better than his earlier prison. This camp comprised petty criminals and a large number of political prisoners. Those who were labelled petty criminals were probably not wrongdoers by any stretch of imagination. Among them were employees who had reported late for work more than three times. Also included were common people who had been caught cracking jokes about government officials. As for the political prisoners, they were mostly citizens who had resisted the forced occupation of their countries by the regime led by Stalin—Ukrainians, Belarusians, Estonians, Lithuanians and Latvians. Most of them were kept under detention without trial or were imprisoned after summary trials on trumped up charges. There were poets, professors, artists, singers and other talented and educated persons in captivity who were made to do gruelling work while being exposed to the elements.

"Many of the gulags did not have properly demarcated boundaries. So any prisoner could have escaped to freedom. It was still a difficult proposition and most never made their way out once interned. The gulags were located in the middle of nowhere. The harshness of the weather also dissuaded many prisoners from attempting to flee the gulags. There are instances of fleeing prisoners falling victim to snow blizzards and others losing their way. Besides, after some prisoners started fleeing, the gulag administrators brought in tracking dogs which could sniff out the escapees. Later a system of rewards was also instituted—people who lived around the gulags were rewarded if they caught and brought in an escapee."

"In 1956, the book The Long Walk was unveiled to rave reviews and ultimately sold half a million copies. A movie was also made out of the memoir of Slawomir Rawicz, a Polish prisoner of war held in Irkutsk, a place in the coldest region of northeast Siberia. He recounts his escape from Camp 303 under the cover of a blizzard and the 6,000 km trudge to freedom. Accompanied by six more escapees, Rawicz walked ten months to reach India. The fugitive party included three Polish soldiers, a Polish girl, a Latvian landowner, a Lithuanian architect and an US metro engineer. The journey took the group through the Gobi Desert, China, Tibet and the Himalayas. On the way, four escapees died: two in the Gobi desert and two in the Himalayas. The remaining three reached India in an emaciated condition and were found by a Gurkha patrol in the Himalayas. The escape journey was undertaken in 1941. But later the memoir was challenged by some who pointed out that the journey never took place because Rawicz was released directly in Iran in 1942. Thus he could not have undertaken the journey. But there were others who pointed out that the journey was real and that somebody instead of Rawicz had undertaken the travel. A British intelligence officer in India—Rupert Mayne—also confirmed that three emaciated men had been debriefed by him in his office in Calcutta in 1942 and had pretty much told him the same story about the long march. However, when he was quizzed many years later, he could not remember the names.

"Was it that Bose had a similar impulse when he was released? The distance between Lake Baikal and Gorakhpur is 3,608 km—which is just sixty per cent of the long walk undertaken by Rawicz and the other five escapees. The route would entail crossing Mongolia and China into India through the Himalayas. So if Netaji had trekked across this terrain he would have had to take the same route. We also do not know whether he came alone or had other compatriots. Another relevant point to ask—if Bose was let off officially, why had he not contacted the Indian authorities in Moscow from where he could have been repatriated home? There are no answers for this: the only possible explanation, he must have realized that he was not welcome among the ruling establishment in India. This is a realization that must have come early, even before he was despatched to the gulag. It is not unrealistic to assume that Netaji did make an attempt to communicate with Stalin and even contacts in India while he was being held in the internal security jail.

"‘If Gumnami Baba was indeed Subhas Bose it is clear that he did not enter India without coordinating with his network of associates and well-wishers. Entering India and settling is not possible without the help of other people,’ says Amit Mitra, West Bengal’s finance minister and the grand-nephew of Subhas Bose."

" ... V.N. Arora, who had entered Gumnami Baba’s quarters in the town after he passed away, remembers seeing a map that charted the route that the Baba had taken from Siberia to India. Presently the map is locked up in the Faizabad treasury. ‘The map gave the coordinates of the area through which he passed and most of it was in China,’ Arora remembers. But the map did not mention the mode of conveyance taken by Gumnami Baba—whether he travelled by road or by foot or by a combination of various modes. Arora adds, ‘Gumnami Baba’s room had a huge amount of handwritten notes. Nobody has read them till now. May be once these papers are made public we will get a clue about his journey and who knows, even his life story. For all we know, he might have left his life story in writing that has not yet been discovered. Nandalal Chakravarti, a former professor of political science, who chanced on a copy of the map told the Kolkata edition of The Times of India recently that it mentions places and mountain regions visited and routes traversed by the Baba. Locations are indicated by surrounding cities, mountains and rivers. On the left is Afghanistan, at the top left is Tajikistan. The line stretches to Kashgar, Yarkhand in the middle at top and then on to Kiyuchen of China on the right. Also mentioned is Stalinabad, the name of Dushanbe between 1931–61. Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan and the fact that the name Stalinabad is mentioned would mean that the Baba had traversed the place before 1961, avers Chakravarti. Ashok Tandon, a journalist from Faizabad who had made a copy of the map from the belongings of Baba says that ‘it is clear that the Baba had unusual acumen in geography.’ Even before he was seen in Naimisharanya, Gumnami Baba reportedly first showed up around 1962 in Etawah in western Uttar Pradesh though the year is disputed. The city is on the Delhi–Kanpur railway line and there are stories that he was patronized by the Raja of Etawah. ‘I would imagine that he showed up shortly after Nehru’s death,’ says Arora and bases his opinion on the fact that the Baba kept old newspapers stacked in his room. ‘We found copies of the Pioneer with him dating back from late 1964,’ he says."

" ... V.N. Arora recollects that while leafing through a copy of the book Himalayan Blunder by Brigadier J.P. Dalvi, found among the possessions of Gumnami Baba, he was startled by the notes on its margins. One of these clearly mentioned: ‘You fool I was there. This is not what had happened.’ Arora says he can’t remember the exact reference and whom the Baba was labelling as a fool. The controversial book, banned immediately after it was published (later the ban was lifted), dealt with the Indo–China War of 1962 and the events preceding the conflict."

Author mentions Sri Aurobindo in context of a revolutionary turning spiritual; he gives one detail incorrect.

Sri Aurobindo did devote himself completely to spiritual life after his arrival in Pondicherry, but his spiritual life began much earlier, in Baroda, if not yet earlier than that.

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April 10, 2022 - April 10, 2022.

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14.Was Netaji Forsaken by His Own Government?

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Author is a tad confused in this.

"As soon as it became clear that the air crash in which Netaji was believed to have died could have been faked, the Government of India started making frenetic efforts to figure out where he was and what he was up to. Simultaneously, senior government officials launched a strenuous campaign to convince the public-at-large that Bose had perished in the air crash at Taihoku on 18 August 1945.

"Common people and even many at high places were taken in by this steady messaging, but the Government of India—by this time India had won freedom—knew that the information that they were putting out for public consumption was incorrect. Thus it is clear that the government initiative to look for Netaji had not been planned with any altruistic motives: it was designed to checkmate the patriot.

"In the beginning, even the government was not sure of the leader’s whereabouts. Therefore, it began spying on Bose’s close relatives in the hope that crucial information about the activities of the leader would come out of this snooping. It was believed that Netaji would get in touch with his relatives either directly or indirectly. In fact, the snooping continued till 1968—some twenty-one years after Independence—demonstrating the high degree of interest shown by the government to ferret out the truth about Bose."

None of the above, except that the government lied, can make any sense in light of the one key fact revealed since, elsewhere and in this book - that Jawaharlal dictated, and presumably sent, a message to the then PM Attlee of UK, to the effect that as per information received by him from Stalin, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was in custody in USSR.

If this event did happen, if Jawaharlal Nehru in 1946 did dictate such a message and send it to Attlee, it could only be because he did believe he had such a message from Stalin; any search by government of India thereafter can only be a checking on facts and whereabouts, not a search for whether Netaji did live after the supposed air crash.

And this amounts to snooping on the family being, not to find out if Netaji had survived, but rather to find out if they knew that he had. Which then acquires a sinister shade - what if they did know? Was the government going to finish them off, to avoid discredit?

" ... A story published in the 12 April 2015 edition of The Times of India with the revealing title—‘Documents Reveal Nehru Government Shared Information on Netaji with MI5’ reported that not only did the Nehru government snoop on Bose through the IB but also shared confidential information with the MI5. On 6 October 1947, IB official S. Balakrishna Shetty sought the comments of the MI5 on a letter that it had intercepted. The letter was written to Amiya Nath Bose, a nephew of Netaji’s by A.C.N. Nambiar who had been the leader’s deputy in Germany. Nambiar stayed in Zurich. Shetty said in his request letter to the MI5’s representative in Delhi, K.M. Bourne that the Nambiar letter ‘had been seen during secret censorship and passed on. We shall be grateful for your comments.’ In turn, Bourne forwarded the letter to his director-general in London with the comments: ‘Any comments that you make in this letter will be appreciated. The letter could be about Bose’s wife and daughter though the context is unclear.’"

But, as per his biography by his grand-nephew, Netaji had written to infirm his family immediately after he married, so thus particular letter in question must - or at least, could - have been about other vital matters, such as his being alive.

" ... Incidentally Anuj Dhar, who is engaged in unravelling the Netaji mystery, says that Bhola Nath Mullick as IB chief had lied to the Khosla Commission and misrepresented to the Shah Nawaz Committee. Dhar said in an interview to the Zee News television channel on 10 August 2012 that Mullick had doctored the Japanese version of a British-era report on Netaji’s purported death by removing the final passages before presenting it to the Shah Nawaz Committee. He also alleged that if statements under oath made by Mullick to the Khosla Commission is compared to facts now emanating as a result of a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by him, then the former IB boss would be found to have committed perjury. Mullick died in 1984.

"The IB collaboration with British intelligence ceased only after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told the IB czars to discontinue it. Balachandran, in The Times of India story says that he was present at the meeting where Indira Gandhi spoke to IB bosses. After 1970 and more specifically after the Indo-Pakistan war in 1971, India became closer to the Soviet Union, with whom the country had signed a friendship treaty. Since the IB–MI5 deal was basically to keep tabs on communist countries, the closer ties with the Soviet Union led to excising of ties with British intelligence agencies.

"Not only was the IB snooping on Netaji’s relatives but Nehru personally also sought to find out about their activities. As a result of another RTI query, we now know that Nehru wrote a letter on 25 November 1957 to the then foreign secretary, Subimal Dutt about Amiya Nath Bose’s visit to Japan. Nehru wrote, ‘I would like to find out what he (Amiya Bose) did in Tokyo? Did he go to our embassy? Did he visit the Renkoji temple?’ Amiya Nath Bose, the eldest son of Sarat Chandra Bose, became a Lok Sabha MP in 1967; but in 1957 he had been a mere barrister. So there was no reason for Nehru to enquire after Amiya Nath’s activities in Japan unless of course he was paranoid that Netaji was alive and would surface some time.

Besides, if Gandhi said what he did after meeting Habibur Rahman, and sent a message to family of Netaji to not conduct his rites, what did Jawaharlal Nehru achieve by lying?

"Writing in the 20 April 2015 issue of India Today magazine, journalist Sandeep Unnithan says, ‘For two decades between 1948 and 1968, Government of India placed Bose family members under intensive surveillance. Sleuths intercepted, read and recorded letters of Bose families exactly in the same way that they would of relatives and contacts of terrorists.’ The same report pointed out that the man behind all this was IB director Bhola Nath Mullick. He shared the letters with M.L. Hooja who became the IB chief in 1968 and Rameshwar Nath Kao who went on to be the first secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) when it was formed. All the files containing the details of the snooping were marked ‘top secret’ and ‘very secret’.

Orwellian indeed.

Mind-boggling!

How could, how did the Bose family stand all this pressure, and retain their sanity?

And what did the government achieve by subjecting them to this, on top of a trauma of uncertainty of the very existence and whereabouts of their own, Subhash Chandra Bose?

Is it worth losing your name? Goodwill?

"Taking advantage of the more open (or probably less closed) regime in Russia a team of scholars from the Asiatic Society of Kolkata (that had an agreement with the Oriental Institute in Moscow) went down to access possible files relating to Indo-Soviet relations and about Netaji. In the course of the visit, the team realized that only after examining the KGB archives could they conclusively say anything. They also realized that the KGB archives could possibly be opened up only on the request of the Government of India. Thus on their return they moved the Ministry of External Affairs. The joint secretary (East Europe), R.L. Narayan, then wrote a note to the foreign secretary on 12 January 1996 that the Indian ambassador in Russia could issue a demarche to the Russian Government to organize a search of the KGB archives. This was because an earlier request from the Government of India had elicited a negative response that there was nothing in Russian records on that matter. A demarche in diplomatic terms is a strong request and the word is used to convey the importance of the request. The earlier request had been place in January 1992 when Russia was beginning to open up. In fact in his note, Narayan wrote, ‘In January 1992 we had received a disclaimer from the Russian foreign ministry that said that according to the Republican archives no information whatsoever was available on the stay of Subhas Chandra Bose in Soviet Union in 1945 and thereafter.’ In the same note Narayan had suggested that the Russian disclaimer was possibly based on the archives of the post-Stalin period (post-1953). Narayan had said that since it would be unrealistic to expect that Russian authorities would allow Indian scholars access to KGB archives, the Indian government could ‘request Russian authorities to conduct a search themselves into the archives and let us know if there is any evidence of Netaji’s stay in the Soviet Union.’

"When the file went up to Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, he called for an urgent meeting on 14 January. The move for the demarche was dropped. On 7 March, the same joint secretary wrote to the foreign secretary once again. This time he wrote that a formal request to the Russian Government may be misunderstood by the latter and therefore he recommended that the Asiatic Society itself should be allowed to pursue the matter independently with the Oriental Institute."

Perhaps the president position was his reward?

"Close to the elections, politicians become very agreeable. Thus the same Narasimha Rao whose government had actively thwarted any attempt to get information out of Russia on 25 March 1996 advised his joint secretary to pursue the matter. The joint secretary wrote to the foreign secretary, ‘PM would like our ambassador in Moscow to make discreet enquiries at a high level to ascertain, if possible, the existence of such information in Russia and the possible reaction of the Russian side. Foreign secretary may see.’ What happened to this discreet enquiry is not known."

"The paranoia about Netaji continued even after the Congress government bowed out of office. In 1999, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee set up the Mukherjee Commission to inquire about the disappearance of Netaji. This was after a judgment by the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Prabha Shankar Mishra. But the NDA government showed little keenness to cooperate with the Commission. When the Commission asked the government to share files relating to Netaji in its possession, the reply was tantamount to a flat no. The home secretary, Kamal Pande filed an affidavit and wrote back, ‘I have carefully examined the documents and I am bona fide satisfied that the disclosure of these documents would also hurt the sentiments of the public at large and may evoke wide spread reactions as these documents if disclosed may lower the image of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. ... "

This last bit is a lie in keeping with attitudes of Congress governments; the bureaucracy of course couldn't risk doing an about-face and then be caught in a year or two by the Congress returning to power, as was happening since emergency on; it's only since 2014 that some breathing space has been possible.

" ... Diplomatic relations with friendly countries may also be adversely affected if the said documents are disclosed. In these circumstances I withhold permission to produce the said records or to release their contents or give any evidence derived therefrom and claim privileges under section 123 and 124 of Evidence Act.’ Pande also said, ‘The disclosure of the records would also be violating the mandatory provisions of Article 74(2) of the Constitution in as much as the records ordered to be produced also belong to the class of documents which it is the practice to keep secret and ensuring the proper functioning of public service. The records include notes and minutes by officers and ministers on file.’"

That's verbal haystack to put off anyone who's not used to language of bureaucracy.

That last is the vital key to this government and the difference.

Recall that the most venerated Rāma had, at the very least, three mothers.

There might very well have been more.

"That is why Netaji’s family members and other Netaji lovers (and there are innumerable such people) feel that Narendra Modi has no vested interest and will not go back on his promise to declassify the relevant files. A small step was taken by the government in this matter in mid-April after a ruckus was created when the contents of two declassified files revealed that Netaji’s kin had been being tailed for twenty long years. An inter-ministerial committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary was set up to review the Netaji files and their contents in the light of the Official Secrets Act. The Committee will decide whether these files can be opened up and will start the process on 23 January 2016. Incidentally, the rules specify that files can be declassified after thirty years. This means that files earlier than 1985 can be declassified.

"The million dollar question: will the committee recommend declassification? But a word of caution: declassification of the files may illustrate in detail the attitude of successive Indian regimes towards Netaji but may not throw light on his whereabouts. A former top official of the intelligence department who served for four decades in both the IB and RAW says that all that may be found in the files would be cross-references to what is contained in files in other countries like Japan, United Kingdom and perhaps the Soviet Union."

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April 10, 2022 - April 10, 2022.

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April 08, 2022 - April 10, 2022.

Purchased 19 February, 2022.

Publisher: Rupa Publications India

(1 October 2016)

Format: Kindle Edition

Kindle Edition

Language: English

ASIN:- ‎B01M5BCAAK

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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4656079930

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Reviews - Books I Read - DRJG

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Netaji: Living Dangerously, by Kingshuk Nag.

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