The launch of Ashis Ray’s novel promises to dispel all doubts about the death of Subhash Chandra Bose, Saatvik Jha listens in
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the man, was always shrouded in mystery during his life. The mystery did not spare him in his death. During his lifetime, the news of his death surfaced often, only to be quashed by his appearance. He journeyed to the Far East in German and Japanese submarines during the ongoing World War II. It is not quite surprising that during that period, reports of his death were received which were later proven wrong. So then, it was not unpredictable that when the news of his demise surfaced shortly after the end of World War II, Indians did not believe it. Over the years, Bose and his ‘death’ has become one of the most enduring and elusive debates for the Indian state. Now a favourite of Indian conspiracy theorists, the elusive truth behind Netaji’s sudden death has been debated by three government commissions over 70 years. It was then no surprise that a book by veteran journalist Ashis Ray decided to put in his efforts to collate the evidence surrounding this mystery, building on one argument in a definitive attempt to lay this controversy to rest.
Daughter of the founder of Indian National Army, Anita Bose-Pfaff writes these lines in the foreword for laid to Rest, “The most widely believed version of Bose’s death is a plane crash on August 18, 1945, while taking off from Taipei. Netaji’s ashes have been in Japan ever since his cremation at Renko-ji Temple soon after the plane crash. Arguing in support of this, the book comes at the heels of the ‘Netaji Papers’, confidential information pertaining to Bose’s death declassified by the Modi government in December 2015. Highlighting the need for this publication, Ray observes, “Dr Sisir Bose, Director of the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata, had proposed to the government in the 1990’s that all the evidence that existed from various sources should be brought together in the form of one document. My wife, who is a civil servant in Britain, said that this is what we call a ‘white paper’, and the government should’ve produced that white paper.” Confident in the case he has to present, Ray was joined by a noteworthy panel. It was moderated by yet another veteran journalist, Karan Thapar. Aftab Seth — ambassador to Japan during the investigation of the Mukherjee Commission – along with celebrated historian Aditya Mukherjee, corroborated Ray’s narrative at the panel discussion.
An audience member at the launch wondered, “Why didn’t the family of Bose at the time, when the plane crashed, demand that the urn containing Netaji’s ashes come to IndiaIJ” Thapar was quick to shoot back, “The family didn’t believe that the plane contained him. They didn’t believe that the urn was his ashes. Many newspapers didn’t believe he’d died either. So to receive the urn, and give it the grace and decor that we believe it deserves, would be to accept that he died –which they didn’t want to accept in the first place.” Mukherjee shed light on the historical context, “There were some technical problems at the time. First of all, in 1945, India was not independent. Secondly, Japan came under Allied occupation. So it was not really until 1952 that the ashes could’ve been brought back. In the meanwhile, a crucial figure who would’ve decided on the matter, Sarat Bose, Subhash's elder brother died in 1950, not having visited Taiwan or Tokyo. I’m fairly convinced that he would’ve, had he visited Japan, got down to the facts and there would not have been the controversy that has existed ever since.”
The sheer factor of distance between Netaji’s ashes in Japan and the government in India contributed heavily to the difficulty in parsing all doubts about them. The platform for all investigation into them was the Indian embassy in Japan, making it extremely relevant for Thapar to ask the ambassador, “Do you believe that the ashes contained in the urn are Netaji’sIJ” Ever the bureaucrat, Seth extended the government’s views before presenting his own, “The third commission, Justice Mukherjee, believes that they are not. But he gives absolutely no reasons for arriving at this rather alarming conclusion. He also concludes, again without any evidence, that Bose did not die in the crash. The Mukherjee Commission, which was rejected outright by the Manmohan Singh government and incidentally, by this government as well. The Indian government has accepted that he died in the crash at Taipei. The Japanese have absolutely no doubt about it.”
Modern forensic science has presented us with a sure shot method of verifying whether those ashes are, in fact, Bose’s or not with DNA testing. As it turns out, this idea alone has a heavy backstory to it, intertwined with the notion of a ‘golden proof’ contained within the urn. Seth recounts the journey of this proof, “When the Mukherjee Commission came to Japan there was an attempt to open the urn and take a DNA sample. The urn had never been opened except for Nehru when he visited Renkoji and Sisir, the nephew of Subhash Chandra Bose, when he visited Japan and Taiwan on a fact-finding mission. Even though it’s considered highly improper in Buddhist tradition to constantly open the urn, it was opened. Ray’s book mentions an instance where two officers go into the temple and photograph the remains. They were actually looking for the golden proof which Habib ur Rahman, in his report had said was placed in the urn, with the remains of Netaji.” Thapar interjects, “Was the proof they were looking for foundIJ”
At this point, Ray resumes the narration, “The two officers produced a confidential report and from it I deduced that they found it.” Naeem-ur-Rahman, the son of Habib ur Rahman, the officer who accompanied Bose during his journey from Taipei remembered a key thing he told him. When Habib went with other Japanese officers to collect the ashes after the cremation, he was separately given a tooth wrapped in a piece of paper. Not knowing what to do with it, he simply put it in the urn. Ray, on his part, wrote to the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao saying that this was worth checking out. And this was corroborated when Seth’s officers went there and the paper packet with two thawed teeth was found.
Though the above events fit in neatly with one another, this bit of evidence is inconclusive without actual DNA testing. Thapar concurs with the view that DNA testing may be the key to ending this, going on to ask Ray, “Do you have any sense of how the government would respond if this issue were to be raised todayIJ” Thapar did agree that it has been raised by Pfaff in the book’s foreword.
Ray responds, “It has to be said that, of all the prime ministers, Narasimha Rao was the only one who took the initiative. The finance minister Pranab Mukherjee visited the temple and went to Germany to meet Bose’s widow, Emilie Schenkl, and to explore with her the return of the ashes — this was 1995. The proposal was that the ashes should come back by 1997 — on Bose’s birth centenary. I think Anita’s position on the matter of DNA is to try and resolve the matter if possible. I’ve got it from good authority that there will be no objection from the Japanese government, but they need a request from the Indian government to entertain either a request to bring the remains to India or to attain a test on the remains.”
Interestingly, Ray happens to be the son-in-law of Sarat Bose — making him an extended part of the Bose family. So is Ray in the favour of pursuing DNA testing of the remainsIJ Ray has a firm position on the matter, “No, I have no such intentions. I don’t really see myself as a member of the family. In fact, I’ve stayed away from this for a very long time. I’ve tried to see Bose and this aspect of his death in the most detached manner possible. But let me clarify something. In 1995 when I proposed a DNA test, it was the only way out to satisfy everyone scientifically. There was a need to do so, at that point of time. Today the evidence which has come thereafter, and the evidence which is now in my book is so overwhelming that I don’t think a DNA test is really necessary. At the same time if it helps to solve matters, I’m no one to say yes or no because I’m not a decision-maker.”
DNA test or no, if our panelists are to be believed then evidence has clearly mounted in favour of the plane-crash narrative. This begs the question, illustrated eloquently by Thapar, “What does this whole saga of confusion, controversy, and ceaseless speculation tell you about the Indian people and our attitude towards Subhash BoseIJ We’ve kept this controversy alight, we seem to enjoy fuelling it on every occasion, and we even have such mysterious theories that he may have returned to India in hiding as Gumnami Baba! Or that he is incarcerated in a Soviet Gulag camp, or he’s hidden in Manchuria.” After indulging in a brief comparative stemming from his experience in Japan, Seth remarks, impassioned, “There’s no shortage of people willing to spin fables, myths and yarns including men like Manoj Mukherjee who was appointed by the Vajpayee government and went into issues that had been settled by two respectable commissions. So what it tells about us is that we’re willing, even at the highest level, not to bring closure to an issue which is screaming out, crying out loud for being closed. The Indian government, two years after declassifying all the documents, has made no move to bring closure to this event.”
In summary, Seth prescribed in simple terms what the government should do imperatively, “Two years after declassification the Government should make a formal request saying that, ‘We accept he died in Taipei, and that the ashes in Renkoji are his. We have declassified the documents. May we now request you to allow him, as his only survivor wants, to bring his ashes back with the honour that they deserve, and that the people of India deserve to have, and bring it back.’” This has not been done for two years which is a telling commentary on us. “We are not capable of calling matters which are clear, incontrovertible, to bring in to a close,” he adds.
In the aftermath of the discussion, attendees were largely satisfied. An attendee comments hopefully, “It was nice, it was very informative. I think Ray has put this controversy to rest — that this is a white paper. I hope this book does justice to the issue, that it isn’t just another book.” However, there were still those in the audience who disagreed with the views presented that evening. “Well, I am not buying the book because I disagree with him completely,” says one such gentleman. “I tend to agree with this documentary film that I saw, ‘Bose and the lost Treasure of the INA’, it was shown by the History Channel on August 15 last year. It’s there on Youtube, I think in Hindi, English and Bengali — three versions, and it’s beautifully done. I found it fascinating. You must see it because they come up with different theories, ones that Ray hasn’t discussed today.” This audience member went on, at length, to describe what he believed instead. Though his theories may have seemed unlikely, he represents a demographic staunchly disbelieves the tale of Netaji having died in a plane crash. It is precisely this subset of the population that Ashish Ray’s novel must convince, while informing all others. With a promising release, it remains to be seen whether the controversy over Subash Chandra Bose’s death has finally been laid to rest.