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Death of Subhas Chandra Bose

Original Article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Subhas_Chandra_Bose

Edits Made By Irith Chaturvedi are signalled at the end of paragraphs

Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian Freedom Fighter, President of the Indian National Congress and the commander of the Indian National Army during the British Rule of India in the early to mid-20th century. Considered to be the one of the only violent forces to defy the British Raj over India, he revolutionized the idea of mutiny amongst Indians on the warfront and helped stabilize the volatile condition of India’s eastern provinces. Official records state his date of death as the 18th of August, 1945.

- Edit by Irith Chaturvedi

Bose, who had become soaked in gasoline before exiting the burning bomber, was transported to the Nanmon Military Hospital south of Taihoku, where his extensive upper-body burns were treated for six hours by the chief surgeon Dr. Taneyoshi Yoshimi, two other doctors Dr Truruta and Dr Ishii, and half a dozen technical staff and nurses. Bose went into a coma and died between 9 PM and 10 PM Taihoku time. Bose's chief-of-staff, Col. Habib ur Rahman, who had traveled with him, and who lay nearby with severe burns, recovered. Ten years later he testified at an inquiry commission on Bose's death, the burn marks on his arms conspicuously visible.

His death, although attributed to third-degree burns from an air crash incident in Taiwan on the 18th of August 1945 (Then Japanese-ruled Formosa), is disputed and refuted extensively. Conspiracy theories with solid physical evidence have since been brought up. Many people thought of it as an inside job considering the quarrels and differences in ideologies he had with Gandhi and the INC with their idea of non-violence. Large groups were against him due to his alleged ties with Nazi Germany and Fascist Japan, who he did think of as allies in the struggle for independence against the British.

- Edit By Irith Chaturvedi

His remains now lie in the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo, now a famous tourist attraction, but are they really his remains? According to Indian author and journalist Anuj Dhar, the story of his death were based entirely on the accounts of eyewitnesses. When pressed by British officials on this matter, many contradictions came about. There were discrepancies regarding the incident, the date and time of death, the death certificate and his cremation at Renkoji temple. His remains were speculated to be kept along with the remains of General Shidei, however, no such cremations were held for General Shidei in Taipei. Bose’s other lieutenants who were accompanying him on this trip to Manchuria via air, but were left behind in Saigon, never saw a body. There were rumors spreading throughout the country that Netaji was still alive as a disguised sadhu (sage) known as Gumnami Baba. People that believed in his existence have said that he lived in many locations throughout the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and died on September 16, 1985. When boxes of his belongings were opened, photographs of his family, lavish telephones and typewriters were found. ^{[1] [2]}

- Edit By Irith Chaturvedi

Death Last months with the Indian National Army

Map of Central Burma showing the route taken by Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army (INA) group of 500 from Rangoon to Moulmein. The group traveled in a Japanese military convoy until they reached the river Sittang. After crossing the river, they walked the remaining 80 miles. At Moulmein, Bose, his party, and another INA group of 500, boarded Japanese trains on the Death Railway (which had been constructed earlier by British, Australian, and Dutch prisoners of war) to arrive in Bangkok in the first week of May 1945. During the last week of April 1945, Subhas Chandra Bose along with his senior Indian National Army (INA) officers, several hundred enlisted INA men, and nearly a hundred women from the INA's Rani of Jhansi Regiment left Rangoon by road for Moulmein in Burma.[8] Accompanied by Lieutenant General Saburo Isoda, the head of the Japanese-INA liaison organization Hikari Kikan, their Japanese military convoy was able to reach the right bank of the Sittang river, albeit slowly.[9] (See map 1.) However, very few vehicles were able to cross the river because of American strafing runs. Bose and his party walked the remaining 80 miles (130 km) to Moulmein over the next week.[9] Moulmein then was the terminus of the Death Railway, constructed earlier by British, Australian, and Dutch prisoners of war, linking Burma to Siam (now Thailand).[9] At Moulmein, Bose's group was also joined by 500 men from the X-regiment, INA's first guerrilla regiment, who arrived from a different location in Lower Burma.[10]

A year and a half earlier, 16,000 INA men and 100 women had entered Burma from Malaya.[10] Now, less than one tenth that number left the country, arriving in Bangkok during the first week of May.[10] The remaining nine tenths were either killed in action, died from malnutrition or injuries after the battles of Imphal and Kohima. Others were captured by the British, turned themselves in, or simply disappeared.[10] Bose stayed in Bangkok for a month, where soon after his arrival he heard the news of Germany's surrender on May 8.[11] Bose spent the next two months between June and July 1945 in Singapore,[11] and in both places attempted to raise funds for billeting his soldiers or rehabilitating them if they chose to return to civilian life, which most of the women did.[12] In his nightly radio broadcasts, Bose spoke with increasing virulence against Gandhi, who had been released from jail in 1944, and was engaged in talks with British administrators, envoys and Muslim League leaders.[13] Some senior INA officers began to feel frustrated or disillusioned with Bose and to prepare quietly for the arrival of the British and its consequences.[13]

During the first two weeks of August 1945, events began to unfold rapidly. With the British threatening to invade Malaya and with daily American aerial bombings, Bose's presence in Singapore became riskier by the day. His chief of staff J. R. Bhonsle suggested that he prepare to leave Singapore.[14] On 3 August 1945, Bose received a cable from General Isoda advising him to urgently evacuate to Saigon in Japanese-controlled French Indochina (now Vietnam).[14] On 10 August, Bose learnt that the Soviet Union had entered the war and invaded Manchuria. At the same time he heard about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[15] Finally, on 16 August, after being informed of the unconditional surrender of Japan, Bose decided to leave for Saigon along with a handful of his aides.[14]

Last days and journeys

The last airplane journeys of Subhas Chandra Bose. Paths of completed flights are shown in blue. On 16 August 1945, he left Singapore for Bangkok, Siam (now Thailand). On either the 16th itself or on the 17th morning, he flew from Bangkok to Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. On the 17 August afternoon, he flew from Saigon to Tourane, French Indo-China, now Da Nang, Vietnam. Early next morning at 5 AM, he left Tourane for Taihoku, Formosa, now Taipei, Taiwan. At 2:30 PM on 18 August, he left for Dairen, Manchukuo, now Dalian, China, but his plane crashed shortly after takeoff, and Bose died within a few hours in a Japanese military hospital. Had the crash not occurred the plane would have dropped off Bose at Dairen and proceeded to Tokyo along a flight path shown in red. Reliable strands of historical narrative about Bose's last days are united up to this point. However, they separate briefly for the period between 16 August, when Bose received news of Japan's surrender in Singapore, and shortly after noon on 17 August, when Bose and his party arrived at Saigon airport from Saigon city to board a plane.[16] (See map 2.)

In one version, Bose flew out from Singapore to Saigon, stopping briefly in Bangkok, on the 16th. Soon after arriving in Saigon, he visited Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi, head of the Japanese forces in Southeast Asia, and requested him to arrange a flight to the Soviet Union.[14] Although until the day before, the Soviet Union had been a belligerent of Japan, it was also seen, at least by Bose, as increasingly anti-British,[17] and, consequently, a possible base of his future operations against the British Raj.[14] Terauchi, in turn, cabled Japan's Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ) in Tokyo for permission, which was quickly denied.[14] In the words of historian Joyce Chapman Lebra, the IGHQ felt that it "would be unfair of Bose to write off Japan and go over to Soviet Union after receiving so much help from Japan. Terauchi added in talking with Bose that it would be unreasonable for him to take a step which was opposed by the Japanese."[14] Privately, however, Terauchi still felt sympathy for Bose—one that had been formed during their two-year-long association.[14] He somehow managed to arrange room for Bose on a flight leaving Saigon on the morning of 17 August 1945 bound for Tokyo, but stopping en route in Dairen, Manchuria—which was still Japanese-occupied, but toward which the Soviet army was fast approaching—where Bose was to have disembarked and to have awaited his fate at the hand of the Soviets.[14]

In another version, Bose left Singapore with his party on the 16th and stopped en route in Bangkok, surprising INA officer in-charge there, J. R. Bhonsle, who quickly made arrangements for Bose's overnight stay.[16] Word of Bose's arrival, however, got out, and soon local members of the Indian Independence League (IIL), the INA, and the Thai Indian business community turned up at the hotel.[16] According to historian Peter Ward Fay, Bose "sat up half the night holding court—and in the morning flew on to Saigon, this time accompanied by General Isoda ..."[16] Arriving in Saigon, late in the morning, there was little time to visit Field Marshal Terauchi, who was in Dalat in the Central Highlands of French Indo-China, an hour away by plane.[16] Consequently, Isoda himself, without consulting with higher ups, arranged room for Bose on a flight leaving around noon.[16]

In the third sketchier version, Bose left Singapore on the 17th.[17] According to historian Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, "On 17 August he issued a final order of the day, dissolving the INA with the words, 'The roads to Delhi are many and Delhi still remains our goal.' He then flew out to China via French Indo-China. If all else failed he wanted to become a prisoner of the Soviets: 'They are the only ones who will resist the British. My fate is with them'."[17]

The Mitsubishi Ki-21 twin-engine heavy bomber (Allies code name Sally) that Subhas Chandra Bose and Habibur Rahman boarded at Saigon airport around 2 PM on 17 August 1945. Around noon on 17 August, the strands again reunite. At Saigon airport, a Mitsubishi Ki-21 heavy bomber, of the type code named Sally by the Allies, was waiting for Bose and his party.[18][19] In addition to Bose, the INA group comprised Colonel Habibur Rahman, his secretary; S. A. Ayer, a member of his cabinet; Major Abid Hasan, his old associate who had made the hazardous submarine journey from Germany to Sumatra in 1943; and three others.[18] To their dismay, they learned upon arrival that there was room for only one INA passenger.[19] Bose complained, and the beleaguered General Isoda gave in and hurriedly arranged for a second seat.[19] Bose chose Habibur Rahman to accompany him.[19] It was understood that the others in the INA party would follow him on later flights. There was further delay at Saigon airport. According to historian Joyce Chapman Lebra, "a gift of treasure contributed by local Indians was presented to Bose as he was about to board the plane. The two heavy strong-boxes added overweight to the plane's full load."[18] Sometime between noon and 2 PM, the twin-engine plane took off with 12 or 13 people aboard: a crew of three or four, a group of Japanese army and air force officers, including Lieutenant-General Tsunamasa Shidei, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Japanese Kwantung Army, which although fast retreating in Manchuria still held the Manchurian peninsula, and Bose and Rahman. Bose was sitting a little to the rear of the portside wing;[18] the bomber, under normal circumstances, carried a crew of five.

That these flights were possible a few days after Japan's surrender was the result of a lack of clarity about what had occurred. Although Japan had unconditionally surrendered, when Emperor Hirohito had made his announcement over the radio, he had used formal Japanese, not entirely intelligible to ordinary people and, instead of using the word "surrender" (in Japanese), had mentioned only "abiding by the terms of the Potsdam Declaration." Consequently, many people, especially in Japanese-occupied territories, were unsure if anything had significantly changed, allowing a window of a few days for the Japanese air force to continue flying. Although the Japanese and Bose were tight lipped about the destination of the bomber, it was widely assumed by Bose's staff left behind in Saigon that the plane was bound for Dairen on the Manchurian peninsula, which, as stated above, was still under Japanese control. Bose had been talking for over a year about the importance of making contact with the communists, both Russian and Chinese. In 1944, he had asked a minister in his cabinet, Anand Mohan Sahay to travel to Tokyo for the purposes of making contact with the Soviet ambassador, Jacob Malik.[18] However, after consulting the Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, Sahay decided against it.[18] In May 1945, Sahay had again written to Shigemitsu requesting him to contact Soviet authorities on behalf of Bose; again the reply had been in the negative.[18] Bose had been continually querying General Isoda for over a year about the Japanese army's readiness in Manchuria.[18] After the war, the Japanese confirmed to the British investigators and later Indian commissions of inquiry, that plane was indeed bound for Dairen, and that fellow passenger General Shidea of the Kwantung Army, was to have disembarked with Bose in Dairen and to have served as the main liaison and negotiator for Bose's transfer into Soviet controlled territory in Manchuria.[18][17]

The plane had flown north. By the time it was near the northern coast of French Indo-China, darkness had begun to close in, and the pilot decided to make an unscheduled stop in Tourane (now Da Nang, Vietnam).[20] The passengers stayed overnight at a hotel, and the crew, worried that the plane was overloaded, shed some 500 pounds of equipment and luggage, and also refueled the plane.[20] Before dawn the next morning, the group flew out again, this time east to Taihoku, Formosa (now Taipei, Taiwan), which was a scheduled stop, arriving there around noon on 18 August 1945.[20] During the two-hour stop in Taihoku, the plane was again refueled, while the passengers ate lunch.[20] The chief pilot and the ground engineer, and Major Kono, seemed concerned about the portside engine, and, once all the passengers were on board, the engine was tested by repeatedly throttling up and down.[20][21] The concerns allayed, the plane finally took off, in different accounts, as early as 2 PM,[20] and as late as 2:30 PM,[21][22] watched by ground engineers.[20]

Death in plane crash

Clipping from Japanese newspaper, published on 23 August 1945, reporting the death of Bose and General Tsunamasa Shidei of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Just as the bomber was leaving the standard path taken by aircraft during take-off, the passengers inside heard a loud sound, similar to an engine backfiring.[21][22] Airport mechanics saw something fall out of the plane.[20] It was the portside engine, or a part of it, and the propeller.[20][21] The plane swung wildly to the right and plummeted, crashing, breaking into two, and exploding into flames.[20][21] Inside, the chief pilot, copilot and General Shidea were instantly killed.[20][23] Rahman was stunned, passing out briefly, and Bose, although conscious and not fatally hurt, was soaked in gasoline.[20] When Rahman came to, he and Bose attempted to leave by the rear door but found it blocked by the luggage.[23] They then decided to run through the flames and exit from the front.[23] The ground staff, now approaching the plane, saw two people staggering towards them, one of whom had become a human torch.[20] The human torch turned out to be Bose, whose gasoline-soaked clothes had instantly ignited.[23] Rahman and a few others managed to smother the flames, but also noticed that Bose's face and head appeared badly burned.[23] According to Joyce Chapman Lebra, "A truck which served as ambulance rushed Bose and the other passengers to the Nanmon Military Hospital south of Taihoku."[20] The airport personnel called Dr. Taneyoshi Yoshimi, the surgeon-in-charge at the hospital at around 3 PM.[23] Bose was conscious and mostly coherent when they reached the hospital, and for some time thereafter.[24] Bose was naked, except for a blanket wrapped around him, and Dr. Yoshimi immediately saw evidence of third-degree burns on many parts of the body, especially on his chest, doubting very much that he would live.[24] Dr. Yoshimi promptly began to treat Bose and was assisted by Dr. Tsuruta.[24] According to historian Leonard A. Gordon, who interviewed all the hospital personnel later: A disinfectant, Rivamol, was put over most of his body and then a white ointment was applied and he was bandaged over most of his body. Dr. Yoshimi gave Bose four injections of Vita Camphor and two of Digitamine for his weakened heart. These were given about every 30 minutes. Since his body had lost fluids quickly upon being burnt, he was given Ringer solution intravenously. A third doctor, Dr. Ishii gave him a blood transfusion. An orderly, Kazuo Mitsui, an army private, was in the room and several nurses were assisting. Bose still had a clear head which Dr. Yoshimi found remarkable for someone with such severe injuries.[25]

Soon, in spite of the treatment, Bose went into a coma.[25][20] He died a few hours later, between 9 and 10 PM.[25][20]

Bose's body was cremated in the main Taihoku crematorium two days later, 20 August 1945.[26] On 23 August 1945, the Japanese news agency Domei announced the death of Bose and Shidea.[20] On 7 September a Japanese officer, Lieutenant Tatsuo Hayashida, carried Bose's ashes to Tokyo, and the following morning they were handed to the president of the Tokyo Indian Independence League, Rama Murti.[27] On 14 September a memorial service was held for Bose in Tokyo and a few days later the ashes were turned over to the priest of the Renkōji Temple of Nichiren Buddhism in Tokyo.[28][29] There they have remained ever since.[29]

Among the INA personnel, there was widespread disbelief, shock, and trauma. Most affected were the young Tamil Indians from Malaya and Singapore, men and women, who comprised the bulk of the civilians who had enlisted in the INA.[17] The professional soldiers in the INA, most of whom were Punjabis, faced an uncertain future, with many fatalistically expecting reprisals from the British.[17] In India the Indian National Congress's official line was succinctly expressed in a letter Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur.[17] Said Gandhi, "Subhas Bose has died well. He was undoubtedly a patriot, though misguided."[17] Many congressmen had not forgiven Bose for quarreling with Gandhi and for collaborating with what they considered was Japanese fascism.[17] The Indian soldiers in the British Indian army, some two and a half million of whom had fought during the Second World War, were conflicted about the INA. Some saw the INA as traitors and wanted them punished; others felt more sympathetic. The British Raj, though never seriously threatened by the INA, was to try 300 INA officers for treason in the INA trials, but was to eventually backtrack in the face of its own end.[17]

Legends of Bose's survival Immediate post-war legends Subhas Chandra Bose's exploits had become legendary long before his physical death in August 1945.[30][h] From the time he had escaped house arrest in Calcutta in 1940, rumours had been rife in India about whether or not he was alive, and if the latter, where he was and what he was doing.[30] His appearance in faraway Germany in 1941 created a sense of mystery about his activities. With Congress leaders in jail in the wake of the Quit India Resolution in August 1942 and the Indian public starved for political news, Bose's radio broadcasts from Berlin charting radical plans for India's liberation during a time when the star of Germany was still rising and that of Britain was at its lowest, made him an object of adulation among many in India and southeast Asia.[31] During his two years in Germany, according to historian Romain Hayes, "If Bose gradually obtained respect in Berlin, in Tokyo he earned fervent admiration and was seen very much as an 'Indian samurai'."[32] Thus it was that when Bose appeared in Southeast Asia in July 1943, brought mysteriously on German and Japanese submarines, he was already a figure of mythical size and reach.[31]

After Bose's death, Bose's other lieutenants, who were to have accompanied him to Manchuria, but were left behind in Saigon, never saw a body.[33] There were no photographs taken of the injured or deceased Bose, neither was a death certificate issued.[33] According to historian Leonard A. Gordon, The war was ending; all was chaotic in East Asia, and there were no official reports released by the Governments of India or Britain. These governments did nothing to prevent the confusion. Even members of India's Interim Government in 1946 waffled on the matter. Bose had disappeared several times earlier in his life; so rumours began again in 1945 and a powerful myth grew.[33]

For these two reasons, when news of Bose's death was reported, many in the INA refused to believe it and were able to transmit their disbelief to a wider public.[4] The source of the widespread skepticism in the INA might have been Bose's senior officer J. R. Bhonsle.[4] When a Japanese delegation, which included General Isoda, visited Bhonsle on 19 August 1945 to break the news and offer condolences, he responded by telling Isoda that Bose had not died, rather his disappearance has been covered up.[4] Even Mahatma Gandhi swiftly said that he was skeptical about the air crash, but changed his mind after meeting the Indian survivor Habibur Rahman.[34] As in 1940, before long, in 1945, rumours were rife about what had happened to Bose, whether he was in Soviet-held Manchuria, a prisoner of the Soviet army, or whether he had gone into hiding with the cooperation of the Soviet army.[4] Lakshmi Swaminathan, of the all-female Rani of Jhansi regiment of the INA, later Lakshmi Sahgal, said in spring 1946 that she thought Bose was in China.[34] Many rumours spoke of Bose preparing for his final march on Delhi.[4] This was the time when Bose began to be sighted by people, one sighter claiming "he had met Bose in a third-class compartment of the Bombay express on a Thursday."[34]

- The following section is edited by Irith Chaturvedi as a part of Final revisions

Even after Bose’s death, many legends of his survival from just being hearsay before having permeated through to the legal system in India. The Indian government at many stages after his death established commissions led by notable pillars of the Indian judicial system to confirm all causes and reject common legends, if any. It is extremely important to note that most commissions could not conclude with concrete proof that Bose had succumbed to his injuries as a victim of the plane crash and suggested some legends as plausible. Modern evolutionary science, however helped in busting the most common myths that talked about possible double identity honed by Bose to hide from the limelight and act from the shadows. Enduring legends

I. The Tale of Gumnami Baba - Added by Irith Chaturvedi

After the commonly accepted passing of Bose in that plane crash in August 1945, It was speculated that Bose survived the crash or was never a part of the flight that took off from Taipei, Taiwan. After an unsavory and unsuccessful end to World War II for Subash Bose’s camp as a support for the axis powers, Bose would have come under much scrutiny in the fainting colonial presence Britain still had in India, where he would be tried for treason. Using the plane crash in Taiwan as a façade, Subhas Chandra Bose decided to disguise himself as a sage, famously called ‘Gumnami Baba’, living in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This murky conspiracy is further darkened by the accounts from people stating that he rarely stepped out of his home and only used to meet a dozen of his ‘close followers’. His landlord tried to take him twice to court to reveal his identity but failed on both attempts. The demise of Gumnami Baba too remains a mystery. There is no authentic proof and official records that state he passed away on the 16th of September 1985 and was cremated two days later. As this was one of the most popular conspiracies around the death of Bose, the Indian government set up to inquiries to verify the information around Gumnami baba and his similarities to Bose. While the report by the Vishnu Sahai Commission came to no real conclusion, stating that Gumnami Baba was a mere “follower” of Subhas Chandra Bose, and was not Bose. The claims of Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CSFL) irrefutably conclude that Gumnami Baba was not Bose. When the DNA of Gumnami Baba was procured from his teeth and analyzed, the results were inconclusive and did not match Subhas Chandra Bose’s DNA. The CSFL report still acts as one of the pillars that irrefutably confirm the rumors around Baba being Bose in the flesh, as false. Along similar lines is the myth of him becoming a renunciant, a yogi in the sacred lands of Northern Bengal under the name – Srimat Saradanandaji. Under this disguise he is said to have attended the funeral of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 and become a practitioner of herbal medicine. However, this is one of the weakest myths refuted by most, even his devotees from the colonial days have said to disapprove of this story, disregarding it as hearsay or leading from a failed theory – regarding Gumnami Baba. https://www.outlookindia.com/national/india-news-revisiting-history-of-subhas-chandra-bose-who-was-the-real-gumnami-baba-news-371552

II. The Soviet Angle - Added by Irith Chaturvedi

The Second World War acted as a nail in the coffin for Bose’s paramilitary front in eastern India, fearing the wrath of the victors, Bose famously decides to flee to Manchuria where he is promised asylum from the Indian and colonial government of India. The colonial government wanted to heavily prosecute Bose as a marker to their two century long and fading reign of Southern Asia. Iqbal Chand Malhotra, a researcher on the life of Bose claims that although Bose made his escape, He decided to not do it on a Japanese bomber which was to crash in Taipei, but on a German submarine from Singapore that carried him on to Vladivostok, a port city in USSR (Now Russia). It is well known that Bose had great ties with Nazi Germany, however his anti-expansionist nationalism and a great relation with the Soviet Union had been made clear to the German Undersecretary of State Ernst Woermann. In a meeting in 1941, Bose made it his point to say that in a duel between the Russians and the Germans, Bose’s Azad Hind Force would take the side of the Soviets. This information provides a strong basis as to why Bose may have used the Japanese bomber as a front to help him in his silent escape to the USSR. https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/bose-and-russiai-1503095352.html

Purabi Roy, an Indian researcher who spent a considerable period of her life in Russia refers to a meeting between Joseph Stalin and his aides recorded in a report placed in the GRU archives. Although this report was kept away from the Indian delegation under the Mukherjee commission, an inquiry in 1998 set up to unravel the mysteries around Bose’s death, Iqbal Malhotra’s documentary in 2016 clearly showed report containing information on a meeting between Stalin and his aides on what they were to do next with regards to Bose. Incidentally, when documents relating to Netaji were declassified in 2016, a file tumbled out which showed that Subhas Bose had broadcast three times from overseas between December 26, 1945, and February 1946. The broadcasts were caught by an IB station in Governor’s House Calcutta and Netaji promised that he would come back and that freedom was close at hand. Netaji never turned up and no confirmed information surfaced about him again. The declassified files had a note addressed by the Viceroy of India to the British PM asking about the policy about Bose. On October 25, 1945, the British PM convened a meeting where it was decided to allow Subhas Bose to ‘remain where he was.’ Speculations suggest that Stalin may have kept Netaji alive as a force that could be deployed against Nehru and other leaders whom he considered British agents. But Stalin’s death in 1953 and a reformed relationship of the Soviet Union with Nehru are said to have dispatched Bose to Siberia.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/features/netaji-subhas-chandra-bose-death-russian-angle-surfaces-in-75-year-old-mystery-6384471.html

- Edit by Irith Chaturvedi

Perspectives on durability of legends According to historians Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper: The legend of 'Netaji' Bose's survival helped bind together the defeated INA. In Bengal it became an assurance of the province's supreme importance in the liberation of the motherland. It sustained the morale of many across India and Southeast Asia who deplored the return of British power or felt alienated from the political settlement finally achieved by Gandhi and Nehru.[4]

Amid all this, Joyce Chapman Lebra,[44] wrote in 2008: The Japanese have always wished to return the ashes to Bengal, as they believe that a soul will not rest in peace until the ashes are brought home. The prospect of having Netaji's ashes in Bengal, however, has been known to incite rioting, as happened one year at the annual 23 January convention at the Netaji Research Bureau in Calcutta. Hot-headed young Bengali radicals broke into the convention hall where Fujiwara, the founder of the INA, was to address the assemblage and shouted abuse at him. Apparently some newspaper had published a rumour that Fujiwara had brought Netaji's ashes back.[44]

- The following section is edited by Irith Chaturvedi

Inquiries:

Figgess Report (1946):

To confirm the death of Bose after the plane crash in Taiwan in August 1948, Leonard A. Gordon was appointed by Lord Mountbatten, the Viceroy of India under Queen Elizabeth. His investigations confirm four facts: - Confirmation that a plane crashed in Taipei on 18th August, 1945, of which Bose was a passenger. - Bose’s death at a military hospital, and cremation in Taihoku, Taiwan. - Bose’s ashes post cremation were transferred to Tokyo. Gordon provides further comments on future commissions set up by the Government of India acting as an expert on information pertaining to the death of Bose.

Shah Nawaz Committee (1956):

As the first recognized effort of sovereign India to conduct their own investigations into the death of Bose, the Shah Nawaz Committee was setup in 1956. The committee began its work in April 1956 and concluded four months later when two out of the three members (excluding Suresh Chandra Bose) concluded that Bose had died in the airplane crash at Taihoku (Japanese for Taipei) in Formosa (now Taiwan), on 18 August 1945. They stated that his ashes were kept in Japan's Renkoji Temple and should be relocated to India.

Khosla Commission (1970):

Former Chief Justice of India, G. D. Khosla headed a one-man commission to finally end all the commotion still alive around the death of Bose. In a report which took four years to formulate, Khosla concurred with the Figgess report and the Shah Nawaz Committee on the main facts of Bose’s death but evaluated the reasons for Bose’s disappearance and the motives of those still promoting his sightings.

Mukherjee Commission (2005):

Appointed by the Indian Government in 1999, Supreme Court judge Manoj Kumar Mukherjee, the Mukherjee report submitted in 2006 had quite a few revelations. The report completely dismissed any links between Gumnami Baba and Bose, quoting the DNA report as solid evidence. However, the ashes kept of Bose at Renkoji Temple, Tokyo were of a Japanese soldier named Ichiro Okura, who had died of a cardiac arrest. It should be noted that this report was highly criticized, and the report contains glaring inaccuracies. The Mukherjee Comission is the last official inquiry conducted by the Government of India regarding the death of Subhas Chandra Bose

- edits for Final revisions end 

Sugata Bose notes that Mukherjee himself admitted to harbouring a preconceived notion about Bose being alive and living as an ascetic. He also blames the commission for entertaining the most preposterous and fanciful of all stories, thus adding to the confusion and for failing to distinguish between the highly probable and utterly impossible.[51] Gordon notes that the report had failed to list all of the people who were interviewed by the committee (including him) and that it mis-listed and mis-titled many of the books, used as sources.[52]

Japanese government report 1956, declassified September 2016 An investigative report by Japanese government titled "Investigation on the cause of death and other matters of the late Subhas Chandra Bose" was declassified on 1 September 2016. It concluded that Bose died in a plane crash in Taiwan on 18 August 1945. The report was completed in January 1956 and was handed over to the Indian embassy in Tokyo, but was not made public for more than 60 years as it was classified. According to the report, just after takeoff a propeller blade on the airplane in which Bose was traveling broke off and the engine fell off the plane, which then crashed and burst into flames. When Bose exited it his clothes caught fire and he was severely burned. He was admitted to hospital, and although he was conscious and able to carry on a conversation for some time he died several hours later.[53][54]

References Explanatory notes

From Sanskrit śrīmat (voc., hon.) sir + śārǎdā 1. myth. a title of Saraswati, 2. myth. a title of Durga + ānand (noun, m.) 1. joy, delight; 2. enjoyment, contentment, + jī (hon.) an expression of respect or affection (used with proper names). In McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1993), The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, pp. 956, 948, 86, 374 resp, ISBN 978-0-19-864339-5
From Hindustani gumnām (adj): whose name is lost, anonymous; + bābā: colloq. a senior or respected male (term of address). In McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1993), The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, pp. 270–271, 725 resp, ISBN 978-0-19-864339-5
From Sanskrit, bhagwān: 1 (adj) glorious, divine, to be adored, worshipful; 2 (noun, m.) the supreme being (especially as equated with Viṣṇu-Kṛṣṇa); ... 4 any revered person (term of address). In McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1993), The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, p. 726, ISBN 978-0-19-864339-5

Quotes

"If all else failed (Bose) wanted to become a prisoner of the Soviets: 'They are the only ones who will resist the British. My fate is with them. But as the Japanese plane took off from Taipei airport its engines faltered and then failed. Bose was badly burned in the crash. According to several witnesses, he died on 18 August in a Japanese military hospital, talking to the very last of India's freedom."[1]
"The retreat was even more devastating, finally ending the dream of liberating India through military campaign. But Bose still remained optimistic, thought of regrouping after the Japanese surrender, contemplated seeking help from Soviet Russia. The Japanese agreed to provide him transport up to Manchuria from where he could travel to Russia. But on his way, on 18 August 1945 at Taihoku airport in Taiwan, he died in an air crash, which many Indians still believe never happened."[2]
"British and Indian commissions later established convincingly that Bose had died in Taiwan. These were legendary and apocalyptic times, however. Having witnessed the first Indian leader to fight against the British since the great mutiny of 1857, many in both Southeast Asia and India refused to accept the loss of their hero."[3]
"There are still some in India today who believe that Bose remained alive and in Soviet custody, a once and future king of Indian independence. The legend of 'Netaji' Bose's survival helped bind together the defeated INA. In Bengal it became an assurance of the province's supreme importance in the liberation of the motherland. It sustained the morale of many across India and Southeast Asia who deplored the return of British power or felt alienated from the political settlement finally achieved by Gandhi and Nehru.[4]
"On March 21, 1944, Subhas Bose and advanced units of the INA crossed the borders of India, entering Manipur, and by May they had advanced to the outskirts of that state's capital, Imphal. That was the closest Bose came to Bengal, where millions of his devoted followers awaited his army's "liberation." The British garrison at Imphal and its air arm withstood Bose's much larger force long enough for the monsoon rains to defer all possibility of warfare in that jungle region for the three months the British so desperately needed to strengthen their eastern wing. Bose had promised his men freedom in exchange for their blood, but the tide of battle turned against them after the 1944 rains, and in May 1945 the INA surrendered in Rangoon. Bose escaped on the last Japanese plane to leave Saigon, but he died in Formosa after a crash landing there in August. By that time, however, his death had been falsely reported so many times that a myth soon emerged in Bengal that Netaji Subhas Chandra was alive—raising another army in China or Tibet or the Soviet Union—and would return with it to "liberate" India.[5]
"Rumours that Bose had survived and was waiting to come out of hiding and begin the final struggle for independence were rampant by the end of 1945."[6]
"Marginalized within Congress and a target for British surveillance, Bose chose to embrace the fascist powers as allies against the British and fled India, first to Hitler's Germany, then, on a German submarine, to a Japanese-occupied Singapore. The force that he put together ... known as the Indian National Army (INA) and thus claiming to represent free India, saw action against the British in Burma but accomplished little toward the goal of a march on Delhi. ... Bose himself died in an airplane crash trying to reach Japanese-occupied territory in the last months of the war. His romantic saga, coupled with his defiant nationalism, has made Bose a near-mythic figure, not only in his native Bengal, but across India. It is this heroic, martial myth that is today remembered, rather than Bose's wartime vision of a free India under the authoritarian rule of someone like himself."[7]
"THE MYTH: But Bose had become a myth in his own lifetime, dating from the time he eluded house arrest and escaped from India to Afghanistan and Europe. Thousands of Indians refused to believe he was dead. Man is very mortal but myths die hard."[30]

Citations

Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 2a.
Bandyopādhyāẏa 2004, p. 427.
Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 2b.
Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 22.
Wolpert 2000, pp. 339–340.
Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 2.
Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 210.
Fay 1995, p. 372.
Fay 1995, p. 373.
Fay 1995, p. 374.
Fay 1995, p. 376.
Fay 1995, pp. 376–380.
Fay 1995, pp. 377–379.
Lebra 2008a, pp. 194–195.
Fay 1995, p. 380.
Fay 1995, p. 382.
Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 21.
Lebra 2008a, pp. 195–196.
Fay 1995, p. 383.
Lebra 2008a, pp. 196–197.
Gordon 1990, p. 540.
Fay 1995, p. 384.
Gordon 1990, p. 541.
Gordon 1990, pp. 541–542.
Gordon 1990, p. 542.
Gordon 1990, p. 543.
Gordon 1990, p. 544–545.
Lebra 2008a, pp. 197–198.
Gordon 1990, p. 545.
Lebra 2008a, p. 197.
Hayes 2011, p. 163.
Hayes 2011, p. 164.
Gordon 2006, p. 109.
Gordon 1990, p. 605.
Gordon 1990, p. 606.
Gordon 1990, p. 607.
Gordon 1990, pp. 607–608.
Gordon 1990, p. 608.
Bhattacharjee 2012.
Gordon 1990, pp. 608–609.
Gordon 1990, p. 610.
Bose 2011, p. 319.
Lebra 2008a, pp. 198–199.
Lebra 2008b, p. 100.
Gordon 2006, p. 110.
Gordon 2006, pp. 110–111.
Chaudhury 2019.
Ramesh 2006.
Bose 2019.
SNS Web 2019.
Bose 2011.
Soni 2019.
Sonwalkar 2016.
NDTV 2016.

Sources Bandyopādhyāẏa, Śekhara (2004), From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India, Orient Blackswan, ISBN 978-81-250-2596-2, retrieved 21 September 2013 Bhattacharjee, CS (14 February 2012), "Photo triggers questions on Netaji's confinement in Russia", The Sunday Indian, archived from the original on 6 January 2018, retrieved 25 July 2018 Bayly, Christopher; Harper, Timothy (2007), Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-02153-2, retrieved 21 September 2013 Bose, Sugata (2011), His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-04754-9, retrieved 22 September 2013 Bose, Madhuri (24 January 2019), "To end mystery of Netaji's death, conduct DNA test on remains in Tokyo urn, urges his grand-niece", Scroll.in, retrieved 17 March 2019 Chaudhury, Sumeru Roy (23 January 2019), "Solving the Mystery of Netaji's 'Disappearance': Part Two", The Wire, retrieved 18 March 2019 Fay, Peter Ward (1995), The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence 1942–1945, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-08342-8, retrieved 13 November 2013 Gordon, Leonard A. (2006), "Legend and Legacy: Subhas Chandra Bose", India International Centre Quarterly, 33 (1): 103–112, JSTOR 23005940 Gordon, Leonard A. (1990), Brothers against the Raj: a biography of Indian nationalists Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-07442-1, retrieved 16 November 2013 Hayes, Romain (2011), Subhas Chandra Bose in Nazi Germany: Politics, Intelligence and Propaganda 1941–1943, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-932739-3, retrieved 22 September 2013 Lebra, Joyce Chapman (2008a) [1977], The Indian National Army and Japan, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, ISBN 978-981-230-806-1, retrieved 10 November 2013 Lebra, Joyce Chapman (2008b), Women Against the Raj: The Rani of Jhansi Regiment, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, ISBN 978-981-230-809-2, retrieved 13 November 2013 Metcalf, Barbara D.; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2012), A Concise History of Modern India, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-02649-0, retrieved 21 September 2013 NDTV (1 September 2016), Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Died In Plane Crash, Says 60-Year-Old Japanese Report, New Delhi Television, retrieved 26 July 2018 {{citation}}: Empty citation (help): Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help) Ramesh, Randeep (18 May 2006), "Fate of Indian war leader thrown into doubt by new report", The Guardian, London, retrieved 26 July 2018 SNS Web (5 March 2019), "Gumnami Baba was not Netaji: Army veterans support Bose family demanding probe", The Statesman, retrieved 17 March 2019 Soni, Aayush (22 February 2019), "Interview: On the Declassification of the Netaji Files and His Place in Indian History", The Wire, retrieved 17 March 2019 Sonwalkar, Prasun (1 September 2016), "Probe report says Japan confirmed Bose died in plane crash", Hindustan Times, retrieved 26 July 2018 Toye, Hugh (1959), The Springing Tiger: A Study of the Indian National Army and of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bombay: Allied Publishers, ISBN 978-81-8424-392-5 Wolpert, Stanley A. (2000), A New History of India, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-512877-2, retrieved 6 November 2013 Further reading Bayly, Christopher; Harper, Timothy (2005), Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941–1945, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-01748-1, retrieved 22 September 2013 McLynn, Frank (2011), The Burma Campaign: Disaster Into Triumph, 1942–45, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-17162-4, retrieved 13 November 2013 Wolpert, Stanley (2009), Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-539394-1, retrieved 21 September 2013