It was August 18, 1945, when a mystery air crash claimed the life of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Or did it? 77 years later, the death of one of India’s most celebrated freedom fighters continues to be shrouded in suspicion, given that his remains have not been brought back to India, the country for which he fought relentlessly.
In yet another attempt to attain closure, Bose’s daughter Anita Bose Pfaff said the time had come to bring back his ashes to India and suggested that DNA testing can provide answers to those who still doubt his death.
The Austrian-born economist, who lives in Germany, said it is time his remains return to Indian soil since her father did not live to experience the joy of freedom.
In one of the biggest conspiracy theories of India, many still believe that the freedom fighter did not die in the plane crash in Taiwan. This despite the complete declassification of the Netaji files, which was an attempt by the government to close the chapter on the mystery surrounding his demise.
In response to a Right to Information application on May 30, 2017, the Ministry of Home Affairs said: “After considering the reports of Shah Nawaz Committee, Justice GD Khosla Commission and Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry, the Government has come to the conclusion that Netaji had died in the plane crash on 18.8.1945.”
So, where are Netaji’s ashes?
According to the Japanese, Bose was cremated at Taihoku Prefecture (present-day Taipei). His remains were handed over to his confidante SA Ayar and his articles to Rama Murti of the Tokyo Indian Independence League at the Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo on September 8, 1945. Netaji was last seen with the Japanese in a detailed investigative report of 1956, which was declassified in 2016.
His remains were then placed at the Renkoji Temple near Tokyo on September 14, 1945, where they rest until today. The urn was received by Reverend Kyoei Mochizuki, the priest of the temple, who vowed to take care of the ashes until they were taken to India, Firstpost reported. Every year, on Netaji’s death anniversary, the chief priest of the temple conducts a memorial service, which is attended by prominent Japanese and Indian citizens, including officials from the embassy.
After the files were declassified in 2016, it was revealed that India has been paying for the upkeep of the remains at the Renkoji temple. Between 1967 and 2005, India paid Rs 52,66,278 to the temple.
Did anyone try to bring back the remains?
According to the Netaji files, the Jawaharlal Nehru government took custody of Bose’s ashes in the early 1950s but since the freedom fighter’s family refused to accept his demise, the government was not keen to bring the ashes home.
With the Congress at the Centre, Japan made several attempts to approach New Delhi on the issue but to no avail.
According to a report in India Today, during Morarji Desai’s regime in 1979, a Japanese military intelligence officer who had close ties with Bose’s Indian National Army (INA), urged India to take his remains. He was assured that the issue would be taken care of in a year or two but Desai lost his chair and the issue fizzled out again.
When Indira Gandhi assumed power, she was informed by former Japanese army officers that Ryoichi Sasagawa, chairman of the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Association, had offered to bear all the expenses for taking Bose’s remains “to his motherland for a permanent repose”. However, there was no response from India.
Attempts by the PV Narasimha Rao government also fell short in 1997. Pfaff had met then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee in Germany and said she needed to consult with the family. Reports suggest she had offered to take the ashes to Germany if Bose’s family and the political parties failed to reach a resolution but both India and Japan were against the idea.
The India Today report said Pfaff also met IK Gujral after he took over as prime minister in January 1998 and sought that the government “make arrangements to have the ashes of my father returned from Tokyo to his homeland, especially to Delhi, which after all was the goal of his INA campaign”. In a letter in February, she wrote “the ashes should be immersed in the Ganges or parts of the ashes in different rivers of India”.
A month later, Gujral resigned, ending hopes of the hero returning home.
When Dr Manmohan Singh took over, he exchanged letters with his Japanese counterpart Yoshiro Mori, in 2006, regarding the transfer of Netaji’s remains to India. But nothing came out of it.
What do Netaji’s family members feel?
For most of the freedom fighter’s family, Bose is still alive. His younger brother Sailesh Bose wrote to Indira Gandhi in 1982 to pass an order not to bring the remains to India as he believed that there is no convincing proof that the remains are genuine.
Then prime minister VP Singh received a similar letter from Bose’s nephews, Ashoke Nath Bose, Amiya Nath Bose and Subrata Bose in May 1990.
Pfaff, meanwhile, also wrote to the priest of the Renkoji temple in 2007, asking for the ashes to be handed over to her. She also said that she was willing to attempt a DNA test on the father’s remains, which she had earlier deemed unnecessary.
What has been the current government’s take?
Before he assumed charge as the prime minister, Narendra Modi had promised to bring Netaji’s remains back to India if voted to power, just like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had expressed his readiness in 2000 to bring back the ashes.
However, though the BJP-led government invokes Bose and pays tributes to him on several occasions, it has been unable to find a solution to the stalemate.
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