Page 2 of 2 BOOK
REVIEW India's holy grail Back from
Dead by Anuj Dhar
Reviewed by Sreeram Chaulia
somewhere" (p 135). Khosla
was permitted to visit the site of the alleged
plane crash, but New Delhi barred him from
contacting the Taiwanese government for archival
leads. In 1978, India's first non-Congress
government repudiated the conventional findings of both
the
Shah Nawaz Committee and the Khosla Commission.
Well into the 1990s, the Indian government
was leery of declaring the particulars of even a
single classified record on the Bose puzzle. In
1999, judicial and public pressure forced the
formation of yet another commission of inquiry
under justice M K Mukherjee. He learned at the
outset that the government was dragging its feet
in publicizing the commission's work or parting
with documents. The commission found that several
secret files on Bose were destroyed in gross
violation of government rules. Even among the
extant records, full disclosure was denied on
grounds that it "would cause injury to the public
interest" and could adversely affect "diplomatic
relations with friendly countries" (p 266).
Folklore that Bose was living in the garb
of a holy man in India was long prevalent, and the
commission was plied with such fables. It
investigated one promising case of an enigmatic
saint from the northern Indian town of Faizabad
who had died in 1985. A remarkable likeness of
Bose in age, physical appearance and mannerisms,
his sermons were mostly about national and
international politics ranging from Indian
independence to the Russian invasion of
Afghanistan. He spoke as if he knew Gandhi and
Nehru intimately and had first-hand memories of
Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Winston
Churchill.
In the ascetic's belongings
were found rare photographs of Bose's parents with
the annotation, "revered father and mother". They
also contained media clippings, correspondence and
papers about Bose's disappearance. The saint's
letters to followers used diction regarding Bose's
family members that was identical to the freedom
fighter's. He also published brilliant articles
with the pseudonym Mahakal, recounting details of
Bose's early life that were not public knowledge.
He talked of Stalin allowing him to enter the
"country of bears" and of being subjected to
"torture in Siberia". Dhar infers from hints of
Russian scholars that it was somewhere near the
city of Irkutsk.
India's topmost
handwriting expert matched several samples of Bose
and those of the Faizabad hermit and confirmed
that they were from the same hand. Most
intriguing, the latter's disciples recalled
nightly visits of VIPs to his shanty and took
pride that local government authorities never
dared to act against him since "they knew he was
Netaji" (p 289).
The big puzzle from the
Faizabad angle is why Bose lived incognito in
destitute conditions for so long among his own
people. Just after World War II, he was certain to
be branded an international war criminal by the
Allies for collaborating with the Axis powers.
British pronouncements of that time indicated
that, if nabbed, he would be tried "as [a] war
criminal outside India" (p 363). The government of
independent India expressed ignorance of any
Anglo-American list of war criminals containing
Bose's name, but it never categorically defined
what its position would be if Bose reappeared in
person. In 1971, New Delhi signed a United Nations
convention obliging it to prosecute war criminals
still at large in India, decades after 1945.
For the Faizabad saint, it was not fear
for his life that prevented him from unveiling
himself. Rather, he told an old Bose accomplice in
1963, "India is at a stage of infancy. She would
not be able to stand the pressure of the world
powers. Do not disclose my whereabouts to anyone,
or else the nation will suffer" (p 374).
Dhar does not throw comparative light on
the successful non-compliance of weak or even
"failed" states such as Cambodia, Sudan and Serbia
with demands of world powers and international
tribunals to hand over individuals accused of war
crimes and crimes against humanity. The
prosecution angle seems to be a red herring for
Bose to have remained under wraps. In light of the
posthumous nature of the inquiry into the Faizabad
mystic, there are gaps that may unfortunately
never be filled. Dhar maintains that more needs to
be learned to establish the holy man's genuine
identity.
Through ingenious research and
cross-checking, Dhar reconstructs the trajectory
of Bose's life from his sojourn to Russia onward.
In 1949, he may have entered the newly formed
People's Republic of China to join an "Asiatic
Liberation Force". Around 1953, he slipped back
into India but often ventured abroad furtively.
The Faizabad muse recollected "being welcomed by
Ho Chi Minh" in Vietnam during its anti-colonial
war. He also stated that US defense secretary
Clark Clifford announced in 1970 that the Vietcong
had an "Asian Liberation Army" division headed by
missing World War II generals. Vietnamese sources
in the 1990s admitted that "materials on Netaji
have been accessed by the government here" (p
356).
Last year, the Mukherjee Commission
concluded after comprehensive hearings that Bose
did not die in the plane crash and called for
further investigations into the matter of his
post-1945 Russian foray. The non-cooperative
government of India summarily rejected the
commission's significant verdict without any
justification, and ensured that the never-ending
search for the Holy Grail of Bose's disappearance
continues.
Dhar is now crusading for full
disclosure from the government through a popular
campaign (www.missionnetaji.org). The track record
of previous inquiries shows that unless citizens
are mobilized to action on this issue of national
importance, New Delhi remains smugly opaque.
Subhas Chandra Bose is a priceless jewel
of modern India's heritage. Sadly, media and
governmental apathy is consigning his legacy to a
painful incompleteness. Dhar's wake-up call is a
praiseworthy contribution toward pushing the dark
truth into daylight.
Back from Dead:
Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery. Manas
Publications, New Delhi, 2007. ISBN:
81-7049-314-5. Price: US$20, 400 pages.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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