The air crash of Taihoku on August 18, 1945, is the Rashomon moment of Asian and Indian political history. What exactly happened when the aircraft carrying Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the tragic hero of India’s freedom struggle, was never really conclusively understood as everyone who survived that incident and the official power centres of the world had a different opinion about it. Ashis Ray has put an end to speculations around the air crash that probably was the first violent incident that left a permanent mark on the postcolonial history of India.
Crash details
The air crash took place at a time when aircraft were not the most reliable form of transport. During World War II dozens of crashes took place which altered the course of the war. What, however, was special about the air crash in Taihoku was that it coincided with the defeat of Japan in war. The outcome of the crash was that Netaji who had suffered a lot of uncertainties during the last few months of the war disappeared in a fog of mystery and speculation even as his closest companions described that he had perished in the crash. However, a great death has to be seen to be believed — Netaji’s demise or disappearance remained incomplete as it was not announced by a suitable person close to him.
Ray has made a significant observation about the reasons that allowed the persistence of Netaji’s myth in Indian politics. The years from 1937 to 1947 were landmark for various reasons. Apart from Partition, this period saw many dramatic violent incidents. Netaji’s disappearance was one of them. However, the author does a great job by unmasking how the cult of Netaji was used by cynical political forces of Bengal and at times of Delhi to mobilise supporters. As time elapsed and the myths multiplied with reports of citings of the political and military figure, political parties of India benefited. As a result, the myth of Netaji endured.
With the help of British and Japanese reports of the air crash, the author shows that Netaji had indeed died in the Taihoku aircrash. What did not die was the ability of his followers to believe in miracles of ‘Subhas will return.’ In the age of leaders who commanded fanatical faith among their followers, Netaji remained forever alive for his followers.
A major reason that prevented a credible discussion on the death of Netaji was the breakdown of the internal mechanism of the Congress party. Jawaharlal Nehru who took over as the prime minister of India remained on difficult terms with the Boses who maintained a power centre in the Congress party. The cold war between Sarat Bose and Nehru was well known and cast a shadow on conduct of frank conversations between the two. Sarat Bose was a minister in the cabinet of Nehru before Partition. Perhaps due to the cold ties, neither Nehru nor Sardar Patel shared the British and the Japanese reports on Netaji’s demise with his brother, Sarat.
There was only one way of confirming the demise of Netaji and that was to let Sarat Bose break it to the people of India with full support and sympathy of the new government of India. However, that became impossible with the demise of Sarat Bose in 1950. With the broken political ties between the central government of India and Bengal, there was little possibility of confronting the fact that Netaji would never return.
Daughter’s belief
Apart from the meticulous historical and archival research, Ray’s submission is backed by Anita, the daughter of Netaji. In a stunning declaration that should finally and firmly lay Netaji to rest, she discloses in the elegant foreword to the book, that there were uncertainties to begin with about what exactly happened to Netaji but highlighted that out of the three commissions of inquiry — Shah Nawaz Khan Commission, Khosla Commission and the Mukherjee Commission — two concluded that Netaji had died. However, for Anita Pfaff, a personal moment of truth came in 1979. In a headline-worthy statement, the daughter writes in Sen’s book that she had been aware of the fact of Netaji’s demise in the air crash, after she witnessed an interview of one of the survivors in 1979.
In a certain tragic way, Netaji died in the way that he lived — dramatically. Netaji’s death in the Taihoku crash spared him all the harassment that awaited him in the hands of the Anglo-American victors . But it cannot be a cause for satisfaction as for more than seven decades India failed to confront the truth. But for further public acceptance, Netaji’s daughter has urged that his DNA should be extracted from the remains kept at the Shinto shrine near Tokyo.
Laid to Rest: The Controversy over Subhas Chandra Bose’s Death ; Ashis Ray, Roli Books, ₹595.
