The Netaji enigma

Nothing quite ensures a historical figure's enigmatic hold on the imagination of future generations than a mysterious death. Admittedly, ...

Nothing quite ensures a historical figure8217;s enigmatic hold on the imagination of future generations than a mysterious death. Admittedly, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose would by any standards find a prominent place in any listing of the nationalist pantheon, but the human fascination for what-ifs has placed him in an entirely different orbit.

Just think. The nation bestows its highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, on the man who raised the battle cry 8220;Dilli chalo8221; and coined the ultimate declaration of patriotism, 8220;Jai Hind8221;; but his family declines the award and questions are raised on the wisdom of according a posthumous honour on a man whose death has not been conclusively established. Is this a statist whodunit, or what? At least the whole of Bengal and much of the rest of India is enthralled by the suspense. In fact, while the Calcutta high court has directed the Centre to probe afresh the circumstances surrounding his death, assemblies in various states have recently echoed this demand.

So willthe Centre8217;s decision to institute a fresh commission of inquiry once and for all clear the fog surrounding the Indian National Army hero8217;s reported death in a plane crash near Taipei on August 18, 1945? Maybe, given the huge amount of freshly declassified archival material in London, Moscow and Tokyo. But interestingly, two earlier panels 8212; one headed by INA veteran Shah Nawaz Khan in 1956 and the other by Justice G.D. Khosla in 1970 had lent credence to the plane crash theory, but failed to shatter the mystery in the public imagination. And so, we have the odd irony of an urn containing what are believed to be Netaji8217;s ashes lying in the Renkoji temple in Tokyo because the nation does not quite want to believe that he is dead. Indeed, even if the new panel stumbles upon yet more evidence, make no mistake, it will not be a case of tying up loose ends and putting to rest an old controversy 8212; for, the probe will, in fact, do its bit to give a fresh lease of life to the Netaji myth.

Efforts to rehabilitateNetaji have been moving apace for quite some time now. Memoirs of INA shining lights, travelogues retreading the Azad Hind Fauj8217;s progress and a sudden spurt in memorials dedicated to Bose have not just brought this complex hero centrestage but have also airbrushed the slightly paradoxical dimensions to the man: the contentions that he ungallantly participated in desertion by the armed forces, that he flirted with the Axis powers, that he defied the Mahatma, that he had a pompous sense of his own importance. However, even as these charges are buried, they in a way make him acceptable in all political quarters. A lack of clear ideological alignment makes him easy game for appropriation 8212; as does the romance surrounding his death. After a two-year-long stocktaking of the nation8217;s half-century of freedom, blame has been apportioned on the tallest of leaders for a litany of lapses and mistakes. But Bose, secure in the armoury of myth and mystery, has remained untouched. This accounts for his increased importancefor a hero-starved nation.