Curry Revolutionary

Rash Bihari Boses amazing life,in India and Japan

Rash Bihari Boses amazing life,in India and Japan
They were both named Bose one was Subhas Chandra,the other Rash Bihari. They were both committed to end the British rule in India Subhas tried to get the Congress on to a more militant path before breaking away,Rash Bihari was an active revolutionary. Their paths met in Japan,but while Subhas was immortalised as Netaji,Rash Bihari was fated for obscurity.
Since Rash Bihari spent most of his active life in Japan,it is perhaps only fitting that his first complete biography has been penned by Hokkaido Universitys Takeshi Nakajima and ably translated by Prem Motwani,the result of scouring the archives in India and Japan,and benefiting from the family archive received from Rash Biharis daughter in Tokyo.

Born in the French enclave of Chandranagore,Rash Bihari was heavily influenced by Sri Aurobindo and his onetime disciple Moti Lal Roy. While working at Dehraduns Central Forest Research Institute,he became adept at making bombs. Rash Bihari hurled one such bomb at the viceroy Lord Hardinge,in an unsuccessful attempt to kill him in Delhi in 1912. Rash Bihari escaped back to Dehradun,where he waxed eloquent at a reception for the convalescing Hardinge,which the viceroy wryly recalled in his memoirs. Found out,Rash Bihari went underground and escaped to Japan in 1915,posing as P.N. Tagore,a relative of the poet Rabindranath.

At that time members of the Ghadar Party were active. Rash Bihari immediately got in touch with them,and was introduced to influential people,with the police in tow. The British request for his deportation was ignored until November,when Rash Bihari was told to leave,following a reception for Lala Lajpat Rai. Rash Bihari went underground and Japanese supporters took him to Nakamuraya,a restaurant in Tokyo,where he hid for three months. After the deportation order was withdrawn,he became active in anti-British propaganda,and persuading the Japanese to support Indian independence. He also became the first foreigner to acquire Japanese citizenship.

Rash Biharis exploit became quite well-known in Japan,and he became a kind of folk-hero,after he fell in love with Kokko,the owner of Nakamuraya,and married her. Here,it is interesting to see that Rash Bihari was instrumental in introducing Indian-style curry in Japan. Though more expensive than the usual curry,it became quite popular,with Rash Bihari becoming known as Bose of Nakamuraya.

He began to publish New Asia as a means to propagate his ideas. There was no overarching political philosophy,and his views were riddled with inconsistencies. He could praise the Hindu Mahasabha and V.D. Savarkar,call for Hindu-Muslim unity,and hail Gandhi and Subhas Bose all at the same time. He appears to have had no problem in wanting to see Japan as the leader of Asia,while mildly opposing its imperialism in China and Korea and aiming for the ouster of the British from India.

Rash Biharis real contribution to Indian independence was in getting the Japanese to help the Indians fighting for their freedom,and to weld the Indian Independence League of Pritam Singh and the Indian National Army of Mohan Singh,all feuding and scheming against each other,into a suitable platform to bring all Indians in Southeast Asia together. And,having done so,he handed the baton to the other Bose,after his escape from captivity in India and sojourn in Berlin. He did so having realised that his failing health could not cope with the challenges of leadership,and that Subhas was the one man who could keep it all together with his iron will. Ironically,both Boses died within months of each other,and never saw India again. The ashes of one remain in a Tokyo temple,while Indian curry commemorates the memory of the other in Japan.