Mystery of Subash Chandra Bose's Death

Subhash Chandra Bose was a mysterious figure. As much as his life was filled with unyielding fervour and gusto for a sovereign India, despite being at odds with the stalwarts who went on to be our nation's founding fathers, his death has also been a source of consternation.

Netaji is claimed to have died of third-degree burns on August 18, 1945, after his plane crashed during takeoff in Taiwan's Taipei, which was then under Japanese occupation. Bose had fallen into a coma before passing away between 9 and 10 p.m.

The pilot, co-pilot, and Lieutenant General Tsunamasa Shidei of the Imperial Japanese Army were all killed in the crash. Their plane crashed just after Japan's declared surrender. Shidei and Bose were on their way to Dairen, where Bose was scheduled to meet with USSR negotiators about political asylum and handing over control of the Indian National Army (INA) to the Soviets in order to continue the fight for Indian independence. Shidei was to be Bose's primary negotiator.

No images were taken of the injured or deceased Bose, and no death certificate was given. For these reasons, INA refused to believe he had died. While many of Bose's fans hesitated to believe the news and the circumstances surrounding his death, conspiracy theories surfaced within hours of the fatalities, claiming that the plane crash was not an accident. These theories continue to circulate, perpetuating some martial stereotypes about Netaji.

Col. Habib ur Rahman, Bose's chief of staff on that fateful journey, survived. He testified at an inquiry committee about Bose's death a decade later. Bose's ashes are supposed to be kept at Tokyo's Renkoji Temple.

The Origins of the Netaji 'Mystery'

Since 1940, when he fled house arrest in Calcutta, rumours have circulated concerning his location and if he was still alive. When he arrived in Germany in 1941, he and his activities were shrouded in obscurity. In the 1950s, rumours circulated that Bose had become an ascetic. According to historian Leonard A. In the 1960s, some of Bose's associates founded 'Subhasbadi Janata,' an organisation to propagate the idea that Bose was heading a refuge in north Bengal's Shaulmari. Certain sources, however, unequivocally confirm Netaji's death when the Mitsubishi Ki-21 bomber he was aboard crashed shortly after takeoff in Taipei.

So far, the Indian government has commissioned three inquiries regarding Netaji's death/disappearance. Only the first two decided that he died on August 18, 1945, in a military hospital in Taihoku after his plane crashed, and that the mortal remains at Renkoji Temple in Tokyo are his. They are as follows:

Figgess Report: 1946

Following the plane accident, the Supreme Allied Command of South-East Asia, led by Lord Mountbatten, charged Colonel John Figgess, an intelligence officer, with investigating Bose's death. Figgess' report, which was submitted on July 5, 1946, was strictly confidential. Figgess was interviewed by Leonard A. Gordon in the 1980s, and he verified writing the report.

The British Government made the majority of the IPI (Indian Political Intelligence) data available to the public in the British Library in 1997. The Figgess report, on the other hand, was not one of them. The Figgess study and Gordon's studies confirm four points: On August 18, 1945, a plane crashed near Taihoku airport, killing Subhas Chandra Bose; he died the next day in a nearby military hospital; he was cremated in Taihoku; and his ashes were flown to Tokyo.

Shah Nawaz Committee: 1956

In 1956, the sovereign Government of India created a three-member committee headed by Shah Nawaz Khan, who was then a Member of Parliament, to investigate rumours regarding Bose and the plane disaster. He had previously served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian National Army. Other important members of this committee included S. N. Maitra, a Civil Servant appointed by the West Bengal government, and Suresh Chandra Bose, Netaji's elder brother. The 'Netaji Inquiry commission' is another name for this commission.

From April to July 1956, this group questioned 67 witnesses in India, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, focusing on individuals who survived the plane crash and bore the marks of their injuries. Dr. Yoshimi, the surgeon at the Taihoku Military Hospital who treated Bose in his final hours, and Habibur Rahman, who left India after the Partition, were among those interviewed. Despite a few minor differences, two-thirds of the committee, namely Khan and Maitra, concluded that Bose died in the plane crash in Taihoku on August 18, 1945.

Suresh Chandra Bose refused to sign the final report and filed a letter of dissent saying that the other members and staff of the Shah Nawaz Committee had suppressed vital material on purpose and that Nehru had directed the committee to infer death by plane crash. According to Gordon, one of the primary principles for dealing with evidence in the 181-page report was that if two or more witness statements differed, the entire testimony of the witnesses concerned was discounted and presumed to be fraudulent.

Bose deduced from this that there was no crash and that his sibling was still alive. Rumours of Netaji's survival grew louder in the early 1960s.

Khosla Commission: 1970

The Government of India created a "one-man commission" to investigate Bose's "disappearance" in 1970. G.D. Khosla, a retired Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court, was the sole investigator. His report was published in 1974.

On the main facts of Bose's death, Justice Khosla agreed with Figess and the Shah Nawaz Committee's prior reports. He also assessed the alternate hypotheses for Bose's disappearance as well as the motivations of individuals publicising sightings of Netaji.

"Justice Khosla suggests that many of the story-purveyors' motives are less than altruistic," Gordon writes. Some, he claims, were clearly motivated by political objectives or simply wished to draw attention to themselves. His patience in listening to some stories is admirable. "What could he, or anyone, have thought as he listened to the testimony of P.M. Karapurkar, agent of the Central Bank of India at Solapur, claimed that he receives direct messages from Bose by tuning his body like a radio receiving apparatus."

Mukherjee Commission: 2005

Following a court decision, the Government of India asked former Supreme Court judge Manoj Kumar Mukherjee to re-investigate Bose's death in 1999. The group reviewed hundreds of data on Bose's death from several nations and travelled to Japan, Russia, and Taiwan.

Although oral accounts supported the plane accident, it was deemed that such accounts could not be trusted and that there was a secret plan in place with the knowledge of Japanese authorities and Habibur Rahman to assure Bose's safe passage to the USSR.

According to Justice Mukherjee's findings, the Japanese military plane carrying Netaji nosedived from 12,000 to 14,000 feet, citing Netaji assistant and co-passenger on the voyage Habibur Rahman as a firsthand witness. After arguing that no one could possibly survive such a terrible crash, Justice Mukherjee determined that there could have been no such incident at all.

The truth is that neither Habibur Rahman nor any other survivor ever said anything like that. What they did say was that the plane had hardly taken off from Matsuyama Airport in Taiwan's Taihoku region before encountering severe engine failure.

The commission made no progress regarding Bose's activities following the plane crash. Another problematic feature of the report is its conclusion that the ashes reported to be Bose's at the Renkoji temple were actually those of a Japanese soldier who died of cardiac arrest. Because of the alleged "reticence" of the temple administrators, Justice Mukherjee opted not to proceed with the DNA tests.

However, the panel determined that 'Gumnami Baba' was not Subhas Bose based on a DNA profiling test. After three delays, the Mukherjee Commission submitted its report on November 8, 2005, and it was tabled in the Indian Parliament on May 17, 2006. The findings of this commission were rejected by the central government.

The report's principal findings, particularly the rejection of the plane crash scenario, have been criticised for blatant flaws. Sugata Bose, a historian and Netaji's grandnephew, observes that Mukherjee admits to having a preconceived concept about Netaji being alive and living as an ascetic. Gordon observes that the report neglected to name all of the people interviewed by the committee (including him), and that several of the books referenced as sources were mis-listed and mis-titled.

Japanese government's 1956 report, declassified in September 2016

The Japanese government declassified a report titled "Investigation into the Cause of Death and Other Matters of the Late Subhas Chandra Bose" on September 1, 2016. It was determined that Bose perished in a plane crash on August 18, 1945, near Taiwan. The report was finished in January 1956 and delivered to the Indian embassy in Tokyo, but it remained classified for 60 years until it was declassified.

According to the report, shortly after takeoff, a propeller blade on the plane carrying Bose broke off, and the engine fell off the plane, causing it to crash and burst into flames. When Bose stepped out of the jet, it had crashed, his clothes had caught fire, and he had been seriously burned. He was admitted to the hospital and was cognizant enough to speak for a while. He passed away a few hours later.

Conclusion

Most people agree that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died on August 18, 1945, in a military hospital in Taiwan, when the Japanese military plane he was travelling in crashed. However, persistence in reaching a different conclusion implies that the evidence to support the previously stated conclusion was insufficient.