by Anuj Dhar
Then how did this Mahakaal escape from that place and reach India?
He did not escape but left with Russian consent around 1949, the year when the war criminals’ trials ended. Bhagwanji claimed that he was not exactly imprisoned in Siberia and said that he was grateful to Joseph Stalin for not treating him like an enemy. Like the Soviets, he did not think India was a free country still.
TN Kaul, former Ambassador to the USSR and Foreign Secretary, was to write in his memoirs that post-1947 the Russians “still looked upon India as a colony of Britain” and “could not understand why we still wanted to remain in the Commonwealth, when we had suffered so much at the hands of British imperialism”. [26]
When it came to the crunch, all vows of attaining purna swaraj (complete independence) became a thing of the past. “They got Independence in a begging bowl,” was Bhagwanji’s pet peeve. Winston Churchill, the most anti-Indian among the colonial British, gave a thumbs-up to the transfer of power only after being convinced by Mountbatten. This opponent of Bose and independent India’s first Governor-General chose 15 August as the D-day for it reminded him of his great victory against Japan, and the INA if you please, in the war.
In the early 1970s, Mountbatten elucidated to Larry Collins and Dominque Lapierre how he ensured that India remained a part of the Commonwealth after the transfer of power.
They would keep the same uniform [in the armed forces], merely putting the three lions on their shoulder instead of the actual crown...they would keep the white ensign with the red cross of St George, just as in the Navy.... They must owe some common allegiance to the King…. [27]
And allegiance to the King India did pay beyond August 1947, though Lord Mountbatten thought that the Republic of India too had to be extra courteous to the British monarch even in the early 1960s. He suggested to then Indian High Commissioner in London that Queen Elizabeth and not the President of India take the salute at the Republic Day parade as head of Commonwealth. Excited High Commissioner Vijyalakshmi Pandit, who came close to being conferred with the title of “Dame”, forwarded the request to New Delhi. Prime Minister Nehru shot it down. [28] In 1948-49 the PM had to overcome great resistance from the lawmakers as he strove to get India into the British Commonwealth of Nations in the interests of India. In 1956, when he was in London, Nehru took Freeman’s oath “to be true to the Queen”. [29]
If it matters at all, my own take is that, yes, forging close ties with Great Britain post-1947, remaining in the Commonwealth was, and is, in our national interest. The fact is that we have a great affinity with the British. Indeed, India would not have developed into a modern nation state if they had not replaced the native kings. We have immensely benefitted from their values, culture, language etc. I am actually much aggrieved by the history that is being taught at schools, or even depicted in movies and TV shows. It creates grossly wrong impressions about the British—who, on the whole, were nowhere as barbarous as the medieval royals of India were. As a result, many people think that “we drove them out” on 15 August 1947. The popular history continues to vilify the British down to their “last day” in India, shoving under the carpet the fact that, constitutionally, the British rule in India continued till 1950.
An average Indian’s perception of the Independence Day—the Union Jack going down and the Tricolour coming up—is so remarkably different from the real event that it will sound fanciful to him if he was told that the Union Jack did not disappear that day. Mountbatten himself brought it on record that he disapproved of a ceremonial lowering of the British flag and Nehru agreed with him, not wanting to offend British susceptibilities. “It was still used, on holidays and great days and even now, they very often fly the Union Jack,” [30] he told Collins and Lapierre. He also remembered Nehru’s toast that night: It was for King George. They never told us this in schools.
As the head of the Indian state, George signed the letters of credence and appointment of Indian ambassadors and performed other stately functions. The “free” India government remained hostile to Subhas Bose. The chiefs of the Indian Air Force and the Navy were still British and their Indian juniors were more British than them. Indians did not lead the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy until 1949, 1955 and 1958. In 1948, Nehru told Parliament that the INA men would have no place in the Indian Army. “To reinstate them would lead to many complications, both practical and psychological, and the unity of the army might be affected.” [31] In 1949, the Army Headquarters issued a circular against displaying the picture of Subhas Bose “at permanent places, in canteens, quarters etc.” The same HQ continued to insist for decades that the history of INA should not be published lest it should affect the “moral of the soldiers”. [32]
On the whole, it was for our good, but not to the liking of Dead Man. So, he did not return to India in 1949. Instead, he went—believe it or not—to China. His another incredible claim was that when the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on 1 October 1949, he was there witnessing the event as a guest of Mao Tse-tung. As per Oi mahamanaba asey, Dead Man visited Beijing's underground city—about which the outside world had no inkling until 1990. In a meeting, Mao told Dead Man, the book says, that the Aksai Chin region indeed belonged to India and mocked that "your leader" did not have a clue while a six-lane highway was being constructed there in the 1950s.
A journalist who believes that Bose died in Russia, and can not stand any talk of the Bhagwanji angle, once shared with me what he had heard from an R&AW officer. Something about “Bose” being in China in 1949, doing some backchannel mediation between the Russians and the Chinese over some dispute. Several members of the Bose family are aware of “the Chinese angle to the Netaji mystery” but prefer not to talk about it.
There is definitely a Chinese angle to the Bose mystery. I don’t know how much truth it holds, but it is there. Those who believe that Bose died in Russia also know of it but refrain from alluding to it for an obvious reason. If Bose was in China in 1949, he was certainly out of the USSR—alive.
For a background, we must recall that our hostility for the Chinese communist leadership—not the Chinese people— started in late 1950s when the dragon devoured Tibet. Before that almost all of our top leaders had warm vibes for China. This is a simple fact of history. All it requires is a little polishing up.
We all know that an Indian medical mission was sent to China in 1938. But the Chinese historians have chosen to emphasize that it was sent by Jawaharlal Nehru. Whereas, the person solely responsible for sending the mission [was] Bose. ...In Modern Review he wrote an article on Japan’s role in the Far East and denounced her assault on China.... [33]
Records declassified in 1997 show that with the end of the war in his sight, Bose weighed his options. On 21 March 1946, INA’s JK Bhonsle was interrogated at Red Fort on the subject of “last plans of SC Bose”. He revealed that “Bose had also decided that in case the Japanese government did not agree to taking up his case with Russia, he himself would try to get to Shanghai and from there try to contact the Russians through the Chinese Communists.” [34] Azad Hind Government minister Debnath Das told the Khosla Commission that one of the escape plans for Bose was to go “to Yunan, the headquarters of Mao Tse-tung, who would help him carry on his campaign against the British”. [35]
“Was this Bhagwanji a communist?”
Absolutely not! He liked individuals for some of their traits, looked upon those who had helped him, praised people with great civilizations behind them—but vehemently disapproved of communism. He prophesied at the peak of the USSR’s power that “three quarters of the house of cards that Stalin had built has been destroyed, the rest will be destroyed in front of you” [Translated from Bangla]. Bhagwanji was clearly a Rightist who said over and over that the “Godless, greedy creed of Communism will die”.
The race which cannot bind itself to its history and culture can never win. This is the axiomatic truth. This is the state of the communists. They are like a flash in the pan, glare for two days and w
ill then evaporate. This creed is carrying its death in its own cell. [Translated from Bangla, except the highlighted portions]
Historians won’t tell you this, but it is a truth that in 1949 rumours began doing rounds in India and elsewhere that Subhas Bose was in China. Forward Bloc general secretary RS Ruiker claimed in July 1949 that Bose “who is presumed to be in Red China, may come back to India provided the ban on his entry into the country is withdrawn”. [36] Then a bombshell was dropped by Sarat Chandra Bose. On 7 October 1949 his paper the Nation ran a full-page story. You’ve got to see it to believe it.
The report was based on an interview Sarat had given to a United Press of America scribe a day earlier. He told the correspondent that “the Government of India were in possession of definite information that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was in Red China of Mao Tse-tung”.
“If Bose was in China, why was he not coming to India?” Sarat Bose was asked. “I don't think the time is ripe for his coming back home,” he replied.
A shocker of such magnitude couldn’t have been ignored, but little is registered in the extant records. The Intelligence Bureau did destroy some records of 1949 vintage concerning Bose. One wonders what they were about. Back in 1949, the Ministry of External Affairs dismissed Sarat Bose’s claim with a terse denial. But the news travelled to the West. On 28 November 1949 German news agency Interpress released a story titled “Babu Bose: Mann hinter den fronten” (Mr Bose: The man behind the front), which said Bose was in China.
Six years later came another shocker. Close Bose associate Muthuramalingam Thevar, whose statue now stands in the Parliament complex in New Delhi as a tribute to his eminence, publicly claimed that he had secretly visited China on Sarat Bose’s instruction.
Sri Thevar said that towards the end of 1949 when Sri Sarat Chandra Bose was ailing, he went down to Calcutta to meet Sri Bose. He saw Sri Bose on December 7 and stayed with him for ten days. They had consultations on the matter as Sri Bose apprehended that he was going to die. After these talks, Sri Thevar said, he left India incognito on December 17. He crossed the Burma border and entered China where he stayed almost the whole of 1950. He met Netaji in January but where he would not divulge. He returned to India in October 1950. He said that the Government of India knew that he had visited China but if it doubted that, he could prove that he had been to China.
Thever made claims that are not supported by historical facts known today.
Subhas babu was taken to Manchuria by the Japanese because it is due to Subhas Babu that the neutrality pact between Russia and Japan was kept intact…. The surrender of Japan was an arranged affair, to avoid Anglo-American entry into Manchuria. The military might of Japan…to a very great extent had been transferred to Manchuria long before the surrender…. An Asiatic Liberation Army was formed by Netaji and the Japanese. Chinese (under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung), Burmese, Indo-Chinese, Malays, Indonesians, Filipinos, Siamese had all joined this army with the assistance of the Russian government.
Two booklets—Netaji mystery revealed (1954) by SM Goswami and Liu Po-Cheng or Netaji? (1956) by Shiv Prasad Nag—supported Bose in China theory. Nag—who was later found to be in close contact with Bhagwanji—actually made a most farcical claim that Bose was actually in guise of Chinese general Cheng. I read both the booklets and, to be frank, found nothing credible in them.
Goswami was a completely unreliable character. He reproduced some poor quality pictures purporting to show “Bose” in China in early 1950s. I see no such thing, though many people who had met Bose thought that one picture showed a person with some resemblance to him. According to the Shah Nawaz Committee report, the foreign ministry of the People’s Republic of China identified the person in the next image as Lee Ke Hung, superintendent of the Peking University Medical College. So anyone wanting to prove the committee wrong will have to establish that the man in the picture, third from left, is not Lee Ke Hung.
Also, there is no reference to any Asiatic Liberation Army anywhere. A follower clarified that it was another name for the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army which fought against the General MacArthur-led international forces in Korea from 1950 to 1958. But then quite a few formerly secret CIA records on the Korean war are now available. A cursory look by me obviously showed no such thing which might fit with the theory that “Bose” was active in Korea along with the Chinese.
Liu Po-Cheng, rather Liu Bocheng, was a very well-known Chinese marshal whose many pictures are there on the internet. So, I am unable to deduce much out of the claims made by Thevar and others, and supported in part by Bhagwanji, regarding the activities of “Bose” in China. I won’t be surprised if some of it turns out to be deliberate myth and misinformation.
The only researcher who I know has made a proper search for information relating to Subhas Bose in China is Priyadarsi Mukherji, a professor in Chinese & Sinological Studies Centre for Chinese & South-East Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. In his affidavit to the Mukherjee Commission, Prof Mukherji suggested a search in Historical Archives in Nanjing. The commission took it up with the MEA and was conveyed on 17 September 2004 that “both Chinese Historical Archives in Nanjing as well as Nanjing Library have conveyed to the Indian Consulate in Sanghai that they do not have any such book containing historical references to Netaji”. [37] You can see that the answer was somewhat vague.
I am not prepared to believe that the Chinese attention was never drawn to numerous claims about Subhas’s presence in their country. Even the Americans, who had nothing to do with Bose in the Cold War years, couldn’t skip mentioning it. For example, the February 1954 issue of National Republic carried an article “Jawaharlal Nehru and the Red threat to India”. Its author, Elliot Erikson, wrote:
There is a strong possibility that Bose is alive. At the end of the war, when the Japanese front collapsed in Burma, Bose, if he showed himself, ran great risk of being prosecuted as an international war criminal. If Bose is still held prisoner in Communist China, he could be sprung as the leader of a Red “liberation” of India from capitalism. The most strongly anti-Communist Congress leaders admit that if such an event happened, Indian resistance to China would collapse immediately. [38]
I don’t know anything about China except what I read in newspapers occasionally. Prof Mukherji is an expert who speaks Chinese like the Chinese. He doesn’t know what to make of the Faizabad angle but believes that the Chinese are holding some records about Bose. In January 2011 he met Prof Wang Bangwei, director of Indian Studies Centre at the Peking University and asked him about the possibility of Bose’s contact with Mao after 1949.
Professor Wang did not directly answer my query but said that both Bose and Mao had the same objective of achieving liberation of their countries by armed struggle, so it was natural for them to be close. On being asked about documents on Netaji in the Research Cell of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), Wang categorically said that it is impossible for a foreigner like me to get access to it. Even many Chinese can’t get access either.
The rumours about Bose and China peaked during the 1962 war and were noted by IB chief BN Mullik. A former Delhi Congress chief told the Khosla Commission that Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri too was aware of the claims made at the time of the Chinese aggression.
In 1962 Bhagwanji was in Naimisharanya. If we believe the followers, he spent quite some time in both Russia and then in China. The diary of a follower has this hasty, free-flowing note of Bhagwanji’s recollection:
There are many political offenders in Siberia and many great scientists. Suppose you have gone to Moscow, you wouldn’t know that all the nice electronic goods have been manufactured by scientists in Siberia. There are many generals too. This somehow reached the ears of the ambassador. Then he came to the outside world and said “so and so” is imprisoned in Siberia. Then, Ambassador Mr Menon asked permission from the foreign office to visit that place. They said what would you do there? [Translated from Bangla]
Bhagwanji
cryptically added: “I did one favour to Menon. He had done a favour to me—during my student days.” He did not specify which year “Mr Menon” had sought the permission.
When Subhas Chandra Bose attained fourth position in the ICS examination, the topper was KPS Menon. He was India’s Ambassador in China in 1946 and then the first Foreign Secretary of free India. From 1952 to 1961 he was our Ambassador in Moscow. His son too became India's Ambassador to China, and his maternal grandson, the suave Shivshankar Menon, is India's National Security Adviser.
Some deponents before the Mukherjee Commission insisted that a record of KPS Menon’s meeting with Stalin should be summoned. The MEA said it had one record and it was shown to Justice Mukherjee in a sealed cover. The judge found nothing in the Top Secret record relating to Bose. But then, the government records can be less than honest.
I have a copy of a declassified October 1972 US State Department record quoting then External Affairs Minister Swaran Singh trumpeting before his American counterpart William Rogers that India knew who were the CIA spies in India and who were leaking the proceedings of the Congress Working Committee. On the other side, the still secret Indian record of the same meeting is devoid of any such mention. Whose version will you put your money on? Our own is unlikely because in those days every Congress leader publicly accused the CIA of engineering problems in India.
Around 1955 Bhagwanji left China and headed towards India. He spent some time in some Himalayan caves and crossing the Mansarover region on foot, he reached Nepalgaunge area of Nepal. He then crossed over to the Indian territory, overcome with emotion, having “returned to the motherland” after so many years. Travelling at night with his face covered, he came to Lucknow with Mahadeo Prasad Mishra, the Sanskrit teacher he had met in Nepal. Mahadeo died without ever seeing his face. In the UP capital, Bhagwanji found a supporter in Chief Minister Dr Sampurnanand. My quick survey of the Sampurnanand papers kept at the National Archives did not yield any clue, though.