<![CDATA[Did Indian war hero Subhas Chandra Bose die in Taiwan? DNA test may give answers]>
A relative of Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose has renewed family calls for ashes stored at a temple in Tokyo to undergo DNA testing in an effort to put an end to claims that the freedom fighter survived a plane crash in Taiwan in August 1945, and a number of subsequent rumours about his fate.
Surya Kumar Bose was recently in Japan and visited Renkoji Temple, in Tokyo's Suginami Ward, to examine the urn that contains what are believed to be the remains of his great-uncle, who is also known as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
As soon as the remains can be positively identified, the family wants them returned to India to become part of a permanent memorial to a man who played a significant part in gaining India's independence from Britain.
"We need to put all the fairy tales about what happened to bed and it is essential now that we, the family and the nation, get closure," said Surya Bose, who owns an information technology company in Germany.
Surya Kumar Bose next to a bust of his great-uncle, Subhas Chandra Bose. Photo: Handout
"All the rumours are not doing anyone any good and that is why we want to get this thing moving. His daughter is not getting any younger and she too wants closure."
He was referring to Bose's only daughter, Anita Bose Pfaff, 76, who has also repeatedly called for DNA tests to be done on the remains. In an interview in August, she said she believed her father had died in 1945, but called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure DNA tests are carried out to "bring out the truth". She also asked that any government files on the matter be declassified.
What would appear to be a fairly straightforward issue is, however, anything but. And that is a reflection of the life of Bose himself.
Born in Bengal in January 1897, Bose became a passionate and outspoken champion of independence from Britain and was a key member of the radical wing of the Indian National Congress while still in his 20s. He rose to become president of the congress in 1938 but was ousted the following year due to differences with Mahatma Gandhi and other senior members of the organisation.
The Subhas Chandra Bose urn in Japan. Photo: Handout
While Gandhi espoused peaceful resistance against British control, Bose demanded more violent action. Placed under house arrest by the British, he escaped from India in 1940 and reached Nazi Germany the following year. The Germans provided support for Bose's ambitions to overthrow the British, giving him a propaganda radio show and helping him set up the 3,000-strong Free India Legion from prisoners captured by the Germans in North Africa.
By 1942, however, the war in North Africa had turned in the Allies' favour and Bose turned his attention to Southeast Asia, where the Japanese were still in the ascendancy against Britain, Australia and the United States. Bose travelled by submarine to Japanese-controlled Sumatra in May 1943 and set about building up the Indian National Army (INA) to fight alongside the Japanese with the aim of driving the British out of Burma and then India. Early successes in Burma were soon reversed and in 1945 the remnants of the INA surrendered with the recapture of Singapore.
Bose, however, decided not to surrender and planned to flee to Manchuria and travel on to the Soviet Union, which he believed would support his dream of an uprising against British rule in India.
On August 18, 1945, he was aboard an overloaded Japanese bomber which crashed soon after take-off from an airfield in Taihoku, Taiwan. Eyewitnesses reported seeing part of the port engine fall off and the aircraft plummeted to the ground, bursting into flames.
Bose sustained third degree burns when his fuel-soaked clothes caught fire and he died that evening. He was cremated two days later and his ashes were transported to Tokyo on September 7, where they were handed over to the head priest of Renkoji Temple.
Within hours of Bose's death, the rumour mill was already churning out alternative explanations for what had happened, with some saying he had not been on the plane and had gone to Russia, but was imprisoned there at the behest of rival Indian politicians. Others claimed he was captured by the Chinese or that he lived in Vietnam, while others insisted he had chosen to disguise himself as a holy man and live in a remote part of Bengal.
Surya Kumar Bose said the rumours have only been fanned by eight government-level investigations into Bose's fate, of which four were Indian. The most recent investigation, which concluded in 2006, was "a complete betrayal of the Bose family", he said.
The judge who oversaw the investigation ignored key details, "misunderstood" written testimony from witnesses to the crash, and had already made up his mind on rumours Bose had returned to India, taken the name Gumnami Baba and lived in Udar Pradesh until his death in 1985, he said. As a consequence, "umpteen books and three films" that support that conclusion have been written or are close to release.
A beggar adjusts his dothi in front a portait of Indian freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose in Lucknow. Photo: AFP
"I am 99.9 per cent sure that the remains at Renkoji Temple are his, but we need to obtain the permission of the head priest and the government of Japan to have the remains tested and we have to be completely certain that these are indeed Bose's remains before we take them back to India," the great-nephew said.
He admits, however, that it may be difficult for a forensics laboratory to recover viable DNA as the remains were cremated. The ashes do contain recognisable pieces of bone, including a section of skull, but it is not clear whether that will be sufficient to confirm that the remains are Bose's.
If that is the case, Surya Kumar Bose said he is hoping that death certificates signed at the time of Bose's death might be located in the Japanese government archives and a chain of paperwork might lead to the same conclusion.
"If the DNA is positive, then we have no issue," he said. "If it is negative, then the investigation is back to square one, but the family believes we have to take that risk. And if we cannot obtain DNA, then I hope the death certificate will be enough.
"In my mind, it is essential that we are able to take Bose back to India, that he is honoured as a national hero, and that there are no question marks," Bose said. "We need a permanent memorial, hopefully near the Red Fort [in New Delhi], but while this should be simple, we keep coming up against hurdles."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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