16th August, 1945, World War II was on the verge of ending. Japan had laid down their weapons and surrendered and in Germany, Hitler took his own life. Germany and Japan, both countries had lost this war terribly. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who was taking Japan’s help to lead the Indian National Army since 1943, was looking for new ways to continue the freedom struggle. Even though the plans weren’t properly laid out, his associates knew that Netaji wanted to shift his base into the Soviet Union. His plan was to first go to Tokyo to thank the Japanese Government and leave for Soviet from there. The reason for this was very simple. The Soviet Union was a part of the Allied Forces. The countries that won this war. But despite this, the Soviet was ideologically different from other allied countries like the US and the UK. Due to his Communist ideology, Netaji hoped that they would help India in our fight against the British. But the problem was that Japan’s loss was still fresh and there had been two nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So there weren’t many options for Netaji to travel to Tokyo. The Japanese forces found a way for him to travel that looked like this.
He would board a Mitsubishi Ki-21 Heavy Bomber aircraft, that would take off from Saigon in Vietnam. This aircraft would make a stop in Taiwan’s Heito ,from there, it would fly to Taihoku Prefecture present-day Taipei in Taiwan. And then one last stop in China’s Manchuria territory, before finally reaching the final destination, Tokyo. Back in those days, Manchuria was a puppet state of Japan, known as Manchukuo. But from 9th August, the Soviet Union started invading this place. Netaji knew this, so he thought that he should establish his first contact with the Soviets in Manchukuo.
Following this itinerary, Netaji left Bangkok on the morning of 17th August with his INA group.
And reached Saigon, Vietnam around 10 AM. Upon reaching here, he was told that there was space for only two people to sit in the heavy bomber aircraft. So, it wasn’t possible for Netaji to go ahead with all his Indian National Army companions. He had to choose only one person. He chose to go on this journey with his companion Habibur Rahman. On 17th August around 5 PM, this plane took off from Saigon carrying about 12-13 people. Apart from Netaji and Colonel Habibur Rahman, the remaining passengers were either from the Japanese military or Japanese crew members. Because it was going to be dark soon, this plane made an unscheduled stop at Tourane, which is the present-day Da Nang city.
The passengers stayed the night at a hotel and the crew worked on making this plane lighter. Many weapons, ammunition, and machine guns were taken off the plane so that it could be made lighter for the long journey. Next morning on 18th August, the plane took off early at 5 AM. And since the plane was lighter by then, the pilot skipped the next scheduled stop, Heito. Next stop was Taihoku, the city of Taipei, where the plane landed around 12 noon. The passengers had their lunch during the 2 hours stop and the plane was refuelled. During the plane’s testing, the pilot and the engineer saw that there was something wrong with the left engine of the plane. They didn’t investigate further, they thought it must be fine since the engine was fairly new. On 18th August, at 2 PM, the plane took off again. Just a few minutes after the plane took off, a loud bang was heard. As if the plane’s engine had exploded. The plane started to go out of control and it eventually crashed within a few seconds. The people in and near the cockpit, the pilot, co-pilot and a Japanese general, died immediately. Behind the general, near the left wing, next to the plane’s petrol tank, was Netaji.
And behind him was Habibur Rahman. Since both of them were towards the back of the plane, miraculously, after the crash, they came out of the plane alive. But Netaji was in a very bad condition, being drenched in gasoline. The back door of the plane was not opening, so they had to exit from the front entrance. Doing this meant that they had to pass through the flames. And since Netaji was completely drenched in petrol, he got burnt instantly.
Habibur Rahman tried his best to save him. He used clothes to put out the fire. Within 15 minutes, he takes Netaji to the nearby Nammon Military Hospital.But unfortunately, he was unsuccessful in saving Netaji’s life. The death of Subhash Chandra Bose took place in this hospital a few hours later.
This painful story of the plane crash is still merely a story for some people. Some people believe that Netaji had actually reached the Soviet Union and he was imprisoned there and tortured for the rest of his life.
On the other hand, some people believe that this plane crash was just a ruse. Netaji was actually alive and he had returned to India in a disguise. He became a hermit in Ayodhya and spent the rest of his life as a hermit. Gumnami Baba.
What’s the truth? Why is Netaji’s death such a big mystery? What was found when this was investigated?
Let’s try to understand these things.
On an incident that is always ignored, while talking about Netaji’s death. INA trials, which took place on Delhi’s Red Fort on 5th November 1945.This is about 2.5 months after Netaji’s death. Most of the Indian National Army troops were captured by the British. Approximately 25,000 INA soldiers were in British custody. Out of the 25,000, 3 soldiers faced a public case in Red Fort this day.
“The British government decided that in the eyes of the world, to prove the Indian National Army a criminal group, there had to be an open trial in the Red Fort.” These three soldiers were very special. Captain Shah Nawaz Khan, Lieutenant Gurbakhsh Singh Dhillon and Captain Prem Kumar Sahgal. During Netaji’s struggle over the last few years, the British Empire had cleverly suppressed all the news about the INA.
This meant that most Indians did not know the extent of Netaji’s contributions. But when the INA troops were captured by the British, the British government decided to portray these trials in a highly-publicised manner to the public. The news of the trials against these 3 soldiers’ spread across the country. The British government believed that since Netaji’s INA had attacked the British government, people would see it as an attack against the country, people would treat the INA as traitors. They believed that the public support will be with the British because the British government tried to portray the British government as the country. But this plan backfired completely. The result was just the opposite. Most people saw that the people who are labelled as traitors by the government were actually the biggest patriots.
Thousands of people were out on the streets to protest. The common masses made their voices heard. They claimed that these soldiers should not be punished. The crowd of protesters soon reached the Red Fort. Interestingly, these three officers belonged to three religions. Sahgal was a Hindu, Khan was a Muslim, and Dhillon was a Sikh. India’s three major religious communities.
The same religious harmony that was seen in Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army. Now, it was there in front of the country in the Red Fort. These three soldiers became a symbol of religious and national unity. A case was filed against these three for waging war against the nation under Section 121 of IPC. Along with charges of murder and abetment to murder. But seeing this attempt to label the freedom fighters as traitors, people were even more infuriated.
Kolkata, the city where Netaji had spent many years of his life, saw the most violent protests. On 23rd November, in a police firing, around 100 protesters were killed. What was the Congress Party doing during this? Congress established an INA defence committee. They decided to legally defend these three soldiers in the court. The defence committee that was formed included Tej Bahadur Sapru, Bhulabhai Desai, Asaf Ali, and Jawaharlal Nehru himself.
Jawaharlal Nehru, who used to be a lawyer, had not worn the lawyer’s gown for many years. But at that point, he presented himself in the court as a lawyer. They argued in the British court that the provisional government created by Netaji and the Indian National Army, was not illegal under international law. Because a state called Azad Hind was created,and its army had waged the war. They argued that the British government’s internal laws and regulations could not be imposed on Azad Hind and the INA. Obviously, since the British government was fighting in a British court, this legal fight was not successful.
On 3rd January 1946, when the court’s verdict was announced, Khan, Sahgal, and Dhillon were sentenced to transportation for life. Basically, they are sent to exile from where they would never return. But no court or government can withstand the power of the people. The people were so angry, and the protests were relentless, that under public pressure, the government had to release these soldiers.
The British government was shocked to see that the soldiers of the British Indian Army were also revolting. Those soldiers refused to fight, on behalf of the British. This later led to the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny. That is a story in itself, we can talk about in next blog. But because of these INA trials, Netaji’s story had spread all over the country. The story of a man who had achieved such amazing feats in his life. How he could disguise himself repeatedly to fool multiple countries. He went from one country to another to form an army. Sometimes in a submarine, sometimes in an aeroplane. This story was no less than a superhero’s tale.
For this reason, some people and some INA soldiers started doubting that if Netaji had indeed died in a plane crash. This didn’t seem probable. He had changed his disguises so many times, fooled so many people, people started believing that he must be faking his death too. Maybe he used a body double in the plane crash. Because Allied Powers had already won World War II and he did this to save himself from being captured. On top of that, there was no death certificate nor any photo of the dead body. They had Habibur Rahman’s account only. So, it was understandable for people to have doubts. Even when Mahatma Gandhi heard this news, of Netaji’s plane having crashed, he too refused to believe that Netaji could have died. Only after talking to Habibur Rahman personally, did Gandhi change his stance. But this doubt remained with many people in the country and they kept waiting for the day when Netaji would come back and reveal himself to the public. Some of them were Netaji’s associates. An organisation called Subhash Wadi Janta Party was formed by some of these associates, who refuse to believe the plane crash theory. According to their chronology, Netaji had come to India and had become a hermit. They claim that he attended Gandhi ji’s cremation in 1948, in disguise. And then, from 1956 to 1959, he lived in a Shiva temple in Bareilly as a hermit. There, he is said to have become an expert in herbs and even discovered the cure for tuberculosis. In 1959, Netaji is said to have opened an ashram in Jalpaiguri city, Bengal. Shaulmari Ashram.Calling himself Shreemad Saranandji. This conspiracy theory is called the Shaulmari Baba Theory. This ashram actually existed and this Baba was also real.
In the 1960s, this conspiracy theory spread so much that Shaulmari Baba had to clarify that he was not Netaji. But his followers still kept insisting, that he was Netaji even though he claimed not to be.
Another conspiracy theory that was developed by some other associates of Netaji was that the plane had actually landed and he had reached the Soviet Union as planned. But in the Soviet, Netaji was captured by Russians and then tortured in concentration camps. The Russians used this as a leverage against Prime Minister Nehru. In fact, not only Nehru but even Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was threatened with this. Russians said that if India did not side with the Soviet Union, they would release Netaji from jail and let the whole world know. This conspiracy theory was based on the misconception that Netaji was a threat to Prime Minister Nehru and opposed Congress.
And that if he were to return to India, he would have been the PM instead of Nehru. There is no rhyme nor reason for this conspiracy theory because as , Netaji actually admired Nehru a lot. This is why he named on of the Azad Hind Brigade after Jawaharlal Nehru. And the same mutual admiration was extended by Jawaharlal Nehru towards Netaji. After his death, he was called a national hero. There are some other interesting theories, like Netaji going to China, and leading some operations there.
Let’s discuss the most popular theory about him. This is the theory of the Gumnami Baba. Harvard professor Sugata Bose, Netaji’s grand nephew,in his book. His Majesty’s Opponent published in 2011,Subhash Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle Against Empire, mentioned that in 2002,the judiciary asked him to donate 1 ml blood so that his DNA could be compared to a Gumnami Baba’s. This was because some people were claiming that a Gumnami Baba was Netaji. This was in 2002. 57 years since Netaji passed away. His family was shocked to know that even government institutions were promoting such a bizarre theory. But still, he donated his blood. Of course, the evidence was negative. The DNA did not match. But still, the Gumnami Baba theory still remains popular. There are some people on social media who have taken up this theory again and spread conspiracies repeatedly just for views.
The theory of Gumnami Baba actually started in Russia. That under Stalin’s government he used to carry out top-secret covert operations. Like a one-man army. In the Korean war of 1952,he is said to have led the Asian Liberation Army. After that, in the war of 1962, he is said to have led the Chinese army against India because he wanted to remove all western influence from India. And since Indians didn’t recognise Gumnami Baba, he asked the army to retreat. The story doesn’t end here. After this, in 1969, Gumnami Baba fought against the USA in Vietnam.
In 1971, he played a major role in liberating Bangladesh. He was also guiding Mukti Vahini. And finally, after everything, he became a hermit in India. Specifically, a hermit living in Ayodhya who passed away on 16th September 1985. There was no photo of this Gumnami Baba’s death,nor was there any official d3ath certificate. But 44 days after his death,a local newspaper published the news.
The newspaper published that the Gumnami Baba was Netaji. The newspaper was called Naye Log .Senior journalist Sheetla Singh, who was working with another local newspaper at that time, named Jan Morcha, investigated this story in November 1985.For his investigation, he went to Kolkata to meet a close friend of Netaji, Pabitra Mohan Roy, former Intelligence Officer of INA. He said that throughout the years he met a new hermit, or a new mysterious person in his search of Netaji. In this attempt, he went from Kohima to Punjab, from Faizabad to Ayodhya. But none of the Babas were Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Here you might get confused I talked about a few Babas earlier so why was this person meeting different Babas every year. This Baba angle has multiple versions. Many claims by different people.
Someone in Karnataka may claim that a certain Babas was Netaji, someone may claim that in UP, and someone in MP. When this news was published in Jan Morcha about Gumnami Baba theory, a fight broke out in the media. Many local newspapers in Uttar Pradesh, started talking about how Gumnami Baba was like. Everyone started claiming that he was Netaji. Some people started saying that they had known for years that Gumnami Baba was Netaji. But because he had taken an oath that they could not tell anyone about this, so they had to remain silent. Quite ironic because actually had they actually taken an oath that they would not tell this to anyone why would they talk about it now? If you think logically about this theory, it doesn’t make any sense.
What would be Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s motivation to hide his identity? If he really was Gumnami Baba, then why would he be in a disguise and spend the rest of his life as a hermit? Some people on social media claim that this was done to protect India’s geopolitical interests. Had Netaji come in front of the public, it wouldn’t have been good for India. Another argument in favour of the Gumnami Baba Theory is that this Baba used to speak English fluently.
He used to discuss geopolitical issues with great confidence. That’s why he could be none other than Netaji. But today, there are so many Babas who talk in English with great confidence. Have discussions on geopolitical issues.
In the last 70 years, multiple investigations have been carried out on this. A lot of inquiries have been conducted and many reports have been published.
Let’s understand these reports one-by-one and try to find out the truth. The first was the Figgess Report of 1946.This was an investigation by the British. Under Lord Mountbatten, intelligence officer Colonel John Figgess was tasked with investigating the death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Figgess submitted his report on 25th July 1946. This report remained confidential for many decades.
But today, it is publicly available. This report confirms four things. First, a plane crashed on 18th August 1945 near Taihoku airport. Second, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was in the plane.Third, Netaji died in a nearby military hospital on the same day. Fourth, he was cremated in Taihoku and his ashes were later sent to Tokyo. The most important testimony in this report was of a Japanese doctor, Toyoshi Tsuruta, who was working in Nammon Hospital that day. The hospital where Netaji was taken after the crash. It is written in this report that Netaji had asked the doctor in English if he would stay with him the whole night. But at around 7 in the evening, he suffered a relapse and the doctor gives him another camphor injection. But despite that, he passed away shortly after.
For this mystery, the second major inquiry was conducted in 1956. This was the first inquiry by the Indian government. The Shah Nawaz Committee. This committee was led by Shah Nawaz Khan, the same INA officer who was put on trial in Red Fort. But there were two other notable members on this committee, S N Maitra, a civil servant of the West Bengal government, and Suresh Chandra Bose, Netaji’s elder brother. Between April and July 1956, this committee interviewed 67 witnesses.
In India, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, people who met Netaji before the crash. And those who survived the crash. There were 7 survivors of this plane crash. And this committee interviewed 5 of them in person. Along with that, an additional doctor, Dr. Yoshimi, who was a surgeon in that hospital who treated Netaji in his final hours, was also interviewed. This inquiry resulted in a 3-page draft report which had three major points. First, on 18th August, a plane crashed in Taihoku where Netaji died. Second, he was cremated there. And third, his ashes were taken to the Renkoji temple in Tokyo and placed there. But the strange thing here was that one of the three people on this committee, Netaji’s elder brother, Suresh Chandra Bose, refused to sign the final report. He wrote a note in which he blamed Shahnawaz and Nehru for withholding crucial evidence. According to him, the committee’s aim was to prove that Netaji died in this plane crash.
And the final report of 181 pages, if two or more stories narrated by witnesses did not match other testimonies, then the entire testimony of the witness should be considered false. Based on this, Suresh Chandra Bose said that there was no crash, and that his brother was still alive claiming that the committee report was incorrect. The final report was still published with two-thirds consensus on 3rd August 1956 and the Indian Parliament accepted it in September 1956. But Suresh Chandra Bose did not give any alternate theory.
In February 1966, 10 years after the publication of the report, he claimed that in the following month, March, Netaji would reveal himself to the world. Once again, this claim spread among the masses. Could Netaji really be alive? March came and went but Netaji never returned. Mid-1960s was the time when the stories of Shaulmari Baba were becoming popular. Because of this, the government decided that another inquiry should be conducted.
In 1970, a Khosla commission was set up as the third major inquiry into the death of Netaji. The Khosla Commission was a one-man commission, only one person was carrying out the investigation.
G.D. Khosla, who was the retired Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court. He submitted his report in 1974. And his report reiterated the same things stated by the Shah Nawaz Committee. There was one major difference between the investigation he conducted and that conducted by the Shah Nawaz Committee. Justice Khosla actually went to Taiwan to see the crash site. But he couldn’t find the crash site.
Because the airport where the crash happened didn’t exist after 1970.Shah Nawaz Committee members had tried to go to Taiwan but at that time, India-Taiwan relations weren’t good. So it was not possible. But the Khosla Commission didn’t discover anything new. Justice Khosla spoke to more than 224 witnesses. Four co-passengers of Netaji who had survived this crash and five eyewitnesses who had seen this crash, were interviewed.
By this time, many conspiracy theories had already gained traction, and Justice Khosla had written in his report “to what extent fantasy and perversion of truth can proceed.” The stories and conspiracy theories that were being spread, had political goals. Or were spread by people who simply wanted to seek attention. He was surprised to see the extent to which fake news can be spread about this. Our story would have ended here, but, in the late 1980s, stories of the Gumnami Baba started becoming popular. So in 1999, when the BJP government was formed, the government decided that
there should be another investigation.
The government appointed a retired Supreme Court judge, Manoj Kumar Mukherjee, to investigate this case. And this is how the Mukherjee Commission was formed. More than 100 files were investigated by this commission. They went to Japan, Russia, and Taiwan again. DNA test was carried out to test the Gumnami Baba theory. The DNA test mentioned earlier. But this DNA test proved to be a failure. But the real purpose of this report was to prove somehow that the theory of the plane crash was wrong.
And to prove this theory wrong, many claims were raised in the Mukherjee report. First, it is stated that Habibur Rahman said that this plane took a nose dive from 12,000 feet and crashed. This report question that in such a case, no one would be able to survive. So this theory had to be false. But where did this 12,000 feet figure come from? No one knows. Because Habibur Rehman never said that. And by the time this Mukherjee Commission was formed, Habibur Rehman had already passed away due to natural causes. The Mukherjee Commission concluded that this flight did take off from Saigon but it didn’t crash.
He said that Netaji would still be alive because there were no records or documents in any hospital or crematorium related to his death. It is worth noting that by this point in time, 55 years had already passed since the plane crash. Even after all this, the Mukherjee Commission did not present any alternate theory. It did not state what could have happened other than the plane crash.
Third, this report stated that the Japanese temple where Netaji’s ashes were said to have been placed, was not actually Netaji’s ashes but the ashes of a Japanese soldier. But when the chief priest of that temple said that they could do a DNA test, Justice Mukherjee did not get the test done. Another false claim raised in Mukherjee Commission’s report was that why was nothing published in any newspaper about Netaji’s death when the plane crashed. This was the argument in this report. But, actually, there were two local Taiwanese newspapers that published this news. Taiwan Didi Shimpao and Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shimbun.
In both these newspapers, not only was the plane crash reported but they also mentioned Netaji’s death. On top of that, historian Leonard A. Gordon, who was the biographer for Bose, said that his books were mentioned as resources in this report but they were misinterpreted. The names of the books were mistitled or mislisted.
Finally, the Mukherjee Commission’s report was published 6 years later, on 8th November 2005. And in May 2006, when this report was submitted to the Indian Parliament, the Parliament rejected this report. The reason for the rejection was obvious, the things I just told you about, but by this time, Congress’ UPA government had come into power. The rumours of conspiracy were going to continue.
Because people were saying, those who were propagating this conspiracy theory, that since the Congress government was back in power, this report was going to be rejected anyway. But even if you believe the Mukherjee Commission Report, and claim that the theory of the plane crash is wrong, the second problem is that there was no alternate explanation. If the plane crash didn’t happen, what did happen? The Mukherjee Commission said nothing regarding it.
People’s next hope were the classified files. There are many old files which have been classified by the Indian government and not presented to the public. So, there must be some truth hidden in these files. By 2016, the Modi government had come into power, 304 files were declassified by the government. This was announced in the Parliament on 2nd March 2016. These were the last files which were not presented to the public. Many files were declassified by previous governments as well. For example, the first HD Deve Gowda’s government declassified 990 files in 1997. After that, Manmohan Singh’s government declassified around 1,000 files in 2012.
Why were these files declassified at three different times? The reason was that Gowda’s government declassified mostly Ministry of Defense’s files. Dr Manmohan Singh’s government mostly declassified the files of the Home and Defense Ministry. In 2016, Modi’s government declassified the files from the PMO, Ministry of External Affairs and Cabinet Secretary. In the last declassification of the files, one file was regarding the Indian Independence League. The Indian Independence League had conducted an independent investigation into the death of Netaji.
In 1953, a report was submitted on this. A shocking thing was revealed in this report. This report states that the plane crash theory was true. But it is also states that this plane crash was carried out by a faction of the Japanese government. As Netaji went from Bangkok to Saigon, with 6 INA associates. But in Saigon he was told that there was space for only two people on the plane.
According to this report, this was a calculated plan. Some people in the Japanese government wanted to have this plane be crashed. The year when the Modi government declassified these files, the government asked other countries to declassify their files too, that related to Subhash Chandra Bose. So in response, Austria, Germany, Russia, the UK, and the USA, placed all their files related to Netaji in public domain. They declassified their files. But, and this is an important but, Japan was the only country that didn’t declassify all their secret files. Japan had 5 secret files.
They did declassify 2 of them that mention the same things. A plane crash and the same descriptions. But to date, Japan still has 3 such classified files. Japan has not released them to the public. Does this mean that this plane crash was really orchestrated by some Japanese people?
Without any further evidence, I don’t want to draw any conclusions here. We can know this for certain only when we get more evidence supporting it. But I will say that things look suspicious
because these 3 files have not been declassified.
But whether this is true or not, one thing is for certain. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s death happened that day, in that plane crash. We can say this for sure. Netaji’s grand nephew, Chandra Kumar Bose, who was a BJP member till September 2023, said that his family regrets that they believed in these conspiracy theories for years. This is a bitter truth that they had to accept.
The truth that Netaji died in that air crash. He also said that the rumours and conspiracy theories that are spread are an insult to Netaji. We should reject all these conspiracy theories and ignore the people who spread such rumours. We cannot say with 100% accuracy why the plane crash happened. But we do know that between 1945 and 1974, 10 different investigations took place to uncover the truth. By the British Army, by the Japan Allied Command, by the British India Government, by the Japanese Government, by the Taiwanese Government, by the Independent India’s Government.
In addition to these, many individual journalists carried out independent investigations. All investigations reached the same conclusion. The same points that were mentioned in the Shah Nawaz Commission Report. Netaji’s only daughter, Anita Bose, believes this too.
If Netaji’s family does not believe in these conspiracy theories and considers them disrespectful, then the least we can do is to stop spreading these rumours. If we want to honour Netaji’s legacy, we should learn from his values. We should take inspiration from his story, instead of spreading these conspiracies.