As you were growing up, you must have discussed your father, Subhas Chandra Bose, in detail with your mother. What were her everlasting memories of him?
I don’t recall all the events and the memories. However, I do remember that after the end of World War II, there was a very difficult and trying time for all adults as they had to arrange for food and take care of their families. The memory of my father was very painful for my mother, she did talk to me about it, but not in the way one adult would talk to another adult. Later on, my memory was in addition coloured by the stories of my Indian relatives who visited us and talked about their memories of my father.
What are your earliest recollections and memories of your father?
My earliest recollection is when one of my cousins visited us in 1947 and of my father’s photos which my mother kept and showed me. I don’t have any recollection of my father himself because he saw me when I was four weeks old, and, obviously, I don’t have any recollection of that meeting.
Your mother had wanted to name you ‘Amita Brigitte’, but finally ended up naming you ‘Anita Brigitte’ (Brigitte’s short form in German is Gita). What prompted her to do this?
I was born in Vienna (then part of Germany) during the Nazi regime which was very anti-foreigner. So, it was forbidden to give a foreign name to your child. Amita would, therefore, have been unacceptable to the authorities. I was named ‘Anita’, which was also a foreign name, an Italian name. However, at the time Italy was one of the allies of Germany. Therefore I was given this name. Brigitte was chosen as middle name because one of its short forms was Gita. I would still have been called Anita. But Brigitte might have been my official first name if Anita had not been accepted.
What were your feelings when you read the entire correspondence between your mother and your father and the bond between the two?
The bond was surprising for both of them, and it was a deep one. Neither of them had started the relationship assuming that it would become that intense and meaningful; it started as a purely professional relationship. My father had made up his mind that he would dedicate his life to the independence struggle and any private relationship had no place in his life. Many people had tried to win him as a son-in-law but he had evaded those efforts.
There has been much debate and controversy about the disappearance and the ultimate fate of Netaji Bose. What is your personal opinion on this topic and Gumnaami Baba as well?
It is certain that my father died on August 18, 1945, in Taipei, following a plane crash. There was no conclusive evidence available at the time. For example, my mother received the news a few days later in the form of a short announcement as part of the radio news. The British were certainly very interested in the fate of my father in the context of this news. They asked the Americans to investigate his death, as is proven by the documents released only much later. They established that he had died in the plane crash. Also, the Japanese and the Indian governments investigated the plane crash. Over the years there were 11 investigations, including three by the governments of India. Except for the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry, all of them concluded that he died as a consequence of the plane crash on August 18, 1945.
The Mukherjee Commission report was inconclusive. One of our relatives checked the report including the quoted, attached documents and found a number of mistakes. For example, there was a letter written in Japanese. The translation part of it had been left out. Furthermore, the report claimed that Habibur Rehman had said that the plane was flying at an altitude of 12,000-14,000 feet. If a plane drops from that height, obviously, no one will survive. But Rehman had said, as the document in the appendix shows, that on the way to Taipei the plane flew at that altitude. The plane actually dropped from a height of 20-30 metres because it lost an engine.
One of my nieces and one of my nephews talked to Justice Mukherjee and pointed out that there were several mistakes in his report. His response was: “Yes, I know, and I don’t want to talk about it.” I don’t know whether he stated incorrect facts on purpose or whether he simply didn’t check the evidence properly. But I am surprised that a person of his stature would make such mistakes on purpose or out of sloppiness in writing a report.
With regards to the Gumnaami Baba theory, I believe that it is a great insult to Netaji. Would a person of his integrity, come to India, not contact his family and simply sit behind a curtain? It simply doesn’t make sense that a person like him would have behaved in such fashion.
Did you ever have an opportunity to interact with Habib-ur Rahman or any other survivor from the plane crash?
There were several survivors of the plane crash including Habibur Rehman and two Japanese officers. I interacted with one of them in Japan, but I never had an opportunity to meet Habib-ur Rehman in person because he went to Pakistan, and I never had an opportunity to visit him there. He was the only Indian who accompanied my father when the plane crashed. Later, when my father’s remains were taken to Renkoji Temple in Tokyo, there were more Indians present.
What are your views on the difference in opinion on your father’s fate according to the Shah Nawaz Committee and Justice Mukherjee Commission and how do you view the dissenting stand taken by Suresh Chandra Bose in Shah Nawaz Committee?
Ten investigations came to the same conclusion about my father’s fate. One of my uncles, Suresh Chandra Bose, was part of the Shah Nawaz Committee and he originally initiated the draft report, but eventually changed his mind and gave a dissenting report. I have never understood why he changed his mind.
What are your views on the ashes stored in Renkoji Temple in Tokyo, which are allegedly your father’s remains? How and where would you like them to be finally preserved?
I want the remains to return to India because India’s freedom meant so much to him. I don’t know how this can be done. I could do it in a private manner; bring the remains and inform others about it afterwards, but it would not be an acceptable approach either for the Japanese government or even less for the Renkoji temple priests. They would consider it to be an insult. They have gone through a lot of effort and risk and have protected and preserved the ashes for years. The first head priest would often keep the ashes with him even while he was going to sleep.
Amongst many people in Japan, even the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a great admirer of my father. Therefore, a clandestine move to return Netaji’s remains to his homeland would not be proper. The only dignified way would have to be an official transfer. The Government of India would have to take a leading part in bringing back the remains. There may be a lot of excitement around it and there may even be people who may want to kill me for it. But a man who has sacrificed so much for his country’s freedom, certainly deserves to return to his country after her attaining independence.
Last year, the head priest at Renkoji Temple, Kyozen Mochizuki, whose family has been preserving the ashes for decades, said that he would like the ashes to go back to India. If you had to send a message to the Government of India on this matter, what would you say?
Not only the current head priest, but also his father-in-law who was the previous head priest and his father, who was the first head priest, took care of Netaji’s remains and honoured him. They all had wanted the remains to be taken to India. When I came to India in the 1990s, people from the Japanese embassy and some other people from Japan, wanted the remains to be brought back. The government of Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and his foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee also wanted the remains to be brought back. But things changed when that government fell. Some members of the Forward Bloc and some members of my family approached the new government to appoint another commission of inquiry. That was when the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry was appointed. While that Commission was still working, there was no question of bringing the remains back to India.
There were also people in my father’s family who didn’t believe that the remains at Renkoji Temple were his and there would have been much mudslinging. My relative who checked the veracity and quality of the Justice Mukherjee Report, was finally able to convince most of the doubters in our family that those remains were indeed Netaji’s. We may not like it, but my father died on August 18, 1945. Only one of my cousins believed till his recent death that my father had escaped to the Soviet Union. While we can safely accept that this was not the case, it would certainly make more sense than the Gumnaami Baba story because that would explain that he was unable to return. But the Soviet Union has always denied this version when the Indian government made inquiries in the early 1990s.
When did you first visit India and what was your experience of meeting your father’s family in India?
I was given a very warm welcome by all my relatives with few exceptions. I had met quite a number when they had come to meet my mother and me in Austria. My mother used to have regular correspondence with several of them.
Do your children and grandchildren know about your father and his legacy in India’s freedom struggle against colonialism?
My children, more than my grandchildren, know about their grandfather’s legacy. My elder son studied history and is a journalist, so he has a professional as well as private interest in it.
Subhas Chandra Bose took the support of the Axis powers and also from Stalinist Soviet Union, who was part of the Allied group. How was this possible?
In 1941 he would have preferred to take the Soviet Union’s help for gaining India’s independence, but the Soviet Union was unwilling to support India’s efforts. In hindsight we know that both Hitler and Stalin were most undesirable individuals. They were war criminals who committed atrocious crimes. But only the enemies of Britain were possible supporters of India’s struggle for independence. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, the latter became an ally of Britain. Looking for support abroad my father was left with no choice of supporters except Britain’s enemies, even though he was aware that they were no desirable allies.
On October 19, 1938, your father wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru and requested him to become Chairman of the Congress Planning Committee. How were the relations between both of them?
My father originally considered Nehru as an elder brother and – as leftist – a kindred spirit. He was disappointed that Nehru did not support him when Gandhi wanted to prevent his reelection of Congress president in 1939. My father was always a great admirer of Gandhi, even though Gandhi opposed him for a variety of reasons in 1939. In his later days, Gandhi too became far more understanding of my father’s position. In the Indian National Army one brigade was named the Gandhi brigade and another brigade was called the Nehru brigade. In general, we have to realise that though different freedom fighters may have differed in some aspects of their opposition to Britain, all of them worked for the same general goal — India’s independence; and any differences between them did not amount to personal animosity.
My father and Gandhi differed on non-violence. My father held the view that though non-violence was important, the freedom movement should not be confined to it. Nehru was a convinced anti-fascist and believed that India should support Britain against Germany, Italy and Japan, provided Britain would promise to grant India independence after winning the war. My father would never have considered a collaboration with Britain. Though he was not a fascist himself, he believed that these countries, the enemies of Britain during that war, would support India in her freedom struggle against Britain.
India has released a coin and several stamps on your father and on 75th year of India’s independence, a grand statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was inaugurated near India Gate in Delhi. What do you have to say about them?
The location of his statue is a very prestigious one and, historically, a symbolic one. Afterall his statue, with some delay, replaces the statue of King George V, a former colonial ruler of India. The present government has honored my father in several ways, for example, by renaming the Andaman & Nicobar Islands as Swaraj and Shaheed Dweep. However, to paint my father as a Hindu Nationalist, is a distortion of history. He was convinced that a government and politics should be secular. But even as a devout Hindu he respected all religions equally. He did not only pay lip-service to this principle. This principle was practiced in the INA. It was very important for my father that there should be no distinction based on caste or religion. I am very pleased that my father’s contribution to his country and her independence are considered important and are recognised by the present government — maybe more so than by some previous governments.
According to you, what is the significance of your father’s legacy in today’s India and how would you like him to be remembered?
As far as the political aspect is concerned, my father stood for a secular state. I want him to be remembered as a person who was a dedicated idealist. For him, his country’s independence and his countrymen’s and countrywomen’s well-being had overriding importance, for which he was ready to sacrifice everything, including his life. I also want him to be remembered as a tolerant person in religious, cultural and political terms. For him, political opponents were not enemies but competitors for the same ideal.
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