Jayanta Roy Chowdhury
New Delhi, Jan 22 (UNI) As the country gears up to celebrate the 129th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23, his daughter Anita Bose Pfaff has sought the return of the ashes kept at Renkoji temple at Japan, which she and many members of her family believe to be Bose’s mortal remains.
Pfaff said that Netaji, who spent much of his life in forced exile while fighting for India’s freedom, would have been deeply distressed that his remains are still kept outside his motherland more than 80 years after his death and 78 years after India became free.
“As Netaji’s daughter I invite the Indians of today who still revere him to support his posthumous return from exile; to support the transfer of his mortal remains to India for a final and fitting disposal,” Pffaf said in a statement WhatsApped to UNI.
Netaji’s grand-niece and grand daughter of his brother Sarat Bose, Madhuri Bose said the family had been seeking a return of the ashes and a DNA test to establish their belief that these were the mortal returns of the legendary freedom fighter.
Many eyewitnesses including Col Habibur Rehman of INA had testified that Bose died in an aircraft crash at Taipei in August 1945. However, theories that he survived or never flew on that particular aircraft were floated by those who believed that Netaji would somehow return to India or that he was living in the country in disguise or had died in a Russian gulag.
Madhuri Bose said that three members of the Bose family, including Netaji’s daughter Anita Pfaff, Dwarka Nath Bose, a well-known physicist and son of his elder brother, and Ardhendu Bose, another nephew of Netaji, had in October 2016 and December 2019, requested the government to order a DNA test of the ashes at Renkoji, in a bid to end the controversy. However, this has not been done so far.
Recalling Netaji’s life and struggle, Pfaff noted in her message that he had devoted decades to the freedom movement, and later took the dramatic step of leaving India to continue the freedom struggle when imprisonment made his work impossible.
His escape to Europe, subsequent perilious journey aboard a submarine to Southeast Asia, and leadership of the Indian National Army culminated in the formation of the Provisional Government of Free India during the Second World War and the setting up of the Indian National Army which fought valiantly against British rule.
Pfaff recounted that following Japan’s surrender in August 1945, Netaji set out from Singapore for Tokyo but met with a fatal air crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945. Though he survived the initial crash with severe burns, he succumbed to his injuries later that day. He was cremated in Taipei, and his ashes were later taken to Tokyo.
Netaji’s ashes were then kept in safe custody by the chief priest of the Renkoji Temple in japan, where they lie even today.
