Anita Bose Pfaff | Sanjoy Ghosh
Anita Bose Pfaff was elated when she was told about the broad agreement in the Bose family in Kolkata about her father’s death. She explained to THE WEEK over phone why the air-crash theory was a logical conclusion. Excerpts from an interview:
Q. The Bose family now unanimously accepts the air crash theory.
A. Our family is a large one and it would be difficult to agree on any issue. Chandra Bose and his family and many other groups in the family have now accepted it. It is relieving. What else can I say?
Q. But you accepted it many years ago.
A. Yes. That was because I personally interviewed survivors of the plane crash. So, for me it was convincing.
Q. But the common Bengalis who worship Netaji are yet to respond. What do you feel their reaction would be?
A. Bengalis are known to have large joint families. And in that large family, disagreements are natural, particularly on big issues like the death of their idol. But one should agree that the remains of Netaji need to be back in India. His life and ideas are more important and they need to be professed rather than [debate about] how he died.
Q. The Indian government has in the past rejected all inquiries on Netaji’s death.
A. That is surprising. However, some of the research done was not rational. So, in our family also a similar phenomenon took place. Some people did not know who my father actually was. They believed in cock and bull stories. Everybody thought they had a say on this subject.
Q. You have written to the prime minister to conduct a DNA test.
A. People who are amenable to rational thinking will advise that. DNA tests must be done as early as possible. Chances are much better to ascertain whether the remains are of my father or not, than it was 20 years ago due to advancements in technology.
Q. Is the Japanese government interested in sending back the mortal remains?
A. The Japanese wanted to return the remains to India for a long time. That is out of their belief and also for their religious purpose as well.
Q. Did you do any research on your father's mysterious death on your own?
A. When his death was officially declared on August 23, 1945, there were British and American investigations immediately. For the British he was a great problem. If the British had executed him, my father would have gained martyrdom and that would have had serious repercussions in India. However, those investigations were kept a secret and so people found the crash theory non-convincing. These documents were not published at that time. I was a child when the crash happened. My mother heard the news on the radio. My uncle [Sarat Chandra Bose] learnt about it when he was in prison. My mother and uncle were shattered. My mother started hoping against hope. But nothing sounded convincing to her. When the survivors’ interviews were taken in Japan, I was present along with my mother. That really made it more convincing personally.
Q. But Sarat Bose, Amiya Nath Bose and Suresh Bose did not agree with you.
A. Many in our family were not convinced because they studied the issue a lot. Sarat Bose was a heart patient and he died in 1950. So, his family members wanted to keep the matter a secret from him in order to prolong his life. Also, the documents came much later. Suresh was a member of the Shah Nawaz Committee. After the final report prepared by the committee, I did not know for what reason, he prepared a dissenting report. His children and grandchildren also believed what their father and grandfather believed.
Q. Now the entire family, which earlier supported the Justice Mukherjee Commission, has rejected it.
A. The Justice Mukherjee commission report was full of errors. Madhuri, my niece, found an annexure of a translated Japanese letter. When she got the Japanese document translated by an independent translator, she found the translation in the Mukherjee Commission report incomplete. The commission and the staff members had preconceived minds. Let us now see whether any other conspiracy theory is being cooked up or not. I am saying this because certain people in India had economic and political interests in Netaji's death.
Q. Did your mom believe in the air-crash theory?
A. Well, she hoped for some time that he might have survived. But when all the cock and bull stories came out, she accepted the fact, which was that my father died in the crash in Taiwan.
Q. Some people saw Jawaharlal Nehru’s hands in it.
A. Partly those are again fiction. There might have been a certain rivalry and a theory that Nehru’s political life would have been easier without my father. But they were close to each other. He looked up to Nehru like a brother. On the other hand, he was disappointed that Nehru did not support him in his second presidency term of the Indian National Congress. They certainly would not have been in the same line on the partition of India. Gandhiji accepted what he was dictated on partition. On this important issue, Congress leaders just ignored him. The Congress leadership agreed to everything against the wish of Gandhi. My father and Nehru were very close, but they would have been competitors at the same time in free India.
Q. In what sense?
A. If my father were there, he would have prevented the partition, maybe with Gandhi and Sarat Bose, by influencing Lord Mountbatten. On the other side, if partition happened, he would have been a potential competitor to Nehru. They otherwise had the same ideology, like having a secular, socialist and modern India. But that is not unusual in democracy. But Nehru assassinating my father or having any hand in it? That was nonsensical. When my father died, Nehru was in jail. He might have had jealousy but not to the extent of influencing the murder of a friend.
Q. Was it not evident from the act of Indira Gandhi?
A. Yes. I saw her in 1955 when her father met us in Austria. My first visit to India was when I was 18. Then I saw Indira, and Rajiv, who was just 14 years old. When I got married, Indira sent me a congratulatory note. I returned to India again in 1979 during the Janata government, but I could not meet her then. She had neither good nor bad relations with me.
Q. How, according to you, India remembers Netaji?
A. All of India followed a different path. Active Congressmen and communists opposed the British but they were indifferent towards him. Modern India has different views. Of course, he sided with fascists; that is why he received some bad name. What else could he have done? Could he have turned to the US and Russia? No, he could not. There was no support coming. Which were the countries India might have got support for independence?
Q. Is your father still remembered in Germany and Japan?
A. He is a household name in Japan. In Japanese history, people of different generations read about him. By now he is forgotten in Germany. People on the street don’t know him, which was not the case till the 1960s and 70s. But yes, academicians know him.