A review of the book 'The Bose Deception: Declassified' written by Anuj Dhar and Chandrachur Ghose.
'The Bose Deception: Declassified', in this fascinating investigative work, Anuj Dhar and Chandrachur Ghose have rummaged through more than two thousand files declassified in India, and in the UK, USA and Taiwan to disentangle the complex web of a deception plan that has kept the whole country on tenterhooks for decades. They unravel the plot layer by layer to tell a story that is bound to shock the readers.
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Coming up: A review of the book 'The Bose Deception: Declassified' written by Anuj Dhar and Chandrachur Ghose.
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the authors or publisher.
Little bit about the authors:
Anuj Dhar is a former journalist, who has worked with leading media organisations like Hindustan Times and NDTV. Books authored by Dhar include CIA’s Eye on South Asia, India’s Biggest Cover-Up and Your Prime Minister is Dead. He co-authored Conundrum: Subhas Bose’s Life After Death.
Dhar is one of the founders of Mission Netaji, the pressure group whose relentless campaign led to the declassification of over a thousand secret files relating to Subhas Chandra Bose.
Chandrachur Ghose is an author, columnist and public speaker on history, politics, economics, and environment. He graduated from Visva Bharati (Santiniketan) and the University of Sussex.
He has co-authored Conundrum: Subhas Bose’s Life After Death and has written the definitive biography of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bose: The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist and 1947-57, India: The Birth of a Republic. He writes columns for various online portals.
Ghose is one of the founders of the pressure group Mission Netaji that has been the moving force behind the declassification of thousands of secret documents related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
A brief description of the book:
QUOTE
What exactly is this controversy about Netaji’s ‘disappearance’?
Efforts by the authors led to the declassification of more than 1,300 secret files on Bose.
Does new material offer new evidence on Bose’s reported death in 1945?
The Bose Deception: Declassified opens a window to this and much more.
In January 2016, the Government of India began declassifying classified PMO, MEA, MHA and Cabinet Secretariat files related to the mysterious 'disappearance' of Subhas Chandra Bose at the end of the Second World War. No one could have imagined that even seventy years after Bose’s disappearance, the government had been holding hundreds of files related to him in utmost secrecy.
The official view that Bose died in a plane crash in Taiwan never found public acceptance, leading to multiple inquiries. Claims, counter-claims and conspiracy theories continued to complicate the mystery for nearly seventy-five years, primarily because of keeping information hidden from public view.
In this fascinating investigative work, Anuj Dhar and Chandrachur Ghose have rummaged through more than two thousand files declassified in India, and in the UK, USA and Taiwan to disentangle the complex web of a deception plan that has kept the whole country on tenterhooks for decades. They unravel the plot layer by layer to tell a story that is bound to shock the readers.
UNQUOTE
The authors approach the question of whether Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose actually died in a plane crash in 1945 with a mix of historical rigor, investigative journalism, and a strong sense of skepticism towards official narratives. The book, as the title suggests, claims to "declassify" several documents and pieces of evidence, arguing that the truth about Bose’s disappearance has been deliberately obscured. Dhar and Ghose explore various conspiracy theories and provide alternative perspectives on what could have happened to the leader of the Indian National Army (INA) after his purported death.
The book is divided into sections that analyze the political, social, and military implications of Bose's actions during and after World War II. It examines the possibility of Bose having escaped to Soviet Russia or even to Manchuria, countering the claims that he perished in the crash.
As to what advantage lay for the Japanese military in sending Bose to Russia, most revealing were Bose’s own words which Hikari Kikan’s interpreter, Kinji Watanabe, recalled in his statement to P.E.S. Finney of the Intelligence Bureau.
QUOTE
In order to destroy our common enemy, Britain, both Japan and the provisional government [of free India] should try every possible means and help each other. Therefore, I earnestly request Tokyo to act as [a] ‘go-between’ and let me approach Soviet Russia. Once I have been given an interview with the Russian ambassador, I have perfect confidence in my success in persuading Russia to help our independence movement and at the the same time I am sure that I can do something to improve the relations between Japan and Russia, and it might serve to decrease the menace Japan is feeling on the Manchurian side. I trust if I succeed it will result in killing two birds with one stone. And if my trial proves unsuccessful, I shall only lose my face, that’s all. I am nothing but [the] head of a revolutionary government.
UNQUOTE
Right from the very start, the government had a fixed idea that Bose died in Taiwan and consequently it never wanted any inquiry.
Demands for a proper inquiry were firmly opposed till such time pressure of public opinion became too much to bear. The government did not appoint them, it was compelled to appoint these inquiries. The difference between doing something out of one’s own volition with the desire to establish truth and doing something under duress to tide over a difficult situation, to give a crude example, is the same as between a marriage and a shotgun marriage. And whoever has been compelled to do something shall treat the job thrust upon them as drudgery and continue to harbour mala fide intentions throughout.
I would like to especially mention two examples given by the authors which show the kind of dislike some people in the Indian establishment had towards Netaji.
1. Former revolutionary Atindra Nath Bose dubbing the plane crash theory a fabrication ‘circulated by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose himself to hoodwink his enemies’, Atindra asserted that Bose had flown ‘to an unknown destination in the USSR’. He alleged that the only people who believed in Bose’s death were ‘his erstwhile colleagues who cannot hear his name’.
QUOTE
Is there any free government in any part of this world which can get rid of their national hero in such a disgraceful, in such an unsympathetic and unseemly fashion? Could you imagine a more wretched instance of such jealousy, meanness and ingratitude?
UNQUOTE
2. When Veer Savarkar passed away in 1966, a grieving Narendra Sindkar, a Pune-based writer and journalist wanted to pay his homage on the radio but was refrained from doing so by a fellow Indian. After hearing of this incident from Sindkar at a later date, Comrade Nikhil Chattopadhaya comforted him by giving examples of Indian leaders going after Indian leaders.
QUOTE
During the course of our conversation, he [Nikhil] accused Nehru of forcing Netaji Subhas Chandra to exile in Soviet Russia. It was an exile because Netaji feared that he would be declared a war criminal with the connivance of Nehru. On his [Bose’s] arrival in the then USSR via Manchuria, Stalin, Molotov Beria and Voroshilov consulted with the Indologists who in their turn advised Stalin to consult Krishna Menon in London through the Soviet Embassy. Krishna Menon categorically asserted in favour of Nehru and urged Stalin not to divulge the information since Nehru was about to become the Prime Minister and who would follow a strict pro-Soviet policy. Since the USSR was left with no allies in Asia except Chiang-Kai Shek with whom the Soviet government had made a treaty on November 15, 1945 to withdraw Soviet troops and handover a territory to China. Although the USSR was in a dilemma, they preferred Nehru to Netaji Subhas Chandra in order to avoid confrontation with other allied nations.
UNQUOTE
Conclusion:
The Bose Deception: Declassified is an ambitious and thought-provoking work that challenges long-standing assumptions about one of India's most revered leaders. Dhar and Ghose’s deep dive into the mystery surrounding Bose’s death offers a fresh perspective and calls for a reevaluation of historical narratives. While it may not provide definitive answers, it certainly invites readers to reconsider the official story and the forces at play in shaping India’s historical consciousness. For those interested in Indian history, political intrigue, or the life of Subhas Chandra Bose, this book is an essential read that will spark debate and reflection for years to come.
I give this book 4.5/5.
The book is currently available in Hardcover and Kindle formats but not yet available in Audible format. I have given the respective buy links in the show notes. Please check them out for the latest prices.
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