Netaji’s Files:Beginner’s Guide to the Netaji Mystery

A new batch of secret files was made public today on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the legendary freedom fighter whose death became one of India’s biggest mysteries.

Here are some facts on Netaji

The Bengal government has released 64 files that were hidden in its lockers for decades, and from Monday, anyone can read them.

Around 130 files believed to be with the Centre remain classified. Many believe the files could hold the key to the mystery of Netaji’s disappearance in 1945.

Subhas Chandra Bose, “Netaji” to his followers, was a Congress leader and twice elected its president. He quit the Congress before Independence over differences with Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi and launched an organised military resistance against the British after raising the Indian National Army.

Netaji was jailed by India’s British rulers for organising mass protests and then released, but his house in Kolkata was kept under surveillance.

In 1941, he staged a dramatic escape despite the vigil, a beard hiding his face from the British guards around his Kolkata home. He travelled to Peshawar, then Afghanistan and Russia before reaching Germany.

Netaji was said to have died of third degree burns on August 18, 1945, two years before India won freedom, after his plane crashed in Taiwan. His family and followers never believed that he died in that crash.

Files declassified over the years reveal that the Intelligence Bureau kept relatives of Netaji under close surveillance for two decades, mostly during the rule of Jawaharlal Nehru, who became the first prime minister of India.

Netaji’s family say that the surveillance proved that the iconic leader was alive long after he was presumed dead.

One of the theories revolving around Netaji suggest that he spent decades in hiding as a spiritual leader, “Gumnami Baba” who was based in Faizabad and died in the 1980s. Followers say the baba shared similar reading habits as Netaji, knew several languages and also seemed to know a lot about the Indian National Army.

Some relatives of Netaji believe that the Congress suppressed files on Netaji as he was a “threat” to Jawaharlal Nehru. The family says Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took charge last year, has promised to look into their demand for an investigation.

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Source:Ndtv

Netaji