The Bose family was an early victim of political spying, a perversion of state authority and privilege. That hurts and remains a tragedy, as much as the truncated but brilliant career of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose does
Did Jawaharlal Nehru spy on the family of Subhas Chandra BoseIJ The question is a tantalising one and at least after the revelations in the latest issue of India Today magazine would seem to be quite damaging to the legacy of India’s first Prime Minister. Sourced from archival material, an article in the magazine points out that the Intelligence Bureau kept an eye on the family and residence of Netaji, as Bose was and will always be known, in Calcutta (now Kolkata) well into the 1960s. This was a good decade and more after Bose had been last sighted and after he was reported killed in an air crash in Taiwan.
The IB was set up by the British to keep tabs on Indian political activists. It had its roots in the 19th century, in the period after the Uprising of 1857, when the British established an elaborate policing and intelligence gathering mechanism so as not to taken by surprise by Indian patriots (or “disaffected natives”). In the 1940s, during World War II, the IB was particularly active in seeking out those Indian revolutionary or political figures who were seen as siding or potentially joining hands with forces that were hostile to the Allies and represented agents of the Axis powers. Bose, as the man who sought the help of the Italians, Germans and Japanese for the cause of Indian independence, was clearly a target.
In 1941, Bose escaped from house arrest in Calcutta. He reached Europe via Afghanistan, disguised variously as a Muslim insurance agent, a deaf-mute Pathan and an Italian traveller called Orlando Mazzota. He was helped by foreign diplomatic representatives as well as by his family. His nephew Sisir Bose drove the car that took him out of the Bose residence, right under the police’s nose. This was a colossal security breach and the British, including the IB, were very embarrassed. As such, the Bose family was under understandable IB watch till 1947.
As has been recorded by chroniclers and historians, British intelligence agencies, even in the early years of free India till the early 1960s at least, maintained a strong relationship with the Indian IB. Senior officials of the Indian IB — particularly Bholanath Mullick, an iconic figure till he completely misread Chinese intentions in 1962 — were schooled in the British system. They saw themselves as part of the same ecosystem and shared a primarily anti-communist world view.
As such, they exchanged information in a clandestine and covert arrangement. To some degree this may actually have been independent of political influence or even knowledge. It is possible that in the first decade of free India, with Bose’s disappearance still a mystery, the British agencies may have wanted their Indian counterparts to keep an eye on his possible whereabouts.
Does this theory exonerate NehruIJ Frankly it does not. While some residual British-era directives may have kept the Bose family under tabs in say 1948 or 1951, how does it explain the letter of Amiya Nath Bose, Netaji’s nephew, to an Indian diplomat being intercepted as late as 1963IJ How does one square up initial apprehensions, in the immediate aftermath of 1947 and the commencement of the Cold War, of a communist plot against India that may have sought to manipulate the identity and personality of Bose — with a meticulous spying operation that continued till 1968IJ
Ironically, this was at about the time that Netaji’s sword was brought to India by a Japanese army veteran who had worked with him during World War II. As the historian Sugata Bose, Netaji’s grand-nephew, so movingly describes in his biography of the great man, His Majesty’s Opponent (2011), the sword was greeted with reverence by large throngs in Calcutta and Delhi, taken by special train from the city of Bose to the national capital. In Delhi, it was received at the Red Fort by the President of India and the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Ironically at that very moment, the IB, well under Indira Gandhi’s thumb, was keeping a watch on, listening into conversations of and reading letters written to the Bose family. The hypocrisy and the irony are stunning.
Bose and Nehru had a complex relationship. They admired each other but were also rivals. They were similar too in that they were compelling and rare figures in the Congress pantheon of the time who had moved beyond local and provincial politics and had a keen interest in world affairs, travelling to Europe, keeping abreast with contemporary currents and striking associations and friendships with international leaders. In the end, Nehru had the Mahatma’s backing. He was Arjuna, the chosen disciple; Bose was cheated of his destiny in the manner of a Karna or an Eklavya.
Bose had the pulse of the people and much popular backing, including among the mass base of the Congress. This is why he managed to win an election to the Congress presidency despite the Mahatma’s opposition. Yet, he realised that the party establishment was against him and would not take his side and snub the Mahatma. This was true of Nehru. It was also true of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with whom Bose had a testy equation. It was accentuated by the fact that he (Bose) had a deep and abiding friendship with Vithalbhai Patel, the Sardar’s brother and a mentor figure for the younger leader from Bengal.
All of these are facts from history; they are open to interpretation but not altogether contestable. What rankles, however, is the idea that free India’s early Prime Ministers — primarily Nehru and Gandhi — willingly and consciously used the IB to spy and keep watch on not just perceived “enemies of the state” and threats to public security, but ordinary political opponents. In fact, “political intelligence” became the forte of the IB and the calling card of some of its longstanding members. In the Congress era, there were police officers whose CV was embellished with little more than political spying on behalf of the prevailing Prime Minister.
The Bose family was an early victim of this perversion of state authority and privilege. Yet, it was not the only one. That hurts and remains a tragedy, as much as the truncated but brilliant career of Bose does. If nothing else, India needs to make up by de-classifying whatever Bose papers are available with the Government. The consequences be damned.
malikashok@gmail.com
