'Laid to Rest' book review: Reliving Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death

Sometimes, book titles tell the reader exactly what to expect within the covers. Laid to Rest by Ashis Ray is one of them. This is an exhaustive (and somewhat exhausting) compilation of testimonies and evidence that attempts to finally set to rights, the persistent controversy over the death of one of Indian independence struggle’s most iconic leaders, Subhas Chandra Bose. With an introduction by Professor Anita Bose Pfaff, the only child of Subhas Bose and his Austrian wife Emilie Schenkl, the book pieces together a plethora of first-hand, eyewitness accounts of the plane crash at Taipei that resulted in Bose breathing his last in a Japanese military hospital, his funeral and the transfer of his ashes to Japan. London-based author Ashis Ray recaps all these reports, collated after 30 years of extensive research in Taiwan, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Britain and the United States, to assert that Bose actually did die in that fateful air crash on August 18, 1945. Laid to Rest alludes to the political interest in keeping alive the myth that the only nationalist leader who presented a potent and viable alternative to the Nehru-Gandhi family had actually not perished in that untimely fashion. Sadly, its meandering, repetitive narrative makes the book a bit of a task to plough through.

Mr Ray begins by delineating, then rubbishing every single conspiracy theory that has been postulated about Bose’s death. In the chapter aptly entitled Cock-and-Bull Stories, he debunks the widespread theory that Faizabad’s Gumnami Baba who died in 1985 was none other than Subhas Chandra Bose. He debunks the photograph widely circulated in West Bengal, supposedly of a much older Bose, but actually a doctored image. However, he does all this and more with a stolid earnestness that gives his potentially fascinating narrative the dullness of a news report. What does emerge from the many questions surrounding 

Bose’s death, is the fact that it came at the most inopportune moment for many Indian nationalists, who saw him as the only national-level leader capable of standing his own ground in front of Jawaharlal Nehru. Perhaps the reason many did not accept his death was that his proof of continued existence could be politically very significant.

The book goes on to retrace the circumstances of the plane crash, playing and replaying each testimony ad nauseam. While it is perhaps laudable that Mr Ray has collated the testimonies of every single survivor of the crash in which Bose is said to have been killed, every single doctor/nurse who attended to him in his last moments and every single person who attended his funeral and saw his ashes—his decision to include each of their testimonies, one after the other, reminds readers of the soap opera device of showing an incident through the eyes of all its protagonists, scene by painful scene.

All in all, this is a book only for people who are seriously obsessed with Subhas Chandra Bose, and how he met his end. Indeed, the book and the 50-odd pages of annexures present enough evidence that Bose’s wife Emilie Schenkl and daughter Anita Bose Pfaff are quite convinced that he did indeed perish in the 1945 air crash. During her lifetime, Schenkl dearly wanted Bose’s remains to be repatriated with honour to his homeland and their daughter Ms Pfaff—their only legal heir—has been asking the Indian government for the same thing. Laid to Rest quite correctly raises the question why successive Indian 

governments have not yet analysed DNA from the remains preserved in Tokyo’s Renkoji Temple to conclusively ascertain whether or not they belong to Bose. In fact, Ray quotes Bose’s aide-de-camp Habibur Rehman Khan’s testimony that he has personally placed Bose’s tooth (which had remained un-cremated) with his remains. This tooth, Mr Ray asserts, could contain enough mitochondrial DNA for a conclusive analysis, which could, once and for all, lay to rest the controversy surrounding Bose’s death.

However, this is where the real tragedy of Bose’s death at such a crucial juncture of Indian history lies. The controversy surrounding his death, the persistent “sightings” of Bose across the country and books like Laid to Rest do little to actually lay the great man to rest. By dwelling endlessly on the circumstances surrounding his death, the book manages to skim over Bose’s fascinating life. While Gandhi and Nehru restricted themselves largely within India’s domestic boundaries, Bose created a disciplined army outside its borders, was recognised as a head of state internationally and was deeply engaged in the world politics of his time. Had he not died/disappeared when he did, perhaps the course of Indian history may not have been the same. Which is why Mr Ray’s call for a conclusive DNA test is a legitimate one. It is possibly the only way that India can finally allow one of the most brilliant leaders of the independence struggle to return once more to his homeland and finally, rest in peace.

Laid to Rest: The controversy Over Subhas Chandra Bose’s Death

By Ashis Ray, with a foreword 

by Anita Pfaff

Roli Books;

Pages 352, Rs 500