We often hear from media-men and so-called historians that we need to bear in mind what Netaji's family's stance is about his whereabouts post-disappearance. Here we must be wary of not treading into the dangerous zone of merely considering one line of Netaji's fraternal lineage as being representative of his entire family and, so, falling into the pitfall of segmented comprehension instead of the totality of it gleaned from the entire and rather large spectrum of the Bose family. It is important to consider the entire family's opinion on the disappearance issue for that is how a more correct and comprehensive picture of it will emerge.
Truth stands independent of human opinion. Thus, to lay exclusive claim on it by way of superior possession of lineage is contrary to this self-dependent status of truth. Whether one line of Netaji's family subscribes to a particular conviction about him post-disappearance hardly matters and in no way alters reality. While a section of the Bose family may hold one particular view about the leader, another section may hold quite another view. So, to lay emphasis on one section's opinion alone to the callous neglect of the other is to be insincere in the pursuit of truth. The entire spectrum of familial opinion must necessarily be given credence to if one is to be sincere in the unravelling of the truth. Moreover, a section of the extended family by public adulation cannot lay exclusive claim to the proprietorship of Netaji's legacy and, thus, secure sole rights to the proliferation of whatever choice theories they may have about (a) Netaji's escape from his Elgin Road residence (b) his alleged marriage and progeny (c) his whereabouts and fate post-disappearance on 18 August, 1945. They must be held accountable to the people of India to submit whatever documents they have in their possession for thorough investigation and research by scholars.
Netaji is national property and not the possession of the particular family of his birth. This Netaji himself had publicly avowed and this the family itself has on many an occasion averred. Thus, the family becomes, in the light of this statement, one of the key players in this movement to uncover the truth, no doubt, but not the sole participant in it. And, where the family has not cooperated with the programme of unravelling the truth and has gone on harping on the same tune of air-crash, marriage et al, despite the declassification of relevant files countering such peculiar convictions, the people must become vociferous in denunciation of such deliberate attempts to bury the truth by constant contrary affirmations in the media.
Public adulation of Netaji must not be indiscriminately extended to his larger kith and kin, for that would be akin to extension of royal privilege in a democracy that has banished feudalism. This slovenly attitude of the public towards these supposed higher familial beings, simply because they are blood-related to Netaji, is a travesty of the very democracy that our Constitution enshrines as our polity's fundamental feature. This ought to go and sanity return to the discourse on the basis of hard facts and figures, documents and data.
Drjayanta Choudhuri said the other day that documents speak for themselves. But do they in real terms in this nation where people still hold on to the archaic feudal spirit of servitude to the master? Why must any family hold privilege over the people by dint of its association with the peerless patriot and why must the people accept such servitude of sorts? If facts reveal the pathway of the hero one way and documents or their absence point to the fact that Netaji was a lifelong celibate, then to propagate the malicious lie that he died in the air-crash and that he had married and had progeny thereof is the cruellest crime that could have been committed for whatever self-interest against a pristine, pure being, one which has tainted and tarnished the otherwise impeccable image of the Prince of Patriots. And this also ought not to have been, and it is high time that those who propagate these lies, despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, ought to retract their steps and align themselves with the truth that has already surfaced till date. That would be Netaji-like, indeed, and only then may these family members lay claim to being true kith and kin of Netaji. But old heresies revealed, perhaps, will hurt interests and these related ones find no avenue whatsoever left to them whereby they may find their way back to the mainstream of the discourse in terms of truth.
So far as the researchers are concerned, it ought to be their obligation to the nation to bring to light whatever information they have thus far gleaned from various interviews of the entire familial spectrum so that the people are made aware of where each and every section of this inordinately large family stands in terms of convictions about the hero's life and times and his destiny in disappearance. Researchers need to be free from egotistic compulsions, petty self-interest in terms of acquiring flimsy name and fame that will pass like the spring breeze in no time rendering them dry when the scorch of the summer sets in, and the obstinacy that allows them not the magnanimity to combine strengths in propagating the truth about the common ideal of their lives, their beloved inspirational liberator of the motherland, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
It is a veritable shame that a few far less knowledgeable activists, by dint of their faculty for combination, have stolen the show and feed into the mainstream discourse their preferred narrative about Bhagavanji which is being filmed as well and is due for release in the coming days. To clamour that such distorted versions of the reclusive being ought not not to be propagated is like crying over spilt milk after one has spilled the milk oneself. Is it not what these researchers deserve in the light of their inability to effectively combine and form a counter-association for the propagation of the truth which is the stated purpose of this writer? Well, even then, how many are coming forward to genuinely help this writer to advance the cause of truth and dispel the illusions thus far harboured by the bulk of the population about the alleged miscarriages of the patriot's career? Here do not say that Jayasree Prakashan is there for such a cause and it has been functioning fine for the last eight decades. That seminal organisation and pristine publication notwithstanding, perfidies against the patriot peerless have proliferated and it ought to have been prevented by sufficient counter-propaganda whereby the people would have widely known the greater truth about the liberator of the land.
Leaving such regrettable non-performance behind and drawing lessons from it, what we need today is an organisation of disciplined workers, committed to the cause in the manner mentioned decades ago at Haripura by Netaji himself. The formation of a think tank on Netaji ought to be our primary duty and this is our stated immediate objective as well. How far we shall succeed in this venture depends on the unselfishness of these avowed researchers, their pragmatic considerations and the degree of their love for the hero of their dreams about which there can be no doubts entertained whatsoever.
If we rise up in defence of the one that liberated us and do not pass such callous statements as of his invincibility against all odds for which we ought not to take effective action against his persona being maligned, we will have done our bit for the resurrection of the hero from beneath the cartloads of lewd literature that has piled on him ever since he disappeared, from the dusty shelves that have hidden his whereabouts in the yellow pages of dangerous documents lying as yet classified, and from the clutches of a coterie that controls and corrodes the course of the correct chronicling of the hero's historical narrative and destiny thereafter.
Come, let us join hands and combine our strengths to undo the perfidies perpetrated against our hero of epic proportions and, in so doing, let us at long last absolve ourselves of the sin of this terrible neglect we have left him to suffer ever since he disappeared into the fine mist one August afternoon.
Written by Sugata Bose
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