The disappearance of Indian revolutionary Subhash Chandra Bose has always been shrouded in Amelia Earhart-like mystery. Adding to the intrigue, a history professor from Ireland just reported that British intelligence planned on assassinating Bose in Istanbul (via arZan):
The British Foreign Office had in March 1941 ordered the assassination of freedom revolutionary Subhash Chandra Bose after his escape from house arrest in Kolkata, an Irish scholar said. Eunan O’Halpin of Trinity College, Dublin, made the stunning revelation on Sunday evening while delivering the Sisir Kumar Bose lecture at the Netaji Research Bureau.
A history professor, O’Halpin said the British Special Operation Executive’s plan to assassinate Bose, popularly known as “Netaji” (the leader), on his way to Germany was foiled as he changed his route and went via Russia.
O’Halpin said he had handed over the classified documents backing this to Krishna Bose, a former MP and wife of Netaji’s nephew Sisir Bose… Netaji’s relative Sugato Bose, a professor of history in the Harvard University, said he had already informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the matter. [Link]O’Halpin said the British Special Operation Executive (SOE) (formed in 1940 to carry out sabotage and underground activities) informed its representatives in Istanbul and Cairo that Bose was thought to be travelling from Afghanistan to Germany via Iran, Iraq and Turkey. The orders had come from London.
“They were asked to wire about the arrangements made for his assassination. Even in the midst of war, this was a remarkable instruction. Bose had definitely planned a rebellion to free India, but the usual punishment for this was prosecution or detention, not an assassination. He was to die because he had a large following in India… If British agents could get close enough to kill him, they surely could have attempted to capture him. The fact that any trace of London’s orders to assassinate Bose remains in official records is just as striking.” [Link]
Update: The Beeb has more:
Describing the decision as “extraordinary, unusual and rare”, Mr O’Halpin said the British took Bose “much more seriously than many thought… Historians working on the subject tell me the plan to liquidate Bose has few parallels. It appears to be a last desperate measure against someone who had thrown the Empire in complete panic.”
Mr O’Halpin said the SOE operatives in Turkey failed to because Bose reached Germany through Central Asia and the Soviet Union. “Every time [the operatives] checked back, headquarters told them the orders were intact and Bose must be killed if found…”Other historians who have worked on Bose say this will add to the mystique of India’s most charismatic independence war figure. “Bose would have reasons to compliment himself if he knew that the British were desperate enough to plan his assassination…” Sugata Bose, Gardiner professor of history at Harvard University and a grand-nephew of Bose. said: “Since he ultimately managed to swing the loyalty of the Indian soldiers to the national cause from the King Emperor, they had all the reasons to contemplate the worst…” [Link]
I think people are reducing Gandhij’s efforts to some simplistic morality of ‘make love not war’. One key weapon for Gandhiji was Civil disobedience. After all, around 1919 there was no overwhelming militancy on the Indian side, so for him to claim – “I’m non-violent” would not be telling anything new, nobody would care. The second key was his insight into the weakness of the Indian society and how a violent movement would never sustain itself and die out before driving the british out.
Starting 1857 (after the first war of Independence), the british realized that unless the nature of relationship between the empire and India changed, further wars and brutality would be common occurance. India was too far off to risk constant wars and deaths. So, about two to three generations of British representatives (the best and the brightest) spent a lot of time, surveying, understanding the culture, building roads, railways, canals etc. and in general putting together a extremely advanced colony of the British. There was an extensive system created which dealt with taxation, land distribution, trade, importation of British goods, export of raw materials, law and order, colleges for educating the bureacracy etc. In some places (punjab), this new system was indeed a great relief from the Mughal and other courtly nastiness. In most other places, when the local commerce/industry conflicted with british industry no mercy was shown. By the first world war a few things happened
In comes Gandhiji after his world tours. His first insight was to know that British were in this for the money and how easy this had become for them. So if you could choke off the super efficient colony ATM it would be a huge problem for the British. Hence most of his actions around disrupting the administration — on taxes (dandi march) or british goods (swadeshi goods, burn foreign goods), disrupting trains, colleges etc. This was hugely problematic for the British since they didn’t want to kill the golden goose by risking a full scale war. It was a checkmate of the highest order. In other parts of the globe where the colony was relatively nascent or non-existent there was no mercy shown (by british or others colonizers).
His second insight was the weakness of the Indian society. Muslims fighting Hindus, Brahmins fighting Banias, Banias fighting Dalits, Sikhs fighting the Central province guys. So, given British money it was very easy to hire mercenaries from one part of the country to fight off the other. Ironically, funds raised from within the country could be diverted to fight off indians in other parts. Given the lack of funds and common identity (at that time) amongst Indians it would be very hard to raise a national army that could counter the British. Also, allocation and management of goods and monies during the war was a british speciality, not something the Indians would have learned in an instant. So only a non violent approach was something that was self sustaining and everybody could join in and a self-reinforcing loop could be formed that make the british rule untenable.
As for the supposed pacific nature of the British, I will talk of the reconquest of Sudan. Since Sudan was to be retaken and no colony or ATM was in place, Horatio Kitchener (the british commander) and his men showed no mercy towards the sudanese. They mowed down sudanese like cattle killing tens of thousands of men in a few hours. In one notable instance, Kitchener (who became a Lord due to his exploits) had the tomb of the dead Sudanese leader (the Mahdi) opened up, he threw the remains into a river and had the skull transported back to London to be used as his inkstand. All indians who think the British would be rolled over and played dead if Netaji pointed a gun severely underestimate the situation. As can seen in various world wars and british colonial experience, if Netaji and INA had met the british on some plains in Africa or Europe there would been a full scale massacre, Hume et al. and rights of man nothwithstanding.
India was offered to Stalin as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact………………..
Those who are so anti-British as to praise Bose forget the brilliant activity of the Indian and Nepalese troops in North Africa and Italy with 4th Indian Division, and the 14th Army at Kohima and in Burma………………….why India and Britain conspired after 1947 to hide the great work of these soldiers is a mystery – now we have VJ Day and noone mentions the efforts of Indian troops who were invaluable at Wadi Akarit and other major battles
Netaji’s disappearance may have something to do with his stature in the country around the time of India’s independence and whether he would have been a threat to some vested interests. I have just blogged about an article by NS Rajaram on the “Netaji’s Ghost: The Freedom Struggle” here: http://tinyurl.com/c3cmp
netaji was a ill fated person who was born in India . he wasted his every effort to free india , as he was sorounded by some half educated indian politileaders who loved money not motherland.