Eighty years after Subhas Chandra Bose's death, his remains continue to rest in a Tokyo temple, denied a final journey home. His daughter, Anita Bose Pfaff, has renewed calls for the ashes to be brought to India for immersion in the Ganga, in line with Hindu traditions. Despite past government efforts, political and security concerns have stalled the process.
Subhas Chandra Bose met an untimely death on August 18, 1945, in a plane crash in Taipei. He suffered third-degree burns from head to foot and succumbed that night. He was cremated in the Taiwanese capital, after which his remains were taken to Tokyo, where they have remained at the Renkoji temple without final disposal in accordance with Hindu custom.
Eighty years have passed without the reverential farewell extended to figures like Gandhi or Nehru. Bose's daughter, Germany-based former economics professor Anita Bose Pfaff, reiterated in an interview with Karan Thapar on The Wire her desire for closure. She noted her father's ambition to return to a free India and, since that was unfulfilled, his remains should at least touch Indian soil. While he upheld secularism, he was a Hindu, so the last rites should involve submersion in the Ganga.
At the time of his passing, India was under British rule and Japan under Allied occupation following its surrender in World War II. India gained independence in 1947 and ended dominion status in 1950. Allied oversight of Japan concluded in 1952. Jawaharlal Nehru's efforts in the 1950s were thwarted by vested interests. In 1951, Nehru instructed the Indian consul-general in Tokyo to inform the Renkoji temple that India would pay for the upkeep of the remains—a commitment honored by successive governments. A 2017 RTI response from the home ministry confirmed Bose died in the air accident.
The family was bewildered by a Reuters report five days after the death; his wife, Emilie Schenkl, learned of it via a BBC broadcast. His elder brother and mentor, Sarat Bose, died in 1950. In the interim, fabrications proliferated: tales of escape to the Soviet Union, sightings in China, a Pakistani official at the 1966 Tashkent talks identified as Bose, a sadhu in north Bengal, and a baba in Uttar Pradesh with suspected criminal antecedents—all despite their denials.
For Gandhi, assassinated on January 30, 1948, and Nehru, their ashes were dispersed at the Triveni Sangam in Allahabad, with families deciding and performing the rites. The government facilitated, including security. Yet, this courtesy has been denied to Pfaff. In 1995, as external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee visited Schenkl (who died the next year) and Pfaff in Germany, securing consent to transport the remains, with Pfaff as the liaison. At a cabinet meeting, home minister S.B. Chavan cited an Intelligence Bureau input warning of riots in Calcutta. Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, aiming for resolution before Bose's 1997 birth centenary, shelved it but lost the 1996 election. Pfaff has waited 31 years.
"I am not an important person," she said smilingly when pressed by Thapar. It is never too late to make amends. Ashis Ray is the author of Laid to Rest: The Controversy over Subhas Chandra Bose’s Death, published by Roli Books.
