sign in sign up
<<
Home , Joyce Lebra, Subhas Chandra Bose

COVER STORY • 9 The Incendiary Ashes of Subhas Chandra , or Myth and History, Life and Death in and

By

Hero of the Indian Independence dent of the Congress Party, despite after the , an earlier breaking with Gandhi over the use of Indian heroine who was killed by the When a person dies and is cremated, force against the British. British in battle. his or her ashes rest in peace eternally. In 1941 Bose dramatically eluded Bose’s ashes rest at the Renko-ji Not so the ashes of Subhas Chandra house arrest and journeyed incognito Temple in Tokyo, brought there by Bose (1897-1945). His ashes continue through to Nazi , Hayashida Takeo after Bose died in the to burn, to sear the memories of indi- where he sought German aid against crash of a Japanese military plane in viduals in both Japan and India. Why Britain. In 1943 he was brought to in . For many is this so? Who was Subhas Chandra Singapore via German and Japanese Japanese officers and men who fought Bose that his ashes should cause such submarines. There he took command beside Bose in World War II, the fiery memories? He was a Bengali, of the (INA) Renko-ji Temple is not the proper rest- educated in British schools, where as a composed of Indian officers and men ing place for this hero of Indian inde- student he developed an antipathy to captured by the Japanese and inspired pendence. For any Japanese, one’s British rule that strengthened as he by Lieut. Fujiwara Iwaichi, an imagina- ashes should be brought home, to a grew older and joined the Congress tive young intelligence officer, to fight family temple, and only then will they Party and later the radical Forward for independence rather than remain as rest content. Bloc. His career included becoming prisoners of war. Bose also recruited The people of Calcutta not only do mayor of Calcutta, now , being Indians living in Southeast Asia and not want Bose’s ashes, but they also do jailed, and in 1939 being elected presi- formed a women’s regiment named not wish to acknowledge his ashes in any way, because to do so would mean Photo: The Mainichi Newspapers admitting that Bose is dead. This many are not willing to con- cede. If they are confronted with the possibility of having the ashes brought to Calcutta they will protest, they will riot. This is what I witnessed several years ago while attending a conference on the history of the INA at the Netaji Bhavan, Bose’s ancestral home in Calcutta. Also in attendance as the main speaker was General Fujiwara, founder of the INA and after World War II commander of the First Division of the Ground Self-Defense Forces. Newspapers in Calcutta had published the rumor that Fujiwara was bringing Bose’s ashes home to . While we were in the conference hall where I was to introduce Fujiwara, a group of young radicals broke through the gate and invaded the hall. They shook their fists and shouted insults at Fujiwara and everyone else on the stage, including me. The rioters were only quelled when Dr. Sisir Bose, nephew of Subhas Bose and host of the , India’s third Prime Minister, visited the Renko-ji Temple to see Bose’s ashes in 1969 conference, took a microphone and

28 JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • September / October 2006 COVER STORY • 9

Photo: THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN scolded them in forceful Bengali: “You rest of the imperial line, “in a line come to vilify General Fujiwara? You unbroken for ages eternal” down to the should come to do pranam.” His present incumbents. Herein lay a words chastened these young firebrands major cultural disjunction between and they were ushered from the build- Japan and India, an interface that did ing. Pranam is the ultimate respect not connect. that can be shown to any revered per- son, including one’s parents. The Legend Lives on During another session at the confer- ence an elderly relative of Subhas Bose had transmo- took the podium and insisted: “Bose is grified into a legend, and legends do still alive! He promised to return for not die easily, if at all. They live on in World War III!” Of course if Bose, the collective memory of a nation. For affectionately known as Netaji (fuhrer) the above-mentioned reasons this is were still alive then, he would have precisely what had happened to Bose. been over ninety, no longer the young For many Bengalis, not only was Netaji revolutionary who had fought British not dead but he could never die; control for most of his life. instead he would survive eternally. It Later that night I pondered the occurred to me as I lay sleepless that meaning of the day’s incredible events. this was part of the explanation for the Why did many Bengalis refuse to puzzling behavior of the rioters in the believe that Netaji had died, moreover conference hall that extraordinary day. that he was still the young radical who Another similar example is the Rani had defied British power and continued of Jhansi, “India’s Joan of Arc,” killed Subhas Chandra Bose, hero of the Indian his struggle against the British in in battle by British forces near the for- Independence Southeast Asia? How could Bengalis midable Gwalior fort in June, 1858 at believe in such defiance of reason? the end of the Sepoy Rebellion, the As I lay unable to sleep, something most-written about event of British their sense of responsibility to the dead? significant occurred to me. In tradi- control in India. Her martyrdom The efforts of Japanese to repatriate the tional India, time is not a linear con- transformed her into a legend, where ashes of Japanese war dead from far- struct proceeding from past through she lives on in the hearts and minds of flung parts of Asia have been well docu- present to future. Instead, time moves Indians and continues to inspire gener- mented in reportage and fiction. Yet in a circle without beginning or ending. ations of women. Her undying legend the refusal of Bengalis to accept Netaji’s In a construct of time without past, feeds on the templates of sixteen moth- ashes has frustrated all Japanese present or future, Indians were unable er goddesses, on the avenging goddess attempts. to write history. Rather, myths were , on the war goddess Chandni, As I lay still considering all the cul- generated in great profusion in an elab- and on Shakti, the cosmic female tural differences between Japan and orate oral tradition. Just as the seasons power in the universe. The Rani leg- India, I could see no solution for the move in continual rotation as in agrari- end thus lives on eternally. good intentions of Japanese soldiers of an cultures, so for traditional India did I still lay awake, for there was anoth- that generation who cooperated with all life move in continual circular rota- er cultural disjunction between Japan the INA. As they leave this life, per- tion. For humans, life and death are and India that needed further explo- haps the impetus to return Bose’s ashes followed in unending succession to ration. This related to the above-men- to Calcutta will eventually diminish to rebirth, life, death and rebirth. That tioned problem of Bose’s ashes. the point of irrelevance. Thus the Bose might have died is irrelevant in Japanese participants in the INA often problem of the ashes will fade, the this traditional concept of time where discussed the ashes as they attended ashes will remain in the Renko-ji past, present, and future are the same memorial services for Bose at the Temple, and the image of Subhas and irrelevant to linear time. Renko-ji Temple. The Japanese imper- Chandra Bose as a young revolutionary, This Indian notion of time is as alien ative to return the ashes to their proper his legend forever vibrant, will continue to Japanese ideas of time as it is to home in Bengal continued and contin- eternally frozen in time. Western thinking. Traditionally, ues to this day, so long as Japanese who Japanese did write history, in which cooperated with the INA remain alive. Joyce Lebra is a professor emeritus of the time proceeded from Amaterasu and Is there any way for these Japanese University of Colorado. Susa-no-o to Jimmu Tenno and the individuals to assuage their consciences,

JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • September / October 2006 29