Netaji and Gumnami Baba: Two facets of the same coin?

 Netaji and Gumnami  Baba: Two facets of the same coin?

According to Saraswati Devi  who used to take care of Gumnami Baba , he entered India sometimes in 1955 from Nepal with the the help of her father  Mahadeo Prasad Mishra, a Sanskrit teacher. He resided anonymously in a rented accommodation at Shringar Nagar,Lucknow for two years.He moved to Neemsar ,Sitapur  in 1957 and lived untill 1963 in an abandoned Shivalaya. It  was here that  he was spotted by a Netaji associate Atul Sen. Atul Sen had contested legislative election from Dacca constituency on Netaji’s insistence and won in pre-independence days. In 1962, he was touring pilgrimage Centres of U P. When he reached Neemsar, locals told him about a Bengali Mahatma who lived in a shivalaya. After several attempts  he could meet Mahatma.It is said Sen recognized who he was.

After returning to Kolkata, Atul Sen disclosed the news to Pabitra Mohan Roy a close aid of Netaji and historian R C Majumdar. Later Atul  Sen wrote to Prime  Minister Pandit Nehru also on 28/08/1962 that Netaji was residing with spiritual inclinations somewhere in India. From his talks with Netaji, he could comprehend  that he was regarded as enemy no.1 of Allied powers and there was some secret protocol that bounded Indian Govt. to handover Netaji  to Allied justice if he was found alive. If an assurance was given by Prime Minister  Pandit Nehru , Atul Sen could make efforts to persuade Netaji to come to open life. In his reply dated 31/08/1962, Pandit Nehru denied that there was any such protocol. Netaji researchers  point out documents referred in “ Transfer of Power ,Vol.-VI” that points out British Govt.’s suspicion that Netaji was alive even after the said Taihoku plan crash of 18/08/1945. A top secret letter  to Sur E Jenkins dtd. 23/08/1945 by Sr. F Mudie,home member-Viceroy’s executive council  shows that five days after the said Taihoku aircrash, the British were  discussing about taking a decision on the fate of Netaji  as a war criminal.

Pabitra Mohan Roy told about the Ascetic  to Lila Roy a former associate of Netaji. Lila Roy was able to contact Gumnami Baba . According to Shrikant Sharma Kanha when Lila Roy wanted to meet him, the Ascetic requested her not to visit Neemsar and told he was happy there. He explained that if his identity was disclosed, neither  the country nor the public nor he himself would benefit as India would not be able to stand before big powers. Yet, Lila Roy kept in touch with the Ascetic. On 07/09/1963 Lila Roy informed Dilip Roy, Netaji’s college days friend that his friend was alive and he was in India. It is said that she did so on Gumnami Baba’s instructions. She helped him through emissaries  who carried a brief note from her to assure about their trustworthiness. Money apart,  items like Phillips Transistor, National Panasonic  Tape Recorder, chronomtre, German binoculars were sent to  the Ascetic .The Ascetic used coded messages to give information to the emissaries about his place of stay. Nephew of Lila Roy, Bijoy Nag was also used as an emissary. Bijoy Nag  gathered photographs of  Netaji’s mother,father and school teacher and  handed over the same to Gumnami Baba on his request.

Netaji’s elder brother Suresh Chandra Bose had  entrusted one Sunil  Gupta an associate of Netaji with the task of searching out for him. Where so ever there used  to be rumour about Netaji he would go but returned disappointed. But he came back satisfied after meeting the ascetic at Neemsar in 1962. When he told his follower  Surajit Dasgupta that contact has been made, Dasgupta suspected he had accomplished his mission of searhing  out for  Netaji. Since then Sunil Gupta used to visit Gumnami Baba atleast twice a year- on 23^rd of January,Netaji’s Birthday and during Durga Puja. It has come to be known that some family members of Netaji and close people also used to visit Gumnami Baba on 23^rd of January. It was later in 1982 only, that Sunil Gupta allowed Surajit Dasgupta to accompany him to meet with the ascetic who resided then at Ayodhya. Baba had given instructions that no one should look towards him and  used to draw a curtain between him and the visitors. After sometimes ,he developed faith in Dasgupta and stopped  drawing curtain. On such occasion Dasgupta stole a glance on Baba and immediately believed that he was none other than  Netaji. Later,  Gumnami Baba became  informal with Surajit Dasgupta  and  he talked about Netaji’s escape  to U S S R via Daren in Manchuria after a concocted air crash. He talked vividly about prison camps of Siberia.

Research on Gumnami Baba reveals that some times  in 1963 he shifted to Darshan Nagar area of Faizabad. Thereafter  until his death in 1985 he resided at different places in vicinity of Faizabad and Ayodhya (1965 to 66-Lalkothi,Ayodhya; 1966 to 73 -Shrista,Purani Basti; 1973 to 75-Lucknow Hatta at Ayodhya; 1975 to 1976-Brahma Kund Ayodhya; 1976 to 78 Lucknow Hatta at Ayodhya; 1978-73 Chhoti Deokali Ayodhya; 1983-85 Ram Bhawan,Faizabad.

      Following are the reasons for some persons  claiming that  Gumnami Baba was Netaji-

I)                    Before  one Santosh Bhattacharya who was an emissary of Lila Roy and had seen Netaji from close quarters at Manikganj in 1940 ( Now in Bangladesh), Gumnami Baba commented in 1963  that he was the man who had tirelessly spent two days to spread the news that that Netaji was coming to address a meeting at Manikganj.

II)                  Lila Roy sent one Anil Das, another emissary  alongwith a note that he had met Netaji in Japan. After reading the note, Gumnami Baba commented to Anil Das – He had met Netaji not only at that time. He met him at Singapore as well.Anil Das was stunned as it was true.

III)                Lila Roy had mentioned in a note to an emissary Apurba Ghosh that he was a member of reception Committee at Manikganj.  Gumnami Baba asked Apurba Ghosh if he was the man who presented Netaji with a comb when he came out of the bathroom at Kutcharibari. When Apurba Ghosh replied in affirmative,Gumnami Baba asked him if he had seen Netaji smiling. Again after Apurba Ghosh confirmed the fact, Gumnami Baba told that he was smiling because instead of offering it on a plate or dish ,he had offered it with bare hands.He enquired from him about Bahadur,a durwan at Netaji’s Elgin Road Residence and a portrait of Goddess Kali in Netaji’s living room.

IV)               Prof.V.N. Arora who is among  the first of  researchers  regarding Gumnami  Baba tells an incident. One   Ram Kishore Panda used to take care of  Gumnami Baba during his stay at a place in Ayodhya.The house had no electricity. It was winter and Gumnami Baba was sleeping inside a room, while Ram Kishore Panda was outside with an earthen firepot  for warming himself . Sometimes  in the night when Ram Kishore awoke, it occurred to him that Baba may be feeling cold. He asked Baba if he needed the firepot for warming purposes. Baba replied his body had resided in Siberia so it did not need warmth. 

V)                 One Durga Prasad Pandey had seen Netaji in Lucknow during his student days at Lucknow in 1940-41. He served Gumnami Baba for 9 years. He deposed before the Mukherjee Commission that both were the same person.

VI)               Like Durga Prasad Pandey ,Shrikant Sharma Kanha ,witness no. 40 before the Mukherjee Commisssion insisted that he had seen Netaji in 1939-40 and Bhagawanji in Neemsar and he firmly believed that  Bhagawanji ( Gumnami Baba) was Netaji  himself.

Among the articles that have been found at Ram Bhawan in the room where Gumnami Baba resided in his last days there are letters of former U P Chief Minister Late Sampoornanand,another  former  Chief Minister of U P Banarasi Das Gupta, former Railway Minister Abdul Ghani Khan Chowdhuri ,telegrams to P.M.Roy,and some letters of other political personalities.There is one map  page showing  route to India from Russia via China with all geographical coordinates-latitudes and longitudes. There are family photographs  of Netaji,photos of Goddess Kali,Swami Ram Krishna Paramhans, Swami Vivekananda,  round framed spectacle, pens, smoking pipes and cigarettes. Postage stamps marking 25^th anniversary of  I N A. The articles which were sent to him at Neemsar by Lila Roy have been found at Ram Bhawan also.There are books like “Himalayan Blunder” and “between the lines”.There are cuttings of a bengali daily related to an article  namely”Taihoku Plane disaster,a concocted story’.There has been found  photograph of a youngman. Netaji’s niece Lalita Bose identified the photograph as that of her uncle Subhash. Lalita Bose visited Ram Bhawan in in February 1986 and started weeping looking on  the articles of Gumnami Baba telling that they belonged to her uncle Subhash. Later on the suggestion of the then  chief minister of U.P. Vir Bahadur Singh, she moved to court to get the items preserved.

It should  now be  clear why Justice Mukerjee told in an off-record talk to a journalist that he was almost sure that Gumnami Baba was Netaji. Yet it is a mystery why he did not carry forward his belief in the Commission’s  report and described posting of his off-record talk on the u-tube as a breach of faith. Yet Justice Mukherjee hinted towards this fact in his report-“ Apparantly there is no reason for not acting or relying upon the evidence of witnesses, particularly those who had seen Netaji  before 1945 and also met  Bhagawanji  or Gumnami  Baba face to face on a number of occasions, more so when their evidence regarding the frequent visits of some freedom fighters  and some politicians and former members of I N A on January 23 and Durga Puja festival is supported by the fact that letters written by them including Professor Samar Guha, Pabitra Mohan Roy,and Lila Roy were found in Ram bhawan, Faizabad…”. Mukherjee Commission Report also criticized  Government of India for not cooperating with it.

It is a mater of some satisfaction for Netaji researchers that  on the orders of Allahabad High Court  regarding  a case filed by Netaji’s niece Lalita Bose a museum is finally being set up at Ayodhya to preserve the items found at Gumnami Baba residence. The U.P. Government has sanctioned an amount of Rs. 11.5 crore for a museum-cum –memorial.The court has also ordered the U. P. Govt. to form a committee of experts under  a retired high court judge to hold an enquiry regarding identity of Late Gumnami Baba.

Now  like the earstwhile Congress Govt., even the B J P Govt. is declining to disclose contents of files on Netaji, citing the reason that relations with some foreign countries would be affected. The question arises which are these countries. Let us go through possibilities : 1. Japan( It was Japan which confirmed the Taihoku plane crash  which never took place as per Mukherjee Commission) or, 2.Russia ( If Russia sent Subhash first to Gulag and later released him under a tacit understanding without bringing it to knowledge of allied powers and now,if facts are disclosed by the Government of India ,Russia may think a promise of keeping Subhash story under wraps has been broken) or,3. UK ( as per several reports British knew that Subhash was in Russia and they conspired to mislead Stalin so that he was sent to Gulag. If Subhash was released without their knowledge , they are bound to feel offended ) or,4. U S A (which has been chasing  all the NAZI allies after World War II, to bring them to allied justice and same may be the U S A’s case for Subhash also). Of the above, the reasons given under no.3 and no. 4 look more plausible to me. Japan’ role is limited to World War II while earstwhile U S S R is now disintegrated and present Russian Govt. has got nothing to do with what was done by the previous regimes.