One of India’s most enigmatic heroes who stood up and became an antithesis of the most prominent political thought and it proponent of his time. His propagated death is one of India’s enduring mysteries. Anuj Dhar (Journalist – Hindustan Times) throws light and digs out facts regarding the Netaji’s disappearance and his after life (?).
The genesis of this book was planted when the online branch of Hindustan Times in the early 2000’s launched a probe to unravel the mystery of Netaji’s death and Anuj Dhar was a part of the team. Their honest and tiring probe into the mystery and the theories and fabrications of many parties involved in this issue made him to publish this book.
The book is an engaging read. Especially for Netaji admirers across the world and even if you are not amongst his legions of fans you can enjoy the book as a real look at lives and times of a national hero and the prejudices of the authorities and other parties which we generally come to know about in fact and fiction. The book is spread into 13 chapters including the preface and continues its narrative along with the investigations of the Justice Mukherjee Commission too.
The book starts from the events of August 1945 and traces the developments till the 2000’s. It encapsulates the Subhas’s life after slipping back in India (from USSR in late 1950’s) and leading a simple monastic life in Faizabad till his death (as Gumnaami Baba) in 1980’s. It describes the measures of the many commissions being set up by the Government to probe this mystery, the unwillingness of the commissions, and their lack of knowledge about Netaji to bring about the truth.
In my opinion this Book and Anuj’s and the HT Teams efforts should be read by all as after 62 years of Independence India has matured as a nation. Whatever may be the reasons for Netaji’s disappearance and related fabrications by our authorities in the past and present, the time is ripe when we can unravel this mystery for our and the nations good. It is one of the most interesting non-fiction books that have came out, maybe the contents have made it so.
