A Bose Peculiar Bystery, er, Mystery
On Saturday, we went to Devon Avenue, which meant a trip to India Bookhouse. Where I found India's Biggest Coverup, by Anuj Dhar, which introduced me to what is likely the most influential conspiracy theory I'd never heard of: that the death of Subhas Chandra Bose in a plane crash in 1945 was faked, and his survival covered up by (serially) the Japanese government, the British government, the Indian government, the Soviet government, and the Indian government (three more times in separate inquiries). True to its title, the book is much more interested in the mechanics of the coverup than it is in what Bose might have been doing out there all this time. So kind of hard going for people who just want an introduction to the conspiracy, which you can find here at History Today.
The prevailing theories are apparently that Bose was in a Soviet gulag or had renounced the world to become a holy man (there are two separate holy man False Boses attached to various versions of the theory). The Indian government has stiffed the investigators (official and unofficial) nigh-continuously since almost before independence, but Narendra Modi is a bigger fan of Bose than any previous PM. Modi's party also has an institutional interest in taking the Congress Party down a few pegs, so if it can prove that Congress allowed India's greatest fighting hero to languish in the gulag, count on a fourth inquiry and big headlines. If so, you read it here first, or perhaps second, if you beat me to India Bookhouse.
The prevailing theories are apparently that Bose was in a Soviet gulag or had renounced the world to become a holy man (there are two separate holy man False Boses attached to various versions of the theory). The Indian government has stiffed the investigators (official and unofficial) nigh-continuously since almost before independence, but Narendra Modi is a bigger fan of Bose than any previous PM. Modi's party also has an institutional interest in taking the Congress Party down a few pegs, so if it can prove that Congress allowed India's greatest fighting hero to languish in the gulag, count on a fourth inquiry and big headlines. If so, you read it here first, or perhaps second, if you beat me to India Bookhouse.