Netaji’s Remains Should Be Brought Home: Daughter Anita Bose Pfaff

Anita Bose Pfaff said that remains should be brought back from Japan so as to give a closure to the matter.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s daughter Anita Bose Pfaff.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's remains should be brought back to India from Japan so as to give a closure to the matter, his daughter Anita Bose Pfaff has said on Sunday, 10 June.

She was speaking in London at the launch of a book "Laid to Rest" by journalist Ashis Ray, which collates the findings of 11 different investigations and concludes that he died on 18 August 1945 in a plane crash in Taipei.

Many have refused to believe that Bose died in the plane crash. Ray's book lays out his investigations into the incident.

Bose Pfaff said she understood why so many people – both relatives and admirers – had been reluctant to accept this tragic account of events, pointing out that the difficulties in communicating internationally at the time meant nobody could be immediately certain of the facts.

People like mysteries and my father was a romantic and tragic hero and so somehow it was not so surprising. I hope that we get closure on this matter and that we get the remains returned and I hope we can do this without controversy because that would be the worst thing we could do for Netaji’s memory. 

Anita Bose Pfaff

Ray echoed her message about Bose's remains. “It's about time India did something to bring the ashes to India.” Bose-Pfaff also talked about the impact on her own life of being related to such a significant political figure, explaining that living outside India meant she did not feel the pressure experienced by the children of other leaders of the freedom movement to assume political responsibilities.

"I owe it to my mother that the legacy was not too difficult. She said, ‘your father was a great man but that doesn't make you a great anything'. I tried to educate me to be humble (sic)," she added.