314 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
could not be transported to Japan and had to be cremated in Taipei.
Apparently, the coffin was too large for the aircraft. The doctor wrote
out a death certificate for the crematorium. Bose’s ashes were handed
over to the Indian colonel.^20
When the Union Jack was lowered and the Indian tricolor hoisted at
the Red Fort on August 15, 1947, the physically absent Subhas Chandra
Bose had an uncanny presence in the popular imagination. Calendar
art from that period depicted him high in the heavens above the Red
Fort observing the in de pen dence ceremonies and offering his benedic-
tion and protection. The gorier images showed him offering his severed
head to Mother India—the ultimate sac ri fice to win her freedom.^21 As
the euphoria of in de pen dence was swept away by the horror of parti-
tion violence, a traumatized people lamented the void left by the loss of
a unifying leader. Political freedom did not immediately remove deep-
seated economic and social injustices. The newly in de pen dent nation
found it hard to come to terms with Netaji’s mortal end.
On a visit to Japan in 1951, S. A. Ayer met two of the six Japanese
survivors from the crash—Colonel Nonogaki and Captain Arai—both
of whom corroborated what Habibur Rahman had related. He submit-
ted a report dated September 26, 1951, on his investigations in Tokyo,
to the prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, verifying the circumstances of
Netaji’s mortal end. In 1952, this report was presented to Parliament.^22
Yet in the India of the 1950s, there was a widespread refusal to accept
Netaji’s death. Many people longed for him to return and solve the
country’s myriad prob lems. In response to insistent public demand,
Nehru’s government instituted a formal in quiry committee in 1956, to
take a comprehensive look at all the evidence. The three members of
the committee were Shah Nawaz Khan of Red Fort trial fame, Suresh
Chandra Bose, the eldest surviving brother of Netaji, and S. N. Mai-
tra, an experienced civil servant deputed by the government of West
Bengal. This committee took depositions in Delhi and Tokyo from a
wide range of direct witnesses and also visited Saigon and Touraine
(Da Nang). The committee members were unable to visit Taipei, since
India had recognized the People’s Republic of China and did not have
diplomatic relations with Chiang Kai- shek’s government in Taiwan.^23
General Isoda told the Shah Nawaz committee that the plan settled