Netaji Subhas and his letter to his wife Emili

 

A tribute to Netaji from VOICE 9 NEWS GROUP

Netaji is to us a man whose return we can eagerly await even after 125 years of his birth. We can't accept that he is no longer with us, what are the chances of him coming back. We don't think so, because he is our conscience, he is the guide of our freedom. We pay our respects to him. 

 Up until 1945, we were unaware that Netaji had left a wife and child behind in Europe after mysteriously disappearing. There are ardent supporters of the idea that Netaji never married or had children, even now.

Netaji Subhas had written to Emilie, "I do not know what the future has in store for me. Maybe I shall spend my life in prison; maybe I shall be shot or hanged. He went on, "Maybe I shall never see you again; maybe I shall not be able to write to you again when I am back; but believe me, you will always live in my heart, in my thoughts, and in my dreams."

 

'The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence, An Insider's Account' by author Madhuri Bose details the circumstances in which Netaji's wife Emilie Schenkl, an Austrian by birth who became a German subject, wrote to Netaji's brother Sarat Chandra Bose in 1946, explaining how she and Subhas had married in secret according to Hindu rituals, with only two friends knowing, as a result of German laws that made it difficult for the country's subjects to marry foreigners.

Amita Brigitte was the name they had chosen for their daughter, but they later changed it to Anita Brigitte, apparently to make it sound more German. Emilie was very clear in her letter that she was not asking for financial assistance; rather, she was only informing the family of Anita's existence so that the kid would be cared for in the event that anything happened to her mother.

Sarat Bose had little issue accepting Emilie and Anita as his sister-in-law and niece, despite his strongly held personal view that his brother had not actually passed away in an aeroplane crash in Chinese Taipei, as the British government claimed. A handwritten Bengali letter that Netaji left with Emilie to be sent to his family should something unpleasant happen to him may have played a significant role in this.

In fact, letters play an important role in establishing the relationship between Netaji and the woman who worked as his secretary while he wrote the book "The Indian Struggle." In her letter to Sarat Bose, Emilie wrote, "Your brother has come to Europe again in 1941 and asked me if I could come and join him in Berlin to work with him." I agreed and joined him in April 1941, and we worked together till the fall of 1942.

She wrote - "Your brother asked me when I was in Berlin if I would accept his proposal to marry him. Knowing him for years as a man of good character, and since there was a mutual understanding and we were very fond of each other, I agreed."

The first letter in the book is dated November 30, 1934, and rather endearingly, Netaji describes the weather and scenery on his journey to Rome and adds, "I may not be able to write to you till I reach India... "I am always a bad correspondent, but not a bad man, I hope." And towards the end of the letter, he says, "I am sending this by airmail." "Do not tell anyone that I have written to you by airmail because I am not writing to anyone else by airmail and they may feel sorry." Clearly, he was prioritising his correspondence, and staying in touch with Emilie, whom he was still addressing as "Miss Schenkl," was most important.

Netaji Subhas had written to Emilie, "I do not know what the future has in store for me. Maybe I shall spend my life in prison; maybe I shall be shot or hanged. He went on, "Maybe I shall never see you again; maybe I shall not be able to write to you again when I am back; but believe me, you will always live in my heart, in my thoughts, and in my dreams."

 Courtsey: Yajnaseni Chakraborty