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Anuj Dhar
Anuj Dhar in a national seminar at Bhopal January 2018
Nationality	Indian
Occupations	Author Journalist

Anuj Dhar is an Indian conspiracy theorist, author and former journalist. He has published several books around the locus of death of Subhas Chandra Bose that propound theories about his living for several years after the purported plane crash, thus contradicting the current consensus. Dhar is also the founder-trustee of a not for profit organisation, Mission Netaji, which campaigns for the declassification of documents concerning Bose.

Claims

Dhar has claimed that Bose had lived in the Uttar Pradesh state of India as Gumnami Baba or Bhagwanji a hermit till 1985. The claims were debunked by the Mukherjee Commission which rejected any linkage between the two, in light of a DNA profiling test. The Commission rejected the plane crash theory and stated that Netaji ‘did not die in the plane crash as alleged’ and that ‘the ashes in the Japanese temple are not of Netaji’. However Indian Government did not accept the findings of the commission.

He also believes that Bose escaped to Russia (then, Soviet Union) after the crash and has accused successive Congress governments of being a part of broader conspiracy to keep Netaji dead. The Mukherjee commission did not locate any relevant material in the KGB archives.

In 2005, the Taiwan government provided emails to Dhar that it has no records of a plane crash during the period of 14 August to 25 October 1945, at the old Matsuyama Airport (now Taipei Domestic Airport). These records played a major role in the final assertion of Mukherjee Commission about the implausibility of Bose dying from an air crash. Historian Sugata Bose has rejected the analysis in light of the fact that the region and the airport was under Japanese occupation until 1946 and it was around 1949 when the Taiwaniese government finally consolidated itself.

In the book No Secrets, Dhar states that, according to a newspaper article published by Bose's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose in The Nation, Bose was in China in October 1949.

Dhar's 2008 book, CIA's Eye on South Asia, compiled declassified Central Intelligence Agency records on India and its neighbours.

Criticism

Netaji biographer Leaonard A. Gordon also penned a critical note on Dhar in a postscript of his book Brothers Against the Raj. There Gordon alleged that Dhar misuses the Subhas Chandra Bose death mystery issue for contemporary Indian political purposes.

In August 18,2019, Dhar shared a fake photo of Subhas Chandra Bose reading news about his own death.

Bibliography

See also

• Bose: Dead/Alive, 2017 miniseries based on Anuj Dhar's book India's Biggest Cover-up
• Gumnaami, 2019 Indian Bengali-language film based on Anuj Dhar's book Conundrum

References

1. Ashok, Sowmiya (25 March 2023). "Holograms". Fifty Two (52). Retrieved 30 June 2023.
2. ^ Hugh Purcell. "Subhas Chandra Bose: The Afterlife of India's Fascist Leader". History Today, Volume: 60 Issue: 11 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
3. "A Saint with no name". The Daily Star. The Daily Star. 16 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
4. Kirpal, Raman (12 July 2012). "Why Subhas Chandra Bose's death is India's 'biggest cover-up'". First Post India.
5. Bandyopādhyāẏa, Śekhara (2004), From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India, Orient Blackswan, ISBN 978-8125025962, retrieved 21 September 2013
6. Bayly, Christopher; Harper, Timothy (2007), Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0674021532, retrieved 21 September 2013
7. Bose, Sugata (2011), His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0674047549, retrieved 22 September 2013
8. Metcalf, Barbara D.; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2012), A Concise History of Modern India, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1107026490, retrieved 21 September 2013
9. Wolpert, Stanley (2009), Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195393941, retrieved 21 September 2013
10. Gordon, Leonard A. (2006). "Legend and Legacy: Subhas Chandra Bose". India International Centre Quarterly. 33 (1): 103–112. ISSN 0376-9771. JSTOR 23005940.
11. Lebra, Joyce (2008). The Indian National Army and Japan. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 978-9812308061.
12. Hugh Purcell (November 2010). "The Afterlife of India's Fascist Leader: The Intriguing Death of an Indian Holy Man in 1985 Suggested That He Was None Other Than Subhas Chandra Bose, the Revolutionary and Nationalist Who, It Is Officially Claimed, Died in an Air Crash in 1945. the Truth, However, Is Harder to Find". History Today. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
13. "Netaji did not die in aircrash, says web site". Rediff.com. 18 March 2006. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
14. ^ "Netaji did not die in aircrash: web site". www.rediff.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
15. ^ Bose, Sugata (21 January 2013). His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-8184759327.
16. "Report of The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry on the alleged disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Volume -I" (PDF). The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry. 7 November 2005. p. 123. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
17. "'Netaji did not die in plane crash'". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 17 May 2006. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
18. "New translation reveal Mukherjee Commission ignored Renkoji temple's nod for DNA test of ashes: Netaji kin". 23 January 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
19. "Efforts made to obtain files relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: Government". thehindu.com. 11 February 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
20. Ramesh 2006.
21. "Mukherjee Commission returns sans Netaji documents". Rediff. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
22. "No crash at Taipei that killed Netaji: Taiwan govt". Outlook India. Kolkata. 3 February 2005. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
23. "Netaji's dead but didn't die in crash, says report; long live the mystery". Indian Express. 18 May 2006.
24. "New book seeks to solve Netaji mystery with brother's China claim". Indian Express. Kolkata. 19 October 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
25. ^ Dhawan, Himanshi (1 May 2009). "Reveal names of moles in Indira cabinet: CIC to govt". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
26. Leaonard A. Gordon (2014). Brothers Against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalists Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose. Blaft Publications. pp. 392–394. ISBN 978-8129136633.
27. "Morphed photo shared as picture of Subhash Chandra Bose reading the news of his death". FACTLY. 27 September 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
28. ^ "'India's biggest cover-up', book on Netaji mystery launched". The Economic Times. Kolkata. 17 November 2012. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
29. Ghose, Chandrachur; Dhar, Anuj (29 April 2019). Conundrum Subhas Bose's Life After Death. Vitasta. ISBN 9789386473578. Retrieved 6 May 2022. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
30. "Remembering Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose through these films on his 125th birth anniversary". 23 January 2022.
31. "Faced death threats for Gumnaami, so this National Award is doubly sweet, says Srijit Mukherji".

Sources

• Bose, Madhuri (24 January 2019). "To end mystery of Netaji's death, conduct DNA test on remains in Tokyo urn, urges his grand-niece". Scroll.in. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
• Chaudhury, Sumeru Roy (23 January 2019). "Solving the Mystery of Netaji's 'Disappearance': Part Two". The Wire. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
• Ramesh, Randeep (18 May 2006). "Fate of Indian war leader thrown into doubt by new report". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
• Soni, Aayush (22 February 2019). "Interview: On the Declassification of the Netaji Files and His Place in Indian History". The Wire. Retrieved 17 March 2019.

• Living people
• Indian male bloggers
• Indian political writers
• Indian journalists
• Indian conspiracy theorists
• Indian non-fiction writers
• 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers
• Subhas Chandra Bose