Netaji Files Declassified: Everything You Need To Know

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declassified 64 files related to freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose and released them to the public on Semptember 16, 2015.

The files, comprising almost 12,000 pages, were first released to Netaji’s family and then to journalists and the public. The files are also on display at the Kolkata Police Museum and will be digitised soon. Among these files are personal correspondences between Netaji and his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose, the British intelligence’s analysis of Netaji’s speeches at various public meetings and invitations given to him to attend various functions.

The files not only raise questions over his death, but also reveal the extent of surveillance his family was put under. Spread across the files are various references to Netaji “being alive”. Many people in India have refused to accept the official version of events that Bose died in an aeroplane crash in 1945 in Taipei. No photograph of the body, which was said to have been cremated in Taiwan, was released.

Also in the files are details of a covert operation that continued for years, which included tracking of letters exchanged between members of the Bose family and various individuals. The files also comprise various newspaper reports — mostly in English and Bengali — on the political activities of the family.

The BJP government, while in opposition, had demanded that the Congress government declassify 39 files pertaining to Bose. However since coming to power it has refused to declassify the 39 files.