Bhagwanji, also known as Gumnami Baba (), was an ascetic who lived approximately the last thirty years of his life in various parts of Uttar Pradesh, India. He is best known for being the object of rumors that asserted his real identity as being Subhas Chandra Bose. These claims have repeatedly been found to be unsubstantiated by numerous investigations. Another letter was from famous revolutionist Trailokyanath Chakravarty who in a letter written in 1963 to Bhagwanji, reminisced many accounts of spending time with Netaji in Mandalay jail and concluded that he along with thousands of ill-treated and oppressed people of East Pakistan, are still waiting for him to return.

  • A large collection of books in Bengali, English, Hindi and Sanskrit, were recovered. Complete work of Rabindranath Tagore, Saratchandra Chatterjee, William Shakespeare, Atharv Ved Samhita in Bengali by Durgadas Lahiri, Vivekananda Bani (Bengali) by Kumar Krishna Nandi, ' Sadhak Ramprasad' by Swami Vivekananda, Bulletin of Netaji Research Bureau of January 1966, Freedom and after by Rabindranath Khan, Hindi copy of 30 years in Jail by TrailokyaNath Chakrovarty, selected work of P G Wodehouse, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Victor Hugo, Henry Miller, Swami Abhedananda, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam were few to mention. Many books pertaining to modern history and politics viz. The Last Days of the British Raj by Leonard Mosley, History of the Freedom Movement in India 3 volumes by RC Majumdar, The Lessons of History by Will Durant and Ariel Durant, India Wins Freedom by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Netaji Through German Lens by Nanda Mookerjee, Himalayan Blunder by Brigadier John Dalvi, India's China war by Neville Maxwell, Moscow's Shadow over West Bengal by Rajni Mukherjee, The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, copy of International Military Tribunal for the Far East, few books of journalist Kuldip Nayar, a copy of Hanuman Chalisa and Bhagwad Gita.
  • Among artefacts found, there were framed photographs of parents of Netaji, his school teacher Benimadhab Das, elder brother Suresh Chandra Bose (draped in a typical Bengali silk), group photo of Netaji's family, single photo of Netaji's parents, Netaji's photo in INA uniform, photographs of several INA colleagues, INA uniform, medals and insignia, an English made typewriter, German made binocular, needles, European crockery set, a Rolex golden watch and 2 golden round Omega watches (similar to what Netaji's father had gifted him), smoking pipes and 3 US made Sheaffer pens.

Correspondence and meeting with famous people

Among people who had met Bhagwanji were some of the notable names of politics in independent India.

  • Atul Sen, a professor and an ex-MLA from Dacca (now Dhaka), Bangladesh. He knew Netaji beforehand as it was on Netaji's insistence he ran for office and won the election in the 1930s. He had a chance meeting with Bhagwanji sometime in the early 1960s at Neemsar. ". To that Nehru replied stating the India is not bound to any such clause in any agreement. Because of Sen's overzealousness, Bhagwanji asked him not to meet him again. Sen however informed Pabitra Mohan Roy in Kolkata about Bhagwanji.
  • Pabitra Mohan Roy, a physician by profession who was also an intelligence officer in Indian National Army, carried this information to Leela Roy. Mr Roy met Bhagwanji in March 1962 at Neemsar and maintained contact with him till Sept, 1985. Numerous letters written by Mr. Roy were recovered from Bhagwanji's belongings and likewise many letters from Bhagwanji were recovered at Roy's place at Dum Dum, Kolkata.
  • Leela Roy in a letter to Dilipkumar Roy, a close friend of Netaji, mentioned that your friend is still alive and is living as a mystic in India and she isn't entitled to say anything more of it.
  • She started providing for Bhagwanji and used to send items as requested by Bhagwanji till her death in 1970.
  • Samar Guha, an ardent Netaji follower, revolutionist, elected three consecutive times as a Member of Parliament, professor at Jadavpur University and writer of famous books on chemistry, visited Bhagwanji along with Leela Roy. Several of his letters were found at Bhagwanji's place. He kept in touch with Bhagwanji till 1985 and visited almost every year.
  • Sunil Krishna Gupta, brother of famous revolutionist Dinesh Chandra Gupta, first visited Bhagwanji in 1963, after requested by Suresh Chandra Bose, Netaji's elder brother. Later his nephews Surajit Dasgupta and Jagatjit Dasgupta also used to accompany him, along with Tarun Kumar Mukhopadhyay. They deposed in front of Mukherjee commission and testified that Bhagwanji was Netaji only.
  • Apart from these, Sunil Das, Santosh Bhattacharya, Dulal Nandy and Bijoy Nag used to visit Bhagwanji, who were associated with Jayashree publications, started by Leela Roy. Bijoy Nag later testified in front of Mukherjee Commission, that Bhagwanji was Netaji.
  • Unconfirmed reports of visits from famous people viz. Dr. Sampurnanand, Anandamayi Ma, Pranab Mukherjee and Charan Singh also exist. Letters from Dr Sampurnanand and Ghani Khan Choudhury has been recovered from Bhagwanji's belongings.

In early 1986, Lalita Bose a niece of Subhash Chandra Bose, arrived at Faizabad and upon going through the items, came to the conclusion that those belonged to her great-uncle only. She identified her mother's handwriting on a copy of the dissentient report submitted by Suresh Chandra as part of Shah Nawaz Committee, where she had addressed her brother in law as "<span dir="ltr" lang="bn">Param kalyaneeya devar chiranjiveshu – Pranadhik sneh ashirvad</span>"."

Liu Bocheng/Liu Po Cheng was a famous Chinese military general fighting for People's republic. A writer named Shiv Prasad Nag wrote a book in 1950s called Liu Po Cheng or Netaji? A copy of the book was found among Bhagwanji's belongings along with a letter from Nag. A letter from Bhagwanji to Nag was also found where he wrote few lines in Bengali;

যাকে তুমি বহুদিন আগে জেনেছিলে তাকে ভুলে যাও, সে মরে ভূত হয়ে গেছে। তাই সেই লোকটার মাপকাঠিতে এই শরীরকে বোঝার চেষ্টা করলে ভুল করবে। সেই আগের তিনি আর নেই, বাইরের থেকে এবং ভেতরে সে এক মৃত ভূত, ভাবলেশহীন, স্থবির এবং সবার ধরা ছোয়ার বাইরে. (Do forget the one, you once knew, for he has turned into a ghost. Comparing this physical being with that person will only be misleading. That man is long gone. Physically and emotionally he has turned into a dead ghost, void of emotions, unwavering in conduct and beyond everyone's reach.)'

DNA Analysis of teeth

Anuj Dhar an investigative journalist, found a match box containing 9 teeth among Bhagwanji's belongings. Assuming those belonged to Bhagwanji, he requested Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee for a DNA analysis to be conducted on the teeth.

In 2004, two separate samples were sent to Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad and Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata along with blood samples from Netaji's relatives from paternal and maternal side.

The report from CFSL Kolkata was conclusive and reported that the DNA samples of the teeth didn't match with the DNA from Netaji's family members."

On 22 October 2022, it was reported that the CFSL has again refused to share the Electropherogram report as requested by Sayak Sen through his RTI filed in September the same year. The CFSL cited sections 8(1)(A), (E) and 11(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, in its defence to not disclose the report. The fact that Section 8(1) of RTI act states that disclosure of an artefact would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic and economic interests of the State, raised more suspicion in the minds of the Netaji followers.

Handwriting Analysis of Bhagwanji

Anuj Dhar approached B Lal Kapoor a retired Chief Examiner of Questioned Documents, top most position held by any Indian Govt official with respect to handwriting verification, with a set of handwriting of Bhagwanji and Netaji. Once B Lal gave a positive report about matches found, he was asked to join Mukherjee Commission to do the same job. This time he went through numerous writings from Bhagwanji and Netaji both in English and Bengali and came to the conclusion that both handwritings belong to the same person.

Justice Mukherjee was obliged to seek examination from Government experts in this regard who provided negative report. Compared to B Lal's report the official report was short and not extensive. The report from Government experts mentioned finding similarities in English handwriting but not in Bengali handwriting.

In a recent webcast veteran handwriting expert Ashok Kashyap also confirmed that volumes of handwriting cannot be forged so perfectly.

Counter claims and refutations

Netaji's family has long been distancing itself from Gumnami Baba or Bhagwanji and has abhorred the possibility of Netaji being Bhagwanji almost in all possible occasions. Sugata Bose, grand nephew of Netaji called it a "travesty of history", while another grand nephew Chandra kumar Bose observed, "it is a 'criminal offence' to term 'Gumnami Baba' as Netaji in disguise without any documentary or photographic evidence to support it"

Eminent researcher, author Dr Purabi Roy, a proponent of the theory that Netaji's final days were in fact in Russia and not Taihoku, noted that calling Gumnami Baba as Netaji in disguise is mere sensationalism. She mentioned about Vishwambhar Nath Arora, a former principal of a college in Faizabad, visiting Gumnami baba's residence post his death and discovering cartons of cigarette and bottles of Scotch Whisky. Netaji was never known to be an alcoholic in his life.

V N Arora's testimony in front of Justice Sahai commission never mentions any thing about whiskey bottles though.

Another set of witnesses deposed in front the commission who had seen Bhagwanji face to face. Dr Priyabrat Banerjee a doctor from Faizabad, his wife Rita Banerjee and her mother Bithi Chatterjee recounted their experiences of meeting Bhagwanji. Father of Dr. P Banerjee, Dr. T C Banerjee once treated Bhagwanji and was convinced that he is none but Netaji as he had seen Netaji before. According to Banerjee couple, they used to visit Bhagwanji very often and converse with him face to face. They used to ask questions in Bengali and Bhagwanji used to respond in Hindi, with a thick Bengali accent though. Rita Banerjee narrated an incident when upon asking Bhagwanji whether he felt offended due to their frequent probing, he responded in a poignant tone -

"রাগ? যার নিজের মা বাবা থাকতে মা বাবা নেই, নিজের ভাই বোন থাকতে ভাই বোন নেই, নিজের দেশকে নিজের বলার অধিকার নেই, সে কি রাগ করতে পারে? অভিমান করতে পারে" (A man who is deprived of his own parents and siblings, who can't call his country his own, can only feel hurt. He has no right to get angry)

Justice Mukherjee had to set aside their testimony as they had never seen Netaji in person and their testimony can be termed hearsay at best.

Upon receiving the official DNA analysis report and handwriting report which concluded as Bhagwanji not being Netaji, justice Mukherjee had no choice but to declare that Bhagwanji was not Netaji.

Allahabad High Court verdict

In 2010, another writ petition, no. 10877(M/B), was filed by Shakti Singh, the current owner of Ram Bhawan, to return all the items collected by Justice Mukherjee commission to Faizabad treasury.

The Allahabad high court while passing the judgement in 2013, made several important observations on how prior commissions have worked and what compelled Justice Mukherjee to accept official DNA result as a proof to dismiss Bhagwanji being Netaji. The high court raised concern about accepting DNA test as full and final and commented as follows,

"Even little doubt with regard to the veracity of teeth will compel a man of common prudence not to ignore the oral and other documentary evidence, that too when there was difference of opinion with regard to handwriting of Netaji compared by the experts."

The below statement made by Allahabad high court indicated that they have strong reservation about accepting the conclusion drawn by earlier investigating committees and would not rule out the possibility of Gumnami Baba being Netaji.

"79. Since still there is no conclusive finding through scientific measures with regard to Gumnami Baba, coupled with alleged accidental death of Netaji, the records and materials must be preserved and protected by all means for research scholars and future generation. Needless to say that we are trusties (Government) of the national assets. All the alleged materials and belongings of Gumnami Baba are national assets and must be protected for future generations so that at appropriate time by appropriate scientific methodological research truth may be unearthed or explored and addition may be made to Indian History with regard to life of Netaji or the person (Gumnami Baba) who has been treated as Netaji by the substantial section of public.'.

  • 29 of the witnesses claimed that Bhagwanji was Netaji
  • 8 of the witnesses dismissed the claim that Bhagwanji was Netaji. All but one of them were family members of Netaji.
  • One Shitala Singh testified that Bhagwanji was K D Upadhyay a murderer at large. His claim was outrightly rejected due to lack of evidence.
  • Dr R P Mishra, a retired surgeon and very close follower of Bhagwanji described Bhagwanji like his own grandfather. Justice Sahai noted that it's a pity that Dr Mishra being most knowledgeable in this regard is not willing to disclose much about Bhagwanji.
  • The rest of the witnesses claimed that Swami Sharadanandaji of Shoulmari was in fact Netaji and not Bhagwanji. Their claim was outrightly rejected for the want of evidence.

Jayanti Rakshit grand daughter of Sarat Chandra Bose, elder brother of Netaji, and her husband Amiya Nath Rakshit had visited Faizabad later in mid 2000. After speaking to local people and meeting investigating journalists, they were convinced that Gumnami Baba was their granduncle Netaji. They were the first witnesses to be examined by Justice Sahai, who rejected their claim as mere hearsay. Bulbul alias Suhita Bhattacharya was never asked to appear as witness, however, she later confirmed in an interview in a webcast that she always knew that Gumnami Baba was Netaji as told by her father Santosh Bhattacharya a frequent visitor to Gumnami Baba.

In December 2019, the commission concluded that Bhagwanji was not Subhas Chandra Bose. In its report, the commission further concluded that Bhagwanji was a follower of Bose.

Legacy

For many of his followers and admirers believe that he was none other than Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose himself, spending the rest of his life as a renunciate in the state of Uttar Pradesh, after his mysterious disappearance in 1945. Nonetheless, two investigating commissions have refused to accept him as Netaji.

Bhagwanji's lectures used to be published in a Bengali monthly named "Jayashree", of which Roy was the editor. Roy's nephew Bijoy Nag later published a book named "Oi Mahamanab Asey (Here comes the great man)" which is a collection of lectures published in the Jayashree monthly. Jayasree is still actively publishing the works of Bhagwanji through various books. In the year 2020, Indrasish Bhattacharya has been appointed as the Constituent Attorney of Bijoy Kumar Nag (Jayasree Patrika Trust) to continue the works and represent the trust. He is a close associate of Sunil Krishna Gupta and Surajit Dasgupta, both deponent at the JMCI.

Bhagwanji's lectures often included matters on contemporary politics, theology, music and even metaphysics.

In April 2017, the Government of Uttar Pradesh decided to digitize all the books recovered from Gumnami Baba's belongings.

As per order passed by Allahabad High Court, Government of Uttar Pradesh under chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, allocated funds to set up a museum for public display of items used by Bhagwanji. A gallery has been dedicated to him in the "Ram Katha Sangrahalay" museum located in Ayodhya. The gallery is yet to be inaugurated.

In 2019, a film named Gumnaami, based on Anuj Dhar's book Conundrum was created which depicted Bhagwanji.

In November 2022 a film named Sannyasi Deshonayak directed by Amlan Kusum Ghosh, starring Victor Bannerjee, Saswata Chatterjee and Locket Chatterjee in lead roles got released. The film explores the life of Bhagwanji during his stay in different places of Uttar Pradesh and searches his possible identity.

References