Hinduism in Indian Nationalism & role of Islam

SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC MANIFESTO FOR INDIA

2012-01-24T03:12:00.000-08:00

Education –

Compulsory free education upto class 12 for BPLEven for lower middle class students option for vocational training should be provided along with education in school levels. Compulsory free education should be given to atleast Below Poverty Line students for upto class 12! Every developed country including most liberal ones have compulsory free education upto class 12 along with vocational training facilities. This is done for the benefit of the young children who are minors and have no free will, whatsoever. Also education should be mostly practical and not theoritical!Apart from mid-day meals the morning breakfast should also be provided to bring all poor students in schools. We need universal compulsory education upto class 12 first. Quantity is required for generating quality!

Healthcare –

Healthcare for below poverty line patients be freeHealthcare for below poverty line patients be free in Govt hospitals in all levels including medicines and food if stay at indoors.The cost of medicines and medical equipments should be reduced by abolishing taxes on them.The new patent law which restricts similiar medicine formulations by different companies be dismantled and the earlier one which help competition and keep prices of drugs low be reinforced!

Nothing is free now, the costly medicines or food during indoor stays and costs of diagonistics are enough to frighten away the poor patient. Only hospital or doctor's charge is negligible which is insufficient.The problems are due to mushrooming of private clinics which bribe these staffs to behave so and frighten away the patients to their grips! Healthcare should be 100% in Govt sector and free for below poverty line patients only. Then if all have to go to govt hospitals from ministers to farmers, things will improve! Ministers and top govt officials should be atleast debarred from visiting private hospitals in India and abroad for treatment. These blood suckers will then improve the system for their own sake!

Social Democratic Development Model –
1) Roads, Bridges, Railways and Transportation in Govt sector be given top priority.2) Govt should subsidize housing for poor more and free drinking water supply for all be made a fundamental right.3) In agriculture, tank and canal irrigation against wells and tubewells be given importance to maintain ground water level. Subsidies in Seeds, fertilizers and pesticides be increased to maximum.4) All meaningless employment schemes be abolished for a new single window scheme. It would give low interest micro-loans without security to any youth above 18 years living below poverty line by govt through Post offices which have the highest coverage in towns and villages, alike.5) Electricity, Airlines and Telecommunication be totally be in private sector except own arrangements of Defence Forces.N.B: The paradoxes in Indian laws should be amended as soon as possible. Like 18 years be the minimum age of marriage for both girls and boys, voting or standing in elections. In one word the single age of maturity instead of the current multiple 18, 21, 25 years, etc!

Constitutional Changes Required –
1) English and Hindi be official language of Central Govt only. The State languages be English and recognised regional language. The respect of national languages be given to all the State languages, Hindi, Sanskrit and English. 2) All Union territories be merged with adjacent States on the basis of language. Each state should elect equally only 2 MP to Rajyasabha the upper house of Parliament.3) In parliament or state legislatures the party or coalition with highest seats, even if less than a majority shall form govt and rule for full term.4) To pass any act in parliament or state legislatures however minimum 2/3rd members should approve.5) Changes in Indian Constitution can be made only through a massive 3/4th majority.

Local Governance in India –
2 tiers Panchayat system should be made compulsory throughout the country with clear cut areas of work and access to resources.The 2 tiers will be at District and Block levels only besides urban municipal organisations. Judicial Change –
All cases in all courts should be tried by majority decision of Jury (bench of judges say 5-7) to remove error, partiality and corruption instead of a single judge!

Defence and Foreign Affairs –
1) Ordnance production and paramilitary should be strictly under defence ministry only and not in private hands or under home ministry. We dont need gun culture like USA or manipulation by Arms production companies to wage continous wars.2) Chief of Defence Staff or CDS should be made and Secretary to CDS will also act as Defence Secretary and no non-defence IAS personal should be given this strategic post.3) Mayanmar and Mauritus should be included in expanding SAARC and India should also try to join ASEAN.

Proportional Representation & Reservation –
Proportional representation for the political parties on the ratio of votes polled is the only solution! Then percentage of votes polled by a party will be the same as percentage of the party's seats in legislatures. Maximum 30% seats in Govt aided educational and job sectors be reserved and that to for below poverty line people only irrespective of caste or creed! In Military the regiments named after caste, creed or region like Sikh regiment, Rajputana rifles or Jat Regiment should be abolished and named on Indian freedom fighters or given plain numeric values!

Medium of Education Be English Only –

English not over Hindi or Hindi not over other languages. English and Hindi be simply equally official languages of the Central govt!English is required for internationl and national links. However medium of education in all levels be English only and as languages besides English, hindi or any state language would do. Afterall it is a fact that most elitemen of India today are English medium educated and we cannnot deny this right to excel to poor students who go to Govt aided schools instead of rich private schools.

Social Security and Labour Rights -
In the buzz of globalisation the need for Social Security and labour rights are being pushed back! This is wholly unjust as whatever be the development model the welfare of the citizens is the primary duty of the Govt.1) A standard universal minimum wage for any profession should be determined by Govt for throughout the country every year. Non abiding with this should ensure strict punishment for the employers.2) All below poverty line aged people above 60 years be given a monthly allowance equal to the minimum wage per month.3) All destitute children upto 18 years leaving below povertyline be kept in Govt homes and provided free education, lodging and food. Vocational training should also be given to them compulsorily to make them independent in adult life.4) All handicapped persons leaving below povertyline be kept in Govt homes and provided free lodging and food or given a monthly allowance equal to the minimum wage per month. Vocational training should also be given to them compulsorily.5) Labourers should have a 6 day week with 8 hours per day normally. If the employer wants to work them for more hours then overtime should be paid compulsorily in ratio of their salary per extra hour. Maximum 4 hours overtime should be allowed. If the company/organisation who is the employer make profits then in ratio of profits the percentage of one year's salary should be atleast paid as bonus once a year.

Rules for Contesting in Indian Elections of Any Level -•One should be PAN card holder. •Never convicted of any civil or criminal offence in any court. •Maximum age and minimum age should be 75 and 25 years respectively. •Maximum number of times one may contest in a particular level would be 3 only. •Duration of a term would always be a maximum of 5 years. Rules for Voting in Indian Elections of Any Level -•One should be PAN card holder. •Never convicted of any civil or criminal offence in any court. •Attaining 18 years of age. •Having voter identity cards which should be renamed citizen’s identity cards.

Increase Income and Job in Railways –
To increase the income of Railways, eradicate unemployment from India and stop passengers from travelling without tickets in Railways in one single step. This can be done. A bus employs 2-3 conductors, besides the driver and helper if any to run a bus. These conductors sell and check tickets from the passengers. They work in commission basis and the private bus operators make good profits. If it is possible with buses, why not Railway Coaches, equal or more people travel in Railway Coaches than a bus in an average. If 2 conductors are employed by the Railways on commission basis in each coach, not only employment will be generated to a huge extent but also Railways/Government would benefit from increased sell of tickets and without ticket travel would also be stopped. N.B: The Railway Ticket counters would not however be closed down and sell season tickets and reserved tickets.
The extra income is needed also for security purpose and upgrading and maintaining old parts.

Farm Land acquisation by Govt. and Industry –

A lot of things can be done regarding Industrial pollution. Netherlands can be a good example. Industries of polluting nature can be allowed only in specified SEZs and Industrial Complexes marked by Govt. and proper pollution control be maintained.As far as possible permit system should be re-enacted only for Industries of polluting nature and the least permission granted the best.Public transport should be only used in most places, urban or rural and use of private transport behind certain limits be made criminal offences!More areas of natural or manmade vegetation, atleast 33% of land area should be reserved by forest department. Like-wise lakes. ponds and rivers should be kept clean and non-polluted. Strict non-bailable punishment should be given for breaking pollution laws.Use of polluting items like asbestos and polybags be totally banned.Electric trams and bicycles should be used most.Agriculture and pasture lands should also be preserved and buidings (even of owners) and industries should not be strictly permitted there.

Conversion by Force or Allurement Be Stopped –

Religious conversion in India and elsewhere should be regulated by government for ensuring human rights. Many times poor people are forced to convert in lieu of bread. While this is a failure of society and government their religious, spiritual and human rights are trampled due to this kind of pressurised conversion mostly taking place in Asia, Africa and Latin America. There should be a mechanism to check whether the converts are really willing or not and then permission should be granted, also conversion cases should be properly registered.The inter-religious relationship is important since conversion leads to political upheaval and rise of new conflicting culture. Thus, great Egyptians regard themselves as arabs except the Coptic christian minority. Likewise Syrians regard themslves as arabs except some christian syrians who regard themselves as Syriac or Aramaic. Same is true for many Muslim Kashmiris who think themselves ethnically different from Hindu Kashmiri Pandits.

Celebrating Indian Independence on 26 Jan –

We have been told from our school days that 15 August is India's Independence Day. This is a big fraud, a blot on our nation! On 15 Aug, 1947 India achieved Dominion Status not Independence. British Crown was still the head of the state and appointed the Governor General who was Lord Mountbatten. Jawaharlal Nehru on 15 Aug, 1947 was a mere caretaker interim prime minister with little powers and not elected by universal adult suffrage (vote). The second Governor General appointed by British crown was an Indian Chakravarty Rajagopalachari but had to report to British crown! All the chiefs of Army, Navy and Air force were British Officers reporting to British crown via Governor General and not to PM J.L. Nehru. In this condition many people accuse Nehru of mishandling the Kashmir issue but he had no real power to deal with the issue! Mountbattein ordered and Nehru refered the case to UNO when India was winning the war. This was because Pakistan remained a dominion till 1956 and though Jinnah was at slightly better position as Governor General overlording PM Liaqat Ali in Pakistan, the chiefs of Pakistani armed forces were also British and reported to British crown. British officers did not want to fight British officers of the other side! Thus 1/3rd Kashmir is still with Pakistan. India's real Independence Day is 26 January 1950 when we became free from British crown and Rajendra Prasad became the head of state as President. First election of independent India was on 1952. We should also come out of British Commonwealth which is a vestige of imperialism because British crown is its permanent head! Many erstwhile colonies including Ireland has left British Commonwealth. Let us all be united and demand scrapping of 15 August as India's Independence Day which is a big fraud and reinstatement of 26 January 1950 as both Republic and Indepemdence Day.

Kashmir and Nagaland –
Kashmir valley (except Anantnag and Srinagar districts) be seperated from Jammu and Kashmir state and be made a seperate Indian state! Pandits displaced should be settled in Anantnag and Srinagar districts. This will save Jammuites, Ladakhis, Pandits from terrorism with which they have no connection and should not unncessarily suffer.Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal and Senapati and Ukhrul districts of Manipur should be merged with Nagaland/Nagalim who are wholely Naga from time immemorial!

Social Synthesis –

•Human consciousness is an indivisible part of the all pervading universal stream of consciousness. •The conscience of a person is one’s individual consciousness which helps us to judge right or wrong. Thus all persons irrespective of religion, class and race should coexist peacefully. •A wrong doer is a person whose conscience is suppressed. •Thus, all humans should have equal social, political , religious and economic rights which would help in purifying their conscience. •All persons of a particular nation should share a common bond of nationalism not only for national or individual development but for the betterment of the whole universe. •Inspite of similarities and unity a each person is unique in manifestation. Likewise, all nations are somewhat apart inspite of the inherent common bonding. Thus, all nations should develop individually and collectively to fulfill not only internal aspirations but also strive to develop universal humanism for the peace, progress and prosperity of the human race and the universe. •Conservation of nature is the basis of human and universal existence. •Prevention of all types of pollution is required for this purpose to the greatest extent.

Territorial Problems of India and Solution

2012-01-24T03:06:00.000-08:00

Kashmir valley (except Anantnag & Srinagar Districts) be made a seperate Indian State away from J&K -
The area proposed by Kashmiri Hindu Pandits for Panun Kashmir, their homeland remains in the proposed "Kashmir Pradesh" as Srinagar and Anantnag districts for their re-settlement. All major Hindu shrines including Amarnath cave also falls within it. National Highway linking Srinagar to Leh-Ladakh and Jammu falls within it. So, what is the problem if seperate "Koshur Valley" state is formed and terrorism is countered by restricting it to this small 13,000 sq. km area out of 101,000 sq. km area of Indian administered Jammu & Kashmir? People of Jammu and Ladakh along with Kashmiri Pandits will heave a sigh of relief and leave peacefully as full Indian citizens in seperate "Kashmir Pradesh". In Kashmiri language Kashmir is called Koshur. Poonch, Badgam, Pulwama, Baramulla, Kupwara districts be made a seperate state of India called "Koshur Valley" while rest of Jammu and Kashmir form the "Kashmir Pradesh" with permanent capital at Anantnag instead of Srinagar (summer) and Jammu (winter). Meanwhile Indian "Kashmir Pradesh" should retain strategically important Anantnag and Srinagar districts through which National Highway linking Ladakh-Leh passes and uprooted Kashmiri Hindu Pandits be re-settled in these 2 districts. This new "Kashmir Pradesh" will be non-muslim majority and enjoy status as any state of India, while "Koshur Valley" state be given the privileges like Article 370 and autonomy currently given to Jammu and Kashmir.

Homeland for Bangladeshi Hindus be created -
The only solution to Hindu, Buddhist and Christian Minorities of Bangladesh mostly Dalit Rajbanshis and Namasudras can be solved by annexing northwestern Bangladesh and merging the area with West Bengal after resettling them there. They are brutally tortured by the majority community sponsored by Bangladesh govt who regard them Indians and want to get rid of them to acquire and grab land and property. They have a black law "Enemy Property Law" which forcefully acquires land of minorities who flee to India to escape torture, rape, loot, etc. Annexing and merging this region with India would strategically help India to a great extent by widening corridor to its northeast and controlling tribal terrorism there. It would also help development and growth of the entire region. Visit the websites to know the grim situation - www.mayerdak.com, www.hrcbm.org, bir-bango.tripod.com N.B: Bir Bango (Bangabhumi) is wrongfully fighting on 2 fronts on a huge area which is impossible to liberate!

Sindhu Pradesh state in India be formed -
With Kutch, Tharparkar and Badin districts. Tharparkar and Badin districts of Pakistan was sindhi Hindu majority till 1965 war. In Tharparkar district of Sindh (Pak) adjoining India, Hindu percentage is highest at 40.5% and in Badin district of same province of Sindh (Pak) they are 18.5%. Sindh has the highest percentage of Hindus at 7.5%. Kutchi is a dialect of Sindhi language. Culture & language of Hindu Sindhis will be saved.

India should force Srilanka to give Lankan Tamils a State through federal arrangement -
Peace will come in South India and Srilanka.

N.B: India should include Mauritus and Mayanmar into expanding SAARC and try to join ASEAN as soon as possible. India should also leave British Commonwealth the last vestige of colonialism as British Crown is its permanent head. India should make 'Line of Actual Control' or LAC with China the international border. Similiarly, India should unilaterally declare the LOC or 'Line of Control' and status quo position with Pakistan as the permanent international border!

Reangs (Brus) the indigenous Hindus of Mizoram

2012-01-24T02:53:00.000-08:00

Mizoram is the only state which has unconstitutionally declared itself as a Christian State, in Govt websites and documents. No other state has any official religion!
The erstwhile king of Tripura, Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, who ruled the state before it merged with the Indian Union on October 15, 1949, included the Reangs in his official list of the five privileged tribes of Tripura along with the Debbarmans, Jamatyas, Noatias and Halams. Today, the Indian government lists the Reang’s as the lone “primitive group” in the state of Tripura.
The Reangs form the second largest tribal group in Tripura, as well as in the neighboring state of Mizoram. Before the union, their legacy was one of periodic revolts against their princely rulers. They have always sought to distinguish themselves from the other major tribes.
Scholarly opinion varies on the arrival of Reangs in Tripura. Until the 20th century, the tribes of Tripura were thought to have parted ways from the Bodo ethnic group in the state of Assam, which slowly made its way into Tripura during the 8th or 9th century before setting up a full-fledged kingdom by the 15th century.
But the Reangs trace their own roots to the legendary Hindu saint Kashyapa and a myth regarding their arrival into the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh and through waves of migration from the Arakan region of Myanmar (Burma). The Reangs’ claim to an identity distinct from that of other ethnic groups in the region is based on the fact that they prefer to call themselves Brus, not Boroks, and their language Kai bru, not Kokborok, which is the lingua franca among tribes-people in Tripura.
So on the eve of the last census, which was held in February 2001, when a banned tribal separatist outfit, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (N.L.F.T.), issued a diktat that all tribes-people in Tripura must uniformly register themselves as Borok people and their language as Kokborok in order to demonstrate or prove a single ethnic identity, the Reangs resisted. Clashes ensued between the N.L.F.T and the Bru National Liberation Front (B.N.L.F.), the Reang-dominated rebel outfit. The feud resulted in the death of twelve B.N.L.F. activists in a pre-emptive strike by their rivals.
Tension increased when the Bru National Union, a political party of Reangs, or Brus, formed in the early 90’s, demanded autonomy within Mizoram. There was a tough response from the Mizo Students’ Federation (M.Z.P.): “If the Reangs wanted to divide or disintegrate Mizoram further, it would be better that they go away. The demand for an Autonomous District Council could not be accepted by Mizos.” The M.Z.P. further warned that since Mizoram is the only land Mizos have, it could not be lost to “foreigners or other communities.”
In October, an estimated 35,000 panic-stricken Reangs fled into northern Tripura.
As reported in Bangalore’s Deccan Herald (Aug. 17, 2003): “The Reangs, second largest tribal group of Mizoram, had long been demanding setting up of an Autonomous District Council (ADC) based on the 6th Schedule of the (Indian) Constitution in Reang-dominated areas of Southern Mizoram. The demand had been raised under the banner of a new party called Reang Democratic Party (R.D.P.). Long accustomed to treating Reangs as ‘bonded laborers and slaves’, the majority Mizo tribesmen have looked upon the Reang demand with deep hostility.”
The Reangs who fled to Mizoram in October 1997, alleged facing intimidation, repression and targeted attacks that followed the killing of 10 Reangs in September, allegedly by Mizo hardliners. The influx continued unabated, particularly after the murder of a Mizo forest warden, allegedly by the Bru National Liberation Front.
Bru leaders also alleged that their cultural practices were being thwarted and that they were being forced to adopt Mizo names and Mizo languages as their medium of instruction, instead of the native Kokborok. The names of about 20,000 Reangs were deleted from the electoral rolls.

45,000 Reangs hounded by Church to rootless existence

Mizoram has shut its doors to any possible return of over 45,000 Reang migrants who had to flee to neighbouring Tripura and Assam to escape mainly Christian missionary-backed atrocities and forcible conversions. Ironically, the national and international media and different political parties, which are crying themselves hoarse following clashes between Hindu and Christian tribals in Gujarat, have conveniently ignored the plight of the hapless Reangs tribals who are languishing in different makeshift camps of remote areas in Tripura and Assam. Similarly, the rape of a nun in Jhabua and Baripada makes international headlines while rape of over a dozen Reang tribal women does not even prick the conscience of either the media or society at large. Leave alone a solution, even awareness of the plight of hundreds of tribal refugees barely surviving under inhuman conditions in camps for the past one-and-a-half-year is missing. In fact, the root cause of the migration was the direct offshoot of socio-political consequences of mass conversion by Christian missionaries since the mid-nineties. Incidentally, Mizoram is a Christian majority State. Large-scale conversions triggered ethnic conflict leading to migration of Reangs from Mizoram to Tripura and Assam, who have since been languishing in different make-shift camps and demanding safe return and rehabilitation to their ancestral homeland. Bru (a derogatory term for Reang in Mizoram) National Union President Saibunga said in Silchar recently, "We are being persecuted by Mizos since we strongly opposed conversions. Mizoram is a Christian dominated State and they want everybody to become Christian. Even the Chakmas are facing persecution. Minorities are not at all safe in Mizoram. Since we raised our voice against the forcible conversions, we were driven away." Reang refugees seem to be caught in a no man's land. Persecuted in Mizoram, which they call their homeland, they are now living under inhuman conditions in refugee camps in neighbouring Assam and Tripura since October 1997. And, there seems to be no end to their woes in sight, with the new Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga categorically stating that Reangs are residents of Tripura and not his State. This declaration truly seems to have put the process of repatriation of refugees in a deadlock.

Unique love story of Jaswant Singh and Sela in Arunachal

2012-01-24T02:41:00.001-08:00

An hour after Sela Pass in Arunachal Pradesh, people come across a unique memorial-cum-mandir of Jaswant Singh Rawat alias Jaswant Baba. The story of Jaswant Singh Rawat is inscribed in a plaque at the memorial. The caretaker of the memorial also takes pride in recounting Jasawant Singh's heroics. Jaswant Singh of the 4th Battalion Garhwal Rifles held off the enemy for 72 hours single-handedly. He ran from bunker to bunker- firing and creating an illusion of many soldiers present. Two local girls helped him to carry the ammunition. The story goes that rather than give in when the Chinese soldiers were at their doorstep, Singh hanged himself. Army convoys on the way to the border make it a point to stop and pay homage at the beautifully maintained memorial. The jawans (soldiers of the Indian army) at the outpost treat everybody passing through with tea.
It was the final phase of the China war in November 1962. Even as his company was asked to fall back, Jaswant Singh remained at his post at an altitude of 10,000 feet and held back the rampaging Chinese for three days single-handedly. He was helped by two local girls -- Sela and Nura -- during the heroic battle that ended after the Chinese discovered the post was being defended by a solitary soldier. His love story with Sela is still remembered in Arunachal and on her honour the Sela Pass is named!
So enraged were the attackers that they cut off Jaswant Singh's head and took it back to China. However, after the ceasefire, the Chinese commander, impressed by the soldier's bravery, returned the head along with a brass bust of Jaswant Singh. The bust, created in China to honour the brave Indian soldier, is now installed at the site of the battle, a location now known as Jaswantgarh. Jaswant Singh's saga of valour and sacrifice continues to serve as an inspiration to all army personnel posted in this sector.
Army personnel passing by this route, be it a general or a jawan, make it a point to pay their respects here. Jaswant, who was awarded a Mahavir Chakra for his bravery is not the only soldier to be honoured thus. We find several memorials built along the way. One of them in fact is right on the border at Bumla honouring Subedar Joginder Singh who won a posthumous Param Vir Chakra for his bravery.
In a way, the Indian Army is trying to overcome the one big blot it has on its record by officially recognizing the 2420 dead warriors in the 1962 conflict. The Army has constructed a huge war memorial at Tawang. The magnificent Tawang War Memorial, inaugurated by the then Eastern Army Commander Lt. Gen. H R S Kalkat in November 1999, has a 40-feet high Stupa as its centrepiece.
A plaque at the entrance which says, 'A nation that does not honour its dead warriors will perish' indicates the Army's willingness to accept its defeat and learn lesson from it. Old timers say the war memorial is the first real attempt by the Army to honour those who died fighting a vastly superior and well-prepared enemy.

Indo-Naga peaceful solution

2012-01-24T02:09:00.000-08:00

Nagaland should be given autonomy status like J&K under article 370 to solve the issue. Since, Nagas are sincere with the peace deal and want to have federal relation with India there should not be any problem. Apart from that Tirap and Changlang districts could be merged with Nagaland to form Nagalim state within India, since these two Naga regions are already having autonomous district councils in Arunachal Pradesh. Nagaland was also curved out of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Though all Naga areas of Assam were given to Nagaland it was not so with Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh perhaps because of the lack of knowledge of Naga history and culture in the central govt. In Manipur the Senapati and Ukhrul districts are wholely Naga from time immemorial. These two districts should also be merged with Nagaland. However, the other hill districts of Manipur are multi-ethnic and part of Manipur Kingdom from ancient times for about 2000 years and should not be considered for merger.

Tibetan issue - India and China - democracy and power

2012-01-24T01:47:00.000-08:00

Tibet was an independent country till 1959 when China annexed it forcefully and the world did not utter a word! This shows that power and only power speaks nothing else. Before this there was no India-China border. Tibet was a natural buffer country between China and India for ages. China occupied outer Tibet in 1949 and Tibet proper in 1959 forcing Dalai Lama the political and religious head of Tibet to flee to India with 100 thousand refugees. While China supported insurgency in north-east India, India did not even acknowledge the government-in-exile of Dalai Lama. Then China announced Hindi-Chini bhai bhai and as a mark of brotherhood in 1962 occupied Aksai Chin in Ladakh and attacked Arunachal Pradesh. Still claiming Arunachal Pradesh and India defending by saying Arunachal is an integral part of India. While India should have supported and garner support for the freedom movement of Tibet. A 'Free Tibet' is the only solution between imperial China and democratic India. China has send ethnic Chinese to Tibet in large numbers and they are in slight majority now. If immediately nothing is done by the world under the leadership of India, the rich civilization of Tibet will be lost forever for the world.
India and whole subcontinent including Pakistan and Bangladesh will also be in danger. In future nations will fight for fresh water as they are doing now for petroleum. China has already declared its plan to divert waters of Indus and Brahmaputra by nuclear explosion to its dry parts. This will mean end of civilization in entire Indian sub-continent. 'Free Tibet' is an absolute necessity not only for Tibetans or Indians but entire humanity to stop Chinese expansionism.

The parallel rise of China and India is one of the most significant developments in international affairs. It excites a lot of curiosity and speculation in various places. The key question being asked everywhere is whether India and China will be partners or rivals. This is hardly surprising since the relationship between the two Asian giants is likely to play a decisive role in defining the contours of the emerging global order in the 21st century. To say this is not to downplay the importance of the United States, Russia, the European Union, and Japan. Nor is there any need to minimise the necessity for both New Delhi and Beijing to maintain good political and economic relations with Washington. However, if the crises of Iraq and Afghanistan, the impasse over Iran,and the confused response to North Korea's nuclear explosion demonstrate one thing, it is the inability of the U.S. to establish a world order that is stable and peaceful. Pax Americana is a dangerous concept but when America is not even able to deliver Pax, somebody has to take responsibility for retrieving the situation. This week's summit-level meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu Jintao sends an unusually upbeat peace and development message to the world. It is that India and China are partners, not rivals; and that they will go beyond bilateral issues to involve themselves cooperatively on the side of international peace, security, and stability. If conflicts across Asia and the world stand a chance of being resolved in a harmonious way,India and China will need to play a more proactive and better coordinated role. That is why President Hu, in his Vigyan Bhavan speech, listed the development of "multilateral cooperation for creating a multi-polar world" as one of the five-pronged strategies India and China must follow in order to enhance their strategic partnership.

The current goodwill between India and China goes back to the breakthrough achieved during the December 1988 Rajiv Gandhi visit to China. Hearteningly,the depth of the relationship exceeds the most optimistic predictions of that time. This year's bilateral trade is expected to cross the $20 billion mark and, going by present trends, the $ 40 billion target set for 2010 seems conservative. At the political level, a determined stab is being made at solving the boundary question. A residual lack of political trust is holding the two sides back somewhat but it has not prevented India and China from carving out significant areas for mutual cooperation, notably in the energy sector. While it is possible that the growing Chinese interest in improving relations with India is related to the emerging strategic partnership between India and the U.S., the Manmohan Singh government needs carefully to calibrate and manage the development of this triangular relationship. New Delhi has rightly emphasised that neither containment nor rivalry will be part of its China policy. At the same time, elements in the Indian establishment, aided and abetted by incompetent, slavishly pro-U.S. strategic affairs punditry, seem to be nursing `balance of power' delusions. The past centuries of conflict have shown how fluid, contingent, and impermanent the idea of `balance' is. Rather than weapon acquisition sprees and military partnerships and alliances, it is economic interdependence and the shared quest for development that provide dependable insurance against conflict. The Sino-Indian relationship is certainly headed in the right direction. For the strategic and cooperative partnership to become truly irreversible, there must be enhanced political sensitivity, trust, and enthusiasm on both sides. The Manmohan-Hu summit is an important milestone that must be followed through with a prime ministerial visit to China in 2007 - in order to sustain the momentum and deepen the trends.

Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis, the selfless surgeon who made China his home -

2012-01-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

Hu to reinforce bonds when he meets Kotnis sisters

The Hindustan Times November 22, 2006
By IANS
It's a tradition followed by every Chinese leader. And Chinese President Hu Jintao, who lands here Wednesday evening, will only be following his predecessors when he meets the family of Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis, the selfless surgeon who made China his home, during his packed two-day visit.
A high point of Hu's Mumbai visit, during which he will meet captains of Indian industry and interact with members of the Indo-Chinese Friendship Association, will be the meeting with the doctor's sisters at his hotel.
While Kotnis is venerated in China, with textbooks recounting his story to children and a Beijing hospital even creating a medical team in his memory, very little is known of him in the land of his birth.
Few in Mumbai or the rest of the country know about the doctor who served in China during the 1938 Sino-Japanese war and died there in 1948, says his septuagenarian younger sister Vatsala.
Echoing Vatsala is Leena Fernandes, the general secretary of the Mumbai charter of the Indo- China Friendship Association: 'Friendly ties between India and China have their own significance, even on a humanitarian level. The selfless service rendered by Dr Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis, a proud son of India, during the Sino-Japanese war and to wounded Chinese soldiers is an evergreen symbol of the human relationship between the people of India and China.'
Added Kotnis' elder sister Manorama, sitting in their 60-year apartment crowded with Chinese memorabilia: 'Had it not been for the renowned filmmaker V. Shantaram and the Amar Chitra Katha comic book about him and maybe a few others, Indians would have never known how our brother, who served in Mao Zedong's Red Army, saved lives during the war.'
The lasting Indian tributes to Kotnis are the book 'One Who Never Returned' by film journalist Khwaja Abbas Ahmed and the film it inspired, V. Shantaram's 1946 classic 'Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani'.
It is a fascinating life story that began in Sholapur where he was born on Oct 10, 1910. He then graduated in medicine from Grants Medical College, Mumbai. In 1938, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, who was the president of the Indian National Congress, took the historical step to send a medical mission to China. Kotnis was the youngest of the five-member team of doctors.
'He was the only doctor in the team not to return. He stayed back and married a Chinese girl - Guo Qing Lan - and settled down in China carrying on with his humanitarian work. He died of a heart attack in 1948, leaving behind a young widow and a three-year-old son,' said Vatsala.
'Baba (Kotnis) would write letters regularly on anything and everything. He would relate to us through his letters everything from the enjoyable Chinese opera to the horrors of Japanese air raids and the fatal wounds of the soldiers. But the letters stopped coming in 1940 as the war intensified,' recalled elder sister Manorama.
'Baba married Guo, who served as a nurse in the front with him in 1947, a year before his death. But the prevailing situation then did not allow his young widow and infant son to visit India. It was only 10 years after Baba's death that we could meet them,' she said.
The Kotnis sisters were hoping to meet their sister-in-law, now 91-years-old.
'But unfortunately Guo could not make the trip with the Chinese president due to failing health,' rued the Kotnis sisters.
While the sisters are readying to meet Hu on Thursday, authorities here are also gearing up for the Chinese president and his wife. They are likely to stay in the presidential suite in the heritage wing of the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers near the Gateway of India.

Non-resident Indian (NRI) and Person of Indian Origin (PIO) -

2012-01-23T05:36:00.000-08:00

A non-resident Indian (NRI) is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country. Other terms with the same meaning are (somewhat self-deprecating in context) Desis, overseas Indian and expatriate Indian. For tax and other official purpose the government of India considers any Indian national away from India for more than 183 days in a year an NRI. In common usage, this often includes Indian born individuals (and also people of other nations with Indian blood) who have taken the citizenship of other countries.
A Person of Indian Origin (PIO) is literally, simply a person of Indian origin who is not a citizen of India. For the purposes of issuing a PIO Card, the Indian government considers anyone of Indian origins up to four generations removed, to be a PIO [1].
There is a huge NRI and PIO population across the world, estimated at around 30 million by 2011 (not including Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan diaspora, or Roma people). For examples of prominent NRIs see List of NRIs (or NRIs).
Contents[hide]
1 Moving on out
2 PIOs today
2.1 Indians in the US
2.2 Statistics on Indians in the US
2.3 Indians in the UK
2.4 Indians in Malaysia
2.5 Indians in the Middle East
2.6 Indians in South Africa
2.7 Indians in Canada
2.8 Indians in Mauritius
2.9 Indians in Singapore
2.10 Indians in Madagascar
3 Statistics
4 Headline text
5 Issues
6 See also
7 Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
8 References
9 Sources

[edit] Moving on out
The most significant historical emigration from India was that of the Roma (often known as "Gypsies"). Around the 11th century A.D, Muslim invaders in the subcontinent took many Indians as captives to Afghanistan. These people then went to Iran and other parts of the Middle East as wandering court musicians. They gradually became a class of their own, wandering to Europe, where they were known as the Gypsies, (based on an account of their origins lying in Egypt). They adopted local religions such as Christianity and Islam, but combined some of their Hindu practices with the new faiths. The cult of Romani Christian saint Kali Sarah may have been a Christianization of the Hindu goddess Kali. They also speak a distinct Indo-Aryan language of their own, Romani. Another major emigration from the subcontinent was to South East Asia. It started as a military expedition by Hindu, and later Buddhist, kings of South India and resulted in the settlers' merging with the local society. The influence of Indian culture is still strongly felt in South East Asia, especially in places like Bali (in Indonesia). However, in such cases, it is not reasonable to apply the label 'PIO' to the descendants of emigrants from several centuries back, especially since intermixture is so great as to negate the value of such nomenclature in this context.
During the nineteenth century and until the end of the Raj, much of the migration that happened was to other colonies under the indenture system. The major destinations, in chronological order, were Mauritius, British Guyana, the West Indies (Trinidad and Jamaica), Fiji and East Africa. There was also a small amount of free emigration of skilled laborers and professionals to some of these countries in the twentieth century. The event that triggered this diaspora was the Slavery Abolition Act passed by the British Parliament on August 1, 1834, which freed the slave labour force throughout the British colonies. This left many of the plantations devoid of adequate work force as the newly freed slaves left to take advantage of their newly found freedom. This resulted in an extreme shortage of labour throughout many of the British colonies which was resolved by massive importation of workers engaged under contracts of indentured servitude.
An unrelated system involved recruitment of workers for the tea plantations of the neighboring British colonies of Sri Lanka and Burma and the rubber plantations of British Malaya (now Malaysia and Singapore). like Australia and New Zealand.
After the 1970s oil boom in the Middle East, a large number of Indians emigrated to the Gulf countries. However, this was on a contractual basis rather than permanent as in the other cases. These Gulf countries have a common policy of not naturalizing non-Arabs, no matter if they are even born there.

[edit] PIOs today

[edit] Indians in the US
Main article: Indian American
Indians in the USA are one of the largest among the groups of Indian diaspora, numbering about 2.5 million, and probably the one of the most well off - their median income is 1.5 times that the host country. They are well represented in all walks of life, but particularly so in academia, information technology and medicine. There were over 4,000 PIO professors and 33,000 Indian-born students in American universities in 1997-98. The American Association of the Physicians of Indian Origin boasts a membership of 35,000. In 2000, Fortune magazine estimated the wealth generated by Indian Silicon Valley entrepreneurs at around $250 billion.
There appear to be class differences within the Indian American community, with earlier professional immigrants looking down upon working-class communities who are later first generation immigrants. Gujarati shopkeepers and Punjabi cab drivers are common stereotypes of the latter community. Many older generation Indians are people who came to the US for higher education and settled down. While a significant proportion of the current-generation Indians are doctors, the vast majority are involved in the IT industry in one way or the other.
In Silicon Valley, California, a significant percentage of entrepreneurs are of South Asian origin, specifically Indo American. The names that crop up among successful Indo Americans in the technology field are Vinod Khosla, Kim Singh, Kanwal Rekhi among others.
Americans of Indian descent have, in the past, been targets of racism by members of all ethnic groups--though it has dissipated substantially. Some of it is overt, perhaps the worst example being the New Jersey dot busters - groups of thugs who sought ethnic Indians and mugged them or attacked their property in the late 80s and early 90s, the "dot" referring to the bindi worn traditionally by Hindu women on their forehead. These attacks were racially motivated, and alienated the Indian population from the American mainstream. This lack of assimilation has created many problems for both ethnic Indians as well as non Indians.
Indo Americans in particular Sikh Americans and Indo Americans of Muslim origin, were targeted after 9/11/01. A significant number of Sikh Americans were killed, the most significant being the Sodhi family which lost two brothers. Non-profit agencies such as the Asian American Public Policy Institute sprang into action, working to help create awareness among Americans about Islam and Sikhism.
Another peculiarity are most children of these immigrants - also called as "ABCD" - American Born Confused Desi. This term (usually used as something of an insult) reflects the fact that these first generation Americans find themselves stuck between traditional parents and upbringing at home and the more liberal and open community outside. This "in-between-ness" can leave them with uncertainty about their own role in society - neither Indian nor American.

[edit] Statistics on Indians in the US
In the year 2002, of the entire total 1,063,732 immigrants to USA from all the countries, as many as 66,864 were from India. According to the US census, the overall growth rate for Indians from 1990 to 2000 was 105.87 per cent. The average growth rate for the whole of USA was only 7.6 per cent.
Indians comprise 16.4 per cent of the Asian-American community. They are the third largest in the Asian American population. In 2000, of all the foreign born population in USA, Indians were 1.007 million. Their percentage was 3.5 per cent. From 2000 onwards the growth rate and the per cent rate of Indians amongst all the immigrants has increased by over 100 times.
Between 1990 and 2000, the Indian population in the US grew 113% - 10 times the national average of 13%. Source: US Census Bureau
Today, Asian Indians are the second largest Asian group (2,226,585) in the US, behind only the Chinese (2,762,524). Source: 2003 American Community Survey
Indians own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the US, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion. Source: Little India Magazine
One in every nine Indians in the US is a millionaire, comprising 10% of US millionaires. Source: 2003 Merrill Lynch SA Market Study
A University of California, Berkeley, study reported that one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of valley hi-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs. Source: Silicon India Readership Survey
Indians along with other Asians, have the highest educational qualifications of all ethnic groups in the US. Almost 67% of all Indians have a bachelor’s or high degree (compared to 28% nationally). Almost 40% of all Indians have a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. Source: The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness.

[edit] Indians in the UK
Main article: British Asian

Bollywood movies are released commercially in the United Kingdom
The Indian emigrant community in the United Kingdom is now in its third generation. As an immigrant group, people of Indian origin have been remarkably successful.
A remarkable collection of the oral history of the British NRIs is available on Britain's leading NRI website History Talking.com. It's a web radio where you can listen to some of the leading NRIs living in the UK.
Stereotypes about Indians have now moved from their being bus-conductors, waiters, and small shopkeepers to their being doctors, lawyers, accountants and successful businesspeople. Increasingly, the second and third generation of Indians has started inter-marrying with the rest of the population, to the point where this has in itself become a stereotype.
In a few local areas, ethnic tension has resulted in ill-feeling and racist violence against immigrants, and groups such as the British National Party have exploited this. However, in general, racism towards people of Indian origin has greatly reduced from the early days of mass immigration after Partition and the expulsion of the Ugandan Indians.
Indian culture has been constantly referenced within wider British culture, at first as an "exotic" influence in films like My Beautiful Laundrette, but now increasingly as a familiar feature in films like Bend It Like Beckham. Indian food is now regarded as part of the British cuisine.
According to the April 2001 UK National Census [2] There are 1,051,800 people of Indian origin in the UK.
They are the best educated and most economically successful of the South Asian immigrant communities, also exceeding the indigenous White/English. [3]

[edit] Indians in Malaysia
Main articles: Indian Malaysian, Chitty
Most Indians migrated to Malaysia as plantation laborers under British rule. They are a significant minority ethnic group, making up 7% of the Malaysian population. Most of these are Tamil but some Malayalam- and Telugu- speaking people are also present. They have retained their languages and religion -- 80% of ethnic Indians in Malaysia identify as Hindus. Hinduism in Malaysia diverges from mainstream (post-Vedantic) Hinduism: its main feature is Mother-goddess (Amman) worship; caste deities, tantric rituals, folk beliefs, non-Agamic temples, and animal sacrifice are its other characteristics. Deepavali and Thaipusam are the main festivals. However, there is an increase in agamic worship in Malaysia, due to the efforts of the Malaysian Hindu Sangam and several notable Hindu organitations in Malaysia. There is also a small community of Indian origin, the Chitty, who are the descendants of Tamil traders who had emigrated before 1500 AD, and Chinese and Malay women. Considering themselves Tamil, speaking Malay, and practicing Hinduism, they number about 2,000 today.

[edit] Indians in the Middle East
This article or section does not cite its references or sources.You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.
There is a huge population of Indians in the Middle East, most coming from Kerala and other south Indian states, especially in the oil rich countries neighboring the Persian Gulf. Most moved to the Gulf after the oil boom to work as labourers and for clerical jobs. Indians - all foreigners, in fact - in the Gulf do not normally become citizens however. They retain their Indian passports since most of the countries in the Gulf do not provide citizenship or permanent residency. One of the major reasons why Indians like to work in the Gulf is because it provides incomes many times over for the same type of job back in india and its geographical proximity to India.The Indian Disporsa makes up a good proportion of the working class in the GCC.

[edit] Indians in South Africa
Main article: Asians in South Africa
Most Asians in South Africa are descended from indentured Indian labourers who were brought by the British from India in the 19th century, mostly to work in what is now the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The rest are descended from Indian traders who migrated to South Africa at around the same time, many from the Gujarat area. The city of Durban, has the largest Asian population in sub-Saharan Africa, and the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi worked as a lawyer in the city in the early 1900s.

[edit] Indians in Canada
Main article: Indo-Canadian
According to Statistics Canada, in 2001 there were 713,330 people who classified themselves as being of Indian origin. The term “East Indian” or Indo-Canadian is most commonly associated with people of Indian origin, since the term Indian in Canada has commonly been used to refer to the Aboriginal Canadians and still continues to be used to describe them, causing much confusion. In addition, the term Indian is also occasionally applied to people from the Caribbean (West Indians). Out of this population, 42% are Hindu, 39% are Sikh, and the remainder are Muslim, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, or no religious affiliation. The main Indian ethnic communities are Punjabis (which account for more than half of population) as well Gujaratis, Tamils (Indian as opposed to Sri Lankan), Keralites, Bengalis, Sindhis and others.
The first Indians began moving to Canada in small numbers to British Columbia, and were mainly male Sikh Punjabis who were seeking work opportunities abroad. These first immigrants faced widespread racism by the local white Canadians. There were race riots that targeted these immigrants, as well as new Chinese immigrants as well. Most decided to return to India, while a few stayed behind. The Canadian government prevented these men from bringing their wives and children until 1919, which was the main reason why they decided to leave. Quotas were established to prevent many Indians from moving to Canada in the early 20th century. These quotas allowed less than 100 people from India a year until 1957, when it was increased to 300 people a year. In 1967, all quotas were scrapped in Canada, and immigration was based on a point system, thus allowing many more Indians to immigrate in large numbers. Since this open door policy was adopted, Indians continue to come in large numbers, and roughly 25,000 - 30,000 arrive each year (which is now the second highest group immigrating to Canada each year, behind Chinese immigrants).
Most Indians choose to immigrate to larger urban centers like Toronto and Vancouver, where more than 70% live. Smaller communities are also growing in Calgary, Montreal, Edmonton and Winnipeg. Indians in Toronto are from diverse locations in India, such as Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Brampton, a suburb of Toronto has many Indian residents, and the town of Springdale in Brampton is commonly referred to as “Singhdale” because of the many Sikhs that live there. Indians in Vancouver mainly live in the suburb of Surrey, but can also be found throughout Vancouver. The vast majority of Vancouver Indians are of Sikh Punjabi origin and have taken leading roles in politics and the professions, with several Supreme Court justices, three Attorneys-General and one provincial premier coming from their community.

[edit] Indians in Mauritius
Main article: Indo-Mauritian
Outside of India itself, Mauritius is the only country where people of Indian Origin form the vast majority (not including Trinidad & Tobago where Afro-Trinidadiand and Indo-Trinidadians have equal populations, or Fiji where the Indo-Fijians once formed the majority but don't today). The people are known as Indo-Mauritians, and form about 70% of the population. The majority are Indo-Aryan Hindu, the largest minority Tamil and Telugu and the smallest significant group are Muslims. There are also some Christians, Baha'is and Sikhs, but the Baha'i and Sikh populations do not add up to even 1% of the population. Various Indian languages are still spoken, especially Tamil, Bhojpuri, Hindi and Urdu, but most Indo-Mauritians now speak a French-based Creole language at home, as well as French in general fields. Finding an Indo-Mauritian who exclusively speaks an Indian language is very rare.

[edit] Indians in Singapore
Main article: Indian Singaporean
The term Indian Singaporean refers to any Singapore citizen of South Asian ancestry including, most notably, India. Most Indian Singaporeans are second, third or even fourth generation descendants of migrants from the Indian subcontinent to Singapore and Malaysia, which were then known collectively as British Malaya in the pre-World War II colonial era. A small and shrinking number of older Indian Singaporeans are first generation migrants from the subcontinent. The vast majority are Tamil, but there are also some Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi peoples.

[edit] Indians in Madagascar
Indians in Madagascar are descended mostly from traders who arrived to the newly-independent nation looking for better opportunities. The majority speak Hindi, and though some Indian dialects are spoken, nowardays the younger generations speak French or Malagasy.

[edit] Statistics
Some information in this article or section has not been verified and may not be reliable.Please check for any inaccuracies, and modify and cite sources as needed.
Region / Country
Articles
Overseas Indian Population
Southeast Asia
4,325,000
Malaysia
Indian Malaysian, Chitty
2,700,000
Myanmar
Burmese Indians
950,000 (2006) [1]
Singapore
Indian Singaporean
400,000
Thailand
150,000
Philippines
125,000
West Asia
3,869,100
Saudi Arabia
1,400,000 (2005) [2]
United Arab Emirates
1,200,000
Kuwait
500,000
Oman
350,000
Qatar
175,000
Bahrain
140,000
Yemen
100,000
Jordan
4,100
East Asia
Hong Kong
South Asians in Hong Kong
35,000
People's Republic of China
Japan
South Korea
Europe
6,300,000 [3]
United Kingdom
British Asian
2,850,000 (2000) [3]
Netherlands
300,000
France
70,000
North America
3,213,330
United States
Indian American
2,500,000
Canada
Indo-Canadian
713,330 (2001)
South America and the Caribbean
Indo-Caribbean
Suriname
Hindoestanen
950,000 (2000) [3]
Trinidad
Indo-Trinidadian
473,735
Guyana
Indo-Guyanese
326,782
Barbados
Belize
Jamaica
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Martinique
St. Lucia
St. Vincent
East African Community
380,000 [3]
Kenya
70,000
Uganda
60,000
Tanzania
50,000
Other Africa
2,341,000
South Africa
Asians in South Africa
1,200,000
Mauritius
Indo-Mauritian
800,000
Reunion
250,000
Madagascar
30,000
Mozambique
21,000
Zambia
20,000
Zimbabwe
20,000
Oceania
690,000
Fiji
Indo-Fijian
470,000 (2000) [3]
Australia
150,000
New Zealand
70,000

[edit] Headline text
Adnan==Bollysthan: The Global India==
As the Indian government's own Singhvi commission notes, "the sun never sets on the Indian diaspora." Yet the cultural transmission model is rapidly transforming from a one-way street, in which the Motherland gives and the diaspora receives, to a two-way street, in which the diaspora is as confidently Indian, sometimes more so, than India itself. Bollystan ("Bolly-" for Bollywood, and "Sthan", the Sanskrit suffix for "land" comprise this term) is a neologism which recognizes this changing balance of power between the home country and its diaspora. Technology has enabled the diaspora to manufacture "Indian-ness" as competently as their home-bound relatives through film, dance, music and even religious practices. These externally produced symbols of Indian-ness have in many ways become the primary representation of India in the West and around the world. The term was first used by Parag Khanna, when he guest edited the UK's ethnic lifestyle magazine Another Generation in Fall 2004 (www.anothergeneration-mag.com). The entire issue was based on the theme of Bollystan, This was subsequently then used in an article in The Globalist [4]. The London-based Foreign Policy Centre think-tank has also recognized Bollystan as a form of "diasporic diplomacy" [5]. In the January/February 2005 issue of Foreign Policy magazine, Mitra Kalita of the Washington Post writes, "Finally there is a name for where I live: Bollysthan." [6]

[edit] Issues
To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup.Please discuss this issue on the talk page, or replace this tag with a more specific message. Editing help is available.This article has been tagged since July 2006.
Following are some consider issues for India when Indians migrate to other countries
"Brain drain" (The exodus of educated workers and academics).
Foreign exchange inflow (Though the government gets inflow of money, it is not liable)
Cultural exchange (Indian culture is under threat, when NRIs return home they bring other culture)
Identity crisis (Their identity is lost, Indians at home fail to recognize them when they return; in their adopted country they are still considered as Indians)
"X = X + 1 Syndrome" (Syndrome of postponing returning to India every year)
"NRI Syndrome" (Talking ill of India and Indians, once having exposure to other countries. A major criticism of this attitude by native Indians is that the NRIs fail to act on these criticisms. However, a few educated NRIs tend to take a holistic view of the entire issue and many have formed NGOs and are taking steps to tackle the problems)
Related to the above is the concept of "England Returned," from an old Bombay film of that name, a description allegedly once used by those who went back to India after a period of study or work in the UK. The concept resembles that of adding "BTA" (Been To America) to a British CV.
American Born Confused Desi (ABCD) is a term that refers to people of Indian origin, born and living in the United States.

Source: Wikipedia.

India's Defence problems & solution

2012-01-23T05:11:00.000-08:00

India should immediately have the post of Chief of Defence Staffs (CDS) for integration and better performance of the defence forces! More money should be spend in modernisation than on anything else in the defence budget.

Madras Regiment is the one of the oldest Regiment of Indian Army and present quota system of recruitment is largely due to invention of martial race theory of British for divide and rule policy. Afterall, with the help of Bengal Regiment (now dismantalled due to 1857 mutiny) and Madras Regiment the British conquered the so called martial races of Punjab, Jats, Gurkhas, etc. Indian govt is following the same divisive racist policy! Mangal Pandey and many of the first martyrs of Indian Independance in 1857 belonged to Bengal Regiment.
General Vaidya during the insurgency in Punjab proposed admitting people of all caste, creed and language into the earlier mostly homogenous units like Sikh Regiment, Gurkha Regiment, Jat Regiment, Rajputana Rifles, Dogra Regiment, Maratha Light Infantry, Punjab Regiment, etc. But, still they are mostly one community dominated respectively. This is a dangerous thing for a nation's security as seen during insurgency in Punjab. This should be immediately undone! Also, in a heterogenous country like India no such units of armed forces should be named after a few communities and others are left out. There should also be no quota system for any community in Defence and recruitment should be all India basis purely on merit. This is true also for Paramilitary forces like Assam Rifles, Manipur Rifles, etc which should also be named differently.
An example could be the Indian National Army raised by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to fight the British in south-east Asia. He named various Regiments in the names of national heros like Gandhiji, Nehruji and Rani Jhansi (all women Regiment). However, another option could be alpha-numerical numbering.

Vande Mataram and sudden conversion of Bengal!

2012-01-23T04:45:00.000-08:00

There have been many arguments in favour and against Vande Mataram as a national song from earlier times till recently. The main point has been whether it is communally biased or not. When "Vande Mataram" the phrase only is used as a salutation to motherland there should be no problem. I am exploring a different angle which have been largely unnoticed!
First of all, the song was only for the Bengali people and hence is invalid as a national song for mother India. It clearly stated 'saptakoti' or seven crores people of undivided Bengal including Muslims of the times of the author Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. It also asked
'di-saptakoti' or 14 crores hands of Bengalis to lift Bengal from poverty and anarchy.
The novel Anandamath is on the backdrop of misrule of Nawab of Bengal who incidentally was Muslim by religion and the Great Bengal Famine occured in this time in 1770 when 2/3rd, yes 2/3rd Bengalis! TheAnandmath begins at an apocalyptic moment. It is 1769AD (1176 BS) and the British have just established a toehold in Bengal after the Battle of Plassey. In his reign when the British East India Company has just entered Bengal a dual government was formed with Nawab with responsibilities and no power and British Company with power but no responsibility. The novel is set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the 1770s. The Sannyasi Rebellion or Sannyasi Revolt (The Monk's Rebellion) is a term used to describe activities of sannyasis and fakirs, or Hindu and Muslim ascetics respectively, in Bengal, India in the late eighteenth century. It is also known as the Fakir-Sannyasi Rebellion. Historians have not only debated what events constitute the rebellion, but have also varied on the significance of the rebellion in Indian history. While some refer to it as an early war for India's independence from foreign rule, since the right to collect tax had been given to the British East India Company after the Battle of Plassey in 1757, others categorize it as random acts of violent banditry following the depopulation of the province, post the Bengal famine of 1770. At least three separate events are called the Sannyasi Rebellion. One refers to a large body of ascetics both Hindu sannyasis and Muslim madaris, religious fakirs that travelled from North India to different parts of Bengal to visit shrines. On route to the shrines, it was customary for many of these holy men to exact a religious tax from the headmen and zamindars or regional landlords. In times of prosperity, the headmen and zamindars generally obliged. However, since the East India Company received the diwani or right to collect tax, many of the tax demands increased and the local landlords and headmen were unable to pay both the ascetics and the English. Crop failures, and famine, which killed ten million people or an estimated one-third of the population of Bengal compounded the problems since much of the arable land lay fallow. In 1771, 150 fakirs were put to death, apparently for no reason. This was one of the reasons that caused distress leading to violence, especially in Natore in Rangpur, now in modern Bangladesh. However, some modern historians argue that the movement never gained popular support. The other two movements involved a sect of Hindu ascetics, the Dasnami naga sannyasis who likewise visited Bengal on pilgrimage mixed with moneylending opportunities. To the British, both the Hindu and Muslim ascetics were looters to be stopped from collecting money that belonged to the Company and possibly from even entering the province. It was felt that a large body of people on the move was a possible threat. Clashes between the Company and ascetics. When the Company's forces tried to prevent the sannyasis and fakirs from entering the province or from collecting their money in the last three decades of the eighteenth century, fierce clashes often ensued, with the Company's forces not always victorious. Most of the clashes were recorded in the years following the famine but they continued, albeit with a lesser frequency, up until 1802. The reason that even with superior training and forces, the Company was not able to suppress sporadic clashes with migrating ascetics was that the control of the Company's forces in the far-removed hilly and jungle covered districts like Birbhum and Midnapore on local events was weak. Legacy - The Sannyasi rebellion was the first of a series of revolts and rebellions in the Western districts of the province including (but not restricted to) the Chuar Revolt of 1799 and the Santal Revolt of 1831–32. What effect the Sannyasi Rebellion had on rebellions that followed is debatable. Perhaps, the best reminder of the Rebellion is in literature, in the Bengali novel Anandamath, written by India's first modern novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, from which the song Vande Mataram was taken and declared to be India's National Song. The Bengal famine of 1770 was a catastrophic famine that between 1769 and 1773 affected the lower Gangetic plain of India. The famine is supposed to have caused the deaths of an estimated 40 million people, approximately two-third of the population 6 crores at the time. The famine occurred in the territory which was called Bengal, then ruled by the British East India Company. This territory included modern West Bengal, Bangladesh, and parts of Assam, Orissa, Bihar, and Jharkhand. It was originally a province of the Mughal empire, from the 16th century, and was ruled by a Nawab, or governor. The Nawab had become effectively independent by the beginning of the 18th century, though in theory was still a tributary power of the Great Mughal in Delhi.
In the 17th century, the British East India Company had been given a grant on the town of Calcutta, by the Mughal emperor Akbar. At this time the Company was effectively another tributary power of the Mughal. During the following century, the Company obtained sole trading rights for the province, and went on to become the dominant power in Bengal. In 1757, at the battle of Plassey, the British defeated the then Nawab, Siraj Ud Daulah, and plundered the Bengali treasury. In 1764 their military control was reaffirmed at Buxar. The subsequent treaty gained them the Diwani, that is the taxation rights: in effect, the Company became the ruler of Bengal. About 40 million people, approximately two-third of the population 6 crores at the time of the affected area, are thought to have died in the famine. The regions in which the famine occurred included especially the modern Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, but the famine also extended into Orissa and Jharkhand, as well as modern Bangladesh. Among the worst affected areas were Birbhum and Murshidabad, in Bengal, and Tirhut, Champaran and Bettiah, in Bihar. A partial shortfall in crops, considered nothing out of the ordinary, occurred in 1768 and was followed in late 1769 by more severe conditions. By September 1769 there was a severe drought, and alarming reports were coming in of rural distress. These were, however, ignored by Company officers. By early 1770 there was starvation, and, by mid 1770, deaths from starvation were occurring on a large scale. There were also reports of the living feeding on the bodies of the dead in the middle of that year. Smallpox and other diseases further took their toll of the population. Later in 1770, good rainfall resulted in a good harvest and the famine abated. However, other shortfalls occurred in the following years, raising the total death toll. As a result of the famine large areas were depopulated and returned to jungle for decades to come, as the survivors migrated in mass in a search for food. Many cultivated lands were abandoned: much of Birbhum, for instance, returned to jungle and was virtually impassable for decades afterwards. From 1772, bands of bandits and thugs became an established feature of Bengal, and these were only controlled by punitive actions in the 1780s. Fault for the famine is now often ascribed to the British East India Company policies in Bengal. As a trading body, its first remit was to maximise its profits and with taxation rights the profits to be obtained from Bengal came from land tax as well as trade tariffs. As lands came under company control, the land tax was typically raised by 3 to 4 times what it had been – from 10-15% up to 50% of the value of the agricultural produce. In the first years of the rule of the British East India Company, the total land tax income was doubled and most of this revenue flowed out of the country. As the famine approached its height, in April of 1770, the Company announced that land tax for the following year was to be increased by 10%. The company is also criticised for forbidding the "hoarding" of rice. This prevented traders and dealers from laying in reserves that in other times would have tided the population over lean periods. By the time of the famine, monopolies in grain trading had been established by the Company and its agents. The Company had no plan for dealing with the grain shortage, and actions were only taken insofar as they affected the mercantile and trading classes. Land revenue decreased by 14% during the affected year, but recovered rapidly (Kumkum Chatterjee). According to McLane, the first governor-general of British India, Warren Hastings, acknowledged "violent" tax collecting after 1771: revenues earned by the Company were higher in 1771 than in 1768. Globally, the profit of the Company increased from 15 million rupees in 1765 up to 30 million rupees in 1777.

The most important effect of the famine was however conversion of Bengal (undivided) from Hindu majority to a Muslim majority province suddenly within a period of less than 5 years from 1769 to 1773.

This was mainly because the famine effected West Bengal (Hindu majority) more than East Bengal and most of the 2/3rd population of Bengal dead was from this area. Thus Hindus died mostly relative to muslims. Also during this period and earlier Muslims in Bengal were mainly urban people and whatever help the Nawab provided went to them and town Hindus and not to vast rural Hindus! Before this calamity and the Nawab, Bengal was ruled mainly by a syndicate of 12 Zamindars called 'Baro-Bhuniyas'. 10 of them were Hindu, one Muslim Pathan Isa Khan and his descendants and one Portugese Christian in Chittagong, Carvello and his descendants. Pratapaditya Roy was the first leader of the syndicate who fought and defeated the Mansingh raids during Akbars time. Akbar had to face 2 brave Prataps one in Mewar and one in Bengal. Later during Isa and Carvello's time Kedar Roy was the leader. However Isa Khan fell in love with Kedar's sister and the unity broke away. After this Nawab dynasty ruled Bengal. But still the muslims in Bengal were mainly concentrated in towns. However after the calamity of 1770, the remaining urban Hindus and Muslims went to settle in villages and there was a depopulation of towns as mentioned in Anandamath. The novel is more of Historic and social importance than Political!

Gopal Patha - Saviour of Kolkata Hindus during Partition

2012-01-23T04:24:00.000-08:00

Duty does not permit repentance --The butchers of Calcutta

ANDREW WHITEHEAD

Tuesday, July 1 1997: Indian Express Newspapers: Kolkata

Gopal `Patha' Mukherjee, Gopal the Goat, looks an unlikely retired gang leader. He is positively beatific, with his thick, black-rimmed spectacles, long white beard, and tidy wisp of grey hair tied up on top of his head, sardar-style. Yet, half a century ago, he was among the most feared of Calcutta's musclemen, with 800 boys at his command. He was an emperor and they were his army. Gopal Patha he got the name because his family ran a meat shop on College Street was, at the time of partition, a protector of his community. His idea of keeping the peace was killing the other side. ``He was very ferocious,'' recalls S. K. Bhattacharjee, a sub-inspector in the Lalbazar police headquarters at the time of the Great Calcutta Killing in August 1946. ``Gopal Patha looked like a gentleman. He was a criminal, but he was very helpful to the poor. During the riots, he came out to rescue Hindus.'' Then as now, gang leaders needed political patrons, and politicians were keen to have friends in low places. Gopal Patha, sitting in his office near Calcutta's Wellington Square, says he was close to the Congress Chief, B. C. Roy though he insists this was a personal friendship more than a political allegiance. Whatever the inspiration, when Direct Action Day unleashed communal rioting in Calcutta, Gopal Patha assembled his force. ``It was a very critical time for the country,'' he asserts. "We thought if the whole area became Pakistan, there would be more torture and repression. So I called all my boys together and said it was time to retaliate. If you come to know that one murder has taken place, you commit 10 murders. That was the order to my boys.''

The words are uttered so softly, it takes a while for their import to sink in. Calcutta was in flames and Gopal Patha, in effect, took the opportunity to douse the city in kerosene. ``It was basically duty,'' he insists. ``I had to help those in distress.'' Today, his modest office is grandly titled the National Relief Centre for Destitutes. Apparently, a charity clinic occasionally operates from there. On the walls are black-and-white portraits of a pantheon of Bengali heroes, the garlands greying with dust and decay. And behind the door, sufficiently lifelike to unnerve the unwary, is a life-size model of Netaji, dressed in INA uniform, right down to the spit-and-polish military boots. ``People used all sorts of weapons,'' says Gopal Patha, relishing the opportunity to reminisce. ``They had small knives, big choppers, sticks, rods, guns, and pistols. I had two American pistols. We got some weapons during the 1942 movement. Then during the Second World War, the American army, the Negroes, were in Calcutta. If you gave them Rs 250 or a bottle of whiskey, they would give you a pistol and a hundred cartridges. That way we secured all these weapons, and we used them during the troubles.'' He made plenty of enemies. ``We came to know a Hindu called Gopal Patha,'' recalls former Muslim Leaguer G. G. Ajmiri. ``He used to catch hold of Muslims and slaughter them.'' Ajmiri was a Muslim strongman, a leader of the League's student wing in Calcutta along with Mujibur Rahman (``He was not that important then.'') and a member of the Muslim National Guard. Ajmiri, who appears to have been loyal in turn to Britain, to Pakistan (he served in its army) and now to Bangladesh, lives in Dhaka, where he delights in telling tales of his prowess. ``They used to call me `brave'; `strongarm'. I never used a shotgun or sword. But I was a good boxer. And sometimes I took the bamboo sticks out of their hands and beat them with those.'' ``One day,'' says Ajmiri, warming to his theme, ``somebody said: Gopal Patha has grabbed four Muslims and slaughtered them. Immediately, we rushed there. Gopal Patha looked at me and said: `Oh, this man has come again.' So I said, `Yes. Why are you killing people just because they are Muslims?' He said to me: `You go, we won't kill anybody now.''' Patha ripostes that his boys were always selective. ``We fought and killed our attackers. But why should we kill an ordinary rickshaw-wallah or hawker?"For every first division gang leader like Gopal the Goat, there was a cluster of lesser figures, people like Jugal Chandra Ghosh, also now in his eighties. Still a big bear of a man, he was in 1946 a worker with the Congress Party's trade union wing. But that wasn't the source of his street power. ``I had a club, an akhara,'' he says. ``I was a wrestler, and I trained my boys, and they carried out my instructions. There was this Congress party leader. He took me round Calcutta in his jeep. I saw many dead bodies, Hindu dead bodies. I told him: `Yes, there will be retaliation.''' ``I went round the saw mills and factories. I set an amount sometimes Rs 1,000, sometimes Rs 5,000. They paid up. Then I declared: for one murder, you get Rs 10, for a half-murder, Rs 5. That's how we got started.'' A year after the Killing, Gandhi came to a still-smouldering city and appealed for a surrender of arms. The journalist Sailen Chatterjee witnessed the scene. ``People came with their weapons and placed them at the feet of Gandhiji. Shabbily-dressed people came with swords, daggers and country-made guns. Even Mountbatten said this was the miracle of Calcutta. Gandhi's miracle.'' Ghosh was among those who surrendered their arms. It was a remarkable conversion, and Ghosh remains a committed Gandhian. In the aftermath of Ayodhya, he worked hard to prevent communal unrest in his mixed area of Calcutta. But there were limits to the miracle. Some strongmen, those who had fanned the flames so diligently over the previous year, took an intransigent line. ``Gandhi called me twice,'' Gopal Patha says. ``I didn't go. The third time, some local Congress leaders told me that I should at least deposit some of my arms.'' ``I went there. I saw people coming and depositing weapons which were of no use to anyone out-of-order pistols, that sort of thing. Then Gandhi's secretary said to me: `Gopal, why don't you surrender your arms to Gandhiji?' I replied, `With these arms I saved the women of my area, I saved the people. I will not surrender them''. With a steely glint in his eye, the sort which distinguishes the goonda from the loudmouth muscleman, Gopal Patha continued: ``Where was Gandhiji, I said, during the Great Calcutta Killing? Where was he then? Even if I've used a nail to kill someone, I won't surrender even that nail.''His sober determination underlines one of the tragedies of Partition fifty years on, so many of those who killed still have no sense of regret.

War of 1947 heroes/murderers

September 6 2004, 3:48 AM

Gopal Chandra 'Patha' Mukhopadhyay (Mukherjee?)? better known as Gopal-Da

Gopal-da was born into a Hindu family of butchers which ran a flourishing slaughter-house in Calcutta and it was no surprise when Gopal-da decided to follow his traditional vocation. (Hence his nickname -'Patha' which is Bengali for 'goat'. Believe me, this was a name that struck terror in the minds and hearts of all Muslims in Calcutta and its vicinity fifty years ago). It was when partition occurred that Gopal-da decided to switch using his knife from one kind of animal(the goat) to another (the mohammeddan).

Seeing the greater Calcutta killings with his own eyes threw Gopal-da into a rage. He organised a dedicated and salaried band of Hindu hitmen who avenged Hindu deaths by slaughtering muslims wherever they could find them. Money was no problem for Gopal-da. His business flourished. So, he paid his dedicated men 5 rupees for a maimed victim and 10 rupees for a dead one. He handed out guns, swords, grenades. He thundered-" For every dead Hindu, I want ten Muslim corpses. Go forth, my lads and show no mercy." He was not content to merely use knifes and swords..they were effective but the harvest was slow. So Gopal-da managed a deal with the American soldiers who were stationed in Calcutta( it was World War-II time and India was still British territory).

He bought grenades, pistols, revolvers and ammunition by the crateful from these soldiers, in the blackmarket,for his men. And his men used it with devastating effect. So much so, that an ageing Ghulam Rasool, one of the top leaders of the Muslim National Guard (a terrorist Muslim organisation, affiliated to jinnah's Muslim League and reponsible for most of the Hindu genocide in Bengal) in Calcutta and currently living in Lahore, recalls with terror -" I pleaded with 'Patha' to stop this madness. Bahuth khoon bahchuka...hamari tharaf se bhi aur aapki taraf se bhi. Ab is qatl-e-aam ko rokna hoga. Hum aur khoon kharabe ke liye taiyaar nahee hain. Hum ceasefire ke liye taiyaar hain."(Note the classic muslim behaviour of asking for mercy and peace, tucking one's tail between one's legs and running for one's life when the Hindu valinatly repels his attack and beats him to pulp.)

But Gopal-da was not the one to fall for this trap. His men went on merrily about their task of protecting Hindu honour and lives. Finally, a time came when even M.K.Gandhi tried to persuade him and other Hindu warriors to lay down their arms. Gopal-da characteristally replied –

"I will not lay down even a nail if it has been used for defending Hindu honour."

Fifty years have passed. Gopal-da still resides in Calcutta. A life size statue of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, whom he idolises, adorns his living room. Tying up his long silvery mane in a top-knot, much the way the Sikhs do, Gopal-da, the octogenerian, expresses not an iota of regret for the bloodshed...he is, on the other hand, very proud of his past and of the fact that he did his duty.

A City Feeding on Itself:

Testimonies and Histories of ‘Direct Action’ Day

Debjani Sengupta

In 1946, Gopal Patha, a notorious goon of North Calcutta and leader of a gang, was 33 years old. Everybody called him by the nickname 'Patha' (goat, in Bengali) because he ran a meat shop in College Street. On the morning of 16 August that year, he left for his shop as usual, but when he heard about the trouble in the city he came back to his locality. "Muslim League volunteers were marching with long sticks in their hands. From Boubazar More to Harrison Road you could hear their slogans: ' Lar ke lenge Pakistan (We'll fight and take Pakistan)!' Then I heard that two goalas (milkmen) had been killed in Beliaghata and riots have started in Boubazar..."

Patha organised his gang because, according to him, "it was a very critical time for the country; the country had to be saved. If we become a part of Pakistan, we will be oppressed. so I called all my boys and said, this is the time we have to retaliate, and you have to answer brutality with brutality.". They armed themselves with knives,swords, cleavers, sticks and rods; Gopal had two American pistols tucked at his waist. He had procured these as well as some grenades from the American soldiers quartered in Calcutta in 1945. "If you paid them Rs 250 or bought them a bottle of whiskey, the soldiers would give you a .45 and 100 cartridges". As soon as the news of rioting spread, Patha's group of vigilantes swelled. They were joined by the Hindustani-speaking, non-Bengali goalas from the Janbajar area, each armed with a lathi (bamboo staff). "We were fighting those who attacked us. We fought and killed them. So if we heard one murder has taken place, we committed ten more. the ratio should be one to ten, that was the order to my boys".

Like Gopal Patha, the local tough Jugal Chandra Ghosh also had some men at his disposal. He ran an akhara (wrestling club) at Beliaghata, and raised money from the neighbouring sawmills, factories and khatals (dairy sheds), distributing it among his "boys". They carried out retaliatory attacks in the Beliaghata area and the Miabagan basti (slum settlement). "One murder would fetch ten rupees, and a wounding would bring five". He had links to certain political leaders of the city, and knew the Hindu Mahasabha secretary Bidhubhusan Sarkar as well as Suresh Chandra Bannerjee who later became a prominent leader of the Indian National Trade Union Congress. Ghosh's anger against the Muslim League flared when he saw the dead bodies from the first days of rioting. "I saw four trucks standing, all with dead bodies piled at least three feet high; like molasses in a sack, they were stacked on the trucks, blood and brain oozing out. that sight had a tremendous effect on me". The picture that emerges from the interviews with these men, active during those riot-torn days of August 1946, also underlines the character of the mob that had gone on a rampage through the bylanes and streets of Calcutta. It often comprised of men working in a city not their own, the goalas, the darwans (watchmen), the coachmen, the garoyans (loaders) from the coal depots, the tailors, boatmen and petty traders who were 'upcountrymen', migrants who laboured in the city for their livelihood. The city, in which the sprawling garden houses of the rich merchants stood cheek by jowl with bustling bazaars and clusters of slums, provided job opportunities and residences to a large labour force drawn from the neighbouring districts and provinces of Bihar, Orissa and the United Provinces. Calcutta, British India's largest metropolis, had started on a downward slump when the colonial administration shifted the capital to Delhi. The number of migrant labourers slowly increased after 1918.

By the mid-20th century, only three-tenths of the population was native-born; the working class of the city continued to come from outside. The 1896 Labour Inquiry Commission noted a large number of men migrating from Bihar and North West Provinces to Calcutta for jobs in the jute mills, and recorded that half of Calcutta's mill workers were 'upcountry' people. In 1931, Calcutta residents originally from other states of India constituted 31.70% of the city's population, while those from other districts of West Bengal constituted 30%. A large percentage of this workforce was employed as unskilled labour in jute and cotton mills, as well as railway workshops, glass and pottery works and leather tanning industries. The migrants were a highly volatile social group. Living in close contact with other immigrant workers, with strong ties of language and religion, they lived in a strange and alien city in extreme squalor and poverty. They had no family near them, and in their daily struggle against poverty and insecurity they depended to a large extent on the sardar (foreman) of the mill they worked in, who in many cases was from their village or community, and was of the same faith. The labourers mostly belonged to a category of uprooted peasants and artisans with little commitment to land or livelihood in the villages.

In this unknown city they lived alone, in terrible conditions. This group of 'labouring poor' thus came to assume a strong notion of communal identity based on religion, language and habitat. Although Calcutta was one of the leading industrial centres in the east, local Bengalis had very little share in all the economic activities; "the bulk of the industrial labour force and a small proportion of the small businessmen, artisans, traders, shopkeepers and

casual labourers were Hindustani-speaking immigrants from North India". "Calcutta developed as a city of lone men, and it was the single upcountrymen, Hindus and Muslims alike, who were most active in the Calcutta riots before 1946 and after".

A significant number of Muslim rioters were kasais (butchers) from north and central Calcutta, as well as khalasis (dockworkers), masons and hackney carriage drivers. A large segment of Muslim mill-hands who had come to the city to join the Direct Action Day rally, described later in this essay, also took part in the looting and arson. Among the Hindus, contemporary accounts mention the large presence of upcountrymen as rioters. The goalas, sweepers and darwans took part in the riots, as did the local thugs and petty criminals. One police report blamed the darwans of the Clive and Canning Street business offices for most of the "vicious acts". The rioters, however, were not confined only to the lower social strata. Prominent Muslim League leaders spent a great deal of time in police control rooms directing operations, and the role of H.S. Suhrawardy (who headed the Calcutta Muslim Association and was at that time Chief Minister under the Muslim League government) in obstructing police duties is well documented. S.K. Bhattacharya, a sub-inspector at the Lalbazar police station in 1946, recalls how they were not allowed to take any action for two days under the Muslim League Government; he also named a number of 'bad characters' with political connections who had directed mob frenzy. The notorious criminal Bombaiya, living in the New Market area, had links with the League and participated in riots, as did other goons such as Mina Punjabi of the Cornwallis basti and Munna Choudhuri in the Harrison Road area. Police intelligence reports stated that well before the Direct Action Day rally, Muslim League volunteers had acted on directives to mobilise ambulances; special petrol coupons, issued in the name of ministers, were used by League officials.

These direct links with institutional politics ensured that the outbreaks of violence were highly organised. Hindu

businessmen, prominent merchants, as well as politicians of the Hindu Mahasabha and some sections of the Congress, provided leadership to the mob. A number of INA (Indian National Army) men who had already come to the city to celebrate INA Day on 18 August were involved in rioting. Even minority sections of the population, such as Anglo-Indians, took part. This is evident from the following eyewitness account of Syed Nazimuddin Hashim, a student at Presidency College in August 1946, who bore testimony to the shocking dimensions of the unrestrained violence in Calcutta, as well as the fatalities of the massacre. "The first victim I saw was a poor Oriya porter. he hadn't a clue what was happening. he had a basket and had just come into the side street. A Muslim wearing a lungi broke away from the procession and hit him on the head with an iron rod. The fellow was absolutely startled, the blow broke open his ear. All the food shops had closed, New Market had closed after three days of unrestrained rioting and looting, in which the Anglo-Indians took full part; pickup trucks were used to loot a music and radio shop; departmental shops were looted in Wellington Square and Chowringhee Road, all the liquor shops were looted as well." In College Street, where a number of Muslim booksellers plied their trade, their homes being in the nearby Kalabagan basti, Hashim saw "dead bodies piled up on both sides, men, women and children and all the books on the road, burnt, gutted".

It is well documented that from the 1920s onwards, Hindu and Muslim identities had hardened within the framework of institutional politics. In a Public and Judicial Department report covering the first half of 1940, the British government noted the alarming rise of "volunteer corps" or "private armies" of the political parties, an indicator of the increased communitarian tensions. "The militant volunteer corps formed by communal and political

organisations subscribing to conflicting objectives and ideologies have grave potentialities for mischief in the event of an organised movement to create communal disorder or to subvert the administration", stated the report. In Bengal, the Muslim League Volunteer Corps increased its number to around 4,154, while the Congress Volunteer Corps also significantly increased its numbers in Bengal and Bombay. With this political army on standby, the Direct Action Day riots in Calcutta also saw, for the first time, a large scale participation of the upper and middle classes of the population. The conjunction of 'elite' and 'popular' communitarianism had never before been manifest to such a vivid extent. The reason why the Calcutta Riot of August 1946 is unique because of the unprecedented scale of violence and the participation of all classes of people, all variously affiliated, in the looting

and arson.

Certainly, the period 1946-47 was "the penultimate and worst phase of communal violence in pre-independent Bengal. The Great Calcutta Killing of August 1946, followed by the violence in Noakhali seven weeks later, began the spate of Partition riots which plagued the country and helped to prepare for a truncated settlement". In the early months of 1946, the Cabinet Mission proposals, which aimed to discuss and finalise plans for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership, providing India with independence under dominion status in the Commonwealth of Nations, had come to dominate the national political scene. Differences between the Congress and the Muslim League emerged on the question of whether to join the Interim Government. On

10 July, Jawaharlal Nehru declared in a press conference that although Congress would join the Constituent Assembly, it was free to modify the Cabinet Mission Plan. The Muslim League reacted immediately. In a resolution passed by the National Muslim Parliament held in Bombay on 29 July, it stated its resolve to reject the Cabinet Mission Proposals. "It has become abundantly clear that the Muslims of India would not rest content with anything less than the immediate establishment of an independent and full sovereign state of Pakistan and would resist any attempt to impose any Constitution. or setting up of any Interim Government at the centre without the approval and consent of the Muslim League; the Council of the All India Muslim League is convinced that now the time has come for the Muslim Nation to resort to Direct Action to achieve Pakistan."

Consequently, 16 August 1946 was marked as Direct Action Day, when Muslims throughout the country were to observe a hartal (strike). In Bengal, with a Muslim League ministry in power, a special effort would be made to demonstrate the strength of Muslim convictions about Pakistan. On that day, a Friday, Dawn came out with a full-page "pledge of sacrifice". The newspaper reiterated (p. 5): "Today Muslims of India dedicate anew their lives and all they possess to the cause of freedom. Today, let every Muslim swear in the name of Allah to resist aggression"; and stated that .Direct Action. was the only course left to Muslims, because "they offered peace but peace was spurned, they honoured their word but were betrayed, they claimed liberty but are offered thraldom; now might alone can secure their right". Even before the Muslim League National Council could work out the

details of the day, the ministry in Bengal declared 16 August a public holiday against wish of the opposition Congress. A mass rally was planned at the foot of the Octerlony Monument near Dalhousie Square in Calcutta, where Suhrawardy, Khwaja Nazimuddin and other League leaders were to speak.

That year, Badruddin Umar was 14 years old. His father Abul Hashim was a member of the Muslim League, and went on to become the general secretary of the party in Burdwan in 1947. On Direct Action Day, Umar was present in Calcutta with his father to take part in the rally. "We went to the Maidan by car, but the car could not move ahead because of the crowd. I never saw such a huge crowd ever in my life." Another eyewitness describes the procession thus: "Most of the people showed signs of being intoxicated, either with

alcohol or with enthusiasm. They were shouting wild slogans, 'we'll fight, we'll seize'. Slogans about the famous warrior Khalifa Hazrat Ali. and they carried huge imaginary portraits of Jinnah in battledress, riding on a white horse, scimitar by the side, and leading the battle of the hordes against the infidels". The meeting began late, at 4 pm, and by then the crowd had swelled to between 30,000 and 50,000 people. A contemporary account suggests that even before the meeting started, a great deal of agitation was visible among the crowd, who heckled the leaders. "People were shouting all around that riots had broken out in Rajabajar and Muslims are being slaughtered." In his address, Chief Minister Suhrawardy reportedly assured the crowd that the military and police were "restrained". Fuelled by rumour and the Chief Minister's assurance, the processionists, on their way back, began looting Hindu shops. Hamida Khanam, a young lecturer at Lady Brabourne College, recollects the plunder

of that day. "In the afternoon. around 5.30, I saw a huge crowd coming towards Park Circus. I saw men carrying electric fans, brass utensils. Then I saw the furniture . I realised this was not a simple gathering, there was looting going on. Just a few moments later I saw people looting a sweetshop on the other side of the road that belonged to a Hindu family. I realised the situation was very grave".

The massacre raged till 19 August. An 18 August telegram to the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, from Sir Fredrick Burrows, the Governor of Bengal, described the Calcutta events in grim detail: "All road traffic, shops, markets and businesses are at a standstill. Electricity and water are unaffected so far. Municipal scavenging of course is paralysed, and in some areas the streets are a shambles with corpses (grossly mutilated) and debris from the looted shops. Hospitals early this morning reported over 170 dead and nearly 1,000 injured, but numbers of both categories must be many times these figures". Within a few months, an official report claimed 3,700 dead and 11,000 seriously injured in the Calcutta riots. Immediately following the carnage, relief camps and centres were set up by the government and voluntary organisations, and by 28 August were catering to nearly 200,000 people. A devastated Mahatma Gandhi wrote in an editorial of his newspaper Harijan (24 August): "Calcutta has earned a bad repute of late. It has seen too many wild demonstrations during the past few months. If that evil reputation is sustained for sometime longer it will cease to be a city of palaces; it will become a city of the dead". An eyewitness states the horror of those days in very real terms: "In Kalighat tram depot I found some bodies stacked like this, like gunny bags. bodies. hundreds of bodies, people killed on the roadside; instead of being in the road, they were dragged inside the tram depot and they were stacked like that. I can't describe how the bodies were scattered and then stacked, it was terrible".

This account of the dead is corroborated by another chilling account of a necrophiliac city ravaged and destroyed. Phillip Talbot, a journalist present in Calcutta at that time, narrated the experience in a letter to Walter Rogers of the Institute of Current World Affairs:

It would be impossible to describe everything that we saw. A sense of desolation hung over the native bazaars. In street after street rows of shops had been stripped to the walls. Tenements and business buildings were burnt out, and their unconsumed innards strewn over the pavements. Smashed furniture cluttered the roads, along with concrete blocks, brick, glass, iron rods, machine tools. Anything that the mob had been able to tear loose but did not want to carry off. Fountains gushed from broken water remains. Burnt-out automobiles stood across traffic

lanes. A pall of smoke hung over many blocks, and buzzards sailed in great, leisurely circles. Most overwhelming, however, were the neglected human casualties: fresh bodies, bodies grotesquely bloated in the tropical heat, slashed bodies, bodies bludgeoned to death, bodies piled on push carts, bodies caught in drains, bodies stacked high in vacant lots, bodies, bodies.

"Watching a city feed on its own flesh is a disturbing experience", Talbot concluded. "In spite of our war heritage of callousness, I know that I was not alone in sensing profound horror this last week as Calcutta, India's largest metropolis and the second city of the Empire, resolutely set at work to cannibalise itself". Talbot's letter is remarkable because of the clarity of his testimonial. He was an outsider and a witness whose detachment and

compassion were severely tested as he wrote about the carnage all around him. "In human terms, estimated casualties ran from the Provincial Government's absurdly reductive report of 750 dead to military guesses that 7,000 to 10,000 people might have been killed. Already more than 3,500 bodies have been collected and counted, and no one will ever know how many persons were swept down the Hoogly, caught in the clogged sewers, burned up in the 1,200 fires, or taken away by relatives who disposed of their bodies privately. A reasonable guess, I think, is that more than 4,000 people died and 11,000 people were injured in what is already being called 'The Great Calcutta Killing' or 'The Week of the Long Knives'".

The orgy of communitarian slaughter, along with the famine of 1944, two years earlier, initiated the decline of the metropolis of Calcutta. The city's vast hinterland, rich in natural and human resources, was unable to cope with the twin disasters, the impact of which is felt even today. From a contemporary perspective, ...The history of Calcutta during the years of the Second World War, and the troubled times that followed the conclusion of the war, was a prolonged nightmare.

Blow fell upon blow like the continuous rains of the miserable rainy season in the city. There was hoarding, profiteering and black-marketing on an unprecedented scale. The sequel to this was the devastating Bengal famine of 1944. Thousands poured into the city from the famished countryside. Equally indelible was the

impression made by the bloody massacres, the stabbings in the back alleys, and the night raids into neighbourhoods that followed Jinnah's call for 'Direct Action' after the war. This was the Great Calcutta Killing of 1946, when the Muslim League Ministry headed by Suhrawardy virtually placed Calcutta in a state of siege. Then

followed the Partition of Bengal, the streams of refugees that poured into Calcutta from East Bengal and the far-reaching disruption of the entire economy of the city. After that were to come industrial recession, rocketing prices, food scarcity, staggering unemployment, desperation among youths, renewed terrorism, street warfare between political gangs, collapse of public transport, paralysis of municipal services, the spread of slums, the stupendous increase in the number of pavement dwellers, ubiquitous destitution and beggary, the degradation of humanity to unimaginably low levels.

The personal testimonies presented in this essay point not to a grand narrative of ethnic and social hatred but to the grotesque irruption of these cataclysmic modes within the frame of the everyday and the mundane. These sudden killers were ordinary men and women going about their daily lives; the turbulent spiral of a single event turned them into sadistic assassins, or stunned witnesses to the horrors of genocide. The violence they saw

or perpetrated marked them forever. As the poet Shaukat Osman remarked, ".We are the prisoners of the past, prisoners of Partition, prisoners of the irrationality which led us to jump into darkness. the past is still there. It is haunting us like [a] ghost, all over the sub-continent".

Author's note:

I came upon the material used in this essay while doing archival research for a project on Partition. I was very moved by the testimonies, and felt I needed to compile them in order to understand one of the generally unanswered questions about Kolkata's past. I had always wondered how my city could have undergone such a

moment of violence that is now either almost forgotten, or vividly remembered as traumatic. I wanted to access

the 'little' histories of local witnesses, how they were haunted by the killings even as they continued to go about

their daily business in the city. This essay is an attempt to read that convulsion of extraordinary violence through

the observations of 'ordinary' people.

NOTES

Various oral testimonies that appear in this text are excerpts from interviews for a BBC programme on 50 years

of India's independence, conducted by Andrew Whitehead and Anuradha Awasthi, who gave the author

permission to use this material. The tapes can be accessed at the archives of the School of Oriental and African

Studies, London.

Apa Mumtaz Begum

2012-01-23T04:07:00.000-08:00

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Hindutva links & annual commemoration since his death on 16th September, 1985

2010-09-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hedgewar-Netaji Contact

Keshava Baliram Hedgewar (April 1, 1889 – June 21, 1940) was the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Hedgewar founded the RSS in Nagpur, Maharashtra in 1925, with the intention of promoting the concept of the Hindu nation. Hedgewar drew upon influences from social and spiritual Hindu reformers such as Swami Vivekananda, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Aurobindo to develop the core philosophy of the RSS.

He went to Kolkata to pursue a Degree in Medicine. After successful completion, Hedgewar was drawn into the influence of secret revolutionary organisations like the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar in Bengal.

He was also a member of the Hindu Mahasabha till 1929. Hedgewar was imprisoned for sedition by the British government in 1921 for a year and again in 1930 for nine months. After his spell in prison he instructed the RSS to remain aloof from political activities including the Salt Satyagraha (1930) and continue mainly as a social organisation.

Dr. Hedgewar regarded independence and national unity as complimentary, like two sides of the same coin. Therefore, even after embarking upon the work for national unity he did not abandon working for independence. In the year 1928, he took part in the Congress convention held in Calcutta. There he discussed about the Sangh mission and about the national situation with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Both the leaders exchanged views on the number of subjects concerning the Indian nation and appreciated each others point of view.

In the year 1930 in its Lahore convention. Congress declared "full freedom" as its objective. Dr. Hedgewar was naturally delighted at this.
http://kvpuniverse.org/About%20Dr.html

Hedgewar as a medical student in Calcutta had been part of the revolutionary activities of the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar. (Chitkara M G, Hindutva, Published by APH Publishing, 1997 ISBN 8170247985, 9788170247982)

He was charged with sedition in 1921 by the British Administration and served a year in prison. He was briefly a member of Indian National Congress. In 1925, he left the Congress to form the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which would become the focal point of Hindu movements in Independent India. After the formation of the RSS too, Hedgewar was to take part in the Indian National Congress led movements against the British rule. He joined the Jungle Satyagraha agitation in 1931 and served a second term in prison. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh started by him became one of the most prominent Hindu organization with its influence ranging in the social and political spheres of India.

Hedgewar's political career begins from 1905 and ends with his death in 1940. In the first phase (1905 - 1918) of his political life, he was 'an unalloyed Tilakite. Maharashtra witnessed two simultaneous lines in the public life one, propagated by Agarkar, emphasised the necessity of social radicalism as precondition of political change. But, Tilak emphasised on political activities as the first priority. Hedgewar endorsed Tilak's approach.
Pandurao's Khankhaje, leader of Swadesh Bandhav, a revolutionary organisation, wrote in Kesari, "Hedgewar and the other young men were in the forefront of Swadeshi propaganda and delivering speeches". After joining National Medical College in Calcutta in 1910 with the sole aim to participate in revolutionary activities, he became active member of "Anushilan Samiti" with his code name "Koken". He was closely associated with revolutionaries like Nalini Kishor Guha (who provides authentic account of Hedgewar's revolutionary activities in Calcutta during his stay from 1910 - 1916). After his return from Calcutta to Nagpur, he used his contacts to organise revolutionaries with a plan of "armed revolt" which, according to P.L. Joshi (in his article "Mobilisation in Vidharba by Tilak in political thought and leadership of Tilak" edited by N.R. Inamdar P.370) was dropped on the advice of Tilak. Hedgewar's revolutionary group was the biggest one and consisted of 150 hard core revolutionaries. G.M. Huddar says Hedgewar's revolutionary group resembled a secret "conspiratorial group" of young men. (G.M. Huddar in -RSS and Netaji in the Illustrated Weekly of India, Oct. 7,1 1979). His plan of armed revolt was not an isolated case of adventurism but it was coincided by his manifesto for Indians Independence which was to be declared from many countries. He postponed his plan on the advise of Dr B. S. Moonje. (Hedgewar's role in freedom struggle - Indian Express, Rakesh Sinha - 24 June 1996)

Savarkar-Bose Meet

A meeting which took place between Bose and Savarkar in Bombay in June 1940. On this occasion Savarkar is supposed to have suggested to Subhas that he should go to Europe and seek the dictators’ support. According to a article in the Times of India of June 24, Mr Bose had also talks with Mr V D Savarkar, president of the All India Hindu Mahasabha, at the latter’s residence at Dadar on Saturday evening. It is understood that the discussions related to the present political situation in the country and the steps the Hindu Mahasabha and the ‘Forward Bloc’ should take in co-operation with other parties. The episode, as always, did not go unnoticed by the police, who gave a brief account of it:
Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Bombay on June 22nd and had discussions with V D Savarkar with a view of exploring the possibilities of co-operation between the Forward Bloc and the Hindu Mahasabha respectively. (MSA, Home Special Department, 1023, 1939-40, SA dated June 29, 1940, ‘Forward Bloc’).

The absence of accounts by the Hindu Mahasabha on the meeting can be explained by the fact that, both the leaders being involved in anti-British activities, it would not make sense leaving records of sensitive matters. Not even among Bose’s papers and writings is there any reference to the meeting. It is therefore impossible to reconstruct the content of the talks between the two leaders, unless we trust the only source available. This is the speech made by Savarkar on the occasion of the dissolution of the Abhinav Bharat in 1952. Certainly the meeting did take place, and very possibly the two leaders discussed Bose’s intention to go to Europe and seek the support of the axis powers. Savarkar inspired Bose, who, right from 1933, had his own connections with the dictators’ governments. The working committee of September 10 decided which steps should be taken in order to prepare the nation to face the emergency provoked by the outbreak of the war.

The preliminary condition was the devolution of full powers to a central Indian government by the British. The committee wished for the realization of the militarisation of Indian society and the Indianisation of the army. It requested a reform of the Arms Act, along the lines prevailing in the UK. It demanded also that territorial forces and paramilitary groups be strengthened, that new military organisations be created in those provinces where they did not exist before.
(NMML, Moonje papers, subject files, n 51).

A study of relations between two towering contemporaries Veer Savarkar (1883-1966) and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945?) will prove interesting. On the "longest day," June 21, 1940, Subhas Chandra Bose called on to Savarkar at Savarkar Sadan, Bombay. Savarkar advised Subhas not to waste time in agitating for the removal of British statues like Holwell Monument in Calcutta - only to end up in a British prison during the invaluable war-time. Savarkar, was surreptitiously in touch with Rash Behari Bose in Japan. He advocated that Subhas should smuggle himself out of the country and try to reach Germany and Japan (like Indian revolutionaries duri ng World War I) to raise an Indian Army of liberation out of PoWs. In his avatar as Netaji, Subhas Bose's future course of action developed on the prophetic lines of Veer Savarkar.

Netaji in his speech on Azad Hind Radio (June 25, 1944) acknowledged Savarkar's perspicacity in these words: "When due to misguided political whims and lack of vision, almost all the leaders of Congress party have been decrying all the soldiers in Indian Army as mercenaries, it is heartening to know that Veer Savarkar is fearlessly exhorting the youths of India to enlist in armed forces. These enlisted youths themselves provide us with trained men and soldiers for our Indian National Army."

On September 30, 1943 when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose toured Andaman as the supreme commander of Azad Hind Fauz, he paid his tributes to the memories of freedom fighters imprisoned in the Cellular Jail. He got printed thousands of copies of the Tamil version of Savarkar's Indian War of Independence of 1857 and distributed them in public. Andaman and Nicobar islands were re-named as Saheed and Swaraj islands.

Savarkar reciprocated these noble sentiments, but alas, Subhas was not there to see it. On May 10, 11, and 12 1952 during the dissolution celebration of Abhinav Bharat, the secret revolutionary party Savarkar had founded in 1904 at Pune, the bust of Netaji graced the stage for three days. Hailing Subhas as "deathless" Savarkar said, "Long live deathless Subhas, victory to the goddess of freedom."

Yet, having said all that, in the end, I can't help remembering an illustrious exception. Veteran communist parliamentarian and prolific scholar Prof. Hiren Mukerjee (who years later penned a study on Netaji Subhas called Bow to the Burning Gold) on February 28, 1966, that is two days after Savarkar passed away, proposed that the Lok Sabha should pay homage to Savarkar, in recognition of his services to the nation. He was supported by U.M. Trivedi of the Jan Sangh. Prof. Hiren Mukerjee said that although Savarkar was not a member of the House, there should still be some way in which the House should register its feelings on the passing away of a great leader. The House had done so in the case of Mahatma Gandhi and Stalin who were not members of the House.

Though, ultimately the House did not formally pay any homage, by observing silence, Speaker Hukum Singh conveyed the sentiments of the House to the bereaved family through the secretary of Lok Sabha. On March 4, 1966 when Union ministers, Opposition leaders, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha paid homage to Savarkar in a condolence meet organised by Delhi's citizen's council, Prof. Hiren Mukerjee, though differing from some of Savarkar's views, had praised the potent brand of nationalism that he championed. Earlier Mukerjee was the one who had denounced All India Radio for not taking note of Savarkar's Mritunjaya Diwas celebration on December 24, 1960.

Yet given their shady history it is not unnatural that the example of Hiren Mukerjee would be lost upon the communists. (Subhas vs Savarkar, Author: Balbir K. Punj, Publication: The Asian Age - Date: May 20, 2002)

Mukherjee Commission's Justice Mukherjee on Gumnami Baba/Bhagwanji being Subhas
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/81464/India
In a recent documentary film on Subhas Chandra Bose, Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee, who for six years investigated Netaji’s mysterious disappearance, has been shown to make an admission “off the record”. He is absolutely sure that Dasnami Sanyasi, popularly known as Bhagwanji or Gumnami Baba, who is last known to have lived at Ram Bhawan in Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh in 1985, was none other than Bose.
This dichotomy of private belief and public verdict has been taken up by many people as a stick to beat his findings with. They find it difficult to accept his view. This is, however, an issue that must be addressed rationally instead of being held hostage to cherished beliefs. Justice Mukherjee’s assertion might not have any legal implications, but it certainly raises a number of critical questions. Why did he not write in his report what he believed to be the truth? What could have prevented him? Going by his report, the reason for his rejecting the possibility of the Sanyasi being Bose was the “absence of any clinching evidence.” Then how does one justify his certainty?

The answer could lie in the evidence that was produced to him and also in the way the evidence was treated by him. To be able to make sense of his conviction, it is important to understand the nature of the evidence that was produced and the way he treated it.

Handwriting & DNA

The two major categories of evidence presented to the commission were individual witness accounts and the personal belongings of the Sanyasi. This included numerous books, letters and Bose’s family photographs. The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (JMCI) scrutinised over 2,600 such items. Among the belongings were also found a few teeth kept in a match box, which were assumed by the commission to be that of the Sanyasi. The letters were sent for handwriting analysis and the teeth for DNA test. This line of investigation ~ that is, to see whether forensic evidence corroborates witness accounts ~ can hardly be flawed. Yet another factor was the level of people who wrote to the Sanyasi. There were letters from Prafulla Ghosh (First Chief Minister of West Bengal), MS Golwalkar (Letters written by then RSS chief Sri Guruji Golwalkar highly eulogizing Bhagwanji were found showing links between Netaji & RSS - Netaji was devotee of Swami Vivekananda since childhood, and RSS also built up on ideology of Vivekanada as Guruji Golwalkar was direct disciple of Swami Akhandananda, the common disciple of Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa like Swamiji), Leela Roy, Pabitra Mohan Roy, Forward Bloc MP & Jadavpur University Professor Samar Guha and many others.
Justice Mukherjee’s observation on this part of the evidence is revealing. Apparently, there is no reason for not acting or relying upon the evidence of the last two categories of witnesses particularly of the group which had seen Netaji before 1945 and also met Bhagwanji/Gunmami Baba on a number of occasions. More so when their evidence regarding the frequent visits of some freedom-fighters, eminent politicians and former members of the INA on 23 January and during the Durga Puja is supported by the fact that letters written by Prof Samar Guha, Dr Pabitra Mohan Roy and Ms Leela Roy, were found at Ram Bhawan. But there are other formidable facts and circumstances on record which stand in the way of this commission in arriving at a conclusive finding that Bhagwanji / Gumnami Baba was none other than Netaji.
These “other formidable facts and circumstances” were reports of the handwriting analysis and the DNA test. While B Lal, former examiner of questioned documents of the Government of India, and one of the foremost experts in this field demonstrated in his report that the handwritings matched, the Office of the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents and Forensic Science Laboratory, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata, gave the contrary opinion, but without providing any reasoned analysis. The result of the DNA analysis was also negative.
Thus, the issue was not rejected summarily by Justice Mukherjee, but he could not accept the hypothesis as majority evidence from the forensic examination did not support it.

But now that his personal view is known, it raises doubts on the veracity of the forensic evidence presented to him. Would it be surprising, in view of the muddle created in cases as recent as that of Arushi Talwar and the twin deaths at Shopian? This is a serious issue which should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, especially when Justice Mukherjee himself highlighted in his report the series of obstacles created to impede the smooth functioning of the commission. Notably, the non-cooperative attitude of the government ~ not providing crucial documents, destruction of files, not seeking assistance from the Russian and the US governments at the highest level. These are serious lapses by any criterion.
What makes these allegations serious is the shoddy argument provided by the then Home Minister in rejecting the commission’s report, and the obstinate refusal of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to disclose the records on the basis of which the commission reached its conclusions. When the Central Information Commission (CIC), in 2007, directed the MHA to disclose 220 records of the GD Khosla Comission, the ministry released only 91. It is yet to act on the CIC’s direction of 20 October 2009 to disclose all documents, listed in the JMCI report as ‘exhibits’, within twenty working days.

Justice Mukherjee’s opinion, albeit private, should be given due importance as it is not the belief of a lay person, but of an eminent criminal law expert who investigated the issue minutely. (The Statesman, Kolkata, 15 February 2010 - Resemblance & Reality: Netaji And The Godman Of Faizabad, By Chandrachur Ghose)

KGB files reveal Subhas' presence in USSR after air crash: Bose was at Stalin's mercy in 1946

By Shali Ittaman

Subhas Bose was present in the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1946! The proof lies in the high-security Paddolsk Military Archive, situated 40 km from Moscow.

Alexander Kolesnikov, a former major-general of the Warsaw Pact, who accessed these files in October 1996, says Josef Stalin, the general-secretary of the CPSU, and his cabinet were considering various options to deal with Bose in 1946. The discussion centred on the question:"Should he (Bose) be kept in Russia?"

As a member of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow, Alexander Kolesnikov was permitted to visit the archive under a Indo-Russian cultural agreement. However, owing to security reasons, he was not allowed to copy the page, file number and volume of the document he had studied.

During a meeting with an Indian Parliamentary Delegation to the Russian Federation in 1996, he gave a written account of all his findings. The delegation, which included the late Chitta Basu and Sri Jayanta Roy of the Forward Bloc, brought the writing back to India.

This account is the basis of the affidavit before the Mukherjee Commission submitted by Dr Purabi Roy, a research scholar who was sent as part of Asiatic Society's three-member team to Russia to study Indian documents from 1917-1947. Since Paddolsk was out of bounds for her being a foreigner, Kolesnikov was assigned the job.

Apart from other things, the Russian account confirms the belief in various quarters that Bose had planned to shift base to Russia. Some of the related Russian documents discovered by the Asiatic team include Bose's contact with Soviet leaders seeking recognition for the Azad Hind Government and Soviet agents activities in India during and after World War II.

The Soviet Spymaster's Report

The document which throws fiercer light on the events of the time, is Soviet agent Sayadyants' India papers.

Sayadyants, who lived in Bombay, was gathering India related information on "Soviet high command orders" while operating as a seller of Soviet books, periodicals and films.

His papers (MID. Fond. 0179. OPIS la. Papka ia. Delo 8, 1946) [Eng. Translation ] talk extensively about Bose, his ideology and political leanings, and his influence over the Indian masses. He implies in the papers that if the Soviets were to work with an Indian leader it almost surely would have to be Subhas Bose. Whether or not Stalin was influenced by the Sayadyants' views remains to be understood.

There is also a reference to Sayadyants' August 1946 visit to Moscow through Tehran during which he meets Soviet Ambassador to Iran I V Sadchikov. Dr Purabi Roy says, Sayadyants had mentioned to the ambassador that "he was carrying Nehru's letter to Stalin seeking the latter's support". (It is of course, historically known that Stalin neither met Nehru nor his ambassadoress Vijaylakshmi Pandit, despite the best efforts of lobbyists such as Krishna Menon).

Other Indicators

Whereas Kolesnikov-Purabi Roy findings, which include various sensitive files, establish Bose's presence in Moscow, a lot of supporting evidence has come Hindustan Times' way since it began the public probe 15 days ago.

For instance, there is the testimony of Ashok Rai, a former resident of Quetta, Baluchistan, who read the Hindustan Times appeal and came forward to submit what looks to be a vital piece of information. If the testimony stands up to scrutiny, this could be the start of another research to establish how Subhas Bose reached Russia after Japan pronounced him dead on August 18, 1945.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/specials/Netaji/russia.htm

Sayadyants report of the political situation in India
Group 'E'
No. 22
A brief survey of the Political situation in India
"Britain Capitulates………………"
Recently, there were series of articles appeared in the Indian Press informing that Lord Wavell instructed Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to form the National Government

Nehru prepared a list of Cabinet Members, which has been approved by H.M. of English, the following are :
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru .. Prime Minister, External Affairs,Congress President.
Sardar Ballav Bhai Patel .. Minister of Home Affairs, Member Of the executive committee of the Congress.
Raja Gopalchari .. Finance Minister, Member of the Executive committee of the Congress
Sarat Chandra Bose .. Law Minister, member of the Executive committee of the
Congress, brother of well known Subhas Chandra Bose

One has to admit that the economic and political situation for the functioning of the new Government is extremely unfavourable and critical……………..

First -- the problem with Muslim League with Pakistan………

Then -- the liquidation of series of defence and semi-defence organisations will be throwing jobless into streets.

There will be total unrest in commercial and industrial sectors. Agriculture has already been affected, femine is spreading from east to south. The Government must take necessary steps for the demobilisation of Indian Army.

The Maharajas and Princes in India are with independent political motivations, they rule their territories with their own political principles.

Representatives from the workers and peasants organisations are also absent in the new Government. But Congress is the most strong party in India where the people worship Gandhi as religious leader and a fanatic love for and faith on Nehru - the Indian youth is worshipping this idol. All big industrialists like Tata, Birla and others are with them.

Central Committee of Communist Party of India with its 50,000 members, having its representative in the constituent Assembly, Somnath Lahiri, who after his special visit (July 23 - August 5) took part in the extended political programme………

In India FORWARD BLOC is counter balancing Congress and Communist parties. Seven years before Subhas Chandra Bose had founded this party. This organisation cannot be called party but it is an ideal platform where all progressive people assembled together and whose main programme is to expedite the freedom movement in India and then to decide the inner political situation of the country. Before the war the organisation of Forward Bloc went underground and Subhas Bose left for Germany and later went to Japan where he formed the Indian National Army. I.N.A. soldiers used the slogans 'JAI HIND'. FOR INDIA'S FREEDOM : ENEMIES OF ENGLAND - FRIENDS OF INDIA'. After Japan's defeat the I.N.A. prisoners were brought to India for trial in Delhi.

The trial of three Officers of Indian National Army with a total success and for Forward Bloc Bose became the National leader of India. People from different walks of life has been united under the banner of militant celebrity Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

At present active members of Forward Bloc are one hundred thousand and followers are more than the members. In the present Government there are many active workers from Forward Bloc and mainly Subhas Bose's brother Sarat Chandra Bose, who is law Minister.

V.G. Sayadyants
Tehran, September 1, 1946.

Stalin debates Bose's fate in 1946

Ashok Rai says that as a boy he saw Subhas Bose being taken towards a no-man's land adjoining Quetta, where the Britishers sent all hardened criminals. He says, he had a good hard look at Bose, as the Black Ford car in which the leader was travelling came to a halt outside the house where Rai stayed.

"Bose was squeezed between four uniformed men on the back seat of the car. His cap was on his lap and he looked very serious...".

Quetta was a British military base and refuelling stopover point for fighter crafts on long-distance missions. (Incidentally, Quetta, at that time, also shared borders with Russian-held territories.)

www.hindustantimes.com also has other documents which include the International Political Intelligence Report and British Intelligence reports which throw up indicators to Bose's presence in Russia.

Col. Lakshmi Sehgal deposition before the Mukherjee Commission is also important in the context. She said that in her last meeting with the Azad Hind cabinet in Mamyo, Burma, Netaji was seriously considering shifting his government's base to Russia. In fact, Hindustan Times also has Bose's letter to Soviet Ambassador in Tokyo, Jacob Malik, seeking Russia's support to force the British out of India.

UP hermit, Netaji too similar

By Anuj Dhar

Bottom: A rock marks the spot in Faizabad where the hermit was cremated. If the Faizabad account is proven it stands to bust the theory of Netaji's ashes in Renkoji Temple in Japan (Top)

There is too much in common between Bhagwanji, a hermit who died in Faizabad in 1985, and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Bhagwanji sounded like him, looked like him, stood as tall, was of the same age, had similar reading habits and even had common friends. Like Bose, he too had gaps between his teeth and had a scalpel mark on his abdomen. Some rare documents, photographs and souvenirs, which reportedly belonged to the Bose family, were also found from the hermit's house.

Last fortnight, B Lal, an expert appointed by HindustanTimes.com concluded that the "writings of Bhagwanji and Netaji are of common authorship".

Now, the Mukherjee Commission, which is probing Netaji's disappearance, may order a DNA test on Bhagwanji's teeth retrieved from the latter's belongings. Officially, with that may also come the final word on the Netaji mystery. Until then, the evidence from Faizabad must speak for itself.

At the end of a July to August investigation in 2001, HindustanTimes.com had concluded that 'Netaji's death in the August 18, 1945 air crash in Taiwan was a decoy to mislead the pursuing Allied forces. After the crash story was planted with Japanese help, Netaji had probably made his way into Soviet Russia "to work with Stalin to free India". What happened hence, continued to be a mystery until the Faizabad link emerged recently.

Incidentally, Bhagwanji's life was as much a point of controversy and curious debate as was his death. His followers, who also knew him as Gumnami Baba, remember him as a secretive person; he rarely went out of his room and met people from behind a curtain.

On his death, when news spread that he was Netaji, the Uttar Pradesh High Court ordered his belongings to be sealed and sent to the Faizabad treasury. On December 22, 2001, the seals were broken for Mukherjee Commission to collect handwriting and DNA samples.

Meanwhile, HindustanTimes.com tried to find out more about the hermit. Following is the result of the investigation based on documentary and circumstantial evidence and cross-examination of witnesses.

Bhagwanji was a Bengali, who was adept at English, Hindustani, Sanskrit and German.
He wore round spectacles and a round gold watch, which looked like the ones that Netaji wore. (Netaji's specs and watch were not found after his supposed death in 1945.)
He treasured many rare and original pictures of Netaji's parents. (He also revered an umbrella, said to be of Netaji's father.)
His followers included many of Netaji's associates, including INA Secret Service sleuth Dr Pabitra Mohan Roy, Leela Roy, Sunil Das and Trailokya Nath Chakaravarty. They kept tab on everything that was said and written on Netaji, especially his death mystery.
He had a mind for matters military and often spoke of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mountbatten as his equals. Also, partition perturbed him.
Every year on January 23 (Netaji's birthday), many people, including Pabitra Mohan Roy, celebrated Bhagwanji's birthday.
The original of the Khosla Commission's 1971 summons to Suresh Bose, Netaji's elder brother, was found among Bhagwanji's belongings.
HindustanTimes.com also met some of Bhagwanji's associates who are under an oath of secrecy. They give the impression that he was indeed Netaji. (Netaji too was known to put his men under oath.)
HindustanTimes.com also discussed its findings with experts on Netaji, including some of his family members. Most of them agreed with the inferences whereas the rest offered nothing in contradiction.

Curiously, in 1985, a few people from Faizabad met Dr Pabitra Mohan Roy in Kolkata to inform him about Bhagwanji's death. Dr Pabitra, reportedly told them: " Ami mukh khulle deshe agun lege jabe". (This country will burn if I open my mouth.)

UP hermit given secret funeral

By Anuj Dhar

Thirteen people were present when Bhagwanji of Faizabad was cremated at Guptar Ghat on the banks of River Saryu (Uttar Pradesh) on September 18, 1985. When the pyre was lit, one of them broke down and said, "…there should have been 13 lakh people here!"

Sixteen years later, a rock that marks the spot scream for attention from the middle of a wild vegetation. On its face someone has painted in an unsteady hand, 'gumnami sant' or a man with a lost name - the words read like a disclaimer on someone requesting anonymity, as if saying, "Sorry, he did not wish to be known".

A farmer working in the field nearby, however, is quick to give back the man his name. "That is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose", he says. The farmer, like many people in Faizabad, needs no convincing on the man cremated here.

Faizabad had known Bhagwanji since his days as a lodger at Rambhawan in 1983. His landlord of two years, Gurubasant Singh, who retired as a transport officer, remembers the day when Dr RP Mishra (Bhagawanji's follower since 1975) walked in and booked the two room annexe of the house. The doctor said the rooms were for his grandfather and his caretakers, a woman called Sarswati Devi and her son Rajkumar Misra. "He is a religious man. He stays in his room and worships all the time. He never appears before anyone," the doctor told him.

Apparently, Bhagwanji's reputation had not preceded him to Faizabad. Earlier, the fear of controversy and poverty had driven him from Neemsar to Basti and then on to Ayodhya. He did not even have the money to pay for his rent. (A neighbour in Ayodhya recalls the days when Bhagwanji hurt himself and lay unattended withering in pain in a run-down house with no electricity and a swarm of mosquitoes to keep him company through the summer nights.)

Bhagwanji was also very secretive in his ways... apparently, Rambhawan like all other places where he stayed, had been carefully chosen to preserve the secrecy he wanted. His rooms at Rambhawan were to the back of the main house and could be reached through a narrow lane next to the main pathway. Another passage led from the rooms through the backyard and towards the cantonment. When visitors came calling (people say military, civil and police officials used to visit him for long hours during the night), they could walk in without being noticed.

Though Singh was the host for two years, he never met Bhagwanji face-to-face. "I heard him speak ...His voice was heavy and crisp, like that of a military general. It reminded me of the actor, Sohrab Modi…" Singh says. "But he was always behind a curtain."

Of course, to Singh and many others, the veil of secrecy was too thick, and not until Bhagwanji's death was it lifted. Today, as the truth emerges, Singh prepares for the moment his house is declared a national monument.

By the time Bhagwanji moved to Faizabad, he was 86 years old and was in need of regular medical attention. Dr T Banerjee, his son Dr Priyabrat Banerjee, besides Dr Mishra, were always there for him.

Dr Priyabrat Banerjee who deposed before the Mukherjee Commission recalls the day in 1975 when Saraswati Devi came to their clinic and asked his father to accompany her to "attend to the baba".

"My father was a changed man when he returned after the meeting… he was perplexed and excited!" Both Banerjee senior and his wife Pushpa had seen Netaji in the 1930s… there was no mistaking their man.

After his father died in 1983, Dr Priyabrat Banerjee became the attendant doctor. He recalls his first meeting with the Bhagwanji: "My heart throbbed like a pump when I saw him. He was fair, almost bald and had a long beard. There was something in his gaze… I could not even look into his eyes."

Not everyone was, however, lucky to see his face. Ramji Pandey, who used to massage him, remembers how Bhagwanji used to cover his face with a monkey cap. Cuts on the Bhagwanji's abdomen, however, did not escape the masseur's notice.

Another man recalls how Bhagwanji described to his wife a visit to Stuttgart in Germany. It, of course, left the man wondering how a penniless hermit, who by the look of it had not even strayed beyond Uttar Pradesh, could talk so knowledgeably about a city in a foreign country.

Many such stories on Bhagwanji do round in Faizabad today. In fact, after his death in 1985, the baba's stories were splashed on the first pages of many local newspapers. The news even travelled to Parliament, although soon after - and quite strangely - the stories got spiked.

Indeed, many questions were asked after his death, and the one big question centered on the manner in which he was cremated. In fact, after his death on September 16, people were physically prevented from entering the house by his followers. Even Gurubasant was stopped at the door.

The body was kept in the house for two days after which his confidants draped his body in a tricolour and took his body in a van to Guptar Ghat. There, on a piece of public land, his body was put to the flames.

People who attended the cremation say it drizzled when the pyre was lit.

Bose's brother, aides among Bhagwanji's informants

By Anuj Dhar

Among those to surface in Bhagwanji's list of associates included Netaji's elder brother Suresh Bose, besides others of Netaji's circle.

Some of the important ones were Trailokya Nath Chakravarty, Sunil Das, Anil Das and Ashutosh Kali. In letters, testimonies, messages and private conversation, all of them had indicated who Bhagwanji was truly.

An inference can also be drawn from former West Bengal Chief Minister Prafulla Ghosh's and former West Bengal Attorney General Ajit Dutt's dispatches to him.

Ghosh wrote to Bhagwanji: "…the Haripura Session leading to the Wellington Square happenings - if they had not happened, life would have taken a different turn." Netaji had become Congress president in Haripura and had resigned at Wellington Square Session, a year later.

Dutt, on the other hand, had sent a parcel to Bhagwanji. Though its contents are not known, the parcel cover (with Dutt's name on it) was found from the latter's belongings preserved in the Faizabad treasury.

(Like the Chief Minister, Dutt, too had no reason other than the obvious to associate himself with Bhagwanji.)

Some of the other indicators thrown by Netaji's associates are:

Sunil Das: He was among the closest associates of Netaji. He told the Khosla Commission during his September 6, 1972 deposition: "How can I mistake his (Subhas') identity… I believe that Netaji is still alive." On why Netaji is not appearing, Das said, "I have no competence to go into it".

He also said that Leela Roy was sure that Netaji lived on…, but said that the "crucibles of secret revolutionary politics" forbade him from disclosing what seniors had told him.

Eight years back, Das had sent a report to Bhagwanji on Surendra Mohan Ghosh, an MP who had probed the Shoulmari affair on Pandit Nehru's order. (It was rumored that Shoulmari Baba was Subhas.)

Trailokya Nath Chakravarty: He knew Netaji since the '20s. For his revolutionary activities, he was sent to jail for 30 years, during which he spent an interim with Netaji in Mandalay Jail. In a letter he sent to Bhagwanji, he writes of an association with an unnamed person with whom he "entered Mandalay Jail". He also writes that the people of Bangladesh and he are waiting for the person… (Trailokya Nath was in East Pakistan and he helped Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman during the 1971 Bangladesh war.)

Anil Das: In his letter to Bhagwanji, he reminds about his work before and after the 'death' of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He also writes about his visit to Neemsar on pisima's (Leela Roy) request to seek Bhagwanji's orders. Leela Roy post-scripts the letter, by vouching for Das: He is a "a dedicated, upright and idealistic worker". Another letter shows that Bhagwanji gave Anil Das access to him.

Aushtosh Kali: In his letter to Bhagwanji, this revolutionary says he found out about the latter from Dr Pabitra Mohan Roy. Kali says, though old, he is determined to carry out orders. He is concerned about Bhagwanji's security and promises to maintain secrecy. "Any danger to your existence… can result in a great disaster as well as an immense damage to the entire nation."

Suresh Bose: His liaison with Bhagwanji became known in 1985. His daughter Lalita Bose was present when Bhagwanji's belongings were being examined after his death. She identified the original summons from Khosla Commission that was meant for her father. She also identified her father's handwriting on papers which had statements of some important witnesses before the Commission. (One revolutionary also told HindustanTimes.com that in the '60s, Suresh Bose also the member of Shahnawaz Commission on Netaji Mystery asked him to visit Bhagwanji in Neemsar & Suresh Bose earlier deserted Shahnawaz Commission accusing it of partiality under then Prime Minister Nehru's order & submitted a Dissentient Report.)

As a practice, most of the letters written to Bhagwanji were vetted, verified and cleared by Leela Roy and Dr Pabitra Mohan Roy before forwarding. Also, no direct reference to Netaji was allowed in any of the letters. (This was part of a security drill that Bhagwanji insisted.)

The fact that Leela Roy and Dr Pabitra Mohan Roy supported the drill only strengthens the contention that Bhagwanji was Netaji in disguise.

Dissentient Report of Suresh Bose against Shahnawaz Commission

I (Suresh Bose) ... appeal to my esteemed countrymen not to accept the reports submitted by my learned colleagues or by my humble self, but to make a demand to our Government to place at their disposal the whole of the evidence that was made available to the (Shah Nawaz) Committee and ... form their opinion after a careful perusal and consideration of the same, and, if the general opinion be that the aircraft accident did not take place, and that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose did not die, as alleged, to demand an impeachment of all those, who have taken part in this nefarious game.

Why this enquiry?

It would be desirable and necessary to state in this connection that the Prime Minister, in reply to questions put in the Parliament by Shri H. V. Kamath, was pleased to state, "I have no doubt in my mind - I did not have it then" (in the Parliament on 5-3-1952) "and I have no doubt today of the fact of Netaji Sub has Chandra Bose\\'s death" - "I have said that the question of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose\\'s death, is, I think, settled beyond doubt. There can be no enquiry about that".

The opinion of the Prime Minister and evidently that of his Government as conveyed in these categorical statements of his, was apparently confirmed by the Chairman of this Committee as his opinion also, in his statement made to the Press in Tokyo on the night of the 4th May, 1956, immediately on our arrival at the Airport there and which was reported in some of the Calcutta newspapers on the 6th idem, that, "his mission was mainly to interview people, who might offer direct evidence on Shri Bose\\'s death". So, the admission of the Chairman exists and that in an initial stage of this enquiry, that his mission was to interview only those persons, who might offer direct evidence on Netaji\\'s death, so as to enable him to confirm his death, which was already the confirmed opinion of the Government and that he had no intention whatsoever of interviewing others, who would be expected to depose contrarily or to take the trouble to ascertain whether Netaji did not die. In view of this, it could almost be presumed that, whether the evidence recorded during the course of this enquiry, justified coming to the finding that the plane crashed or not or whether Netaji died or not, the Chairman appears to have made up his mind to conclude that the plane crashed and that Netaji died as a result of the same. As it appears that the intention of the Government for holding this enquiry was only to confirm Netaji\\'s death, which was already the confirmed opinion of the Prime Minister and his Government, one fails to understand what the necessity was for obtaining the same opinion again and for spending so much public money for it.

In view of the definite statement recorded above, that, "There can be no enquiry about that", made by a person of the rank and stature of the Prime Minister of India, a question would forthwith arise, "Then why was this enquiry held?" The only simple answer to this would naturally be that there must have been a pressing necessity that compelled the ordering of this enquiry. It appears, that from all that has transpired during the pendency of this enquiry, that, after getting Netaji\\'s death confirmed by this Committee, the ultimate object of the Government is to bring those "ashes" from Tokyo, for reasons best known to the sponsors of this Committee.

Terms of reference

Now to come to the subject-matter of this enquiry, it would be necessary, in the first instance, to consider the TERMS of REFERENCE, which are as follows: "To enquire into and to report to the Government of India on the circumstances concerning the departure of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from Bangkok about the 16th August, 1945, his alleged death as result of an aircraft accident and subsequent developments connected therewith." The points necessary to be considered may, therefore, be classified as follows:

I. CIRCUMSTANCES CONCERNING THE DEPARTURE, which may be subdivided into, (a) CIRCUMSTANCES and (b) DEPARTURE.

II. ALLEGED DEATH AS A RESULT OF AN AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT. In this connection, it may be said that the wording of the "Terms of Reference" is such as to give the impression that the aircraft accident has been accepted as a settled fact. In my humble opinion, it should not be so, as the truth or otherwise of this point is an important subject-matter for decision in this enquiry. The points that may arise subsequent to this alleged accident, hinge to a great extent on the finding on this point. So, before making a decision on this crucial point, it would be indispensably necessary to consider carefully, the whole of the evidence on all the other connected points. If after such careful consideration, the finding be that the aircraft accident did not take place, then only would that finding be a very definite, conclusive and irrevocable one. With such a finding the remaining subject-matter of this enquiry would automatically simplify be itself considerably. Therefore, it has got to be decided first, (a) as to whether the aircraft accident took place or not, and then, (b) if it be held, that such accident did not take place, whether the remaining evidence on record would justify and confirm that finding, and (c) that if it be held, on the contrary, that such accident did take place, then it has got to be decided further, whether, (d) death took place, or, (e) death did not take place.

III. SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENTS CONNECTED THEREWITH

The points to be considered here, depend, mainly, on the findings on points II (a), (b), (c), (d) & (e) above.

If according to point II (b), the definite finding be that the aircraft accident did not take place, then it would automatically follow that Netaji did not die. The subsequent developments arising there-from would therefore, be as to where Netaji went after leaving Saigon. As no steps were taken for making enquiries on these lines, it would suffice to say here that, as it has been held that the aircraft accident did not take place, so Netaji did not die and there is no knowledge of his subsequent whereabouts.

If, however, according to II (c), it be held that aircraft accident took place, then such accident may or may not have caused death to Netaji, and so the next finding would be in accordance with either II (b) or II (e). If the finding be in accordance with II (e), viz., that Netaji did not die, then the subsequent developments arising therefrom, would more or less, be similar to those of II (b) stated above.

If, however, the finding be in accordance with II(d), viz., that Netaji died as a result of that aircraft accident, then the subsequent developments would not only be as to how his body was disposed of, but it would also be very important and necessary to account for the baggage, including treasure, he was carrying, the dress he was wearing, the articles he was wearing or carrying on his person, e.g., his wrist watch, his spectacles, his rings, fountain pen, cigarette case, cigarette lighter, religious books, Gita & Chandi, purse, magnifying glass, insignia as Supreme Commander, I. N. A. & 1.1. L. badges, etc. and, as stated by Shri Das, witness No. 2, his revolver also.

As regards treasure, it is my humble opinion, that so much of the evidence on record regarding it, as is necessary for the correct decision of the subject-matter of this enquiry, as embodied in the TERMS of REFERENCE and its clarification noted above, may only be taken into consideration for the purposes of this enquiry and as, by itself, it is a very important and complicated matter, it should, if considered necessary, form the subject-matter of a separate enquiry, which should go into full details, commencing from the various sources from and the different descriptions in which they were obtained and ending with the small fraction of the same now in deposit in the National Museum, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi and after considering carefully all the intermediate stages.

(a) Circumstances

It has been discussed, considered and held under the heading, "NETAJI\\'S PLAN", recorded above, that due to the surrender of the Japanese nation and consequently that of the Indian National Army, formed and organised by Netaji in the Far East, that a plan was agreed upon both by the Japanese as well as by Netaji, that the Japanese would move Netaji to a safe zone, viz., Manchuria, where the Anglo-Americans would no longer be able to arrest him, with the ultimate object of entering Russian territory, where he would continue his struggle for the liberation of India and in pursuance of that plan, Netaji left Bangkok on the morning of 17-8-45 and Saigon the same afternoon with Manchuria, as his destination under the auspices of the Japanese.

With regard to this plan and up to Netaji\\'s departure by a Japanese plane from Saigon on 17-8-45, I believe, there has been more or less unanimity of opinion among all the three members of the Committee. It is, unfortunately, not possible for me to make a definite statement on this matter, as in spite of repeated requests, I was not furnished with the complete draft report of my colleagues and all other important and relevant papers, exhibits, photographs etc., that are on the record and which I am legitimately entitled to be in possession of, for purposes of writing this dissentient report.

All of Netaji\\'s associates in the Far East, who have been examined before us, have stated about Netaji\\'s plan of going to Manchuria, when he parted company from them in a plane from Saigon on 17-8-45 for an "unknown destination." Though Col. Habibur Rahman had admittedly more secret consultations with Netaji than the rest of his Indian brethren there and though he was the only Indian to proceed with him beyond Saigon, there can be no douninew that Netaji\\'s destination was Dairen in Manchuria and he also knew more of Netaji\\'s secrets than any of the others.

The fact that Col. Rahman states that Netaji\\'s destination was Tokyo with intention to return to Singapore soon and that he does not state Dairen or Manchuria or Russia, is enough to suggest, as stated by Shri Dwijendranath Bose and Shri Arabinda Bose, witnesses Nos. 22 & 24 respectively, that he did so intentionally, on the lines he was tutored by Netaji, and not to mention the names of these places, but Tokyo instead, so as to give a wrong scent about Netaji\\'s whereabouts and also to save the Japanese Government from embarrassment and also to narrate the story of the plane crash etc., as was announced by the Japanese in consultation with Netaji and which he did to the best of his abilities. Both of them state that Col. Rahman must have been under strict oath of secrecy to Netaji not to divulge his plans or secrets. They are those nephews of Netaji and two out of his only five confidants, who helped him to get out of Calcutta secretly in January, 1941 and who were also instructed by him to make such statements, which he had tutored them to say and who were also under similar oaths of secrecy to him, regarding his escape from Calcutta.

Netaji started contacting the Russian Ambassador in Tokyo as early as 1944, because he was under the impression at that time that the Japanese would lose the war and he along with them and because he considered Russsia to be a suitable country for carrying on his future struggle for the independence of India. With the gradual lapse of time, this took more definite shape. Shri A. M. Sahay, witness No. 30, and some others have stated that Netaji made attempts at contacting the Chinese Communists through Mr. Ho Chi Minh\\'s party and also the Russians through Mr. M. Shigemitsu, the Foreign Minister of Japan and others. Shri Debnath Das, witness No. 2, also stated that one of Netaji\\'s plans was to go to Yenan, the headquarters of Mr. Mao Tse Tung and that Netaji had asked Shri lyer, witness No. 6, his Minister for Information & Broadcasting, in May, 1945 to write to Mr. Shigemitsu and enquire whether the Japanese Government would contact the Russians on his behalf and provide other facilities to him and to a few members of his staff for going to Russia. A reply to this was received from the Japanese Government in June, 1945.

Shri Das further stated that on more than one occasion, Netaji requested General Isoda, witness No. 35, to continue letting him know the position of the Japanese in Manchuria and North China. Witness No. 5, Col. Pritam Singh, deposed that Netaji had told him that he (Netaji) had contacted the Russians through Mr. Shigemitsu and he wished that he and some of his party should move to Russian territory and operate from there and he also said that the ideology of the Russians was so different from that of the Anglo-Americans, that sooner or later and in about ten years\\' time, they would come to a clash, when it would be an opportune moment for them to go into action again for the independence of India.

All these would go a long way to show and prove that Netaji\\'s plan of going to Russia via Manchuria, after his failure in his armed struggle against the Anglo-Americans in South East Asia, was not a cursory suggestion, but was a carefully-thought-of well-matured plan, which, as a matter of fact, was the only alternative left to him, as he did not want to surrender himself to the Anglo-Americans and thereby be instrumental in not only finishing himself, but also bringing to an end, his only cherished goal in life, viz., the independence of his mother country. He was naturally very sincere in having his plan executed.

It is also proved that though the Japanese Government were in utter distress and confusion, due to their surrender to the Anglo-Americans, they were magnanimous enough "in respecting Mr. Chandra Bose\\'s last wishes" and were also, with all sincerity, giving effect to the same plan, by taking him in a plane to Manchuria and had deputed one of their topmost and renowned generals, who knew that territory well and who, according to Mr. T. Negishi, witness No. 20, was considered to be a key man for negotiations with Russia, with instructions to remain with him there and to help him in crossing over into the adjoining Russian territory. The Japanese Government were keen for the quick execution of their plan and their instructions were, that the plane should make a detour to Dairen in Manchuria, and after dropping only Netaji and General Shidei there, the plane would then come back to Japan and alight the remaining passengers there.

The keenness and sincerity on the part of both the Japanese as well as Netaji for the proper and prompt execution of the plan, naturally gives additional importance to it and as the main idea underlying it, was to remove Netaji to a safe place, so that the Anglo-Americans would not be in a position to get hold of him, it would be a natural sequence for the Japanese to announce that Netaji had died, after they were sure that Netaji was safely lodged in a place that was not under the control of the Anglo-Americans. It will be of interest to mention here, that, according to the statements of Shri Dwijendra Nath Bose and Shri Arabinda Bose, witnesses Nos. 22 and 24 respectively, a similar announcement was made by them, when Netaji secretly left Calcutta in January, 1941 and it was made ten days after his actual departure from Calcutta and after information had been received that he had crossed the Indian frontier and was safe in Afghanistan and beyond the clutches of the British rulers of India.

From the evidence on record on this point and which is practically free from discrepancies, though the statements have been made by persons of different nationalities, it can, therefore, definitely be said that the aforesaid plan has been proved very convincingly and without the shadow of a doubt.

It has been stated earlier that both the British as well as the Americans had made thorough and on-the-spot enquiries under different auspices soon after the surrender of the Japanese and had also tried to arrest Netaji under the Enemy Agents\\' Ordinance and also as he was considered to be an "International War Criminal" and because they doubted the truth of the announcement made by the Japanese that Netaji had died in a plane crash accident and as they considered it to be a hoax and believed that he was alive and was hiding somewhere. Being the victorious party, they had all the facilities and opportunities of making thorough enquiries in all the areas, where they thought Netaji could possibly have been living or hiding.

In one of their reports, it transpires that Netaji wanted to shift a nucleus of his Government to Yunan Province in China and through the Communists there, to get into touch with Soviet Russia. Another report states that in July, 1945, Netaji sought permission to enter U.S.S.R. via Manchuria, with a few selected members of his movement, but the same source contends that there was no need for the Japanese to ask the Russians for Netaji\\'s entry, because he wanted to go to Manchuria, from where he thought he would be able to get into touch with the Russian forces.

The same report also states that it is beyond doubt that Netaji had plans to go underground together with a number of his selected friends. This report contains the final conclusion arrived at as a result of the enquiry, and it is to the effect that in the absence of substantial proof, it is still difficult to state conclusively the fate of Bose. This finding, to say the least, carries great weight and, having been contrary to the expectations of the Anglo-Americans, maximum efforts must have been made by them to find out Netaji\\'s whereabouts and also to arrest him for purposes of taking action against him, as he was not only an arch enemy of theirs, because, being a British Indian subject, he waged war against his King and Emperor, but was also a top-ranking "International War Criminal", against which persons, after the last war, the maximum penalty was generally inflicted. It must have been with great reluctance and sorrow that the British and American enquiring officers were compelled to come to the finding that it was difficult to state conclusively the fate of Netaji Bose, which finding, however, should be considered to carry great weight.

As stated by me above, our enquiry should be considered to be a very perfunctory one, when compared with the numerous all-round careful enquiries made by them and whereas, the intention of my colleagues appears to have been to come to the conclusion "anyhow" that Netaji had died and the places in the Far East visited by the Committee were the bare minimum and had been arranged accordingly, the main intention of the Britishers and the Americans must have been to find him out by all possible means and after getting hold of him, to wreak their vengeance on him.

This plan why proved?

The passengers in the plane, as it took-off from Saigon were: (1) Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, (2) Lt. General T. Shidei, (3) Col. Habibur Rahman, (4) Lt. Col. T. Sakai, (5) Lt. Col. S. Nonogaki, (6) Major T. Kono, (7) Major I. Takahashi, (8) Major Takizawa, (9) Capt. K. Arai, (10) N. C. O. Ayoagi, (11) Mr. Tominaga, Radio operator, (12) Sergeant Okshita and (13) An Engineer, (name not known).

Besides Netaji and his Adjutant, Col. Rahman, the rest were all Japanese Military Officers and Crew of that military plane. In view of the plan of the Japanese Government to remove Netaji to a safe place and from the clutches of the Anglo-Americans and at the same time to announce that he had died as a result of his plane meeting with an accident, the only version that could be expected from all the Japanese witnesses, regarding Netaji\\'s journey from Saigon onwards, would be the one that would be in keeping with the plan of their Government. My colleagues were of opinion that though these witnesses were at that time military officers and under the control of their Government, now, after a lapse of about eleven years, almost all of them, being in different walks of life as civilians and as Japan is not a totalitarian state, they are no longer under any compulsion or obligation to support their Government. I regret, I am unable to accept this view of my colleagues. These witnesses, apart from their education and respectability, are citizens of Japan, and whose unbounded patriotism is probably unique in the world. They have made statements to different authorities at different times, supporting the aforesaid plan of their Government. As such, I consider it an impossibility for them to go beyond their previously recorded statements and thereby disgrace themselves as well as their own Government, who, after all, had done a magnanimous act by giving succour to their friend and ally, "Mr. Chandra Bose".

Harassment & departure from Delhi

I, therefore, requested him to put me in touch with the officer, whom he had on my request, referred to on the 13th instant for arranging accommodation for my stay in Delhi. I duly took leave of my colleagues and met Shri S. K. Roy, Deputy Secretary, External Affairs, accordingly. I may mention here that when Shri R. S. Chavan, Under Secretary, External Affairs, informed me in his letter dated 16.3.56, that the first sitting of our Committee would be held in Delhi on 29.3.56, he enquired of me at the same time about arranging accommodation for me in Delhi. As during the whole of my 48 days\\' stay in Delhi, I stayed with my daughter in her quarters, arrangement and consequent expenditure by the Government on that score was not necessary, but as on 12.7.56, she had to vacate her quarters suddenly, I had to shift from there at about 10.10 o\\'clock that night and a friend of mine was kind enough to come to my rescue and to give me shelter.

On the morning of the following day, I requested the Chairman to have accommodation arranged for me and regarding which, he was good enough to take action. We were informed the next day, that rooms in Kotah House had been secured and ail three of us went to inspect the same. We were, however, disappointed, as rooms in the hutment and not in the main building had been arranged. I objected to staying in the hutment and told the Chairman that I took this as an insult. I then requested him to arrange for rooms for me in the Imperial Hotel, to which I could legitimately lay claim, as apart from other considerations, I had lived at the Maidens Hotel on my own, only a few years ago, after having failed to get rooms in the Imperial. The Chairman said that nothing could be done that day, as it was about 1.45 P.M. and as it was a Saturday. I told him that the matter was a very urgent one, a I was inconveniencing both my generous friend as well as myself and a Government had maintained telephones in the residences of officers, it i expected that urgent work should be managed therefrom beyond office hours

When we met on the morning of the 16th instant, I learnt from the Chairmai that nothing had been done. I told him that this was the fourth day that w were experiencing inconvenience and so, more interest and quick action shoul be taken in this matter. After that, I met Shri S. K. Roy, stated above, am explained the whole situation to him. He was pleased to reserve room provisionally for me in the Imperial Hotel and said he would confirm the sam before 1 P.M. and inform me accordingly. On my way back to my friend room, I dropped in at the Imperial Hotel, where I received confirmation of th above fact. As there was no news from Shri Roy, I phoned him at about 2.4 P.M. He met me soon after and told me that he would meet me definitel before 4 P.M. and inform me that he had fixed up rooms for me. I told hii distinctly that if he failed to do so by that time, I would be compelled to leav Delhi as I could no longer inconvenience my friend as well as myself and t there is a limit to our endurance. He did not turn up as promised, nor WE there any news from him. When the driver of the External Affairs staff Cc came to enquire from me at what time he would have to come the next da for taking me to the Imperial Hotel, I enquired of him whether he had ar message, written or verbal, from the External Affairs Department or from Sh S. K. Roy. He replied in the negative.

Under such circumstances and with such indifference and callousness on ti part of officers concerned and without any assurance that accommodatic would be arranged for me in the near future, as the Chairman had told me th I could no longer sit with them and as he had not told me that he had arrange any place, where I could sit separately for writing my dissentient report, I w; left with no other alternative but to leave Delhi for Calcutta.

President Radhakrishnan met Netaji in Russia

Gandhiji & Nehru agreed to hand over Subhas to Britain as War Criminal if found

Death in Faizabad - Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee Commission: Interrogation

4.15 The story relating to death of Netaji in Faizabad originates from the statements (supported by affidavits) filed by Dr. Alokesh Bagchi of Gorakhpur, Shri Ashok Tandon, Shri Shakti Singh and Shri Kailash Nath Jaiswal of Faizabad in response to the statutory Notification issued by this Commission. The common case that has been made out by them in their statements is that after the death of Stalin in March, 1953 Netaji escaped from the then Soviet Russia and after coming to India lived at different places in Uttar Pradesh and lastly at \\'Rambhawan\\' in Faizabad. The detailed particulars of those places and duration of his stay there have been incorporated in their statements. Their further claim is that in September, 1985 he left `Rambhawan\\' for an unknown destination, leaving behind a large number of household articles including his family photos, books, letters and other documents in that house; and the custody of the same was taken by the District Magistrate of Faizabad and kept in the treasury there, following an inventory prepared in terms of the direction given in Writ Petition No. 929 of 1986 filed by his (Netaji\\'s) niece Lalita Bose and two others.

4.15.1 To work out the information furnished through those statements and ascertain the truth thereof the Commission visited Faizabad and inspected all the articles kept in the treasury. On thorough scrutiny of more than 2,600 items lying there the Commission felt that about 700 of them might be relevant for its purpose and accordingly brought them to its office in Kolkata. As some of those letters were sent by different persons from Kolkata, the Commission examined some of them. In view of the claim made by a few of the witnesses examined that the writings in some books and journals found in Rambhawan were those of Netaji, they were sent for examination by handwriting experts. Besides, some teeth found there were sent for DNA test to ascertain whether belonged to Netaji\\'s lineage.

4 15.2 In asserting their claim that Netaji lived at various places in the State of Uttar Pradesh as an ascetic holy man under two different names, viz. Gumnami Baba and Bhagwanji, 31 persons have deposed before this Commission. While according to some of them he died at \\'Rambhawan\\' in Faizabad on September 16, 1985 where he last resided, a few others claimed that he had left Faizabad in that month. Of the deponents, the evidence of the following has to be left out of consideration altogether, as it is either hearsay or based on belief without any substantial material in formation thereof : Dr. Alokesh Bagchi (CW. 17) Shri Viswabandhu Tewari (CW 18), Shri I. B. S3xena (CW 19), Dr. Ramendra Pal (CW. 58) and Shri Kailash Nath Jaiswal (CW 60).

The next sets of persons coming under the above category are three journalists: Shri Ashok Tandon (CW. 33), Dr. Viswambharnath Arora (CW 63) and Sayed Kauser Hussain (CW. 64) as their claim is based on the result of their investigation into the mystery surrounding Gumnami Baba as also the several articles they wrote in their respective newspapers, magazines and books, relying upon the statements made before them by several persons (some of whom have been examined by this Commission).

Then comes another group of persons whose evidence on this issue cannot be entertained as they admitted that they had not seen Gumnami Baba. These witnesses are Shri Gur Basant Singh (CW. 39), Shri Shakti Singh (CW. 42), Shri Nirupam Misra (CW. 59), Shri Rabindra Nath Shukla (CW. 61) , Prof. Nandalal Chakrabarti (CW. 95) and Shri Dulal Nandy (CW.107).

Another set of witnesses to whose evidence reference has to be made only to be rejected comprises those who have not seen Netaji before August, 1945 but claimed that one \\'Mauni Baba\\' who was also known as Sant Samrat Yogi and who used to live in an Ashram in the district of Sitapur was Netaji. In support of their- claim two of them produced few photographs of Mauni Baba - a bare glance of which shows that they have no resemblance whatsoever with Netaji. The witnesses who fall under this category are Shri Raghuraj Singh Rathore (CW. 20), Baba Bhandari @ Shew Bhagwan (CW.35) and Shri Shyam Narayan Bind (CW. 57). Besides, Col. A.B.Singh (CW. 41), who was formerly with INA and knew Netaji since his INA days, testified that on February 19, 1996 he went to Sitapur and saw Mauni Baba. According to him, he was impressed as Mauni Baba\\'s appearance was similar to that of Netaji. Since it has been found that the photographs of Mauni Baba have no similarity whatsoever with Netaji, the evidence of this witness also cannot be entertained.

4.15.3 Following the exclusion of the evidence of the above witnesses for the reasons aforesaid, the evidence of the remaining witnesses on this issue may now be detailed and discussed.

4.15.4 Dr. P Banerjee (CW 37), who was a resident of Faizabad , stated that in the year 1974/1975 he along with his parents had gone to the residence of a saint at Brahmakund in Ayodhya, as he was given to understand by his father that he was none other than Netaji. Initially, he and his family members were not allowed to see the saint as he used to sit behind a curtain. However, their persuasion yielded result in that the saint talked to them face to face. Their such interaction prompted his parents to say that the saint was none other than Netaji. Since, however, he himself did not assert that the saint was Netaji his evidence in this regard is nothing but hearsay. The other two members of his family who deposed before this Commission were his wife Sm. Rita Banerjee (CW. 65) and his mother-in-law Sm. Bithi Chatterjee (CW 71). Both of them averred that they had seen `Gumnami Baba\\' on several occasions while he was living in Brahmakund during 1975-76, but as the former based her claim on her belief only and the latter stated that though she had seen Netaji in Lucknow in or about the year 1943 she found it difficult to say whether Gumnami Baba was Netaji - their evidence does not assist the Commission in answering this issue.

The next witness on this point is Shri Raj Kumar Shukla (CW 38) whose mother Smt. Saraswati Devi Shukla was the attendant of Bhagwanji (she could not be examined by this Commission as she had already expired) . According to this witness, his mother came in contact with Bhagwanji in 1955-1956 at Singarnagar, Lucknow and she cited with him till his death on September 16,1985 at Ram Bhavan, Faizabad. His evidence discloses that while living with his mother at the places where Bhagwanji resided till his death he saw quite a number of persons of Kolkata visiting Bhagwanji. In detailing their names he gave out that Smt.Lecla Roy, Prof. Samar Guha, Dr.Pabitra Mohan Roy and Shri Amal Roy used to come on January 23 (Netaji\\'s birthday) and during the Durga Puja festival almost every year. His evidence further indicates that the visitors were allowed to talk to Bhagwanji from behind a curtain. As regards the identity of Bhagwanji his evidence is that he heard from his mother that he was Netaji and since then he shared the same belief. Though his evidence does not in any way prove that Bhagwanji was Netaji, it at least proves that quite a number of eminent persons from Kolkata used to visit Bhagwanji.

4.15.5 Next comes some of those people of Kolkata who used to frequently go and meet Bhagwanji/Gumnami Baba wherever he lived during the period from 1963-1983. The first witness in this category is Shri Sunil Krishna Gupta (CW 91). His evidence is that in or about 1963 Shri Suresh Bose (elder brother of Netaji) told him that Netaji was reportedly staying in Naimisharanya in the district of Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. On getting that news he went to Naimisharanya and met a Sadhu in a temple there. To interact with the Sadhu he stayed there for ten days. Since then he used to go and meet him wherever he resided almost every year on January 23 and during Durga Puja . He addressed that Sadhu as Bhagwanji. According to him, the other frequent visitors were Dr. R.P. Misra, Dr. Pabitra Mohan Roy, who was attached to the secret service of INA, Shri Shiba Prosad Nag and others. He admitted that he had not seen Netaji before August 18, 1945, but averred that after seeing and interacting with Bhagwanji he was convinced that he was none other than Netaji. He next stated that at the instance of Bhagwanji he went to Taihoku to watch the proceedings of Khosla Commission and on return apprised him of all the details thereof. He lastly stated that he maintained a diary in which he recorded the resume of his talks with Bhagwanji.

The other witnesses who fall in this category are: Shri Surajit Dasgupta (CW 94), Shri Jagatjit Dasgupta (CW 96), Shri Tarun Kumar Mukhopadhyay (CW 97) and Shri Bijoy Kumar Nag (CW 98). They also admitted that they had not seen Netaji before August 1945 but asserted that frequent meetings with Bhagwanji led them to conclude that he was Netaji. Like Shri Gupta, they also diarised the talks they had with Bhagwanji. In his testimony Shri Nag, however, further stated that Bhagwanji used to talk about various events of his earlier life including his days in INA from which he was convinced that Bhagwanji was none but Netaji. He also produced before this Commission a book titled \\'Oi Mahamanab Ashey\\' (in two volumes) wherein he has, incorporated what Bhagwanji told him. He also referred to a monthly journal \\'Jayashsree\\', of which he was the editor, where also the same issue was written about.
http://missionnetaji.org

Family knew all along that Netaji had not died

I am writing to you ... about a matter which concerns not only the Bose family but the entire people of India. -- Amiya Nath Bose to Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

September 2, 2006

That the Bose family has been vindicated by Mukehrjee Commission's inquiry is underscored by the letters Subhas Chandra Bose\\'s nephew Amiya Nath Bose wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru, Narasimha Rao, VP Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Mission Netaji recently accessed these letters of historical importance, and now they are online.

Son of Netaji's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose, Amiya Nath Bose, an advocate like his father, had been an MP, Ambassador and was actively associated with the Indian National Army. In late 1930s he spent considerable time with his exiled uncle in Europe.

Amiya Nath's views mirroring the family feelings ran contrary to what has of late been given out by the media savvy wife and children of his kid brother Sisir Bose, who came to control the Netaji Research Bureau (NRB) founded by Amiya in 1950s.

From the last days of Nehru to the fringe of the Vajpayee era, Amiya carried on with the struggle initiated by his father to get out the truth about Netaji's disappearance. A few days before his death in 1996, Amiya warned then Leader of the Opposition Atal Bihari Vajapyee that "the Communists have again captured the Russian Parliament. It is doubtful if President Yeltsin will be re-elected. It is therefore imperative that the investigation (into Netaji's fate) is done before President Yeltsin's term comes to an end."

Amiya pressed that the "the Government of India should be asked to request the Russian Government to provide access to ... relevant KGB files, Army Headquarters files and Soviet Government files." Before Vajpayee could respond to the letter, personally delivered by common friend Prof Samar Guha, Amiya Nath passed away.

Earlier, in 1964 Amiya had futilely tried to make the Nehru Government to hand over the matter to the Chief Justice of India. "I agree with you that something should be done to finalise the question of Netaji's death. But it is not quite clear to me how far it will be proper for me to ask the Chief Justice of India to look into this matter," Prime Minister Nehru had written to him on April 22, 1964.

Amiya\\'s firm disbelief in the Taihoku plane crash theory stemmed from his father who had cross-questioned Col Habibur Rahman, the star witness of the crash. In his letter to Prime Minister VP Singh, Amiya recalled that "in August 1946, General Zaman Kiani, Col Habibur Rahman and Col Gulzara Singh, all top ranking officer of the INA, spent a fortnight at our Woodburn park residence, Col Habibur Rahman accompanied in the same plane from Saigon. Our father Sarat Chandra Bose questioned Col Rahman in detail and rejected his version of the alleged plane crash."

In August 1992, Amiya informed Prime Minister Narasimha Rao what Justice Radha Binode Pal of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East had told his father. "The American judge of the Tribunal showed Dr Pal a copy of the report of the American Intelligence Agency Party, which visited Taihoku in September, 1945. According to the American report there was no air crash at Taihoku Airport in August 1945 and Netaji safely reached Diren in Manchuria (bordering the USSR) on 18 August 1945 (the day of his reported death)." Amiya also referred to some correspondence, which evidently showed that Mahatma Gandhi had information from "either from British or American sources" that Netaji in Russia almost an year after his reported death.

On the Renkoji ashes, Amiya spelt out the family view to Prime Minister VP Singh. "During the lifetime of our youngest uncle late Shailesh Chandra Bose, a statement signed by him and all sons of every one of Netaji's brothers were issued to the press at Calcutta stating that the 'ashes' at Renkoji Temple were not the 'ashes of Netaji'."

Incidentally this letter, signed by brothers Ashoke, Amiya and Subrata, currently a Lok Sabha MP, had been written to ward off an attempt by "certain interested persons" to bring the Renkoji ashes and "foist them on the Indian people as the ashes of Netaji".

Thumbs-up to JMCI; thumbs-down to ATR: Bose family

We wonder whether this (rejection of the Mukherjee Commission report) was done to hide some unsavoury facts from the public or to save the reputation of some well-known personalities, or both.

Statement released by 43 members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose\\'s family at a press conference in Kolkata on May 26, 2006

We, the overwhelming majority in the Bose family, deeply appreciate the arduous efforts that Mr Justice MK Mukherjee and his team in the Commission have made for seven years to unravel the mysteries surrounding the "death" of Netaji, which was supposed to have occurred in an aircrash at Taipei in August, 1945.

However, we regret that neither the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government nor the present United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government extended their whole-hearted co-operation to the Mukherjee Commission, which was absolutely essential for the success of an enquiry which had vast international dimension.

We admired the way Mr Justice Mukherjee conducted himself in public hearing. Approaching delicate issues in an objective manner, he rigorously sought evidence for any statement made before him. Nobody can question either his competence or his integrity.

The main conclusions that have been drawn by the Commission are:

i) Netaji did not die in the plane crash in August 1945 as alleged and

ii) The ashes in the Renkoji Temple in Japan are not of Netaji.

Mr Justice Mukherjee has provided "clinching evidence" for these conclusions to stop all kinds of controversies on these crucially important issues. It is thus demanded that the Report of the Justice Mukherjee Commission be accepted by the Government of India.

Government of India had rejected the findings of the Commission without giving any explanation. This is an unprecedented act therefore has caused various speculations. We wonder whether this was done to hide some unsavoury facts from the public or to save the reputation of some well-known personalities, or both. Whatever might be reasons for this crass act, we strongly urge the Government to provide a full explanation for its rejection of the Justice Mukherjee Commission\\'s Report at an early date.

Sister-in-law of Netaji
Lalita Bose (wife of Dr Sunil Bose)

Nephews of Netaji
Subrata Bose (son of Sarat Bose)
Pradip Bose (son of Suresh Bose)
Dr Dwarka Nath (son of Dr Sunil Bose)

Nieces of Netaji
Mira Ray (daughter of Sarat Bose)
Gita Biswas (daughter of Sarat Bose)
Roma Ray (daughter of Sarat Bose)
Chitra Ghosh (daughter of Sarat Bose)
Shiela Sengupta (daughter of Suresh Bose)
Mamota Choudhury (daughter of Dr Sunil Bose)
Nita Ghose (daughter of Dr Sunil Bose)
Krishna Ghosh (daughter of Sailesh Bose)

Sons and daughters-in-law
Jyotsna Bose (wife of Amiya Bose)
Subimal Ghosh (husband of Chitra Ghosh)
Nandita Bose (wife of Subrata Bose)
Sujit Ghose (husband of Nita Ghose)

Grand nephews
Arya Bose (grandson of Sarat Bose)
Dr Amita Mitra (grandson of Suresh Bose)
Arup Mitra (grandson of Dr Sunil Bose)
Abhijit Ray (grandson of Sarat Bose)
Surya Bose (grandson of Sarat Bose)
Shibasish Nag (grandson of Sudhir Bose)
Supriya Bose (grandson of Satish Bose)
Sutanu Ghosh (grandson of Sarat Bose)
Soumitra Bose (grandson of Suresh Bose)
Samiran Bose (grandson of Suresh Bose)
Sanjay Bose (grandson of Suresh Bose)
Somnath Bose (grandson of Suresh Bose)
Chittapriya Bose (grandson of Satish Bose)
Chandra Bose (grandson of Sarat Bose)
Ranojoy Ghosh (grandson of Sailesh Bose)
Indraneel Mitra (grandson of Dr Sunil Bose)

Grand nieces
Joya Mukherjee (granddaughter of Sarat Bose)
Bijoya Dhar (granddaughter of Sarat Bose)
Jayanti Rakshit (granddaughter of Sarat Bose)
Runa Dutta (granddaughter of Dr Sunil Bose)
Madhuri Bose (granddaughter of Sarat Bose)
Suchismita Mitra (granddaughter of Sudhir Bose)
Madhumita Ghose ((granddaughter of Sudhir Bose)
Dr Brinda Bose (granddaughter of Sudhir Bose)
Suneepa Dutta (granddaughter of Sarat Bose)
Sreeya Ghosh (granddaughter of Sarat Bose)
Suchitra Basu (granddaughter of Dr Sunil Bose)

The Mystery behind Netaji's INA Treasury by Shamoli Mitra

For decades Indians all over the country have mulled and argued over a mystery that till today maintains its grip over the collective consciousness of the nation. The question that comes up again and again in the minds of Indians is this - Did Netaji really die in the 1945 plane crash? But shocking new developments over the past few months have propelled this question into ever more mysterious realms. Incredibly hard facts have now emerged from Moscow vaults that indicate what Indians had hoped for and suspected all along - that our beloved Netaji , Subhash Chandra Bose did NOT die in the 1945 plane crash as the Government of India appointed inquiry has claimed all along. Netaji was in fact very much alive till at least 1946 one full year after his supposed "death".

So what do these tumultuous revelations mean? The new findings are based on declassified documents in the Russian military archives in Paddolsk, and from the British archives. They were discovered by three researchers-Purabi Ray, Hari Vasudevan and Shobanlal Dutta Gupta-working on the history of communist movement in India.

The plot has thickened even deeper with the admission by these researchers that they have been receiving threatening calls from unidentified persons asking them to suspend all further inquiries and end the government-funded research. Fear for security led the work on the project to be stopped shortly, around the middle of this year. The researchers refused to speak to the press on the grounds that they would first have to depose their discoveries before the Mukherjee commission, the third inquiry panel appointed by the Indian government so far) before giving out any details.

What is clear however is that the Russian archives had yielded two precious documents. The first concerned a discussion that Joseph Stalin had with his defense minister Voroschilov and foreign affairs minister Molotov in 1946.

The second was a report filed by a Soviet field agent stationed in India, also in 1946.The first document quotes Stalin and others discussing plans for the communist movement in India and mentions the role of Bose. In addition records available from British archives (under the 'declassification after 30 years' rule) show that on August 17, 1945, (the plane crash was reported the next day), Bose had expressed a keen desire to reach Soviet Union to continue the struggle against the British. One more British archive document also states that the entire theory of the plane crash, in Taihuku (Japan), was pre-planned and contrived. In fact as late as December 20, 1945 , a Japanese newspaper even reported that Bose was on his way to the Soviet Union and passed through Tokyo.

Adding to the clouds of confusion are the details indicating that just a few days before Stalin and his colleagues discussed Bose, a Soviet agent named V G Sayadyants who was based in Mumbai reported home that "the Soviet Union cannot possibly work with either Nehru or Gandhi," and that the Communist movement in India "is in a disarray." He also concluded that "Bose is the only hope for Soviet Russia," in his report.

The two death reports-one from MI2 (a wing of British military intelligence) and the other from the British embassy in Japan served as the primary evidence of the story that Bose had died of severe burns in the plane crash. But both of these reports have been discovered to contain major discrepancies. While the British embassy report claimed to have clearly identified Bose's body, the MI2 report was "not sure."

On November 23, the Mukherjee Commission held a hearing where the researchers including Professor Purobi Roy were asked to submit a list of documents and with their respective translations before the Commission. But in a puzzling development the Commission disclosed that the Union Home Ministry by an affidavit claimed privilege under the Sections 123 and 124 of the Evidence Act and Article 74(2) of the Constitution of India on the files. Justice Manoj K. Mukherjee told reporters that "The files on the urn allegedly containing Netaji's ashes in Renkoji Temple and the Union Government's decision to award Bose the Bharat Ratna, could not be given to the Commission on grounds that making them public would be a threat to the nation's security!".

Justice Mukherjee also made the surprising observation that "We will take up the issue during the next hearing if the Union Home Ministry can claim privilege on these files. I don't say they are not doing anything, but whatever they are doing is not adequate". When asked if this indicated an uncertain future for the Commission, Justice Mukherjee shot back saying: ''It's not for me to pass comments." Earlier Justice Mukherjee had informed the audience that the Special Branch of the Calcutta Police had sent incorrect information regarding the files it was asked to submit.

A status report circulated among the audience said that the Prime Minister's Office sought 15 more days time to file a consolidated affidavit covering all the points mentioned in the proceedings of the Commission. The status report also noted that no affidavit has been filed on behalf of the Cabinet Secretariat, the National Archives of India, and Research and Analysis Wing. However, among other documents, the National Archives of India informed the Commission in a letter dated 24.10.2000 that they had received 46 xerox pages on Subhash Chandra Bose from the department of Culture, Government of India, though the Embassy of India in Moscow on 15 May1991.

One is forced to ask what is about the Netaji files that is causing the government to cite endangerment of the nation's security as an excuse to stop the documents from becoming public. Could the BJP government be feeling the heat to hide the details of what really happened to Netaj1? There is no doubt plenty of resistance from the Congress which does not want the nation to know Jawaharlal Nehru's actions and role in betraying Netaji.

The previous two Commissions that were supposed to unearth the details about Netaji were both appointed by the Congress government. These were the Shah Nawaz Committee or the Khosla Commission. The Government under Mrs. Gandhi told Khosla Commission that many confidential files of Nehru connected with the reports about Netaji were either missing or destroyed. These files were dealt with by the personal secretary of Pandit Nehru - Mohammad Yunus .

It had also been discovered that the British intelligence team informed their Government that Pandit Nehru had "received a secret communication from Bose". This report was confirmed by a witness, Shri Shyamlal Jain of Meerut, while he deposed before Khosla Commission. In 1945-46, Shri Jain was working as a confidential steno of Asaf Ali who was Secretary to the INA Defense Committee with Bhulabhai Desai as its Chairman and Pandit Nehru as one of its prominent members. This confidential steno of the INA Defense Committee, in the course of his deposition, made a shocking revelation about Nehru's attitude toward Netaji.

Shri Jain had told the Khosla Commission:

"I solemnly affirm and state on oath that one evening (the date may be Dec. 26 or 27, 1945) I was called by Shri Jawaharlal Nehru on telephone to come to the residence of Shri Asaf Ali with a typewriter as he had a lot of work to be typed by me, which I complied. After getting some papers typed by me, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru drew out a paper from the pocket of his achkan and asked me to make four copies of it for him. The said paper was a hand-written matter and was somewhat difficult to read. Now, what was written on that paper, I am trying to reproduce from my memory:"

"Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose proceeding by aeroplane from Saigon arrived today, August 23, 1945 at Dairen (Manchuria) at 1:30 afternoon. The said plane was a Japanese bomber plane. It was full of gold in the shape of bars, ornaments and jewelry. Netaji carried two attache cases, one in each hand. On alighting from the plane, Netaji took tea with bananas. When Netaji finished tea, he along with four others, out of which one was a Japanese named General Shidei (and others have lapsed from memory), took their seats in a jeep standing nearby. The said jeep proceeded toward Russian territory. After about 3 hours the said jeep returned and informed the pilot of the plane who flew back to Tokyo."

"After handing over the said paper to me for typing, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru went to Mr. Asaf Ali and remained busy in conversation with him for 10 or 15 minutes...I could not complete the work, because the name of the writer on that letter was not readable, and I kept waiting for Shri Jawaharlal to come and tell me the name. In the meantime, I went through the letter several times and that is all that I could remember to the present day. Shri Jawaharlal could not discern the name of the writer and asked me to pull out the papers and hand them over as they were."I solemnly affirm and state on oath that thereafter Shri Jawaharlal Nehru gave me four papers from his writing pad to make four copies of a letter, which he would dictate to me on typewriter, which I also complied. The contents of the letter, as far as I could remember, were as follows:

Dear Mr. Attlee:

I understand from a reliable source that Subhas Chandra Bose, your war criminal, has been allowed to enter Russian territory by Stalin. This is a clear treachery and betrayal of faith by the Russians. As Russia has been an ally of the British-Americans, it should not have been done. Please take note of it and do what you consider proper and fit.

Yours sincerely,
Jawaharlal Nehru.

When these shocking revelations were revealed by MP Samar Guha, they were met with incredulity and anger and Mr. Guha had been lambasted as a hysterical conspiracy theorist who was on a witch hunt against the Gandhi family. But now we see that subsequent discoveries have buttressed Mr. Guha's accusations and point to the shocking role of Pandit Nehru in this sordid mess. Below are some of the hard-hitting revelations by Mr. Guha which are now clearly augmented by documentary evidence.

1)British Intelligence affirmed that Pandit Nehru received a secret communication from Netaji and Jain confirmed it further without knowing anything about this secret report.

2)Col. Tada, one of the principal architects of Netaji's escape plan confided to S.A. Iyer in 1951 that the Japanese agreed to make necessary arrangements to convey Netaji to Russian territory across the border of Manchuria.

3)Neither the Government Counsel appearing before the Inquiry Commission, nor Mr. Khosla either challenged or refuted the veracity of Jain's testimony.

4)Most of the secret files about Netaji, that were maintained by Pandit Nehru himself as "P.M.'s special" files, one of which included all communications connected with INA Defense Committee, were reported by the Government as "either missing or destroyed". It will not be easy to presume that Netaji's communication to Nehru and a copy of Nehru's letter to Attlee have also been destroyed.

5)Late Amritlal Seth, former editor of the Gujarati Daily Janmabhumi, who accompanied Nehru during his visit to Singapore told late Sarat Chandra Bose immediately after his return from Singapore that Panditji was warned by the British Admiral that, according to his report, 'Bose' did not die in the alleged air crash and if Nehru played up too high with the legends of Bose and demands for re-absorption of the INA in the Indian Army, he would be taking the risk of presenting India on a platter to Bose when he reappeared.

The report by Amritlal Seth is corroborated by two facts. On arrival at Singapore Pandit Nehru was given a rousing reception by the INA there, when Panditji agreed to their request to place a wreath on the INA Martyr Monument, which was demolished under orders from Mountbatten immediately after British re-occupation of Singapore.

Strangely, next day, Nehru refused to attend the INA Martyr Memorial ceremony organized at Singapore. About three decades later, Mountbatten boastfully stated in the 'Nehru Oration' speech that Nehru acted very compliantly on his advice regarding the treatment about the INA. After his return from Singapore, Nehru never uttered a word about Netaji for over a decade even after he became the Prime Minister of India.

6)Till the 1950's, AIR was instructed not to cover any special talk on Netaji or broadcast any news about Netaji's birthday, exceeding a few minutes. All army barracks were prohibited from displaying any portrait of Netaji and this ban-order continued for years even after withdrawal of the British Power.

7)After coming to power, Pandit Nehru had received all the secret British reports which informed the Wavell Government that Bose reached Russia, but as Prime Minister of India he never inquired publicly about these reports from the Russian Government. Even more suspicious is the fact that Pandit Nehru consistently opposed any demands for full-fledged judicial inquiry about the Netaji mystery and appointed the Shah Nawaz Committee primarily as a smokescreen to scuttle the move for a non-official inquiry about Netaji under the chairmanship of Dr. Radha Benode Pal.

This incredible and shocking conspiracy to hide the circumstances and conditions surrounding Netaji's disappearance and the subsequent falsified rumour of his death are of significant importance to the Indian people. The annals of Indian history and the conscience of the nation demands that the facts concerning this mystery be revealed to the public. The BJP government must show the courage and fortitude to overcome political compulsions and point the finger at the real culprits. Only then can the ghost of lost opportunities and the regret of having lost their most beloved leader too soon, be put to rest in the minds of the Indian people.

Where was wealth of Azad Hind Bank?
By Premendra Agrawal

Threats to Researchers

Did Netaji really die in the 1945 plane crash? Incredibly hard facts have now emerged from Moscow vaults. Netaji was in fact very much alive till at least 1946 one full year after his supposed "death". Russian archives had yielded two precious documents. The first concerned a discussion that Joseph Stalin had with his defense minister Voroschilov and foreign affairs minister Molotov in 1946. The second was a report filed by a Soviet field agent stationed in India, also in 1946.

One more British archive document also states that the entire theory of the plane crash, in Taihuku (Japan), was pre-planned and contrived. In fact as late as December 20, 1945, a Japanese newspaper even reported that Bose was on his way to the Soviet Union and passed through Tokyo.

Nehru betrays Netaji

British Prime Minister Clements Attlee decided ‘Let him remain where he (Subhash C. Bose) is now’. This decision was taken in October 1945. It clearly indicates that he was alive even in Oct 1945.

Netaji was reported to be alive even after 1945 by the British intelligence from Tehran and Kabul quoting the Russian embassy officials. This was even stated in the Shah Nawaz Commission report (File No. 10/ Mis/ INA-pp 38, 39).

In 1946, Gallacher, a British Communist Party worker publicly criticised the then Irish President D’ Valera for welcoming Netaji in Doublin! D’ Valera didn’t deny this. He visited India after 1946 and even commented publicly ‘I expected to meet Bose here’!

The British intelligence has reported that Nehru knew where Netaji was. Nehru took the Foreign Affairs portfolio himself and appointed none other than own sister, Vijayalakshmi Pandit as the ambassador to Russia!

After her term was over, Dr S. Radhakrishnan became the representative to Russia. Dr Saroj Das of Calcutta University conveyed to his friend historian, Dr R.C. Muzumdar that Radhakrishnan had told him that Netaji was in Russia.

Former Indian ambassador Dr Satyanarayana Sinha once met Goga, the son of Abani Mukherjee, a revolutionary who went to Russian as a communist party worker; told him that his father and Netaji were prisoners in adjacent cells in Siberia. He also told Sinha that Netaji had assumed the name ‘Khilsai Malang’ there.

The most shocking of all information it contained was that Netaji had posted a letter from Russia to Nehru, telling that he wished to come back and he also asked Nehru to make amendments for his come back!

One may confirm these from the parliamentary records released since 3rd August 1977; and the files published by the British government.

As reported in every newspaper at that time, daughter of Stalin, Ms. Swetlana said in Delhi that Netaji was in Siberia’s Yarkutsk jail. She also gave the Barrack No.

Why Mukherjee Commission Report rejected?

Congress does not want the nation to know Jawaharlal Nehru's actions and role in betraying Netaji. The previous two Commissions: Shah Nawaz Committee and the Khosla Commission were appointed by the Congress government. For bringing truth BJP let NDA Govt. appointed Mukherjee Commission.

“I saw Netaji alive after his alleged plane crash” is disclosed by Capt Abbas Ali, an old INA freedom fighter.

“It was ‘unbelievable’ that Netaji died in an air crash” said by Suresh Chandra Bose elder brother of Subhash C.Bose. He deposing before the Khosla Commission charged Mr Shah Nawaz Khan with "playing Netaji false."

Deposing before the Khosla Commission, Dr Satyanarayan Sinha said Colonel Habibur Rehman had confessed to him at Patna in 1946 that he had had told a lie when he said that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in Taipeh on August 18, 1945.

Killing of Netaji files by Congress Governments

Most of the secret files about Netaji, that were maintained by Pandit Nehru himself as "P.M.'s special" files, one of which included all communications connected with INA Defense Committee, were reported by the Indira Gandhi Government as "either missing or destroyed". It will not be easy to presume that Netaji's communication to Nehru and a copy of Nehru's letter to Attlee have also been destroyed. These files were dealt with by the personal secretary of Pt Nehru - Mohammad Yunus.

Colonel Tada

Col. Tada, one of the principal architects of Netaji's escape plan confided to S.A. Iyer in 1951 that the Japanese agreed to make necessary arrangements to convey Netaji to Russian territory across the border of Manchuria.

Late Amritlal Seth, editor ‘Janmabhumi’

Late Amritlal Seth, former editor of the Gujarati Daily Janmabhumi, who accompanied Nehru during his visit to Singapore told late Sarat Chandra Bose immediately after his return from Singapore that Panditji was warned by the British Admiral that, according to his report, 'Bose' did not die in the alleged air crash and if Nehru played up too high with the legends of Bose and demands for re-absorption of the INA (Azad Hind Fauz) in the Indian Army, he would be taking the risk of presenting India on a platter to Bose when he reappeared.

Journey of Gold-Diamond loaded Trunks

What happened after August 18 remains shrouded in mystery. While conducting her research in Moscow and England Professor Purabi Roy pursued a war time major of MI5 who had snooped around Bose. Roy met the agent in Oxford and he told her that a huge amount of 'INA money' was handed over to Lord Mountbatten and a senior Congress leader in Singapore, and that is the key to Bose's disappearance (and the subsequent reluctance to unravel the mystery) could be solved to a great extent by ascertaining the route that the funds travelled." Read full story at: http://www.missionnetaji.org/newsite/page/treasure_treachery.html

“10 metric tons of bullion means two-hundred wooden crates, each containing four 12.5kg gold bars, were loaded onto a Mercedes wheat truck with just one driver for the furtive drive from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan passing through airports in India, London and Hong Kong before being reprocessed at Perth Mint and sold off in small bars and coins.”

Azad Hind Bank

Captain Wadhera sought to know the whereabouts of the huge wealth that was collected by Netaji for the freedom struggle and deposited in the Azad Hind Bank, which was specially opened to prevent misuse of cash and ornaments donated by Indians to strengthen the hands of the INA in its freedom struggle.

Recalling the events from his INA days, Captain Wadhera disclosed that a big rally was organized by the Indian Independence League at Singapore to welcome Netaji. “As the huge gathering of Indians in Singapore garlanded Netaji, nearly a truckload of garlands accumulated there”, he said.

After thanking the gathering, Netaji announced that he would like to auction the garlands that had been put around his neck.

“The bid started with Rs 1 lakh (in 1943 it was more than rupees fifty lakh of today). The first garland was auctioned for Rs 1 crore and 3 lakh, which was purchased by a Muslim industrialist of Malaya, Habibur Rehman. Later he volunteered his services to join the movement. The women offered their valuables and gold ornaments. Total collections at this auction were about Rs 25 crore”, Captain Wadhera nostalgically recalls”.

Mukherjee Commission submitted its report on November 8, 2005

The government sat on it for six months, then tabled it in Parliament on May 17, 2006, when it also rejected the report. Why such late in tabling the report?

Basically, the commission’s findings are the following:

(1). Netaji did not die in the August 1945 Taipei plane crash as reported.

(2) The ashes at Tokyo’s Renkoji temple are not his.

(3) The story of the crash was a trick to help him escape, and the Japanese and Taiwanese governments knew about it.

(4) The Indian government suppressed a report by the Taiwanese government which stated this in 1956.

(5) Netaji is now dead.

Gumnami Baba's belongings safe in govt custody
HT Correspondent
Rea Bareli, May 25, 2006

THOSE WHO think that Gumnami Baba was actually Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose may feel delighted to know that UP Government has 24 big boxes that contain Gumnami Baba’s personal belongings. All these 24 boxes are secured under double locks put by Faizabad Treasury. The controversy that rose
after Baba’s death that he was actually Netaji had galvanized the then administration to take possession of all the articles of personal use of Baba’s into its custody. The articles in the boxes include round frame spectacles, Belgian typewriters, many newspapers of pre-independence and post-independence time with Baba’s comments scribbled on them, boxes full of books of international relevance, several books gifted by ‘sister’, cigars from Germany and Italy, and some huge-size family photographs.

Soon after Baba’s death in 1985, a Bengali woman came to Faizabad to claim the articles as Netaji’s successor. However, the landlord of Shakti Bhawan, the secret dwelling place of Baba, refused to hand over the articles to her. And after this the version that Baba was actually Netaji spread and grew strong.

Later, all the articles were handed over to the then administration. Following this the woman filed a case in Calcutta HC, and since then all the articles was declared the property of Calcutta HC.

In 1999, the Centre constituted Mukherjee Commission, and taking the version seriously, the Commission’s officers visited Faizabad and wanted to have a look of the articles. However, they were refused that without court’s permission no one will be allowed to do so. HC permitted the commission members to have a look at the articles. It is alleged that when the members saw and examined the articles, some of them touched those articles to their head as mark of reverence.

All the articles are kept properly under double lock by Faizabad Treasury
at the Shakti Bhawan itself.

CIA in 1964 believing Netaji leading major religious group (SANGH PARIVAR) undermining Nehru Govt
1945 air-crash theory under cloud - CIA tracks Subhas Bose till 1964

It is a memorandum for "Chief, ... (censored) ..." and the sender is Deputy Director of Security. The subject has been blacked out but Subhas Bose's name appears in ink. The document reads as follows:

1. Reference is made to your telephonic request of 19 February 1964 that the Subject be interviewed by a representative of this office.

2. Attached is the report of the interview conducted on 27 February 1964 at Washington D C. No further action will be taken in this matter unless requested by you.

The document carries the following attachments:

"At Washington D C :

On February 26, 1964 at approximately 1345 hours, ...(censored)...was interviewed...(censored)...? ...(censored)... relate a story concerning the possible return of one Subas (or Subhas) Chandra Bose. This individual is a former deposed president of the Indian National Congress, 1938-39, and is believed to have died in an airplane crash after the war. However, there now exists a strong possibility that BOSE is leading the religious group undermining the current Nehru Government."

"Subject desired that his story be presented to the proper persons in the agency for evaluation and to alert those concerned of the previously mentioned possibility. Subject also advised the [sic]...(censored)... was a former member of the British Counter Intelligence Corps and could provide some factual information regarding BOSE and his operations with the Indian National Army during World War II.

"SUBJECT was dressed neatly in a designer suit and his conversation were intelligent. He did not appear to be alarmed or emotional about his story and was merely offering it as a guide to the Central Intelligence Agency for whatever action they deemed advisable".
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/specials/Netaji/ciamore.htm

Mukherjee Commission report submitted in 2005 as in MHA, India Govt website
http://www.mha.nic.in/pdfs/jmci-I-eng.pdf

India must divide 'Jammu & Kashmir' to make two states

2010-08-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

Option 1:
a) Hindu majority entire Jammu Region, Buddhist majority Ladakh District, Shia majority Kargil District and Anantnag district containing Holy Amarnath Temple and required for settling all refugee Kashmiri Hindus called Pandits be formed into a new normal Indian State like any other called "Kashmir" only with permanent capital at Anantnag city.

b) Rest of Kashmir Valley with all Sunni majority districts of Srinagar, Badgam, Pulwama, Baramulla and Kupwara along with permanent capital Srinagar city be made a separate Indian state with Article 370 of Indian Constitution called "North Kashmir."

These steps will save the people of Jammu, Ladakh and the Pandits & Shia Muslims from highhandedness of Sunni Kashmiri Muslims of Vale of Kashmir being beneficial to India by restricting separatism and the insurgency to just 15% area of current 'Jammu & Kashmir' state. Non-Muslims in both Jammu & Ladakh reduced from 90% in 1951 census to 65% and 51% respectively due to influx of Muslims from valley of Kashmir as per 2001 census and unless these policies are implemented now, even Jammu and Ladakh will become Muslim majority like Kashmir valley very soon.

Option 2:
Or else, merger of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh with Jammu & Kashmir to make Indian 'Kashmir' 70% Hindu majority and make up for loss of 40% land to Pakistan and China which will solve its Muslim majority problem and Buddhist majority Chittagong Hill Tracts in Islamic Bangladesh who hoisted Indian Flag on 15th August 1947, also be annexed by India as part of Tripura state.

Option 3:
If people of Jammu Region, Ladakh Region and Himachal Pradesh don't agree to any of the above two choices then Hindu majority entire Jammu Region, Buddhist majority Ladakh District, Shia majority Kargil District and Anantnag district containing Holy Amarnath Temple and required for settling all refugee Kashmiri Hindus called Pandits be severed only from current "Jammu and Kashmir" state of India and merged with Himachal Pradesh.

We need "Dharmic Republic of India" with new States!

2010-07-15T02:47:00.000-07:00

To make 75% Hindu-Buddhist-Jain-Sikh or Dharmic majority Nation out of modern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Mauritius, Vietnam (Champa) & Cambodia (Kamboj) by persuasion or force as a safeguard against Christian, Muslim & Communists neighbouring countries hellbent on destroying these Dharmic faiths!

Anti-Nationalism of UPA Govt since 2004

2010-05-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

1) Why not a single Jihadi Hanged by UPA since 2004 while torturing Sadhvi Pragya & Colonel Purohit in jail without proofs even after 4 illegal Narco tests?
2) Why no prosecution for Sonia-Rahul-Manmoham-Antulay-Mushirul Hasan (ex-VC) for giving Government (public/taxpayers) money to Jamia Millia Jihadis in legal aid?
3) Paying to form new Muslim Universities & open campuses teaching Arabic & Koran instigating Muslims to turn Jihadis per Koran & kill or forcibly convert all non-Muslim Kafirs while Sanskrit removed as compulsory subject from schools & no chance for Hindu students in India to learn Hindu philosophy in academic institutes?
4) PM says Muslims have first right on India's resources & introduced new 15% minority quotas though the Muslims & Christians ruled for last 800 years as Colonial Masters in India and if downtrodden due to their own inefficiencies and production of several kids to deluge others through numbers
5) Supporting Hussain for disrespecting Hinduism & ousting Taslima for exposing Islam
6) Taxing Hindu Mandirs & providing the money for Haj & Church subsidies
7) Replacing Sun & Lotus symbols of CBSE with Stars (Islam) & Cross (Christianity) & also introduction of Cross in coins
8) 5 crore & growing illegal Bangladeshi Muslim invaders allowed to settle who turning fast minority uprooting 80,000 tribal Bodo Hindus of Assam who are living as refugees while they indulge in smuggling of Jihadis, cows, girls, arms, drugs, fake notes & snatching jobs & resources from poor Indians
9) No ban on conversions & Art. 370 resulting in anti-nationalism & separatism like in Kashmir from where 5 lakh Hindus ousted & Northeast where in Mizoram, Christians drove out 65,000 indigenous Hindu Reangs; besides absence of compulsory 2 children policy destroying India & increasing religious friction through demographic changes
10) Last but not the least, since 2004 UPA led by Congress & Leftists decreased air fare but reduced farm subsidies!

Now fatwa to working Muslim women by Islam: But, that's Islam - http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/fatwa-to-working-muslim-women-dont-talk-to-male-colleagues-24731.php?u=1316

Wondrous Treatment Of Women In Islam: Read Koran - http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/women.html

Details of anti-freedom Islam & Christianity as per Bible & Koran: - http://hindunationalismmuslimunity.blogspot.com/2009/10/indian-govt-gives-taxpayer-money-in.html

Charo taraf he ek hi nara, jago Bharat desh hamara!!!

Hindus can but will Muslims accept "Indianism"?

2010-05-07T01:56:00.000-07:00

If such a philosophy accepted to unite all by Indians!
http://bit.ly/biW96h
Save your brothers as Kasab like Afzal Guru will go to SC & President without punishment: -
http://hindusamhati.blogspot.com/

Tenets of Indianism or Indian Philosophy! - Bharatiya Dharm

1. Each & everything is Divine as all born from GOD so is neither ONE nor MANY anymore. People call HIM by various names or Creation or UNIVERSE. Scientists call it God Particle - Boson from which through Big Bang phenomenon of expansion of all Universe and after creation and reverting back after each cycle - Yuga Chakra.
2. Various forms of Energy made this possible & Creation is just an interplay of matter and energy which often interchanges and hence Indians as per personal will worship these various forms of matter & energy as Divine GOD.
3. 'Universal stream of Consciousness' or the intellect of God is manifested in each human as their Conscience that helps to choose Good over Evil fulfilling the designs of DIVINITY.
4. Truth must be upheld by unpleasant truth hurting innocents must not be told.
5. One reaps as he sows and so none should cheat others but do good to himself & charity to others along with prayers & treading spiritual paths to God for getting respite from Karmafal or Law of Deeds done in present or past lives.
6. Non-violence be practiced except for food or defence of self & nation from cruel aggressors.
7. One must be honest & abstain from torturing others or taking their things as negativity affects self & creates unnecessary attachments to illusionary Maya moving people away from Moksha.
8. Let us be content with life and after pursuit of knowledge, wealth, family life, desires & ambitions perform right conduct to move away from earthy bonds at twilight years of retired life towards GOD whom we call by many names.
9. Incarnations of God like Krishna, Ram, Jesus, etc showed us what regulated disciplined life should be & why we must not interfere with rights of others & even take risks to protect them & fight for justice.

More Hangings needed for Jihadi, Rapist & Murderer

Among those who killed in cool head in a pre-planned way or did those by proxy using other criminals. Also, like Afzal Guru & other terrorists Presidential Pardon should not be meted out to any Jihadi like Kasab after 3 tier Judiciary of local court, High Court & Supreme Court passes death sentence as no judicial errors possible after such stringent and lengthy procedure.

Need for death penalties for dangerous criminals as: -

1) Inspite of calling Jails as Reformation Centres, may hurt people specially earlier victims & witnesses more after release & not get 'reformed',
2) May not create enough fear to stop future criminals but for that meting out punishments can't be stopped,
3) Terrorism is war against Nation & so all terrorists be put to death just as military do to any attacker at border!
Nationalism aka Hindutva:
http://www.ahwan.org/article110.html
And Swadeshi - http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/apr/13/slide-show-1-do-foreign-contributions-to-india-impact-security.htm
Forget Ayodhya/Dhar/Mathura/Kashi & oust Bangladeshis, who becoming fast majority in large parts of India and these Muslim foreign pests are voting sickulars leading to BJP's defeat! RSS help BJP merge with Ramdev's Bharat Swabhiman as individually both will loose in 2014 and also like Uma Bharti the other Hindutva stalwarts like Govindacharya, Yogi Adityanath & parties like Hindu Samhati, Ram Sene, Hindu Makkal Katcchi, Pather's Party (Jammu) Hindu Munnani, etc be returned back within party fold!
http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/baba-ramdev-on-politics-we-must-have-a-total-revolution-20308.php
Currently we are down: http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/20100420/738/tnl-players-chief-slams-security-after-b.html
Also make climate change and education major issues -
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100419/981/tsc-climate-change-could-spark-more-volc.html
http://in.news.yahoo.com/32/20100419/1053/tnl-children-unite-to-protect-environmen.html
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100419/882/twl-meet-the-12-year-old-indian-headmist.html

Genocide of Hindus & descendants in South Vietnam by Communists under Ho Chi Minh

2010-03-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

Champa Kingdom:

The territory of Champa, depicted in green, lay along the coast of present-day southern Vietnam. To the north (in yellow) lay Đại Việt; to the west (in blue), Angkor.

Capitals:
Indrapura
(875-978)
Vijaya
(978-1485)
Panduranga
(1485-1832)
Language(s):Cham, Sanskrit

Religion: Hinduism and Buddhism, later Islam

Government: Monarchy

History
- Established: 192 A.D
- Panduranga was annexed by Nguyen (Vietnam): 1832 A.D

The kingdom of Aman (Champadesa or Champa Nagar in Cham and Cambodian inscriptions written in Devanagari, Chiêm Thành in Vietnamese and Chen Ching in Chinese records) was an Indianized kingdom of Malayo-Polynesian origins and controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832. Champa was preceded in the region by a kingdom called Lin-yi (Chinese) or Lâm Ấp (Vietnamese) that was in existence from 192 AD, but the historical relationship between Lin-yi and Champa is not clear. Champa reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. Thereafter began a gradual decline under pressure from Đại Việt, the Vietnamese polity centered in the region of modern Hanoi in North Vietnam. In 1471, Viet troops sacked the northern Cham capital of Vijaya, and in 1697 the southern principality of Panduranga became a vassal of the Vietnamese emperor. In 1832, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mang annexed the remaining Cham territories. Between the 7th and the 15th century A.D., Champa at times included the modern Vietnamese provinces of Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, and Bình Thuận. Though Cham territory included the mountainous zones west of the coastal plain and (at times) extended into present-day Laos, for the most part the Cham remained a seafaring people dedicated to trade, and maintained few settlements of any size away from the coast.

Historical Champa consisted of up to five principalities:

This statue from the late 9th Century once belonged to the Buddhist monastery in the Cham capital of Indrapura.

• Indrapura ("City of Indra") was the capital of Champa from about 875 to about 1000 AD. It was located at the site of the modern village of Dong Duong, not far from the modern city of Da Nang. Also in the region of Da Nang are the ancient Cham city of Singhapura ("City of the Lion"), the location of which has been identified with an archeological site in the modern village of Tra Kieu, and the valley of My Son, where a number of ruined temples and towers can still be viewed. The associated port was at modern Hoi An. The territory once controlled by this principality included present-day Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, and Thừa Thiên–Huế provinces.
• Amaravati was located in present-day Quảng Nam province.
• Vijaya was located in present-day Bình Định Province. The capital has been identified with the archeological site at Cha Ban. The associated port was at present-day Qui Nhon. Important excavations have also been conducted at nearby Thap Mam, which may have been a religious and cultural center. Vijaya became the political and cultural center of Champa around 1000 AD, when the northern capital of Indrapura was abandoned due to pressure from the Viet. It remained the center of Champa until 1471, when it as sacked by the Viet and the center of Champa was again displaced toward the South. In its time, the principality of Vijaya controlled much of present-day Quang-Nam, Quang-Ngai, Binh Dinh, and Phu Yen Provinces.
• Kauthara was located in the area of modern Nha Trang in Khánh Hòa Province. Its religious and cultural center was the temple of Po Nagar, several towers of which still stand at Nha Trang.
• Panduranga was located in the area of present-day Phan Rang in Ninh Thuận Province. Panduranga was the last of the Cham territories to be annexed by the Vietnamese.

Within the four principalities there were two main clans: the "Dua" and the "Cau." The Dua lived in Amarvati and Vijaya while the Cau lived in Kauthara and Pandaranga. The two clans differed in their customs and habits and conflicting interests led to many clashes and even war. But they usually managed to settle disagreements through intermarriage.

It is acknowledged that the historical record is not equally rich for each of the regions in every historical period. For example, in the 10th century, the record is richest for Indrapura; in the 12th century, it is richest for Vijaya; following the 15th century, it is richest for Panduranga. Scholars have taken these shifts in the historical record to reflect the movement of the Cham capital from one location to another. According to them, if the 10th century record is richest for Indrapura, it is so because at that time Indrapura was the capital of Champa. Through the centuries, Cham culture and society were influenced by forces emanating from China, from India, from Cambodia, from Java, as well as from other sources. Lin Yi, the predecessor state of historical Champa, began its existence in 192 AD as a breakaway Chinese colony. In the 4th century, wars with the neighboring kingdom of Funan in Cambodia and the acquisition of Funanese territory led to the infusion of Indian culture into Cham society. Sanskrit was adopted as a scholarly language, and Hinduism, especially Shaivism, became the state religion. From the 10th century onwards Arab maritime trade in the region brought increasing Islamic cultural and religious influences. Champa came to serve as an important link in the Spice Route which stretched from the Persian Gulf to southern China and later in the Arab maritime routes in Indo-China as a supplier of aloe. Despite the frequent wars between Champa and Cambodia the two countries also traded and cultural influences moved in both directions. Royal families of the two countries intermarried frequently. Champa also had close trade and cultural relations with the powerful maritime empire of Srivijaya and later Majapahit of the Malay Archipelago. Minangkabau people in Sumatra, Indonesia believe that one of their ancestor come from Champa who called as Harimau Campo (Tiger of Champa). Harimau Campo together with Datuak Suri Dirajo (one of Minangkabau founding father), Kambiang Hutan, and Anjiang Mualim created basic concept of martial art of Minangkabau called silek (silat). The people of Champa were descended from Malayo-Polynesian settlers who appear to have reached the Southeast Asian mainland from Borneo about the time of the Sa Huynh culture in the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C. There are pronounced ceramic, industrial and funerary continuities with sites such as the Niah Caves in Sarawak, East Malaysia. Sa Huynh sites are rich in iron artifacts, by contrast with the Dong Son culture sites found in northern Vietnam and elsewhere in mainland Southeast Asia, where bronze artifacts are dominant. The Cham language is part of the Austronesian family. According to one study, Cham is related most closely to modern Acehnese.

The towers of Po Sa Nu (Pho Hai) near Phan Thiết may be the oldest extant Cham buildings. In style, they exhibit the influence of pre-Angkorian Cambodia.

To the Chinese, the country of Champa was known as Linyi and to the Vietnamese, Lâm Ấp. It had been founded in 192 A.D. in the region of modern Huế by Khu Lien, a local leader rebelling against the Han Dynasty. Over the next several centuries, Han forces made repeated unsuccessful attempts to retake the region. From its neighbor Funan to the west, Lâm Ấp soon received the gift of Indian civilization. Scholars locate the historical beginnings of Champa in the 4th century A.D., when the process of Indianization was well underway. It was in this period that the Cham people began to create stone inscriptions in both Sanskrit and in their own language, for which they created a unique script. The first king acknowledged in the inscriptions is Bhadravarman, who reigned from 380 to 413 A.D. At My Son, King Bhadravarman established Hindu god of gods Shiva as Bhadresvara, whose name was a combination of the king's own name and Shiva meaning King Bhadravarman’s God. The worship of Bhadresvara and other names of Shiva continued through the centuries that followed. The capital of Lâm Ấp at the time of Bhadravarman was the citadel of Simhapura ("Lion City", not to be confused with Singapore which shares similar pronunciation and etymology), which was located along two rivers and had a wall eight miles in circumference. A Chinese writer described the people of Lâm Ấp as both warlike and musical, with "deep eyes, a high straight nose, and curly black hair" due to regular immigration of Indian Hindu merchants. According to Chinese records, Sambhuvarman (Fan Fan Tche) was crowned king of Lâm Ấp in 529 A.D. Inscriptions credit him with rehabilitating the temple to Bhadresvara after a fire. Sambhuvarman also sent delegations and tribute to China, and unsuccessfully invaded what is now northern Vietnam. In 605 A.D., a general Liu Fang of the Sui dynasty invaded Lâm Ấp, won a battle by luring the enemy war-elephants into an area booby-trapped with camouflaged pits, massacred the defeated troops, and captured the capital. In the 620s, the kings of Lâm Ấp sent delegations to the court of the recently established Tang Dynasty and asked to become vassals of the Chinese court. Chinese records report the death of the last king of Lâm Ấp as falling in 756 A.D. Thereafter for a time, the Chinese referred to Champa as "Hoan Vuong" or "Huanwang". The earliest Chinese records using a name related to "Champa" are dated 877 A.D.; however, such names had been in use by the Cham themselves since at least 629 A.D., and by the Khmer since at least 657 A.D. From the 7th to the 10th century A.D., the Cham controlled the trade in spices and silk between China, India, the Indonesian islands, and the Abbassid empire in Baghdad. They supplemented their income from the trade routes by exporting ivory and aloe.

One of the risers on the short stairway leading up the My Son E1 Pedestal contains this image of a dancer.

By the second half of the 7th century A.D., royal temples were beginning to make their appearance at Mỹ Sơn. The dominant religious cult was that of the Hindu god Shiva, but temples were also dedicated to Vishnu. Scholars have called the architectural style of this period My Son E1, in reference to a particular edifice at Mỹ Sơn that is regarded as emblematic of the style. Important surviving works of art in this style include a pedestal for a linga that has come to be known as the My Son E1 Pedestal and a pediment depicting the birth of Brahma from a lotus issuing from the navel of the sleeping Vishnu.

In an important stone inscription dated 657 A.D. and found at Mỹ Sơn, King Prakasadharma, who took on the name Vikrantavarman I at his coronation, claimed to be descended through his mother from the Brahman Kaundinya and the serpent princess Soma, the legendary ancestors of the Khmer of Cambodia. This inscription thus underlines the ethnic and cultural connection of Champa with the Khmer Empire, its perennial rival to the west. It also commemorates the king's dedication of a monument, probably a linga, to Shiva. Another inscription documents the king's almost mystical devotion to Shiva, "who is the source of the supreme end of life, difficult to attain; whose true nature is beyond the domain of thought and speech, yet whose image, identical with the universe, is manifested by his forms."

In the 8th century, during the time when the Chinese knew the country as "Huanwang," the political center of Champa shifted cemporarily from My Son southward to the regions of Panduranga and Kauthara, centered around the temple complex of Po Nagar near modern Nha Trang that was dedicated to the indigenous Earth goddess Yan Po Nagar. In 774 A.D. raiders from Java disembarked in Kauthara, burned the temple of Po Nagar, and carried off the image of Shiva. The Cham king Satyavarman pursued the raiders and defeated them in a naval battle. In 781 A.D., Satyavarman erected a stele at Po Nagar, declaring that he had regained control of the area and had restored the temple. In 787 A.D., Javanese raiders destroyed a temple dedicated to Shiva near Panduranga. The last strong king of the Cham was Che Bong Nga or Che Bunga, who ruled from 1360 until 1390. In Vietnamese stories he is called The Red King. Che Bong Nga apparently managed to unite the Cham lands under his rule and by 1372 he was strong enough to attack and almost conquer Dai Viet from the sea. Cham forces sacked Thang Long, the capital city of Dai Viet located at the site of modern Hanoi, in 1372 and then again in 1377. A last attack in 1388 was checked by the Vietnamese General Ho Quy Ly, future founder of the Ho Dynasty. Che Bong Nga died two years later in 1390. This was the last serious offensive by the Cham against Dai Viet, but it helped spell the end of the Tran Dynasty, which had forged its reputation in the wars against the Mongols a century earlier, but which now revealed itself as weak and ineffective in the face of the Cham invasions.

In 1446, the Dai Viet under the leadership of Trinh Kha launched an invasion of Champa. The attack was successful and Vijaya fell to the invaders. A year later, however, a counter-attack drove the Viet from the city. In 1470, the Dai Viet, led by the great emperor Le Thanh Tong, again invaded Champa. Le Thanh Tong was an extraordinary administrator and leader. The Dai Viet army was very powerful and well organized. By contrast the Cham were disorganized and weak. Vijaya was captured after four days of fighting on 21 March 1471. The Cham king Tra-Toan (Pau Kubah) was captured and died not long thereafter, though he sent his son Syah Pau Ling to Aceh and began a new dynasty there, and another son Shah Indra Barman to Melaka. According to linguistic study Acehnese people of northern Sumatra and Cham are related through the Aceh-Chamic languages. At least 60,000 Cham people were killed and 30,000 were taken as slaves by the Vietnamese army. The capital of Vijaya was obliterated. As a result of the victory, Le Thanh Tong annexed the principalities of Amaravati and Vijaya. This defeat caused the first major Cham emigration, particularly to Cambodia and Malacca.

What remained of historical Champa was the southern principality of Panduranga. Moreover, under the protection of Dai-Viet, it preserved some of its independence. This was the starting point of the modern Cham Lords in the principality of Panduranga (Phan Rang). In 1692, the Cham Lord Po Sot rebelled against Nguyễn Phúc Trăn who ruled southern Vietnam. The revolt was at first unsuccessful and the aftermath was exacerbated by an outbreak of plague in Panduranga. However, a Cham aristocrat Oknha Dat obtained the help of the general A Ban, a Chinese leader. They was defeated by the Nguyễn forces of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu, under General Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh in 1695. After the defeated, new king Po Saktiray Da Patih (younger brother of Po Sot) signed a peace treaty with Nguyễn Phuc Chu. As a result of the treaty, the Cham lords were called as Trấn Vương (local lord) of Thuận Thành (Panduranga) by the Nguyễn Lords, and they were closely supervised by Nguyễn officials. Although the Cham lords had authority to the Cham people, "Archives du Panduranga" supplied some evidences about their limited authority over Vietnamese settlers. The Cham lords often played the role of the judge for Kinh-Cham conflict cases. 17 years later, in 1712, the Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu made new treaty called "the treaty with 5 articles"(Ngũ điều Nghị định) with the Cham Lord Po Saktiray Da Patih and clarified the right (included the trial right of the Cham lords and Cham people) and the obligation of the Cham Lords and the Nguyen Lords. This new treaty was kept until 1832 by the Cham Lords, Nguyễn Lords, Tây Sơn Lords and Nguyễn Emperors.
As a result of the war between the Tây Sơn, under Nguyễn Nhạc, and Nguyễn Ánh, in 1786, the Cham Lord Chei Krei Brei and his court fled to Cambodia. The assumption behind this flight is that they supported the Nguyễn Lords and the Tây Sơn Lords seemed to have won the war. From then on, the Cham Lords' title was downgraded to prefect. In 1796, during the last years of the Tây Sơn, Tuen Phaow, a noble from Makah (Kelantan), headed a major revolt against the new Cham leaders (Po Ladhwan Paghuh, Po Chơng Chơn and Po Klan Thu) and claimed Kelantan's support but the revolt was defeated. The Cham leaders regained their special rights once Nguyễn Ánh (the Emperor Gia Long) regained control over Vietnam in 1802. But even the limited Cham rule in Panduranga officially came to an end in 1832, when the Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mạng annexed the area.

Before the conquest of Champa by the Vietnamese king Lê Thánh Tông in 1471, the dominant religion of the Cham people was Hinduism, and the culture was heavily influenced by that of India. The Hinduism of Champa was overwhelmingly Shaivist, that is, focussed on the worship of Shiva, and it was liberally combined with elements of local religious cults such as the worship of the Earth goddess Yan Po Nagar. The main symbols of Cham Shaivism were the linga, the mukhalinga, the jatalinga, the segmented linga, and the kosa.
• A linga (or lingam) is a phallic post that serves as a representation of Shiva. Cham kings frequently erected and dedicated stone lingas as the central religious images in royal temples. The name a Cham king would give to such a linga would be a composite of the king's own name and suffix "-esvara," which stands for Shiva.
• A mukhalinga is a linga upon which has been painted or carved an image of Shiva as a human being or a human face.
• A jatalinga is a linga upon which has been engraved a stylized representation of Shiva's chignon hairstyle.
• A segmented linga is a linga post divided into three sections in order to represents the three aspects of the Hindu godhead or trimurti: the lowest section, square in shape, represents Brahma; the middle section, octogonal in shape, represents Vishnu, and the top section, circular in shape, represents Shiva.
• A kosa is a cylindrical basket of precious metal used to cover a linga. The donation of a kosa to the decoration of a linga was a distinguishing characteristic of Cham Shaivism. Cham kings gave names to special kosas in much the way that they gave names to the lingas themselves.

This haut relief sculpture belonging to the Dong Duong Style of Cham art is of a Dvarapala or temple guardian.

This Cham head of Shiva was made of electrum around 800 A.D. It decorated a kosa, or metal sleeve fitted to a lingam. One can recognize Shiva by the tall chignon hairstyle and by the third eye in the middle of his forehead.

This 10th century Cham segmented jatalinga stands at the temple complex of My Son.

The predominance of Hinduism in Cham religion was interrupted for a time in the 9th and 10th centuries, when a dynasty at Indrapura (Dong Duong in Quang Nam Province of modern Vietnam) adopted Mahayana Buddhism as its faith. The Buddhist art of Dong Duong has received special acclaim for its originality. In the 10th centuries and following, Hinduism again became the predominant religion of Champa. Some of the sites which have yielded important works of religious art and architecture from this period are, aside from My Son, Khuong My, Tra Kieu, Chanh Lo, and Thap Mam.

Islam started making headway among the Cham after the 10th century, but it was only after the 1471 invasion that this influence picked up speed. By the 17th century the Royal families of Cham Lords also began to turn to Islam and this eventually triggerred the major shift in religious orientation of the Cham so that by the time of their final annexation by the Vietnamese, the majority of the Cham people had converted to Islam. Most Cham are now Muslims (80%), though significant minorities of Hindus (15%) and Mahayana Buddhists (5%) exist. Indonesian 15th century records indicate the influence of Princess Darawati, a Cham, in influencing her husband Kertawijaya, Majapahit's seventh ruler, similarly to Parameshwara of Malacca, to convert the Majapahit royal family to Islam. The Islamic tomb of Putri Champa (Princess of Champa) can be found in Trowulan, East Java, the site of Majapahit imperial capital. In 15th to 17th century, Muslim Chams maintained a cordial relationship with Aceh Sultanate through dynastic marriage. This sultanate was located on the northern tip of Sumatra and was an active promotor of Islamic faith in Indonesian archipelago. According to linguistic studies Acehnese people and Cham are related as both were belongs to the same Aceh-Chamic languages family.

Before the conquest of Champa by the Vietnamese king Lê Thánh Tông in 1471, the dominant religion of the Cham people was Hinduism, and the culture was heavily influenced by that of India. The Hinduism of Champa was overwhelmingly Shaivist, that is, focussed on the worship of Shiva, and it was liberally combined with elements of local religious cults such as the worship of the Earth goddess Yan Po Nagar. The main symbols of Cham Shaivism were the linga, the mukhalinga, the jatalinga, the segmented linga, and the kosa.
• A linga (or lingam) is a phallic post that serves as a representation of Shiva. Cham kings frequently erected and dedicated stone lingas as the central religious images in royal temples. The name a Cham king would give to such a linga would be a composite of the king's own name and suffix "-esvara," which stands for Shiva.
• A mukhalinga is a linga upon which has been painted or carved an image of Shiva as a human being or a human face.
• A jatalinga is a linga upon which has been engraved a stylized representation of Shiva's chignon hairstyle.
• A segmented linga is a linga post divided into three sections in order to represents the three aspects of the Hindu godhead or trimurti: the lowest section, square in shape, represents Brahma; the middle section, octogonal in shape, represents Vishnu, and the top section, circular in shape, represents Shiva.
• A kosa is a cylindrical basket of precious metal used to cover a linga. The donation of a kosa to the decoration of a linga was a distinguishing characteristic of Cham Shaivism. Cham kings gave names to special kosas in much the way that they gave names to the lingas themselves.

The most significant site for Cham temple architecture is at My Son (Viet: Mỹ Sơn) near the town of Hoi An (Viet: Hội An). The large complex at My Son was heavily damaged by US bombing during the Vietnam War. The site is currently being restored with donations from a number of countries and NGO's. As of 2004, the clearing of land mines and UXO's had not been completed.
Many historic Cham towers still remain standing at other sites in Central Vietnam , including the following:
• Po Nagar
• Po Klaung Garai

The largest collection of Cham sculpture may be found in the Danang Museum of Cham Sculpture (formerly known as "Musée Henri Parmentier") in the coastal city of Da Nang (Viet: Đà Nẵng). The museum was established in 1915 by French scholars, and is regarded as one of the most beautiful in Southeast Asia.

My Son is the site of the largest collection of Cham ruins.

Cham people:

Cham dance performance at one of their temples in south Vietnam

Total population: ~500,000
Regions with significant populations -
Cambodia: 317,000
Vietnam: 127,000
Laos: 15,000

Languages: Cham, Malay, Khmer, Vietnamese, Tamil
Religion: Predominantly Sunni Islam, Minority Shia Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism

The Vietnamese Chams live mainly in coastal and Mekong Delta provinces. They have two distinct religious communities, Muslim or Cham Bani constitute about 22,000 and Hindu or Cham Balamon (deriving from the word "Brāhman" and used both in Cham and in Vietnamese), who constitute majority 32,000 of the Chams in Vietnam. While they share a common language and history, there is no intermarriage between the groups. A small number of the Cham also follow Mahayana Buddhism. Many emigrated to France in the late 1960s after the civil war broke out in Saigon city. In Cambodia, the Chams are 90% Muslim, as are the Utsuls of Hainan and rest 10% Hindus. The isolation of Cham Muslims in central Vietnam resulted in an increased syncretism with Buddhism until recent restoration of contacts with other global Muslim communities in Vietnamese cities, but Islam is now seeing a renaissance, with new mosques being built. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Chams of that country suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated.

Depiction of fighting Cham naval soldier against the Khmer, stone relief at Angkor, Cambodia

Genocide
The Cham experienced genocide under the Khmer rouge. During the massacres by the government, a disproportionate number of Chams were killed compared with ethnic Khmers. Ysa Osman, a researcher at the Documentation Center of Cambodia concludes,"Perhaps as many as 500,000 died. They were considered, along with the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge's No. 1 enemy. The plan was to exterminate them all" because "they stood out. They worshiped their own god. Their diet was different. Their names and language were different. They lived by different rules. The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to be equal, and when the Chams practiced Islam or Hinduism they did not appear to be equal. So they were punished."

Khmer Krom:

Khmer woman in a market

Total population: 1,055,174 in Vietnam
Regions with significant populations: Vietnam (Mekong River Delta)
Languages: Khmer, Vietnamese
Religion: Hinduism & Theravada Buddhism

The Khmer Krom are Khmer people living in the Delta and the Lower Mekong area. Mostly regarded as the indigenous ethnic Khmer minority living in southern Vietnam. In Vietnamese, they are known as Khơ-me Crộm or Khơ-me dưới, which literally means “Khmer from below” (“below” referring to the lower areas of the Mekong Delta). The Khmer Krom are ethnic Khmer who inhabited that area long before the arrival of the Vietnamese. According to Vietnamese government figures (1999 census), there are 1,055,174 Khmer Krom in Vietnam. Beginning in the early 17th century, colonization of the area by Vietnamese settlers gradually isolated the Khmer of the Mekong Delta from their brethren in Cambodia proper and resulted in their becoming a minority in the delta. Prey Nokor was the most important commercial seaport to the Khmers. The city’s name was changed by Vietnam to Sài Gòn and then Hồ Chí Minh City. The loss of the city prevented the Cambodians access to the South China Sea. Subsequently, the Khmers' access to the sea was now limited to the Gulf of Thailand. It began as a small fishing village known as Prey Nokor. The area that the city now occupies was originally swampland, and was inhabited by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese.
In 1623, King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia (1618-1628) allowed Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh-Nguyễn War in Vietnam to settle in the area of Prey Nokor, and to set up a custom house at Prey Nokor. Increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers, which the Cambodian kingdom, weakened because of war with Thailand, could not impede, slowly Vietnamized the area. In time, Prey Nokor became known as Saigon. In 1698, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyen rulers of Huế to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area, thus detaching the area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene. Since 1698, the area has been firmly under Vietnamese administration. The Vietnamese became the majority population in most places.

When independence was granted to French Indochina in 1954, the Mekong Delta was included in the state of South Vietnam, despite protests from Cambodia. In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge regime attacked Vietnam in an attempt to reconquer those areas of the delta still predominantly inhabited by Khmer Krom people, but this military adventure was a total disaster and precipitated the invasion of Cambodia by the Vietnamese army and subsequent downfall of the Khmer Rouge, with Vietnam occupying Cambodia.
Son Ngoc Thanh, the nationalist Cambodian, was a Khmer krom, born in Trà Vinh, Vietnam. Cambodia got independence in Geneva, 1954, through the Vietnamese struggle in the First Indochina War. In 1757, the Vietnamese colonized the provinces of Psar Dèk (renamed Sa Đéc in Vietnamese) and Moat Chrouk (vietnamized to Châu Đốc).

Flag of Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF)

Khmer Krom boat

Many independent NGOs report the human rights of the Khmer Krom are still being violated by the Vietnamese government. Khmer Krom are reportedly forced to adopt Vietnamese family names and speak the Vietnamese language. The education of the Khmer Krom is neglected and they face many hardships in everyday life, such as difficult access to Vietnamese health services (recent epidemics of blindness affecting children have been reported in the predominantly Khmer Krom areas of the Mekong delta, difficulty in practicing their religion (Khmer Krom are Hindus or Theravada Buddhists, like Cambodian and Thai people, but unlike Vietnamese who are mostly Mahayana Buddhists or few Roman Catholics), difficulty in finding jobs outside of the fields, and social racism. The Khmer Krom are among the poorest segments of the population in southern Vietnam. Unlike other minority people groups of Vietnam, the Khmer Krom are largely unknown in the Western world, despite efforts by associations of exiled Khmer Krom such as the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation to publicize their issues with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation. No Western government has raised the matter of the Khmer Krom’s human rights with the Vietnamese government.

Degar:

The Degar (referred to by French colonists as Montagnard) are the indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The term Montagnard means "mountain people" in French and is a carryover from the French colonial period in Vietnam. In Vietnamese, they are known by the term thượng (highlanders) - this term can also be applied to other minority ethnic groups in Vietnam). Thượng is the Vietnamese adaptation of the Chinese "Shang"/Cham. Montagnard was the term, typically shortened to "Yard", used by U.S. military personnel in the Central Highlands during the Vietnam War. However the term has been viewed as derogatory and the official term is now Người dân tộc thiếu số (literally means minority people). Before the Vietnam War, the population of the Central Highlands, estimated at between 3 and 3.5 million, was almost exclusively Degar. Today, the population is approximately 4 million, of whom about 1 million are Degars. The 30 or so Degar tribes in the Central Highlands comprise more than six different ethnic groups who speak languages drawn primarily from the Malayo-Polynesian, Tai, and Mon-Khmer language families. The main tribes, in order of population, are the Jarai, Rhade, Bahnar, Koho, Mnong, and Stieng. Originally Cham inhabitants of the coastal areas of the region, they were driven to the uninhabited mountainous areas by invading Vietnamese and Cambodians beginning prior to the 9th century. Although French Roman Catholic missionaries converted some Degar in the nineteenth century, American missionaries made more of an impact in the 1930s, and many Degar are now Protestant. Of the approximately 1 million Degar, close to half are Protestant, while around 200,000 are Roman Catholic. This made Vietnam's Communist Party suspicious of the Degar, particularly during the Vietnam War, since it was thought that they would be more inclined to help the American forces (predominantly Christian—mainly Protestant). In the mid-1950s, the once-isolated Degar began experiencing more contact with outsiders after the Vietnamese government launched efforts to gain better control of the Central Highlands and, following the 1954 Geneva Accord, new ethnic minorities from North Vietnam moved into the area. As a result of these changes, Degar communities felt a need to strengthen some of their own social structures and to develop a more formal shared identity. In 1950, the French government established the Central Highlands as the Pays Montagnard du Sud (PMS) under the authority of Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai, whom the French had installed as nominal chief of state in 1949 as an alternative to Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam. When the French withdrew from Vietnam and recognized a Vietnamese government, Degar political independence was drastically diminished. The Degar have a long history of tensions with the Vietnamese majority. While the Vietnamese are themselves heterogeneous, they generally share a common language and culture and have developed and maintained the dominant social institutions of Vietnam. The Degar do not share that heritage. There have been conflicts between the two groups over many issues, including land ownership, language and cultural preservation, access to education and resources, and political representation. In 1958, the Degar launched a movement known as BAJARAKA (the name is made up of the first letters of prominent tribes) to unite the tribes against the Vietnamese.

A US Army Ranger trains Degar guerillas

The 1960s saw contact between the Degar and the U.S. military, as American involvement in the Vietnam War escalated and the Central Highlands emerged as a strategically important area, in large part because it included the Ho Chi Minh trail, the North Vietnamese supply line for Viet Cong forces in the south. The U.S. military, particularly the U.S. Army’s Special Forces, developed base camps in the area and recruited the Degar, roughly 40,000 of whom fought alongside American soldiers and became a major part of the U.S. military effort in the Highlands. Thousands of Degar fled to Cambodia after the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army, fearing that the new government would launch reprisals against them because they had aided the U.S. Army. The U.S. military resettled some Degar in the United States, primarily in South Carolina, but these evacuees numbered less than two thousand. In addition, the Vietnamese government has steadily displaced thousands of villagers from Vietnam's central highlands, to use the fertile land for coffee plantations.

Viet Minh:

The Viet Minh flag.

The Việt Minh (English "League for the Independence of Vietnam") was a national liberation movement founded in South China on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from France and later to oppose the Japanese occupation & even fought Indian patriot Netaji Subhas’ INA. The Vietnamese are a breakaway South Chinese ethnicity that established North Vietnam.

Viet Cong: Vietcong or National Liberation Front, Việt cộng or Quân Giải phóng [Liberation Army] - Participant in the Vietnam War

The flag of the Vietcong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the Flag of North Vietnam.

Active: 1954—1976
Ideology: Marxism-Leninism, Left-wing nationalism, Vietnamese nationalism

Headquarters: Mimot, Cambodia (1966-72); Loc Ninh, South Vietnam (1972-75)

Area of operations:Indochina, with a focus on South Vietnam
Originated as: Vietminh

The Vietcong (Việt Cộng), or National Liberation Front (NLF), was a political organisation and army in South Vietnam and Cambodia while under communist dictator Pol Pot, that fought the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled. Many soldiers were recruited in South Vietnam, but others were attached to the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), the regular North Vietnamese army. During the war, communists and anti-war spokesmen insisted the Vietcong was an insurgency indigenous to the South, while the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments disputed this and portrayed the group as a tool of Hanoi. This allowed writers to distinguish northern communists from the southern communists. However, northerners and southerners were always under the same command structure.

Southern Vietnamese communists established the National Liberation Front in 1960 to encourage the participation of non-communists in the insurgency. Many of the Vietcong's core members were "regroupees," southern Vietminh who had resettled in the North after the Geneva Accord (1954). Hanoi gave the regroupees military training and sent them back to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the early 1960s. The NLF called for Southerners to "overthrow the camouflaged colonial regime of the American imperialists" and to make "efforts toward the peaceful unification." The Vietcong's best-known action was the Tet Offensive, a massive assault on more than 100 South Vietnamese urban centers in 1968, including an attack on the US embassy in Saigon. The offensive riveted the attention of the world's media for weeks, but also overextended the Vietcong. Later communist offensives were conducted predominately by the North Vietnamese. The group was dissolved in 1976 when North and South Vietnam were officially unified under a communist government.

United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races: FULRO: Front Uni de Lutte des Races Opprimées

FLC leader: Les Kosem (a Muslim Cham)

FLHP leader: Y Bham Enuol

FLKK leader: Chau Dera
Founded: 1964
Dissolved: 1992
Headquarters: Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia

Ideology: Cham, Degar and Khmer Nationalism

The United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO), (French - Front Uni de Lutte des Races Opprimées), (Vietnamese - Mặt trận Thống nhất Đấu tranh của các Sắc tộc bị Áp bức) was an organization within Vietnam, whose objective was autonomy for the Degar, Cham & Khmer tribes. Initially a political nationalist movement, after 1969 it evolved into a fragmented guerrilla group which carried on an insurgency against, successively, the North Vietnam and Socialist Republic of Vietnam regimes.
The movement effectively ceased to function in 1992, when the last group of 407 FULRO fighters and their families handed in their weapons to United Nations peacekeepers in Cambodia.

BAJARAKA - precursor of FULRO:

On May 1st, 1958, a group of intellectuals headed by a French-educated Rhade civil servant, Y Bham Enuol, established an organization seeking greater autonomy for the minorities of the Vietnamese Central Highlands. The organization was given the name BAJARAKA, which stood for four main ethnic groups: the Bahnar people, the Jarai (Gia Rai people), the Rhade or E De people, and the K'Ho people. On July 25, BAJARAKA issued a notice to the embassies of France and the United States and to the United Nations, denouncing acts of racial discrimination, and requesting government intervention to secure independence. In August-September 1958, BAJARAKA held several demonstrations in Kon Tum, Pleiku, and Buon Ma Thuot. These were quickly suppressed, and the most prominent leaders of the movement arrested: they would remain in jail for the next few years.
One of BAJARAKA's leaders, Y Bih Aleo, was however to join the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, the Viet Cong.

The FLHP:

The early 1960s were to see increasing military activity in the Central Highlands; from 1961, American military advisers had assisted in setting up armed village defence militias (the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups, CIDG). In 1963, after the 1963 South Vietnamese coup coup to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem, all the leaders of BAJARAKA were released. In an effort to integrate Degar ambitions, several of them were given government posts: Paul Nur, vice-president of BAJARAKA, was appointed deputy provincial chief for the province of Kon Tum, while Y Bham Enuol, the movement's president, was appointed deputy provincial governor of Đắk Lắk Province. By March 1964, with US backing, the leaders of BAJARAKA, along with representatives of other ethnic groups and of the Upper Cham people, established the Central Highlands Liberation Front (French: Front de Liberation des Hauts Plateaux, FLHP). The Front rapidly split into two factions. One faction, advocating peaceful means, was led by Y Bham Enuol. A second, led by Y Dhơn Adrong, advocated violent resistance. From March to May 1964, Adrong's faction infiltrated the border with Cambodia and set at the old French base, Camp le Rolland, in Mondulkiri Province within 15 km of the Vietnamese border, where they continued to recruit FLHP fighters.

FULRO:

In the meantime, the regional ambitions of Cambodian Head of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, had led to an effort to coordinate the operations of various separatist groups operating within South Vietnam and the in the Cambodian border areas. Contact was made between Adrong's faction of the FLHP and two other groups:
• The Cham Liberation Front (Front de Liberation du Champa, FLC) led by Lieutenant-Colonel Les Kosem, a Cham officer in the Royal Cambodian Army (FARK).
• The Liberation Front of Kampuchea Krom (Front de Liberation du Kampuchea Krom, FLKK), representing the Khmer Krom of the Mekong Delta, led by former monk Chau Dara.
Kosem, the most senior Cham officer in the Cambodian army, had been involved in Cham activism since the late 1950s, and is suspected to have been working as a double agent for both the Cambodian secret service and the French. The FLKK, on the other hand, originated in a semi-mystic, semi-military group known as the "White Scarves" (Kaingsaing Sar) based in the Seven Mountains area of An Giang Province and founded in the late 1950s by a monk, Samouk Seng (or Samouk Sen); this had been supported by Sihanouk as a counterbalance to a republican guerrilla movement operating the same area, the Khmer Serei. Chau Dara was also suspected to be working for the Cambodian secret service. These contacts were to lead to the establishment of the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO), based on the above groups and the FLHP. The flag of FULRO was designed with three stripes: one blue (representing the sea), red (a symbol of struggle) and green (the colour of the mountains). Three white stars on the central red stripe represented the three fronts of FULRO. A later form of the flag replaced the blue stripe with black.

The 1964 Buôn Ma Thuột rebellion:

In September 1964, there was an outbreak of violence by American-trained CIDG troops in several Special Forces camps; several Vietnamese soldiers were killed, and FULRO activists seized the radio station in Buôn Ma Thuột, from which they broadcast calls for independence. Enuol rapidly gave his blessing to the insurgency, and communiques were issued in the names of Enuol, Dara and Kosem requesting concessions from the Saigon government. On September 20th 1964, Brigadier-General Vinh Loc, the commander of Military Region II, instigated a sharp military response, rapidly surrounding the insurgents. Negotiations between the rebels and Vietnamese, through the intermediary representing the U.S. embassy, resulted in an agreement in which Y Bham Enuol was confirmed as the head of the 'official' FULRO / FLHP movement, and the rebel leaders were allowed to withdraw into Cambodia. By 27 September, Kosem ordered around 2000 fighters under the command of Adrong to withdraw into Mondulkiri.
The Americans were unsure who was ultimately responsible for the CIDG men's rebellion, and initially blamed the Viet Cong and French. However, the 'neutralist' Cambodian regime of Sihanouk had probably the greatest hand in events: the 20 September 1964 'Declaration', by the Haut Comité of FULRO, contained anti-SEATO rhetoric that bore a strong resemblance to that issued by Sihanouk's regime in the same period. Sihanouk hosted a conference, the "Indochinese People's Conference", in Phnom Penh in early 1965, at which Enuol headed a FULRO delegation. Lack of progress in gaining concessions led to another FULRO uprising by its more militant faction in December 1965, in which 35 Vietnamese (including civilians) were killed. This event was rapidly suppressed, and four captured FULRO commanders (Nay Re, Ksor Bleo, R'Com Re and Ksor Boh) were publicly executed.

Negotiations and divisions:

On June 2, 1967, Y Bham Enuol sent a delegation to Buôn Ma Thuột to petition the South Vietnamese government. On 25 and 26 June 1967, a congress of ethnic minorities throughout South Vietnam was convened to finalise a joint petition, and on August 29 1967, a meeting was held under the direction of Nguyen Van Thieu, President of the National Leadership Committee and Major General Nguyen Cao Ky, President of the Central Executive Committee. By December 11, 1968, negotiations between FULRO and the Vietnamese authorities had resulted in an agreement to recognise minority rights, establish a Ministry to support these rights, and to allow Y Bham Enuol to remain permanently in Vietnam.
However, some elements of FULRO, notably the FLC head Les Kosem, opposed the deal with the Vietnamese. On December 30 1968, Kosem, at the head of several battalions of the Royal Cambodian Army, and accompanied by a group from the militant FULRO wing responsible for the 1965 fighting, surrounded and took Camp le Rolland. Enuol was placed under effective house arrest in Phnom Penh at the residence of Colonel Um Savuth of the Cambodian army, where he was to remain for the next six years. On February 1, 1969, a final treaty was signed between Paul Nur, representing the Republic of Vietnam, and Y Dhơn Adrong. These events signified the end of FULRO as a 'political' movement, especially as its previous backer, the Sangkum regime of Sihanouk, was to fall to the Cambodian coup of 1970. However, some elements of FULRO, dissatisfied with the treaty, continued armed resistance in the Central Highlands. These disparate armed groups looked forward to the collapse of the Saigon regime, and had some local cooperation with the Viet Cong, who offered unofficial support such as caring for their wounded.

After the fall of South Vietnam:

On April 17, 1975, the Cambodian Civil War ended when the Khmer Rouge communists - then in a political alliance with Sihanouk, the GRUNK - took Phnom Penh. Y Bham Enuol, and some 150 members of the militant FULRO faction still present in the city, were executed by the Khmer Rouge at the city's stadium, along with many officials of the Cambodian regime; the remaining FULRO guerrillas in Vietnam, however, were to remain unaware of Enuol's death. After the Fall of Saigon and the collapse of the South Vietnam government, it was suggested that the United States continue to support FULRO in its struggle against the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Several thousand FULRO troops under Y Ghok Niê Krieng carried on fighting Vietnamese forces, but the promised American aid did not materialise. FULRO continued operations in the remote highlands throughout the late 1970s, but it was increasingly weakened by internal divisions, and trapped in an ongoing conflict between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese. Despite this, in the early 1980s there was a peak in this second phase of the FULRO insurgency, possibly with active material support from China, who benefited from the conflict as part of its ongoing standoff with Vietnam. Some estimates gave the total number of FULRO troops in this period at 7,000, mostly based in Mondulkiri, and supplied with Chinese armaments via the Khmer Rouge, which was by this point fighting its own guerrilla war in western Cambodia. However by 1986 this aid had ceased, a Khmer Rouge spokesman stating that while the tribesmen were "very, very brave", they had "no support from any leadership" and "no political vision". Following the cessation of supplies, the bitter guerrilla warfare would however in time reduce FULRO's forces to no more than a few hundred. The final FULRO troops surrendered their weapons in 1992; many of these groups were given asylum in the United States. Even at this late stage, they only decided to give up armed struggle when they finally heard that Y Bham Enuol had been executed seventeen years previously.

South Vietnam: (1955–1975) - Việt Nam Cộng Hòa: Republic of Vietnam

Motto: Tổ quốc - Công minh - Liêm chính (1967 - 1975)
(Fatherland - Justice - Integrity)
Capital: Saigon

Language(s):Vietnamese
Government: Republic
Last President: (1965-75) Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
Freedom from France - 26 October 1955
Fall of Saigon - 30 April 1975

South Vietnam refers to a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the “State of Vietnam” (1949-55) and later as the “Republic of Vietnam” (1955-75). Its capital was Saigon. The terms “South Vietnam” and “North Vietnam” became common usage in 1954 at the time of the Geneva Conference, which partitioned Vietnam into communist and non-communist zones at the 17th parallel. South Vietnam’s origins can be traced to the French colony of Cochinchina, a subdivision of French Indochina, which consisted of the southern third of Vietnam. After World War II, the Việt Minh, led by Hồ Chí Minh, proclaimed Vietnamese independence in Hanoi. In 1949, non-communist Vietnamese politicians formed a rival government in Saigon led by former emperor Bảo Đại. Bảo Đại was deposed by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in 1955, who proclaimed himself president after a fraudulent referendum. After Diệm was deposed in a military coup in 1963, there was a series of short-lived military governments. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu led the country from 1967 until 1975. The Vietnam War began in 1959 with an uprising by Việt Cộng forces supplied by North Vietnam. Fighting climaxed during the Tết Offensive of 1968, when there were over 1.5 million South Vietnamese soldiers and 500,000 U.S. soldiers in South Vietnam. Despite a peace treaty concluded in January 1973, fighting continued until the North Vietnamese army overran Saigon on April 30, 1975. South Vietnam home to around 6 million Hindus & their descendants like Chams, Khmers and Degars saw major genocides by communists from North Vietnam such that after war and so many years in 2001 the population of Hindu descendants stood at 2.5 million in modern Vietnam.

Cochinchina: Nam Kỳ

Flag (1862 - 1948)

Capital: Saigon

Language(s): French, Vietnamese

Religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam

Cochinchina is a region encompassing the southern third of Vietnam whose principal city is Saigon. It was a French colony from 1862 to 1948. The later state of South Vietnam was created in 1954 by combining Cochinchina with southern Annam. In Vietnamese, the region is called Nam Bộ. In French, it was called la colonie de Cochinchine. In the 17th century, Vietnam was divided between the Trịnh Lords to the north and the Nguyễn Lords to the south. The northern section was called Tonkin by Europeans, and the southern part called Cochinchina by most Europeans and Quinam by the Dutch. During the French colonial period, the label moved further south, and came to refer to the southernmost part of Vietnam, controlled by Cambodia in prior centuries, and lying to its southeast. Its capital was at Saigon. The two other parts of Vietnam at the time were known as Annam and Tonkin. The name "Cochin" derives from the Malay Kuchi which referred to all of Vietnam. This term was in turn derived from the Chinese jiao zhi, pronounced giao chỉ in Vietnam. "Cochinchina" derives from the need or desire to distinguish this Cochi/Kochi/Kuchi from the city (and princely state) of Kochi in India.

Annam (French protectorate): Trung Kỳ

Flag

Capital: Hue

Language(s): French, Vietnamese

Religions: Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism

- Established : 1874
- Disestablished : 1949

Annam (Vietnamese: An Nam) was a French protectorate encompassing the central region of Vietnam. Vietnamese were subsequently referred to as "Annamites." Nationalists writers adopted the word "Vietnam" in the late 1920s. The general public embraced the word "Vietnam" during the revolution of August 1945. Since that time, the word "Annam" has been regarded as demeaning.

The region was seized by the French by 1874 and became part of French Indochina in 1887. Two other Vietnamese regions, Cochinchina (Nam Kỳ) in the South and Tonkin (Bắc Kỳ) in the North, were also units of French Indochina. The region had a dual system of French and Vietnamese administration. The Nguyễn Dynasty still nominally ruled Annam, with a puppet emperor residing in Huế. In 1949, the protectorate was merged in the newly-established State of Vietnam. The region was divided between communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam under the terms of the Geneva Accord of 1954.

Army of the Republic of Vietnam:

Service Flag

{Tổ Quốc (Nation), Danh dự (Honor), Trách Nhiệm (Duty)}

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. The ARVN is often erroneously used as a collective term to refer to all South Vietnamese military forces, including the Vietnam Air Force and Republic of Vietnam Navy. They are estimated to have suffered 1,394,000 casualties (killed and wounded) during the Vietnam War fighting alongside USA against Communist North Vietnam.
After the fall of Saigon and the communist victory, the ARVN was dissolved. While some members had fled the country to the United States or elsewhere, hundreds of thousands of former ARVN soldiers were sent to reeducation camps by the newly unified Vietnamese communist government.

Fall of Saigon: Part of Vietnam War

South Vietnamese refugees arrive on a U.S. Navy vessel during Operation Frequent Wind.

Date: 30 April 1975
Location: Saigon, South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam)
Result:
North Vietnamese victory
• North Vietnamese conquest of South Vietnam
• Mass exodus of refugees
• Provisional Revolutionary Government (Vietcong) gains nominal authority in South Vietnam

Belligerents
North Vietnam
Vietcong
Vs.
South Vietnam

Commanders:
Văn Tiến Dũng
Pham Van Dong (ARVN)
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the North Vietnamese Army on April 30, 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period leading to the formal reunification of Vietnam under communist rule.

North Vietnamese forces under the command of the Senior General Văn Tiến Dũng began their final attack on Saigon, which was commanded by General Nguyen Van Toan on April 29, with a heavy artillery bombardment. By the afternoon of the next day, North Vietnamese troops had occupied the important points within the city and raised their flag over the South Vietnamese presidential palace. South Vietnam capitulated shortly after. The city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, after communist leader Ho Chi Minh. The fall of the city was preceded by the evacuation of almost all the American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians associated with the southern regime. The evacuation culminated in Operation Frequent Wind, which was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. In addition to the flight of refugees, the end of the war and institution of new rules by the communists contributed to a decline in the population of the city. Various names have been applied to the incident. Fall of Saigon is the most commonly used name in English, but also Liberation of Saigon is used. It has also been called Sự kiện 30 tháng 4 (April 30 Incident) or Giải phóng miền Nam (The liberation of the south) by the current Vietnamese government and Ngày mất nước (The day we lost our country/nation) or Ngày Quốc Hận (National Hatred Day) or Tháng Tư Đen (Black April) by anti-communist Vietnamese people overseas.

North Vietnamese advance:

The rapidity with which the South Vietnamese position collapsed in 1975 was surprising to most American and South Vietnamese observers, and probably to the North Vietnamese and their allies as well. For instance, a memo prepared by the CIA and Army Intelligence and published on 5 March indicated that South Vietnam could hold through the current dry season—i.e. at least until 1976. These predictions proved to be grievously in error. Even as that memo was being released, General Dung was preparing a major offensive in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, which began on 10 March and led to the capture of Ban Me Thuot. The ARVN began a disorderly and costly retreat, hoping to redeploy its forces and hold the southern part of South Vietnam, perhaps an enclave south of the 13th parallel. Supported by artillery and armor, the North Vietnamese continued to march towards Saigon, capturing the major cities of northern South Vietnam at the end of March—Huế on the 25th and Da Nang on the 28th. Along the way, disorderly South Vietnamese retreats and the flight of refugees—there were more than 300,000 in Da Nang—damaged South Vietnamese prospects for a turnaround. After the loss of Da Nang, those prospects had already been dismissed as nonexistent by American Central Intelligence Agency officers in Vietnam, who believed nothing short of B-52 strikes against Hanoi could possibly stop the North Vietnamese.

By 8 April, the North Vietnamese Politburo, which in March had recommended caution to Dung, cabled him to demand "unremitting vigor in the attack all the way to the heart of Saigon." On 14 April, they renamed the campaign the "Ho Chi Minh campaign," after revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, in the hopes of wrapping it up before his birthday on 19 May. Meanwhile, South Vietnam failed to garner any significant increase in military aid from the United States, snuffing President Nguyen Van Thieu's hopes for renewed American support. On 9 April PAVN forces reached Xuan Loc, the last line of defense before Saigon, where the ARVN 18th Division made a last stand and held the city through fierce fighting for several days. The PAVN finally overran Xuan Loc on 20 April and on 21 April President Thiệu resigned in a tearful televised annoucement in which he denounced the United States for failing to come to the aid of the South. The North Vietnamese front line was now just 26 miles (42 km) from downtown Saigon. The victory at Xuan Loc, which had drawn many South Vietnamese troops away from the Mekong Delta area, opened the way for PAVN to encircle Saigon, and they soon did so, moving 100,000 troops in position around the city by 27 April. With the ARVN having many fewer defenders, the fate of the city was effectively sealed.

Evacuation:

The rapid North Vietnamese advances of March and early April led to increased concern in Saigon that the city, which had been fairly peaceful throughout the war and whose people had endured relatively little suffering, was soon to come under direct attack. Many feared that once Communists took control of the city, a bloodbath of reprisals would take place. In 1968, PAVN and National Liberation Front (NLF) forces had occupied Hue for close to a month. After the Communists were repelled, American and ARVN forces had found mass graves. A study prepared for the U.S. mission in Vietnam indicated that the communists had targeted ARVN officers, Catholics, intellectuals and businessmen, and other suspected counterrevolutionaries. More recently, eight Americans captured in Ban Me Thout had vanished and reports of beheadings and other executions were filtering through from Hue and Da Nang, mostly spurred on by government propaganda. Most Americans and other Westerners wanted to evacuate the city before it fell, and most South Vietnamese wanted to leave as well. As early as the end of March, some Americans were leaving the city. For instance, ten families departed on March 31. Flights out of Saigon, lightly booked under ordinary circumstances, were full. Throughout April the speed of the evacuation increased, as the Defense Attaché's Office (DAO) began to fly out nonessential personnel. Many Americans attached to the DAO refused to leave without their Vietnamese friends and dependents, who included common-law wives and children. It was illegal for the DAO to move these people to American soil, and this initially slowed down the rate of departure, but eventually the DAO began illegally flying undocumented Vietnamese to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.

On 3 April, President Gerald R. Ford announced "Operation Babylift", which would evacuate about 2,000 orphans from the country. One of the C-5A Galaxy planes involved in the operation crashed, killing 138 passengers and seriously reducing the morale of the American staff. In addition to the 2,000 orphans evacuated by Babylift, Operation New Life resulted in the evacuation of over 110,000 Vietnamese refugees. By this time the Ford administration had also begun planning a complete evacuation of the American presence. Planning was complicated by practical, legal, and strategic concerns. The administration was divided on how swift the evacuations should be. The Pentagon sought to evacuate as fast as possible, to avoid the risk of casualties or other accidents. The U.S Ambassador to South Vietnam, Graham Martin, was technically the field commander for any evacuation, since evacuations are in the purview of the State Department. Martin drew the ire of many in the Pentagon by wishing to keep the evacuation process as quiet and orderly as possible. His desire for this was to prevent total chaos and to deflect the real possibility of South Vietnamese turning against Americans, and to keep all-out bloodshed from occurring. Ford approved a plan between the extremes in which all but 1,250 Americans—few enough to be removed in a single day's helicopter airlift—would be evacuated quickly; the remaining 1,250 would leave only when the airport was threatened. In between, as many Vietnamese refugees as possible would be flown out.
Meanwhile, Martin began (in his words) "playing fast and loose with exit visas" to allow any and all who wished to leave Saigon to depart by any means available in the early days. Without the Pentagon's knowledge, Martin and Deputy Chief of Mission Wolfgang Lehmann had already begun allowing thousands of South Vietnamese nationals to depart. American evacuation planning was set against other administration policies. Ford still hoped to gain additional military aid for South Vietnam. Throughout April, he attempted to get Congress behind a proposed appropriation of $722 million, which might allow for the reconstitution of some of the South Vietnamese forces that had been destroyed. Kissinger was opposed to a full-scale evacuation as long as the aid option remained on the table, because the removal of American forces would signal a loss of faith in Thieu and severely weaken him.

There was also concern in the administration over whether the use of military forces to support and carry out the evacuation was permitted under the newly-passed War Powers Act. Eventually White House lawyers determined that the use of American forces to rescue citizens in an emergency was unlikely to run afoul of the law, but the legality of using military assets to withdraw refugees was unknown. The evacuation of Saigon also had to compete for resources with the imminent evacuation of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, which fell on 17 April. While American citizens were generally assured of a simple way to leave the country just by showing up to an evacuation point, South Vietnamese who wanted to leave Saigon before it fell often resorted to independent arrangements. The under-the-table payments required to gain a passport and exit visa jumped sixfold, and the price of seagoing vessels tripled. Those who owned property in the city were often forced to sell it at a substantial loss or abandon it altogether; the asking price of one particularly impressive house was cut 75 percent within a two-week period. American visas were of enormous value, and Vietnamese seeking American sponsors posted advertisements in newspapers. One such ad read: "Seeking adoptive parents. Poor diligent students:" followed by names, birthdates, and identity card numbers.

Political movements and attempts at a negotiated solution:

As the North Vietnamese chipped away more and more of South Vietnam, internal opposition to President Thieu continued to accumulate. For instance, in early April, the Senate unanimously voted through a call for new leadership, and some top military commanders were pressing for a coup. In response to this pressure, Thieu made some changes to his cabinet, and Prime Minister Tran Thien Khiem resigned. This did little to reduce the opposition to Thieu. On 8 April a South Vietnamese pilot bombed the presidential palace and then flew to a PAVN-controlled airstrip; Thieu was not hurt. Many in the American mission—Martin in particular—along with some key figures in Washington believed that negotiations with the Communists were possible, especially if Saigon could stabilize the military situation. Ambassador Martin's hope was that North Vietnam's leaders would be willing to allow a "phased withdrawal" whereby a gradual departure might be achieved in order to allow helpful locals and all Americans to leave (along with full military withdrawal) over a period of months.

Opinions were divided on whether any government headed by Thieu could effect such a political solution. The Provisional Revolutionary Government's foreign minister had on 2 April indicated that the PRG might negotiate with a Saigon government that did not include Thieu. Thus, even among Thieu's supporters, pressure was growing for his ouster. President Thieu resigned on 21 April. His remarks were particularly hard on the Americans, first for forcing South Vietnam to accede to the Paris Peace Accords, second for failing to support South Vietnam afterwards, and all the while asking South Vietnam "to do an impossible thing, like filling up the oceans with stones." The presidency was turned over to Vice President Tran Van Huong. The Communist line, broadcast by Radio Hanoi, was that the new regime was merely "another puppet regime."

Last days:
On 27 April, Saigon was hit by three NVA rockets – the first in more than 40 months.

Operation Frequent Wind:

A Marine provides security as helicopters land at the DAO compound.

Before daybreak on 29 April, Tan Son Nhat airport was hit by rockets and heavy artillery. In the initial shelling, C-130E, 72-1297, c/n 4519, of the 314th Tactical Airlift Wing, and flown by a crew from the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing out of Clark Air Base, Philippines, was destroyed by a rocket while taxiing to pick up evacuees. The crew evacuated the burning aircraft on the taxiway and departed the airfield on another C-130 that had previously landed. The continuing rocket fire and debris on the runways caused General Homer D. Smith, the U.S. defense attaché in Saigon, to advise Ambassador Martin that the runways were unfit for use and that the emergency evacuation of Saigon would need to be completed by helicopter. Originally, Ambassador Martin had fully intended to effect the evacuation by use of fixed-wing aircraft from the base. This plan was altered at a critical time when a South Vietnamese pilot decided to defect, and jettisoned his ordnance along the only runways still in use (which had not yet been destroyed by shelling). Under pressure from Kissinger, Martin forced Marine guards to take him to the air base in the midst of continued shelling, so he might personally ascertain the situation. After seeing that fixed-wing departures were not an option (a mammoth decision Martin did not want to make without firsthand responsibility in case the helicopter lift failed), Martin gave the green light for the helicopter evacuation to begin in earnest.
Reports came in from the outskirts of the city that the North Vietnamese were moving. At 10:48 a.m (Saigon Time), Martin relayed to Kissinger his desire to activate "the FREQUENT WIND" evacuation plan; Kissinger gave the order three minutes later. The American radio station began regular play of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," the signal for American personnel to move immediately to the evacuation points. Under this plan, CH-53 and CH-46 helicopters were used to evacuate Americans and friendly Vietnamese to ships, including the Seventh Fleet, in the South China Sea. The main evacuation point was the DAO Compound at Tan Son Nhut; buses moved through the city picking up passengers and driving them out to the airport, with the first buses arriving at Tan Son Nhut shortly after noon. The first CH-53 landed at the DAO compound in the afternoon, and by the evening, 395 Americans and more than 4,000 Vietnamese had been evacuated. By 23:00 the U.S. Marines who were providing security were withdrawing and arranging the demolition of the DAO office, American equipment, files, and cash. Air America UH-1s also participated in the evacuation.

Reeducation camp:
Reeducation camp (trại học tập cải tạo) like Camp 22 in North Korea & Laogai in China are Communists Gulags or the prison camps operated by the government of Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. In such "reeducation camps", the government imprisoned several hundred thousand former military officers and government workers from the former regime of South Vietnam. Reeducation as it was implemented in Vietnam was seen both as a means of revenge and a sophisticated technique of repression and indoctrination which developed for several years in the North and was extended to the South following the 1975 North Vietnam takeover.

After the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese men, from former officers in the armed forces, to religious leaders, to employees of the Americans or the old government, were rounded up in reeducation camps to "learn about the ways of the new government." They were never tried or convicted of any crime. Many South Vietnamese men chose to flee on boats, but others had established lives in Vietnam, so did not flee but entered these camps in hopes of quickly reconciling with the new government and continuing their lives.

Officially, the Vietnamese government does not consider the reeducation camps prisons, but rather places where individuals could be rehabilitated into society through education and socially constructive labor. The Hanoi regime defended the reeducation camps by placing the "war criminal" label on the prisoners. A 1981 memorandum of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to Amnesty International claimed that all those in the reeducation camps were guilty of acts of national treason as defined in Article 3 of the 30 October 1967 Law on Counter-revolutionary Crimes (enacted for the government of North Vietnam) which specifies punishment of 20 years to life imprisonment or the death penalty. But, it was instead allowing the prisoners to experience "reeducation" which "as applied in Vietnam is the most humanitarian system, and the most advantageous for law offenders.

During the early phase of reeducation, lasting from a few weeks to a few months, inmates were subjected to intensive political indoctrination. Subjects' studies included the exploitation by "American imperialism" of workers in other countries, the glory of labor, the inevitable victory of Vietnam, led by the Communist Party, over the U.S., and the generosity of the new government toward the "rebels" (those who fought on the other side during the war). Another feature emphasized during the early stage of reeducation, but continued throughout one's imprisonment, was the confession of one's alleged misdeeds in the past. All prisoners in the camps were required to write confessions, no matter how trivial their alleged crimes might have been. Mail clerks, for example, were told that they were guilty of aiding the "puppet war machinery" through circulating the mail, while religious chaplains were found guilty of providing spiritual comfort and encouragement to enemy troops.

In the reeducation camps much emphasis was placed on "productive labor." Such labor was described by SRV spokesman Hoang Son as "absolutely necessary" for reeducation because "under the former regime, they (the prisoners) represented the upper strata of society and got rich under U.S. patronage. They could scorn the working people. Now the former social order has been turned upside down, and after they have finished their stay in camps they have to earn their living by their own labour and live in a society where work is held in honor." Thus, in the eyes of the Vietnamese rulers, "productive labor" was a necessary aspect in the overturning of the social order. Yet in examining the conditions under which this labor took place, it seems that there was also an element of revenge. The labor was mostly hard physical work, some of it very dangerous, such as mine field sweeping. No technical equipment was provided for this extremely risky work, and as a result, many prisoners were killed or wounded in mine field explosions. Other kinds of work included cutting trees, planting corn and root crops, clearing the jungle, digging wells, latrines and garbage pits, and constructing barracks within the camp and fences around it. The inmates were generally organized into platoons and work units, where they were forced to compete with each other for better records and work achievements. This often pushed inmates to exhaustion and nervousness with each person and group striving to surpass or at least fulfill the norms set by camp authorities, or they would be classified as 'lazy' and ordered to do 'compensation work' on Sundays. Sometimes prisoners who missed their quota were shackled and placed in solitary confinement cells.

In June 1976, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, in one of its last policy announcements before the official reunification of Vietnam, stated that those in the camps would either be tried or released after three years of imprisonment. But this promise was broken. The policy announced that those still in the camps would stay there for three years, but would be released early if they made "real progress, confess their crimes and score merits". Since there were no clear criteria for releasing the inmates from the camps, bribery and family connections with high-ranking officials were more likely to speed up release than the prisoner's good behavior. Released prisoners were put on probation and placed under surveillance for six months to one year, and during that time they had no official status, no exit visas, no access to government food rations and no right to send their children to school. If the progress of the former prisoners was judged unsatisfactory during this period, they could be fired from their jobs, put under surveillance for another six months to a year, or sent back to the reeducation camps. Faced with these challenges, many chose to flee the country and became boat people. Some prisoners who have been imprisoned since the Fall of Saigon, have been released as recently as the year 2000. The U.S. government considers reeducation camp inmates to be political prisoners. In 1989, the Reagan administration entered into an agreement with the Vietnamese government, pursuant to which Vietnam would free all former RVN soldiers and officials held in reeducation camps and allow them to emigrate to the United States. Thus began the third large influx of Vietnamese immigrants into the country.

Vietnamese boat people:

A family of boat people rescued by an American Navy ship

Events resulting from the Vietnam War led many people in Cambodia, Laos, and especially Vietnam to become refugees in the late 1970s and 1980s, after the fall of Saigon. In Vietnam, the new communist government sent many people who supported the old government in the South to "re-education camps", and others to "new economic zones." An estimated 1 million people were imprisoned without formal charges or trials. According to published academic studies in the United States and Europe, 165,000 people died in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's re-education camps. Thousands were abused or tortured. These factors, coupled with poverty and the total destruction of the country that happened during the Vietnam war, caused hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese to flee the country. In 1979, Vietnam was at war (Sino-Vietnamese War) with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Many ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam, who felt that the government's policies directly targeted them, also became "boat people." On the open seas, the boat people had to confront forces of nature, and elude pirates.

Rescued Vietnamese boat people being given water

There were many different ways people used to leave the country. Most were secret; some involved the bribing of officials. Some people bought places in large boats that held 400 passengers. Others organized smaller groups. Many families were split up during this period because they could only afford to send one or a few members of the family. One method used involved middle-class refugees from Saigon, armed with forged identity documents, traveling 1,100 kms to Danang by road. On arrival, they would take refuge for up to two days in safe houses while waiting for fishing junks and trawlers to take small groups into international waters.[ Planning for such a trip took many months and even years. Although these attempts often depleted resources, people usually had several false starts before they managed to escape. The boats, most not intended for navigating open waters, would typically head for busy international shipping lanes some 240 km to the east. The lucky ones would succeed in being rescued by freighters and taken to Hong Kong, some 2,200 km away. Others landed on the shores of Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Hong Kong. The unlucky ones would face a two-week long or even 6-month perilous journey in rickety craft; stopping every now and again in Chinese shores, suffering hunger and thirst. The plight of the boat people became an international humanitarian crisis. There were untold miseries, rapes and murders on the South China Sea committed by Thai pirates who preyed on the refugees who had sold all their possessions and carried gold with them on the trips. The UNHCR, under the auspices of the United Nations, set up refugee camps in neighbouring countries to process the "boat people". They received the 1981 Nobel Peace Prize for this. Camps were set up in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. According to stories told by the Vietnamese refugees, the conditions at the camps were poor. The women and children were raped and beaten. Very little of the aid money donated primarily by the United States actually got to the refugees. In Israel, the Vietnamese immigrations represent a change in transformation in the Israeli conception, one that saw the Jewish state as the state of the Jews with a Jewish majority. Even though the absorption of hundreds of Vietnamese did not change the political map in Israel, the absorption of the Vietnamese still constituted a change of civil identity in the state of Israel who take in non-Jewish refugees.
Hong Kong adopted the "port of first asylum policy," and received over 100,000 Vietnamese at the peak of emigration in the late 1980s. Many refugee camps were set up in its territories. Frequent violent clashes between the boat people and security forces caused public outcry and mounting concerns in the early 1990s since many camps were very close to high-density residential areas. In Australia, the Fraser Government took what might be considered the final step in ending the White Australia policy by letting more than 100,000 Indochinese refugees to immigrate at a quick pace. The countries that accepted most of the Indochinese refugees were:
• United States - 823,000
• Australia and Canada - 137,000 each
• France - 96,000
• Germany - 40,000
• United Kingdom - 19,000

Camp 22:
Camp 22 is a North Korean prison for political prisoners, who are in fact family members of accused North Koreans. Camp 22 is known as: Kwan-li-so No.22 Haengyong. 'Kwan-li-so' is Korean for 'holding place'. It is located in north-east North Korea, on the border with Russia and China, 20 km from the city of Hoeryong. On all available maps the camp carries no name like villages. This camp is surrounded by the following villages: Wŏn-dong, Ssŏgŭndari, Kulsal-li, Haengyŏng-ni (headquarters of the camp), Naksaeng-ni and Chungch’u-dong. Its location is: 42°34'29"N, 129°53'3"E. Its existence is denied by the North Korean government.

Laogai
Laogai the abbreviation for Láodòng Gǎizào which means "reform through labor," is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of prison labor and prison farms in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is estimated that in the last 50 years more than 50 million people have been sent to laogai camps as political prisoners. Laogai is distinguished from laojiao, or re-education through labor, which is an administrative detention for a person who is not a criminal but has committed minor offenses, and is intended to reform offenders into law-abiding citizens. Persons detained under laojiao are detained in facilities which are separate from the general prison system of laogai. Both systems, however, involve penal labor.

Bangla Short Story on Islamization of Eastern "India"

2009-11-10T23:54:00.000-08:00

Indian Govt gives taxpayer money in Madrasha

2009-10-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

To teach this violent 'Holy' Quran - 9:123
Oh ye who believe! Murder those of the disbelievers and let them find harshness in you.

9:5
Slay the idolaters wherever you find them

8:12
I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off.

9:14
Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you (to victory) over them, heal the breasts of Believers

9:29
Fight those who do not believe in God and the last day... and fight People of the Book, who do not accept the religion of truth (Islam) until they pay tribute by hand, being inferior"

2:193
Fight them on until there is no more tumult and religion becomes that of Allah

14:17
Before him is Hell; and he shall be made to drink boiling water.

22:19-22
But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads, Whereby that which is in their bellies, and their skins too, will be melted; And for them are hooked rods of iron. Whenever, in their anguish, they would go forth from thence they are driven back therein and (it is said unto them): Taste the doom of burning.

9:23
O ye who believe! take not for protectors your fathers and your brothers if they love Infidelity above Faith: if any of you do so, they do wrong.

25:52
So obey not the disbelievers, but strive against them herewith with a great endeavor.

66:9
O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless journey's end.

47:4
When you meet the unbelievers, strike off their heads; then when you have made wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives.

3:28
Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah. except by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves.

Check in Koran - http://www.quran.net/

Should Govt approve Convent Schools teaching Bible where like Muslim Koran the monotheist intolerance taught? "Peaceful" Bible - Exodus 15:3
The LORD is a man of war.

Psalms 137:9
Blessed shall he be who takes your little Babylonian babies and dashes them against the rock!

Matthew 10: 34-36
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Deuteronomy 7:2
And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them.

Exodus 17:13
Joshua, with God's approval, kills the Amalekites "with the edge of the sword."

Exodus 20:3
The first commandment ("Thou shalt have no other gods before me.") condemns those who worship any other than the biblical god.

Exodus 22:18
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Thousands of innocent women have suffered excruciating deaths because of this verse.

Exodus 22:20
"He who sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed." If this commandment is obeyed, then the four billion people who do not believe in the biblical god must be killed.

Exodus 23:24
Do not allow others to worship a different god. Conquer them and destroy their religious property.

Exodus 23:32
Stay away from those who worship a different god.

Exodus 34:11-14
God drives out the pagan tribes and commands the Israelites to destroy their altars and places of worship.

Exodus 34:14
God, "whose name is Jealous", will not tolerate the worship of any other god.

Genesis 4:8
Because God liked Abel's animal sacrifice more than Cain's vegetables, Cain kills his brother Abel in a fit of religious jealousy.

Genesis 35:5
"The terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them."

Exodus 7:4
God will make sure that Pharaoh does not listen to Moses, so that he can kill Egyptians with his armies.

Check in Bible - http://www.bible.com/