Was Gumnami Baba actually Netaji himself ?

It's one of the best secrets of cutting edge India: Was Gumnami Baba, otherwise called the austere of UP's Faizabad, really Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose? Subhro Niyogi, Saikat Ray and a group of columnists track down a few individuals who really cooperated with him and are persuaded that it was none other than the magnetic pioneer himself, living under an expected character. Perused on to figure out what they need to say

A minute that kept going a small amount of a second 33 years back is scratched so clearly in Surajit Dasgupta's memory that a negligible memory triggers a horde feelings. Dasgupta's facial muscles jerk, lips quiver and eyes turn dim as he endeavors to absolute something, falters and after that surrenders.

Following a few minutes of inside strife, Dasgupta gets it together. "He was situated before me like consistently when I had a desire to see him. I stole a look and was so stunned by the shine that radiated from inside of that I needed to quickly bring down my look. It is a sight I will always remember," he mutters.

The "he" Dasgupta alludes to was Bhagwanji, a self-denying in Faizabad, UP, who not very many "knew" to be Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Here was the man who had been affirmed dead 37 years prior, a passing millions declined to accept. Numerous felt he would come back to India one day to at long last understand a standout amongst the most perplexing secrets of advanced times. Also, there he was!

"Netaji's partner and our master, Sunil Gupta, had been going to Bhagwanji for two decades. In the beginning years, it was extremely cryptic. He wouldn't unveil where he was going. All that we knew was that he had some imperative mission. Later, he obscurely said: 'Contact has been set up'. I knew without a moment's delay he was alluding to Netaji. I was excited. In the years that tailed, I would go with Gupta till the station as he took a train twice per year to go to Neemsar and later Faizabad, once amid Durga Puja and again on January 23, Netaji's birthday. It was much later, in 1982, that Gupta chose it was at last time we could be let into the elite circle, and we made a trip to Faizabad to meet Bhagwanji," Dasgupta reviews.

Netaji's representation (L) and portrayal of Gumnami Baba. 

It was Netaji's senior sibling, Suresh Chandra Bose, who had tasked Gupta with investigating each news and gossip that surfaced on Netaji's arrival to India. Gupta dependably went to Shaulmari and different spots where it was supposed Netaji had returned in the appearance of an austere. He was baffled on every event, till he at long last met Bhagwanji at Neemsar in 1962. 

A couple standard procedures were laid before Dasgupta's initially meeting; the most essential being not to take a gander at Bhagwanji. He for the most part spoke with a short shade drawn in the middle of him and the guests that shrouded his face. That is the way Dasgupta met him too. 

"We would go to his home consistently, eat and after that go to search for the day's dinners. While Saraswati Devi would cook, we would talk about world legislative issues. After lunch, it could be about religious philosophy, music, even mysticism. Here and there, the talks went ahead till the small hours next morning. We would sit transfixed, listen with riveted consideration and bring down notes. He anticipated the crumbling of USSR that was unimaginable then, discussed the chaos in the Vietnam War. He even commented that socialism would pass on in the spot of its introduction to the world. Amid the Bangladesh Liberation War, he took after the advancements definitely and we trust he even went on vital directions that helped choose the war," Dasgupta says.

After the initial two-three days, Bhagwanji assumed that the young people would take after the standards, and quit closing the drapery. It was on one of nowadays Dasgupta was seized by the compelling craving to take a look at the individual saint revered crosswise over Bengal. Furthermore, what a sight it was! "There was no mixing up it was Netaji. His hair had diminished, a great deal more than what we were accustomed to finding in his photos. He had a streaming facial hair. In any case, the elements were precisely the same. Just, he had matured. The eyes were so capable I needed to dismiss promptly. I understood then that the loyalist our guardians and we had venerated since we were children had come to a higher plane of presence. He had turned into a mahatma," he reviews. 

Rita Banerjee of Faizabad, as well, alludes to a "brilliant light" exuding from Bhagwanji. "The quality was intense to the point that I couldn't build up eye contact with him," says Rita, whom Bhagwanji called "Phoolwa Rani" and her spouse "Bachha". Gyani Gurjeet Singh Khalsa, the boss minister of Gurdwara Brahamakund Sahib that ignores the seething Saryu waterway, relates a comparable ordeal when he saw Bhagwanji eye to eye. "I was a 17-year-old when I saw him. The brilliance all over was dumbfounding. It can't be clarified in words," he relates. 

Dasgupta, who is currently 64, and a few other people who are persuaded that Bhagwanji was Netaji, are pursuing a noiseless fight in court against the Indian government to separate reality and dishonor a falsehood they case has been spread for seven decades. In later years, Bhagwanji discussed the getaway to USSR by means of Diren in Manchuria after a "devised air crash". He spoke strikingly about how jail camps worked in Siberia. 

Dasgupta is among the not very many alive to have met Bhagwanji. Bijoy Nag, a previous examiner at a private firm, is another. Despite the fact that he never took a gander at Bhagwanji, he can review every meeting with astonishing clarity. "On my first visit, I touched his feet while he stayed behind a shade. Favoring me, he said: 'Your fantasy is presently a reality'. I was 31 and excited," reviews Nag, now 76. Taking all things together, he had met the plain 14 times somewhere around 1970 and 1985, and every meeting was essential. 

A large portion of Dasgupta's visits were the point at which the parsimonious was living in Purani Bustee. In any case, it was at Brahma Kund (Ayodhya) where Bhagwanji stayed for a couple of months somewhere around 1975 and 1976 that Nag was in nearest nearness with him. "I stayed in the room alongside his. I could have took a gander at him at whatever time on the off chance that I wished in light of the fact that by then, the window ornament had been drawn. He had just educated us not to take a gander at him and we didn't resist him," says Nag, who had on Bhagwanji's solicitation gathered and conveyed photos of Netaji's mom, father and teacher. 

More stoic than Dasgupta, Nag is in control of his feelings yet there is no mixing up the glint in his eyes when the subject is talked about. "In spite of the fact that I didn't take a gander at him, I don't have a particle of uncertainty it was Netaji identifying with me. It is an unshakeable truth," he says with such consummation that one acknowledges it is upheld by outright conviction. 

It was a result of his close relative Lila Roy — who had been in consistent touch with Netaji somewhere around 1922 and January 1941 — that Nag got the chance to meet Bhagwanji. It was INA mystery administration specialists Pabitra Mohan Roy who enlightened Lila concerning Bhagwanji in December 1962 after another Netaji partner, Atul Sen, broke the news on his arrival from Neemsar. His meeting Bhagwanji had been sheer fortune. Sen, who had challenged the authoritative seat from Dhaka in the 1930s on Netaji's request and won, was in 1962 setting out to different spots in UP on "change" on specialist's recommendation. 

In April, he came to Neemsar, a journey site close Lucknow. It arrives that he got notification from local people around a Bengali mahatma who lived in a surrendered Shiva sanctuary. Sen's interest was aroused and went to meet the parsimonious. He at long last met him after a few endeavors — and in a flash knew it was Netaji. Throughout the following couple of days, he met Bhagwanji commonly. 

A joyful yet careful Atul Sen came back to Kolkata in 1962 and unveiled the news to Pabitra Mohan Roy and student of history RC Majumdar. Sen likewise composed to PM Jawaharlal Nehru on August 28, 1962. "Netaji is alive and is occupied with otherworldly practice some place in India... From the discussions I had with him, I could comprehend that he is yet viewed as foe No. 1 of Allied forces and that there is a mystery convention that ties the Indian government to convey him to Allied "equity" if discovered alive. In the event that you can guarantee me else, I may attempt to convince him to come back to open life," he composed. In the answer dated August 31, 1962, Nehru precluded the presence from securing any such convention. 

Lila, in the interim, set out to serve Bhagwanji till her last day. From 1963 till her demise in 1970, she would send cash and sundry things to him consistently through emissaries. Bhagwanji was partial to common Bengali dishes like ghonto, sukto and keema. Amid his birthday festivities, a shut entryway issue with some relatives and close colleagues, luxuries served included mishti doi and khejur gur payesh. 

It wasn't simply individuals from Bengal who were meeting Bhagwanji. From December 1954 to April 1957, UP CMs Sampurnanand and Benarasi Dasgupta were in steady touch with Bhagwanji. Their letters and also those from previous railroad pastor Ghani Khan Chowdhury and other vital pioneers were found in Bhagwanji's effects that are presently in Faizabad Tre

Share this