The marriage of a national hero

The epic film Bose — The Forgotten Hero has vividly brought into the public domain the private life of Netaji Bose as never before. It ...

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The epic film Bose — The Forgotten Hero has vividly brought into the public domain the private life of Netaji Bose as never before. It has focused concern on the recurring controversy about his life and death. The sensitive portrayal of his deep love and marriage with his secretary Emilie Schenkl has evoked both denial and sympathy in the Indian psyche.

Sections of the Indian people represented by radical elements of the Forward Bloc, Hindu nationalists and Bengali-nationalist historians have questioned Netaji’s marital status. It is true that there exists no marriage certificate and there is confusion about the exact date, but all evidence shows that it was conducted according to Hindu rituals. The marriage was not registered because according to Hindu tradition it is not necessary to register it. Secondly it seems that both Bose and Emilie did not favour registration of the marriage because at that time it was international law that women lost their citizenship by marrying a foreigner, following which she would have lost her German citizenship. In the special case of Emilie Schenkl and Bose living in Germany at the time of the Nazis racial laws, an inter-racial marriage was not allowed. According to the prevailing war-time law in Germany, Emilie would have been branded as an “enemy alien” because she would be married to a British protected subject, as Britain was then at war with Nazi Germany. Besides, Austria was also occupied by Germany which would have made it more difficult for her as she was an Austrian.

These may be partly the reasons why Netaji in his visa-application to China mentioned his marital status as single. However the clinching evidence and testament to their loving marriage is contained in the letter which Bose wrote to his brother Sarat Chandra Bose before undertaking on the perilous journey on the U-boot to South East Asia. The letter says: “Today once again I am embarking on the path of danger. But this time towards home. I may not see the end of the road. If I meet with any such danger, I will not be able to send you any further news in this life. That is why today I am leaving my news here, it will reach you in due time. I have married here and I have a daughter. In my absence please show my wife and daughter the love you have given me throughout your life. May my wife and daughter complete and successfully fulfil my unfinished task, that is my ultimate prayer.” (Berlin, February 8 1943. Translated from Bengali, published in: Letters to Emilie Schenkl 1934-42 Subhas Chandra Bose; edited by Sisir Kumar Bose, Sugata Bose; OUP: New Delhi 1994). The original letter can be found in the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata.

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Some of these evidences have been corroborated by Anita Pfaff, the daughter of Emilie and Subhash. According to Krishna Bose, the daughter-in-law of Sarat Chandra Bose, the elder brother of Subhas, quoted in a national newspaper on January 28 2003, the marriage is a fact and there is nothing wrong about showing it. Also, the irrefutable loving relationship between the two is so tenderly reflected in the 162 letters preserved by Emilie and later published in Calcutta.

More interesting than the evidence about the marriage is how sections of the Indian people imagine their national heroes and how they wish to reconstruct history in a particular way. There seems to be a tendency in the Indian tradition that divides public life from the personal which is kept secluded. A single-minded devotion to a public cause through denial of personal needs like sex, love and marriage are qualities glorified in a national icon. Celibacy is desirable to transform sexual energy into a spiritual purpose which in the case of political leaders was the national cause.

Bose himself wanted to keep the marriage a secret because of the possible negative impact at home and to protect his wife in Nazi-Germany-occupied Austria. Many Indians feel that it is a slur on Netaji’s memory to now bring it out into the open. In an India then struggling against white domination, marrying a white, European woman was not the best qualification for a leader. Would it not have been different if Bose had had a traditional marriage with a Bengali girl?

Other national heroes like Gandhi, Tagore and Aurobindo had emotionally intimate relationships with white women but they had the dominant position in these guru-disciple relationships. The complex relationship between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten has been much talked about and if a film is made on the subject it may cause offence to some. While treating the history of a nationalist hero like Bose we should consider all kinds of evidence and be sympathetic to the multiple dimensions of his charismatic personality.

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Dr. Franz researches Indian-Austrian relations at the Univ of Graz, Austria. Shekhawat is director, Alternative Development Center, Jaipur