Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is one of the few leaders of the Indian freedom struggle whose charisma and controversies live in our minds even today.
Netaji's unshaken ideals and the many stories about his death are not the only aspects to have inspired such intense scrutiny of his life over the years. Netaji’s secret foreigner partner about whom the nation came to know only after his rumoured death has people talking about him even 75 years after his death.
Around the time of Independence in 1947, while many were still not ready to accept Netaji’s death and were convinced that he had escaped the deadly accident and was either hiding or missing, Netaji’s elder brother, Sarat Chandra Bose heard about Emilie Schenkl, his brother’s Austrian lover.
Sarat was upset with his brother then because though the news about him being romantically involved with someone was true, the terms of their partnership were unaware of. Sarat was informed that Netaji had been living with Emilie without marriage and also had a lovechild with her.
According to Madhuri Bose, Netaji’s grand-niece, Emilie had worked as Netaji’s private secretary in Vienna, Austria for some time. During the same time, the two had become close and later married each other as per Hindu rituals.
According to an exclusive report by Outlook India, Madhuri Bose, who stayed with her great-aunt Emilie for a few years said that Emilie’s strong English language skills, which was a rarity had her working with Bose. During Madhuri’s time with Emilie, she still seemed to have remembered a few Bengali words. Out of love, she used to call Madhuri ‘Dushtu’ which literally translates to naughty in Bengali.
Emilie passed away in March 1996.
Based on the letters exchanged between Sarat Bose, Subhas and Emilie that Madhuri claims to possess, she said that the rumours of Bose and Emilie living together without being married and having a lovechild were spread to malign Netaji’s image in India. Madhuri stressed that the Congress leaders decided to disclose the information to Sarat Bose on the eve of independence with the motive to defame him.
