Recently there were two declassified Intelligence Bureau files which have revealed that the government of Jawaharlal Nehru spied on the family of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose for almost 20 years. The files found have been moved to the National Archives. They have shown unprecedented surveillance on Bose’s family members between the years 1948 and 1968.

During those twenty years, Nehru was the prime minister for 16 out of the 20 years and at that time IB directly reported to him. According to the files, IB has continued British era surveillance on the two-family homes of Bose in Calcutta:  Woodburn Park and 38/2 Elgin Road.

The letters written by the family members of Bose have been intercepted and copied. Apart from that, agency spies have spied on their domestic and foreign travels. From the findings in the files, it seems clear that that the agency was focused on finding out who the kin of Bose met and what they discussed. Some handwritten messages have shown that the agents have phoned in ‘Security Control’, as the IB headquarters was called, to report on the family’s movements. Moreover, the agency seems especially focused on Netaji’s nephew siblings Sisir Kumar Bose and Amiya Nath Bose.

Image Credit: Behrens, Herbert / Anefo / CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons

Source: Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jawaharlal_Nehru_1957_crop.jpg