A researcher into the life of Subhas Chandra Bose revealed today previously little known information on the independence fighter’s five visits to Shillong in pre-Second World War days.
Speaking at a press conference here, Malabika Bisharad said that she has pored over examples of print media from those days, which revealed interesting facts about Bose and his connection to Shillong, which was then the capital of Assam during British rule.
Bose liked Shillong enough that he came back again and again, with his only real problem with the town being the endless rain.
He twice visited Shillong in 1927, at the age of 30, once in 1929 and twice again in 1938.
Bose’s first trip was meant to help him recover from a bout of ill health when Shillong was famous as a sanatorium. He was accompanied by his parents and other family members and was treated by Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy.
“After his family members went back to Calcutta (as it then was), they had rented Kelsal Lodge in Oakland, which is now occupied by BSNL,” Bisharad said. “He spent the days walking along the zigzag roads, roaming around the city by motor car in the evenings, playing with his brother’s children on the mountainside, reading at night and preparing statements for the coming Assembly.”
He left Shillong to attend the Assembly in Kolkata but was back later that year.
“Netaji loved Shillong and described it as a very good sanatorium and a beautiful, enchanting city, except for its rain,” she added.
In 1929 Bose stayed at Dr Roy’s home in Laban, which is now a state government circuit house but his most significant visit was his fourth, which came in September 1938 when, as President of the Congress, he came to help stitch together a coalition ministry in Assam.
