Revolution On Wheels: ‘Wanderer’ that helped Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose escape from the clutches of the British in 1941
Sagarika Mitra, Content Head of JAN KI BAAT, tells you about the car, its history, contradictions around Netaji’s ‘Great Escape’ & much more
Once you enter Netaji Bhawan; Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s ancestral home in Kolkata, you spot an old vintage car parked inside a glass enclosure. On the boundary wall next to it is a marble plaque that reads – ‘WANDERER BLA 7169, This is the car in which Sisir Kumar Bose drove Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from this house in Calcutta on the night of 16th, 17th January 1941 to Gomoh on the first leg of Netaji’s great escape’. Below the plaque is a poster with the pictures of a Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose & his nephew Sisir Bose and on the other end of the poster is a picture of the ‘Historical Car’.
A message on this poster says ‘this car has been restored to its original, pristine condition with the technical expertise provided by Audi and with financial support from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India’. As per information available, back in the day, Bose family bought the car for Rs 4,500.
Visitors excitedly click photographs, I was no exception – I took a selfie standing next to this revolutionary car. A car that is a symbol of courage, rebellion and revolution – it’s HISTORY ON WHEELS.
Many of you must be aware of Netaji’s ‘Great Escape’, it is such a thrilling historical event that each time you read about it, you picture it in your imagination like a movie scene. At the Netaji Bhawan, footprints are marked to show the route & the staircase the great leader took when he decided to deceive the British police and escape from house arrest to attain his only goal – Freedom for India, at any cost.
Despite strict vigil by the British government, his exit from Kolkata was planned by Satya Ranjan Bakshi of Bengali Volunteers. Bengal Volunteers Corps was an underground revolutionary group that was working against the British Raj. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose sat in the rear seat of the car, disguised as Mohammad Ziauddin. An excerpt from an old article in The Telegraph reads, ‘On the night of the Escape, the Wanderer made a noisy start as it moved out of the Elgin Road house, turned right and then again right to get on to Allenby Road. Netaji held on to his door tightly without closing it so that anyone who was awake would hear only one door being shut. He shut the door after the car had crossed Allenby Road’. After leaving his Calcutta residence, he reached Gomoh in Jharkhand with his nephew Shishir Bose driving him in his ‘Baby Austin’ car BLA 7169 at 8 pm.
In Gomoh, his lawyer friend Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, a man who shared his name with the NC founder, was waiting for him at his house in Loco Bazar. Netaji discussed his plan to visit Peshawar with his friend Sheikh Abdullah. It was decided that Netaji would board the Howrah-Peshawar Mail 63 train from the station disguised as a ‘Pathan’
At the behest of Sheikh Abdullah, a tailor made Pathani clothes for Netaji. On the same day, the tailor – Ameen – took Netaji to the station at 1 am, where he finally boarded the train from platform number three. In 2021, the Indian Railways renamed this train as Netaji Express.
But another article quotes noted Netaji researcher Jayanta Chowdhury, who presents a completely different version of the event. As per Jayant Chowdhury, the black German Wanderer sedan which Subhash Chandra Bose rode for his great escape on January 16, 1941 rolled out in the dark. It took AJC Bose Road from Elgin Road and then the Mahatma Gandhi Road and crossed the Hooghly River via Howrah Bridge to enter the adjacent Howrah district.
The car then took GT Road to reach Burdwan district, located about 100 km from Kolkata. Bose then went to Santiniketan in Bolpur in Birbhum district, took the blessings from Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore before setting out for Delhi and again returned to Burdwan.
‘From Burdwan he took a train namely ‘Frontier Mail’ and reached Delhi in disguise of Mohammed Ziauddin. I don’t support the theory of Bose taking the Kalka Mail from Gomoh station in what is now Jharkhand and reaching Delhi. It is completely concocted’, Jayant Chowdhury, who was also one of the deponents in the Justice Mukherjee Commission, was quoted as saying to IANS
As per Netaji researchers, after leaving India, Netaji first reached Peshawar in Pakistan, from there he went to Kabul where he stayed for about 48 days. From Kabul he reached Samarkand and from there he went to Moscow by air, from Moscow, he finally reached Berlin in March 1941
Interestingly, many Bose researchers are of the opinion that he was driven out by one of his close associates, Sardar Niranjan Singh Talib, and not by his nephew Shishir Bose. According to many sources, Netaji’s brother Sarat Bose had apparently suggested to Bose that the escape should seem like an ordinary journey in order to hoodwink the British Police.
There are many versions about Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s life, his death and his escape from the clutches of the British. While the theories around him can leave many confused, it’s his life, his ideology, his principles – that continue to inspire. May this generation and the future generations – seek inspiration from this extraordinary freedom fighter.
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