India’s freedom
dawn by the sacrifice of lakhs and lakhs of literate and illiterate, men and
women, rich and poor, hindu and muslim, children and aged from not only from
India and neighbouring countries irrespective of caste and creed. However, everything was not well documented
by administrators and historians.
Subsequently, history of the past filled with elite group and
administrators activities alone in the history of India. It’s time to include
subaltern studies and it has to be
included in the history of India and its regional history to know about the
past glory, participation in freedom struggle as an individual or in a group,
heroic deeds of both gender who fought against the British bravely for India’s
common cause and achieve it. So it is
necessary to document each and every individual’s contribution to attain
independence is unavoidable and familiarize to the present and future
generation to built patriotism among the youth, creating patriotic fervor among
all citizens of India to built national integration and solidarity. This research paper focused on Janaky Athi
Nagappan: a notable Commander of Rani Jhansi Regiment in INA, who hailed from
Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
There are three
main factors motivate an individual to fought against the British as follows:
Fight against the English to
retain their territory; Fight for their rights to live freely in their own
mother land; Fight against the British to attain India’s Independence. Subsequently, all activites were viewed
seriously by the British administrators.
Ultimately, common people also cooperate with leaders and ready to
sacrifice to attain independence at any cost.
At this juncture irrespective of gender women also step out from home
activities irrespective of age group, whom vary from children to age old to
raise their voice for freedom. Many of
them sacrifice men and materials to the maximum to attain freedom and poorna
swaraj. One among the notable freedom fighter
was Janaky Athi Nagappan from Madurai.
Janaky was born and brought up in a well –to-do Tamil family living in
then the British Malaya. She had an
opportunity to hear Subhas Chandra Bose, when he arrived in Singapore in July
1943 for collecting funds and recruit volunteers for INA. He addressed gathering about 60,000 Indians,
the charismatic leader made a fiery speech kindled everyone present there, one
among the participant was Janaky, who was attracted by the powerful words and
decided to join INA and fought for Indian freedom against the British Raj. She
never seen him but she felt that she belonged to and take part of freedom
struggle one way or other. Immediately
she removed all her expensive jewellery to donate INA, on her returned home she has firmly informed her parents
that to participate in one of the most improbable events in World War II’s
Asia-Pacific theatre — the creation of an all-female combat squad RJR (Rani of
Jhansi Regiment).Her father strongly objected her decision, later her understand her
deep patriotism made him to reluctantly agreed and signed in the acceptance
form. Because according to RJR’s rules, unmarried applicants needed to get
permission of their father and married women needed to get husbands’ signature
on the application form.
INA INAUGURAL
The formal inaugural took place on 22nd October, 1943 at
Waterloo Street, Singapore. On that day itself more than 500 women enrolled to
join RJR, one among them was Janaky, who were all trained by Lakshmi
Swaminathan, who hailed from Indian National Congress Leader settled in
Singapore. The training was not easy for
them to women, which was not on their regular activities as lay women. The training, which included night marches,
bayonet charging, tactical combat and weapon skills like rifles, machine guns and grenades. These training was tough, the conditions were
basic and quite unlike the privileged, middle-class world to which many of the
girls were used to. Everyone knew that when they left home, the probability of
their return was extremely small.
However, they persevered, choosing the hardships of camp life in RJR and
promised to liberate their motherland from British Raj.
AS A WRITER
Janaki wrote at the age of 17 years in a Malayan Newspaper giving voice
to the aspirations as “We may be the softer and fairer sex but surely I protest
against the word “Weaker”. All sorts of
epithets have been given to us by man to guard his own selfish interests. It is time we shattered these chains of men
along with the chain of Indian slavery”.
In fact, such was a courage and resolve of these pioneering girls that
not a single one abandoned their regiment even when the victorious Allies were
closing in on them and after hundreds of their male comrades surrendered or
deserted – a fact many INA officers and British Army officers later testified
to. Since because of Janky’s focused on
her ambition to driven out British from India, she became a Lieutenant on
April, 1944.In April, 1944, in the midst of World War II, Captain Lakshmi was
transferred permanently to the base hospital in Maymyo. Captain Lakshmi remembered Janky’s strict discipline
and made her subordinate Janaky became
the commander of Burma Contingent of RJR at the age of 18 years.In May, 1944, Janky would go on to rescue wounded soldiers when the
British bombarded the Red Cross hospital in Rangoon. Later, when the INA was in retreat, she would
trek through the swamps and forests of Burma with Nethaji to get fellow fighters
back to their homes safely. After dismantled of INA, Janaky joined the Indian
Congress Medical Mission in Malaya. She
was inspired by the work of Indian National Congress, she helped John Thivy to
establish the Malayan Indian Congress in 1946.
Subhas Chandra Bose and his Azad Hind Fauj later known as the Indian
National Army or INA have long been the stuff of legend. Yet few have heard of the ‘Rani of Jhansi
Regiment, an integral part of the INA. A very few may heard the extraordinary
activities of an ordinary women who were made up this all female regiment. One such unacknowledged heroine is 18 year
old Janaky who lived a life of intrigue and danger to help Indian freedom
against colonial rule in India.A notable commander of Rank Jhansi Regiment was
Janaki Devar. The Rani of Jhansi
Regiment was the Women's Regiment of the Indian National Army, the armed force
formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia with the aim of
overthrowing the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance. It
was one of the very few all-female combat regiments of the Second World War on
any side. Led by Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan (better known as Lakshmi
Sahgal), the unit was raised in July 1943 with volunteers from the
expatriate Indian population in South East Asia. The unit was named the Rani
of Jhansi Regiment after Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi. she announced the
formation of the Regiment on 12 July 1943. Most of the women were teenage
volunteers of Indian descent from Malayan rubber estates; very few had ever
been to India. The initial nucleus of the force was established with its
training camp in Singapore with approximately a hundred and seventy
cadets. The cadets were given ranks of
non-commissioned officer or sepoy (private) according to their education.
Later, camps were established in Rangoon and Bangkok and by November 1943, the
unit had more than three hundred cadets
INA’s IMPHAL CAMPAIGN
During
the INA's Imphal campaign, an initial contingent of nearly a hundred of the
Rani of Jhansi troops moved to Maymyo, part of which was intended to form a
vanguard unit to enter the Gangetic plains of Bengal after the expected fall of
Imphal. A part of the unit also formed the nursing corps at the INA hospital at
Maymyo. Following the failure of the siege of Imphal and the INA's disastrous
retreat, the Rani troops were tasked with coordinating the relief and care of
the INA troops who arrived at Monywa and to Maymyo and were not used in combat.
FALL OF RANGOON
After
the fall of Rangoon and the withdrawal of the Azad Hind government and Subhas
Chandra Bose from the city and through Burma, the troops originally from Burma
were allowed to disband, while the remainder of the regiment retreated along
with the retreating Japanese forces on foot and, when available, on mechanised
transport. During the retreat it suffered some attacks both from Allied air
attacks, as well as from the Burmese resistance forces. The total number of
casualties suffered is not known. The unit later disbanded.
MALAYSIAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT
Janaky
Athi Nahappan was born on 25th February, 1925 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in
Tamil Malaysian family. She was married Tan Sri Athi Nahappan and got three
children named Dato Ishwar Nahappan, Gouri Nahappan, Jayashri Nahappan. She was
popularly known for her role in Indian Independence Movement and Malaysian
Independence Movement. She was one
among the notable political party member as well as co- founder of Malaysian Indian Congress and one of the
earliest women involved in the fight for Malaysian (then Malaya) independence.
She was died at the age of 89 on 9th May, 2014.
• Janaki
grew up in a well-to-do Tamil family in Malaya and was only 16 when she heard
Subhas Chandra Bose's appeal to Indians to give whatever they could for their
fight for Indian independence. Immediately she took off her gold earrings and
donated them. She was determined to join the women's wing, the Rani of Jhansi
Regiment of the Indian National Army. There was strong family objection
especially from her father. But after much persuasion, her father finally
agreed.
• She
was among the first women to join the Indian National Army organised during the
Japanese occupation of Malaya to fight for Indian independence with the Japanese.
Having been brought up in luxury, she initially could not adapt to the rigours
of army life. However, she gradually got used to military life and her career
in the regiment took off. She became second in command of the regiment
• After
World War II she emerged as a welfare activist.
• Janaki
found the Indian National Congress's fight for Indian independence inspiring
and joined the Indian Congress Medical Mission in then Malaya. In 1946 Nahappan
helped John Thivy to establish the Malayan Indian Congress, which was modelled
after the Indian National Congress. The party saw Thivy as its first president.
Later in life, she became a senator in the Dewan Negara of the Malaysian
Parliament.
She
met Athi Nagappan then the editor cum publisher of the Malayan Tamil Daily
“Tamil Nesa” in 1948 and married him in
1949.
She
was passionate about social welfare, Janaky began an active role in
organizations such as the Girl Guide Association and the National Council of
Women’s Organization. Her tireless
efforts made her to become a nominated Senator in the Upper House (Dewan
Negara) of the Malaysian Parliament. She
was honoured with numerous National and international Awards. One among the best Award Janaky was selected
to become the first woman of Indian origin outside India to be awarded one of
the India’s highest Civilian Award Padma Shri setting an enduring example of
courage and compassion, Janaky Thevar was a woman who walked shoulder to
shoulder with the men during trying times.
Despite the failure of her dream to help INA defeat the British, she
deserves to be remembered and respected for her commitment to the highest human
aspirations – freedom. The
Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of Padma
Shri in 2000. She died at her house on 9 May 2014 due to pneumonia
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