RANI OF JHANSI REGIMENT ... 1

Ranis of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the INA. They looked upon Netaji as their father and Netaji also reciprocated the affection, looking upon the Ranis as his daughters. He took special care of them, saw to their comfort, safety and security. The Ranis adored Netaji and pledged to give their blood for the cause of India's freedom. And remember, so many of them were expatriate Indians, settlers in East Asia, who had never seen their ancestral homeland. Yet, such was the purity and charisma of Netaji that they pledged to give up their lives for the freedom of their ancestral motherland. These are our girls, valorous to the core, who served in the nursing department, in the espionage section and in actual combat as well. They wielded guns and grenades but were denied automatic weapons presumably for shortage of such weaponry. Their training was as rigorous as the men's and they fought shoulder to shoulder with them, the first of its kind in modern martial history.