The Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army along with the commanding officer of the Rani Jhansi Regiment taking the salute during the morning parade in Burma. Netaji was historically the first leader to have inducted women in his army as a frontal fighting unit.
Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan, later Lakshmi Sahgal after marriage to Prem Kumar Sahgal, was a qualified medical doctor who, after the break-up of her first marriage to pilot P.K.N.Rao, departed in 1940 for Singapore where she came into close contact with members of the Indian Independence League and some future members of the Indian National Army. Following the fall of Singapore and its invasion by the Japanese forces, Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan treated wounded Indian soldiers which increased her enthusiasm for the nationalist cause of India. Finally, when Netaji arrived in Singapore after his epic 90-day submarine journey from Germany, Dr. Swaminathan sought an interview with the Indian leader who gave her the charge of building up a women's regiment which was called the Rani Jhansi Regiment.
The overwhelming response of expatriate Indian women in East Asia to Netaji's call for the liberation of India quickly filled up the ranks of the Rani Jhansi Regiment. The unit was thoroughly trained for active frontal combat just like the men. The training was similar and no concessions were made to the girls for being physically more delicate than their male counterparts. Netaji's idea was that independence had to wrested from the British by force of arms and that women were to play an equal role in this struggle for they formed half of the population of India and deserved to fight for their own freedom as part of the general scheme of things. They were not to be gifted freedom by their menfolk if after independence they had to reclaim their equal position in the polity as was theirs in the glorious days of free India. Hence, the significance of Capt. Lashmi's role in the INA.
Following the successful Burmese campaign the Indian National Army in alliance with the Imperial Japanese Army marched into North-East India and liberated large tracts of land from the British in Manipur. The Azad Hind Government even established its rule there for over two months but the tide of events turning in the Second World War with the collapse of Germany, Japan could no more carry on her offensive in India and, consequently, had to beat a hasty retreat. The INA which was heavily dependent upon the Japanese for air-cover and for resource supply for its soldiers necessarily had to follow suit. Moreover, unprecedented precipitation during the monsoon cut off the supply lines from the headquarters in Burma and there was no alternative but to give up the Indian campaign for the time being. The Indian masses had been very well kept unaware of the INA advance by British intelligence and were only apprised by continuous propaganda that they could fall possible victims of invasion by fascist Japan which they ought to resist with all their might. The Congress led by Nehru joined in this false propaganda to successfully alienate the masses in India from the INA assault and, thereby, smother the chances of a popular timely revolution that could have easily evicted the British from India when they were at their weakest. The combined effect of the war situation, the weather and the withering of mass support meant that the INA was starved off to a retreat.
Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan was apprehended by the British in the Burmese jungles in May 1945. She remained in prison in Burma till March 1946 when she was transported to India at the height of the Red Fort Trials of three officers of the INA among which her future husband, Prem Kumar Sahgal, was also there. The couple married in March 1947 in Lahore and settled in Kanpur thereafter.
After a long life of dedicated service as a medical doctor Captain Lakshmi Sahgal breathed her last on 23 July 2012. She was 97. The Government of India had bestowed on her the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 1998. Thus ended the life of the luminous leader of the modern world's first women's martial unit that had engaged in actual combat in war, the Rani Jhansi Regiment, a unique creation of the Azad Hind supremo, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The latter's disappearance, though, remains unsolved till date and intrigues the imagination of all and sundry. Jai Hind!
Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan, later Lakshmi Sahgal after marriage to Prem Kumar Sahgal, was a qualified medical doctor who, after the break-up of her first marriage to pilot P.K.N.Rao, departed in 1940 for Singapore where she came into close contact with members of the Indian Independence League and some future members of the Indian National Army. Following the fall of Singapore and its invasion by the Japanese forces, Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan treated wounded Indian soldiers which increased her enthusiasm for the nationalist cause of India. Finally, when Netaji arrived in Singapore after his epic 90-day submarine journey from Germany, Dr. Swaminathan sought an interview with the Indian leader who gave her the charge of building up a women's regiment which was called the Rani Jhansi Regiment.
The overwhelming response of expatriate Indian women in East Asia to Netaji's call for the liberation of India quickly filled up the ranks of the Rani Jhansi Regiment. The unit was thoroughly trained for active frontal combat just like the men. The training was similar and no concessions were made to the girls for being physically more delicate than their male counterparts. Netaji's idea was that independence had to wrested from the British by force of arms and that women were to play an equal role in this struggle for they formed half of the population of India and deserved to fight for their own freedom as part of the general scheme of things. They were not to be gifted freedom by their menfolk if after independence they had to reclaim their equal position in the polity as was theirs in the glorious days of free India. Hence, the significance of Capt. Lashmi's role in the INA.
Following the successful Burmese campaign the Indian National Army in alliance with the Imperial Japanese Army marched into North-East India and liberated large tracts of land from the British in Manipur. The Azad Hind Government even established its rule there for over two months but the tide of events turning in the Second World War with the collapse of Germany, Japan could no more carry on her offensive in India and, consequently, had to beat a hasty retreat. The INA which was heavily dependent upon the Japanese for air-cover and for resource supply for its soldiers necessarily had to follow suit. Moreover, unprecedented precipitation during the monsoon cut off the supply lines from the headquarters in Burma and there was no alternative but to give up the Indian campaign for the time being. The Indian masses had been very well kept unaware of the INA advance by British intelligence and were only apprised by continuous propaganda that they could fall possible victims of invasion by fascist Japan which they ought to resist with all their might. The Congress led by Nehru joined in this false propaganda to successfully alienate the masses in India from the INA assault and, thereby, smother the chances of a popular timely revolution that could have easily evicted the British from India when they were at their weakest. The combined effect of the war situation, the weather and the withering of mass support meant that the INA was starved off to a retreat.
Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan was apprehended by the British in the Burmese jungles in May 1945. She remained in prison in Burma till March 1946 when she was transported to India at the height of the Red Fort Trials of three officers of the INA among which her future husband, Prem Kumar Sahgal, was also there. The couple married in March 1947 in Lahore and settled in Kanpur thereafter.
After a long life of dedicated service as a medical doctor Captain Lakshmi Sahgal breathed her last on 23 July 2012. She was 97. The Government of India had bestowed on her the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 1998. Thus ended the life of the luminous leader of the modern world's first women's martial unit that had engaged in actual combat in war, the Rani Jhansi Regiment, a unique creation of the Azad Hind supremo, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The latter's disappearance, though, remains unsolved till date and intrigues the imagination of all and sundry. Jai Hind!
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