Exhibition honours forgotten woman freedom fighters and stateless soldiers of Netaji

New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) It is one thing to become a footnote of the freedom struggle in history books, and quite another to find no mention at all in the annals of India’s over 200 years of fight for Independence.

Such was the life of scores of woman freedom fighters, and continues to be for those living a stateless existence.

Such forgotten footsoldiers of the freedom struggle -- such as Momota Mehta, Gouri Sen, Dhanalakshmi Suppiah, her sisters Anjaly and Papathi, Gyan Kaur, Subhadra Khosla, Sarla Sharma, and countless others -- have found a space for their memories at an exhibition by the Hamara Itihaas Archives of Freedom Fighters at the India International Centre here.

Since 1995, author, archivist and filmmaker Sagari Chhabra took it upon herself to look across India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Myanmar to find people, connections, and countless sacrifices that were thus far hardly recorded.

“The larger part of the archive is based on direct recordings with surviving freedom fighters across India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Myanmar. In other words, an archive has been created chronicling the unknown freedom fighters for future generations,” Chhabra told PTI.

She added that the work of such a scale, which includes audios, photos, letters, videos and films, is not possible today as most of the revolutionaries have passed away.

The exhibition, which opened on August 9, is “India’s first and perhaps the only international archive” with a special focus on women freedom fighters.

It opens with a brief homage to the contributions of revolutionaries such as Raja Mahendra Pratap, Madam Bhikaiji Cama, Shyamji Krishna Varma, and S R Rana, the underlying theme hardly going unnoticed.

The stories of lesser known freedom fighters come to the fore as walls carrying pictures of Ajit Singh (Bhagat Singh’s uncle), Ralli Devi (Sukhdev’s mother), Sushila Didi, and Durgavati Devi start giving way to the unknown heroes of the fight for Independence.

While Sushila Mohan (didi) was instrumental in the activities of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association and actively helped Bhagat Singh and other leading revolutionaries, Durgavati Devi participated in revolutionary acts, including attempting to assassinate Lord Hailey.

“We felt we don’t know enough about the women who helped them (the men). So the focus of this archive is on revolutionaries abroad as well as woman freedom fighters in India -- the unknown freedom fighters we have tried to bring out,” Chhabra said.

The exhibition then moves to the section showcasing “original recordings and photos” of surviving freedom fighters, largely taken up by the members of the Rani of Jhansi regiment that was set up by Subhas Chandra Bose in 1942 as part of the Indian National Army.

Strewn with archival photos by regiment commander Janaki Thevar Nahappan showing gorilla training of the “ranis”, as well as original pictures clicked by Chhabra, the section on the Rani of Jhansi regiment shares stories of grit and grace.

Grainy black and white pictures show rows after rows of women in military uniform, with a tuft of hair neatly stuck under a cap and rifles to the side.

According to the testimonies of the surviving members of the regiment, several women joined with their sisters.

"Fourteen members of the Mehta family, including Momota, Rama, and Lilavati Mehta, joined the Rani of Jhansi regiment. It was not that they were different, these revolutionaries and the non-violent stand, people were doing what they could. The goal was India's freedom, it was not so divided,” Chhabra said.

Rasammah Bhupalan joined the regiment with her two sisters, whose widow mother relented when Lakshmi Sahgal insisted that they are going to be trained and prepared for battle.

The archive has collected similar stories of unmatched bravery of woman soldiers, including Bhagyalakshmi Davies, Karuna Mukherjee and her two sisters, Janaki Bai Fateh Singh, Protima Sen, Aruna Ganguly Chatterjee, as well as those who maintained documents, communication and performed other administrative duties such as P Meenakshi and Manvati Arya.

The story of INA members from Myanmar is one that should be told urgently, Chhabra emphasised, as the surviving freedom fighters and their next generations have been living a “stateless existence”.

One of the photos shows Perumal, a member of the INA, with his wife Mehrunnisa in front of a dilapidated structure that once housed the INA, while another shows Chinnaiah, an INA member living in abject poverty and eyes riddled with cataract.

“The tragedy of the INA in Burma is that they are stateless. They are not citizens of Myanmar and they are not citizens of the country whose freedom they fought for, something I wish the Indian government takes up. Statelessness means that it is intergenerational, their children and grandchildren are also stateless,” Chhabra said.

The exhibition also features oral and written testimonies of other members of the INA spread across Southeast Asia -- in Myanmar, Thailand, and Singapore -- including Habib ur Rahman, M Gandhinathan, Arunachalam, Lakshmi Narayan, Sundaram, Balakrishna, Gyan Singh Kukreja, and Kannusamy.

“I met Kannusamy in Malaysia. I asked him, ‘when you never set foot in India, why did you go to fight for the freedom of India?’ And he lost his temper, and rebuked me saying, 'it's a funny question to ask an Indian. Once an Indian, always an Indian. When you get a chance to do something for your motherland, you must do it’,” Chhabra said.

The exhibition also screens “Asli Azaadi”, a documentary film directed by Chhabra on woman freedom fighters, along with oral testimonies based on direct recordings with those who worked for the Indian National Army and the Rani of Jhansi regiment in India and Southeast Asia.

The exhibition will come to an end on August 23. PTI MAH ARI