By Shubha Singh, IANS
 

Eighty-three-year-old Indian National Army (INA) veteran Capt Janaky Devar has only one wish - that her leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's sacrifices are given due recognition by his country.

Today a distinguished Malaysia-based NRI, she said, 'I live on in the memory of having responded to the call of a great leader so absorbed in the cause of freedom for India. A leader who had no identity apart from this dedication.'

It is one of the lesser-known facts of the INA or Azad Hind Fauj - the force raised by Bose - that it comprised equally of Indian prisoners of war and Indian emigrants living in Southeast Asia.

The majority of the volunteers were Indians living in the region.

Devar's family lived in Malaya as it was then known, and she was among the early women volunteers in the INA.

She fought for the freedom of a motherland she had never seen and later for Malaysian independence in the land of her birth. In 1946, she became one of the co-founders of the Malaysian Indian Congress.

Later she became a senator in the Malaysian parliament.

The INA veteran, who lives in Kuala Lumpur, was on a visit to New Delhi to attend a function organised by the Netaji Subhas Bose - INA Trust for INA veterans.

The meeting, which was attended by a number of INA veterans and eminent citizens of Delhi, passed a resolution calling for a befitting INA memorial and Netaji Subhas Bhawan to be built in the heart of the capital to honour those heroes of the independence movement.

It is an issue close to the hearts of those who had served under the charismatic leader and several veterans have criticised successive Indian governments for not taking any action to set up a memorial.

Photograph: Wikipedia / Creative Commons Free Use License

In the photograph: A young Captain Janaky Devar in her INS  days