Finding the forgotten Ranis

Ranis train with weapons built for northern European men in Singapore 1944 CourtesyJanaki Thevar AthinahappanBack in 2008 if you had asked Vera Hilderbrand why she was combing the streets of India her guess would have been half as good as yours On one occasion the Danish historian recalls trudging her way through the busy market alleys of MG Road in Kolkata to find one Mrs Banerjee I only knew that she would be more than 80 years old and was born in Burma Vera says Had a local shopkeeper not pointed out that the neighbourhood was brimming with Mrs Banerjees Vera wouldnt have realised the uphill task she had at hand Eventually after knocking on many doors Vera did find Karuna Ganguli Banerjee the Rani she had been looking forFor the next three years the historian would locate 22 such Ranis after travelling the length and breadth of India Singapore Malaysia and the US Her mission To trace the story behind the making of Indias first womens military unit the Rani of Jhansi Regiment RJRFriends since their RJR days veterans Janaki Thevar Athinahappan Akilandam Vairapillai and Anjalai Ponnaswamy in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia March 2008 PicVera HilderbrandHer new book titled Women at War HarperCollins India which throws light on the history of these Ranis comes close on the heels of the 120th birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose Jan 23 the man who first made this corps a realityOn October 22 1943 after years of deliberation and planning Bose inducted 150 women into this revolutionary force in Singapore The corps named after the iconic female war hero Lakshmibai the Rani of Jhansi would train for the next two years in Singapore and later fight in Burma until it disbanded following the fall of Rangoon today Yangon The creation of a female Indian infantry unit during World War II when almost no other country allowed women in combat was a complete surprise says Vera who accidentally stumbled upon the regiment on Google When I told people in India about the Rani of Jhansi Regiment their reaction was I did not know that Indian women as soldiers hellip thats interesting It was then I thought it might be time to research their stories says Vera the wife of Robert Blackwill former US Ambassador to India in an email interview from the USWhile little was written about the regiment in general Vera says her struggles were compounded by the fact that there was zero record of the women who were part of this unit After World War II only Captain Lakshmi Sahgal sister of famed classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and the chosen head of RJR became the voice of the disbanded RJR A large number of the male Indian National Army soldiers originally served in the British Indian Army so after the war they were interrogated and catalogued by the British But the women who were all civilians returned home to their families without much fanfare and were not recorded in government annals says Vera of why the Ranis came to be forgotten The fact that most of the Ranis married after the war and changed their last names made it more difficult to find themHaving only their first names or last names didnt help Vera however managed to piece together the puzzle mostly winnowing down on lists from computerised telephone directories and later through word of mouth Most of them were more than willing to speak she recalls For instance when she met Rani Karuna Mukherjee she was a widow Her only child a son had died two years earlier It became important to her that people would know the truth about Bose and the RJR Like several other veterans her voice quivered when she mentioned his name she recallsNot everyone seemed to have shared these sentiments A few expressed regret about being part of RJR The Rani who was most outspoken in her regrets said that she had been too young to understand the politics of Boses approach to winning independence for India As an adult after the war she had come to realise that she disagreed fundamentally with Bose Others said they had not thought enough about how they felt about taking the life of another person says VeraNonetheless Vera feels that Boses creation of a womens combat force was not just important for India but for the world Many things did not work out exactly as Bose had hoped but his initiative showed that he expected women to serve and take responsibility for the future of their country and culture British Intelligence reports commented that the ranis were completely committed to Bose she says