INA's soldier lives in oblivion in Vadodara

His eyes are misty. his vision is failing. he can hardly hear. his once strong body is now frail. yet, every evening as the sun sinks in the crimson red horizon, the sound of gunshots keep coming to 88-year-old shangara singh mann. he can smell the gunpowder, feel the bullets hitting him, hear the shouts of his fellow soldiers, see the marching troops and visualises the presence of the short bespectacled man who dared british and tried to snatch freedom for india at a time when the union jack fluttered across half of the globe. "freedom comes at a cost," he was told by that bespectacled man. the other line that he remembers is 'you give me blood, and i will give you freedom'. that was when mann saw himself in the azad hind fauj of netaji subhash chandra bose. today at the fag end of his life, mann lives in oblivion in a small house in vishwamitri. even neighbours perhaps don't know that the old sardar next door is perhaps the only indian to be awarded two gallantry awards _ veer-e-hind and sardar-e-jung. "i was a captain and company commander in the ina in the brigade of brigadier gulzara singh," mann says. the man who can now barely walks was once the bravest of ina soldiers. "i remember the day when our company had carried out the first assault on enemies in assam. that time we had walked for 1,100 miles and had gone without food for 10-15 days in a row," mann recalls. he fondly remembers how netaji himself had loosened his shoelaces. "he asked me to get into new uniform and proceed for rangoon," he said. another of his memories is of getting surrounded by enemy on the battlefield. "they had shot dead my fellow soldier. i leaped into bushes and took position. bullets were flying all over. one of the bullets hit me in my right leg. i had an lmg and 12 bombs. i began firing and must have slain about 50 of them and injured over three dozens," mann recalls. mann had to trek three miles of arduous terrain with his injured leg to reach his company. "they carried me on stretcher for 36 miles before shifting me to a hospital," he said. his next memory is of being in british captivity at red fort. "they kept me in a cage, so small that i could barely stand. the british tortured me every day. however, maulana abul kalam azad came to know about us. later, with the help of our lawyer bhulabhai desai, maulana sahab, panditji, dr rajendra prasad and sardar patel obtained necessary permits from the then government of india and met us," mann remembers. multan jail is another chapter which is etched in mann's mind. "they wanted to take us to cuttack and annihilate us, but public pressure forced them to alter their plans. we were instead put in multan jail where i was imprisoned from january 4, 1945 to february 26, 1946," mann remembers. when mann finally came out of jail, he was famished and his family impoverished. hardly had he settled, india was partitioned. "those were terrible days. i remember escorting our muslim friends to the pakistan border and refugee camps. people in large numbers were killed," mann said. in 1959, he came to vadodara and made it his home. today his last wish is to meet the prime minister and the home minister. mann's battlefield heroics are corroborated by all india azad hind fauj association president and former colonel of ina gurbakhsh singh dhillon. mann's brigadier in ina gulzara singh, now a member of aiahfa, too confirms that mann "got wounded fighting against the british indian army". "i was present at the investiture ceremony where netaji himself pinned gallantry medals on the chest of captain shangara singh in rangoon in 1945," dhillon wrote in his certificate. but sadly, it seems while ina has remembered its brave soldier, the rest of the nation has forgotten the man who indeed gave his 'blood for freedom'. a man who now survives on scarce resources in a nation which seemingly believes in remembering politicians rather than soldiers.

#INA #Vadodara #Oblivion