The brave Veerangana who shot her husband to save Netaji

Anupama Nair

www.mediaeyenews.com

Our great Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the Amrit Mahotsav or celebration of  India’s 75^th year of Independence. We will be celebrating this event till 2022. I am going to write a feature on all those great men and women who fought against foreign invasion not just against the British. Today I am going to write about the great but unknown Neera Arya – yes, this is the name of a brave woman, who had shot her husband for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. She was called the country's ‘first female spy’.

To understand the story of, Neera Arya, I need to take you back many centuries before. India was ruled by the cruel Mughals. It is a credit to the British, how the merchants who came to do trade with India, within 300 years became the masters of the entire land from Khyber to Chittagong and from Kashmir to Comorin (now Kanya Kumari), i.e., the entire Sub-Continent. The English East India Company was formed by merchants of England to trade with Asia and India the “golden bird” in particular and America. It was formed by the Royal Charter on New Year’s Eve in 1600. They landed in the Indian subcontinent on August 24, 1608, in Surat (Gujarat).

The Battle of Plassey (1757) and Battle of Buxar (1764), smoothened their path to conquer the sub-continent. Robert Clive became the first Governor-General of British India. By spinning a web of deceit, and many laws like Subsidiary Alliance (Lord Wellesley) and Doctrine of Lapse (Lord Dalhousie), they succeeded in ruling the entire sub-continent by the 19^th century. Jawaharlal Nehru in his book Discovery of India quoted “British rule in India had an unsavory beginning and something of that bitter taste has clung to it ever since”.

Neera Arya was born on March 5 1902 in Khekra Nagar, Uttar Pradesh as the daughter of an eminent businessman Seth Chhajumal. She was a true nationalist and always had a vision of becoming a part of the Nationalist Movement. Both Neera and her brother Basant were educated in Calcutta. From the time she was a student, Neera Arya was a soldier of the Rani Jhansi Regiment in the Indian National army founded by Netaji.

Let me now tell you about the Rani Jhansi Regiment. I have been writing articles almost every day about great women who fought against invaders, starting from Naika Devi. Our history is incomplete without Manikarnika or Rani Lakshmi Bai, the brave queen of Jhansi, who fought against the British in the Revolt of 1857 and gave her life. However, she inspired many other women to follow suit.

The Indian National Army was an armed force formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in 1942 in Southeast Asia during the Second World War. The major aim of the INA was to free India from British rule. Netaji’s inspiring words “give me blood”, I will give you freedom inspired, many men to join the INA. Then, many women expressed their desire to join the movement and Rani Jhansi Regiment was formed in 1943. Netaji named the Regiment after Rani of Jhansi to inspire young women. The initial nucleus of the force was established with its training camp in Singapore, with approximately a hundred and seventy cadets. Captain Lakshmi was its most famous officer.

That was the time, when her father’s business was flourishing in Calcutta, although his business was spread across the country. However, Calcutta was the center of his business and that was one of the reasons why her education was done in Calcutta. She was proficient in quite a few languages like Bengali, Hindi, and English.

She was married to a CID Inspector Shrikant Jairanjan Das, “but they were two different individuals, Neera Arya was a true nationalist and her husband a true servant of the British. She was highly motivated and she wanted to fight for the freedom of  India, so she joined the Jhansi Regiment after her marriage. From childhood, she was inspired by Netaji. “It was the very same Regiment that the British accused of spying on British Govt”.

Neera’s husband Jairanjan Das was given the responsibility to spy on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Meanwhile, one day when Neera Arya came to meet Subhash Chandra Bose, Shrikant opened fire on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The bullet instead hit Bose's driver. Sensing the situation, Neera Arya, who was present on the spot, immediately took out her bayonet and she killed her husband. Even Subhash Chandra Bose was stunned to see such selflessness and bravery of Neera.

In the next part, I will tell you more about her.