Chennai: When we think of the freedom struggle, it is imperative that we remember leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose etc.
Little do we pay attention to the soldiers/cadres who served under such key leaders. One among them was Subramani, at Ambattur in the city who took part in the Indian freedom struggle.
In conversation with ‘News Today’, the fighter’s son S Ramesh, a resident of Thiruninravur, narrates the ordeals that his father was put through during the course of freedom struggle.
An Indian by birth, Subramani settled in Burma, present day Myanmar, during his early ages, when the forefathers of Subramani went in search of trading opportunities.
Way back in 1940s, during the second World War, in an attempt to attack Britain forces, the Indian National Army force that was founded by Bose, reached Burma.
When the leader was gathering additional forces, there was on order enforced which proclaimed one person from a family to join the INA.
And that is how Subramani, a tenth grade student in Rangoon, became a freedom fighter.
Under his leadership, there was a batallion of 150 members who strongly stood against the British forces.
“My father ran off to join the INA without even informing his parents,” says his son.
While it was too young for his age, he served as a Lieutenant General and Personal Officer to Bose.
“Back in those days, India, Burma, Sri Lanka were considered as a single dominion and the Britons invaded the Southeast Asian countries,” added Ramesh.
“My father and his battalion, together with Japanese forces, fought for independence. As the struggle became intense, the opponents imprisoned the INA for quite some time.”
The soldiers were tormented when they were imprisoned in Burma. After combating with the Britons, the Burmese Indians found their way back to their motherland.
With freedom struggle gaining huge momentum among the native people during the period, the INA prisoners along with other Indians somehow reached the borders of Manipur and were repatriated to their respective States.
“My father was in Calcutta for few years and I was born there. Within few years, we came back to Madras and got settled in Thiruninravur. Honouring his contribution, for several years he was invited by the Collector of Thiruvallur district for flag hoisting ceremony during Independence Day and Republic Day,” says Ramesh with a sense of contentment.