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Women at War: Subhas Chandra Bose and the Rani of Jhansi Regiment
I want a unit of brave Indian women to form a “Death-defying Regiment” who will wield the sword which the brave Rani of Jhansi wielded in India’s First War of Independence in 1857.' ¬– Subhas Chandra Bose
The Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR), the first all-female infantry fighting unit in military history, was created in Singapore in July 1943 by Indian nationalist and visionary leader Subhas Chandra Bose to liberate India from British colonial oppression.
His young recruits were girls from Indian families of the diasporas in Singapore, Malaya and Burma and consisted entirely of civilian volunteers lacking any prior military training. These soldiers, deployed to the steamy jungles of Burma during the last two years of World War II, were determined to follow their commander to victory. Seven decades later, their history has been forgotten, their service and the role played by Bose himself having remained largely unexplored.
Through in-depth interviews with the surviving Ranis – in their eighties and nineties – and meticulous archival research, historian Vera Hildebrand has uncovered extensive new evidence that separates the myth of the Bengali hero and his jungle warrior maidens from historical fact. The result is a wholly fresh perspective on the remarkable women of the RJR and their place in Indian and world history. The truth is every bit as impressive as the myth.
The Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR), the first all-female infantry fighting unit in military history, was created in Singapore in July 1943 by Indian nationalist and visionary leader Subhas Chandra Bose to liberate India from British colonial oppression.
His young recruits were girls from Indian families of the diasporas in Singapore, Malaya and Burma and consisted entirely of civilian volunteers lacking any prior military training. These soldiers, deployed to the steamy jungles of Burma during the last two years of World War II, were determined to follow their commander to victory. Seven decades later, their history has been forgotten, their service and the role played by Bose himself having remained largely unexplored.
Through in-depth interviews with the surviving Ranis – in their eighties and nineties – and meticulous archival research, historian Vera Hildebrand has uncovered extensive new evidence that separates the myth of the Bengali hero and his jungle warrior maidens from historical fact. The result is a wholly fresh perspective on the remarkable women of the RJR and their place in Indian and world history. The truth is every bit as impressive as the myth.
328 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
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207 people want to read
About the author
Vera Hildebrand
1 book2 followersVera Hildebrand has a PhD in Indian history and culture from Georgetown University. She is a senior research fellow at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies at University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Previously, she taught at Harvard University and University of Copenhagen.
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February 17, 2018
Vera Hildebrand moved from Denmark to India because of her husband’s job. She noted the difference between Indian and European women and decided to examine the history of Indian women. While doing her research she came across information about the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of Women. The Rani was a regiment of women combat trained soldiers who served in Burma during World War Two.
The book is well written and meticulously researched. The first part of the book is an overview of the history of women in India. The second half is about the Rani. Hildebrand interviewed the last of the living Rani women she could find. The others she consulted were families, colleagues, letters, diaries and archival information. These women’s families moved to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia from India in the 1930s for work. When I bought the book, I had assumed the Rani were fighting against the Japanese. But to my surprise I discovered they were part of the group fighting for independence from Britain and were allied with Japan against the British. The regiment was stationed in Burma. Although all of the women were trained for combat, the women were divided into two groups. The first group were educated physicians and nurses who spoke two or three languages. The second group were uneducated, primarily Tamil, and were trained only for combat. Some were also skilled in the use of Morse Code. They apparently were very impressive in their uniforms and precision goosestep marching. But they apparently were never in actual combat expect for a few exceptions. Mostly, this is a story about the fight for India’s independence from Britain. There are lots of photographs to enhance the book.
I read this as an e-book downloaded to my Kindle app on my iPad. It is 328 pages.
The book is well written and meticulously researched. The first part of the book is an overview of the history of women in India. The second half is about the Rani. Hildebrand interviewed the last of the living Rani women she could find. The others she consulted were families, colleagues, letters, diaries and archival information. These women’s families moved to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia from India in the 1930s for work. When I bought the book, I had assumed the Rani were fighting against the Japanese. But to my surprise I discovered they were part of the group fighting for independence from Britain and were allied with Japan against the British. The regiment was stationed in Burma. Although all of the women were trained for combat, the women were divided into two groups. The first group were educated physicians and nurses who spoke two or three languages. The second group were uneducated, primarily Tamil, and were trained only for combat. Some were also skilled in the use of Morse Code. They apparently were very impressive in their uniforms and precision goosestep marching. But they apparently were never in actual combat expect for a few exceptions. Mostly, this is a story about the fight for India’s independence from Britain. There are lots of photographs to enhance the book.
I read this as an e-book downloaded to my Kindle app on my iPad. It is 328 pages.
January 23, 2021
The formation in Singapore in 1943 of a corps of female Indian battle soldiers, the Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR), remains one of the more incredible endeavours of the Asia-Pacific auditorium in World War II.
This division was the first in chronicled military account that encompassed only women. Undeniably, the Soviet Union’s Red Air Force in World War II had limited regiments of women pilots, but the support staff included men. At any rate, these troops were not formally designated as “women’s regiments”. The RJR’s status as the world’s solitary all-women ground forces fighting contingent remains unchallenged.
Even though history and allegory alike are chock-full with stories of female combatants from Queen Vishpala of the Rig Veda to the Amazons of Greek folklore to the recent Kurdish Peshmerga Force, most of these antique and legendary female warriors fought alone or with bands of soldiers to protect their homes.
The historical Rani of Jhansi was a widow who belonged to the last category.
In addition to the fighters, the women in the RJR included a minor contingent of weapons- trained nurses. They were called Ranis and served in the Azad Hind Fauj, the Army of Free India.
This army in exile consisting of fifty thousand Indian men and women was formed in cooperation with the Japanese army, joining the Axis powers to liberate India from British colonial rule. The Ranis in the INA were deployed in the Burma campaign during the final stages of WWII.
In this well written and punctiliously researched tome, historian Vera Hildebrand speaks of the history of the Ranis.
The book can be broadly carved up into two parts. In the first portion, the author provides a bird’s eye view of the antiquity of the Ranis, while the second half is the interview of the last of the living Rani she could find.
Hildebrand divides her book into sixteen chapters:
1) Searching for the Rani of Jhansi Regiment
2) History of Indian Women in India and the Diasporas
3) Subhas Chandra Bose – A Man Not of His Time
4) Bose and Gandhi at Odds over the Freedom Struggle
5) Subhas Chandra Bose and Women
6) The Indian Freedom Movement in Malaya and Burma Prior to the Arrival of Bose
7) Bose in South-East Asia
8) Creation and Missions of the RJR
9) Captain Lakshmi, Bose and the Recruitment of the RJR
10) Singapore – The Ranis Prepare for War
11) Daily Rani Routines in Camp
12) The RJR in Rangoon and Maymyo
13) RJR Retreats from Rangoon
14) Varying Accounts of the RJR
15) The End of the Quest
16) Final Reflections on Subhas Chandra Bose and the RJR
Five comprehensive events congregated in the summer of 1943 to facilitate the formation of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
1) Since the Bengali Renaissance movement in the 19th century, the perception of Indian women had evolved in constructive ways, and in recent decades Gandhi’s determinations to marshal Indian women for the independence movement had fostered that inclination. Characteristics of life in the Indian communities in Malaya, Singapore and Burma caused this broadminded transferal in the status of Indian women to become more apparent in migrated communities than among Indians residing on the Indian mainland.
2) Centred in Bengal and adversative to Gandhi’s passive resistance, the use of might, including by women, became a bulbous instrument in the hands of insurgents who were fighting for Indian independence.
3) The charismatic Bose, the most protuberant leader endorsing armed rebellion against the British Raj, matured to hold advanced views for his time on gender issues.
4) The outrageously rapid defeat of the British by the Japanese in Burma, Malaya and Singapore in early 1942 had shaken the myth of imperial invincibility and fanned the embers of Indian nationalism in the South-East Asian diaspora, away from daily oppressive colonial realities in India.
5) Tens of thousands of Indian prisoners of war held by the Japanese army in Malaya combined with this intensified Indian nationalism, led Bose to conclude that the best chance for the military liberation of India was an invasion across the Indo-Burma border.
The confluence of these disparate factors inspired Bose to recruit women from the Indian diaspora. And the women dared to exploit the opportunity to enlist in the Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
The dominant themes of this book encompass the details of this configuration of societal and political forces and their manifestation in the formation, enrollment, preparation and placement to Burma of these fighting women.
Bose named the Rani of Jhansi Regiment after Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, the Indian superwoman who died on the battlefield belligerent against the British during the First War of Indian Independence in 1857.
As Lakshmi Swaminathan Sahgal (1914–2012), the leader of the unit, clarified in an interview with the author in Kanpur, in January 2008, ‘Netaji told us that he chose the name “Rani of Jhansi” for the Regiment because he had read an article by an Englishman, who after the Mutiny in 1857 wrote that “if there had been a thousand women like the Rani, we could never have conquered India”.’
In the years since the RJR capitulation in 1945, the story of Subhas Chandra Bose and the Rani Regiment of female combatants, as moniker symbols of both the national fight for independence and of Indian women’s struggle for gender parity, has taken on the aspect of myth.
The author’s interviews with the veteran Ranis together with archival research comprise the substantiation that separates the myth of the Bengali hero and his jungle warrior maidens from historical fact, and this resulting book presents a precise narrative of the Ranis. The facts are nearly as imposing as the myth.
A principal reason for the customary omission of women from ‘ground combat’ has been to avert them from becoming prisoners of war and suffering rape. The Rani of Jhansi soldiers, fully supposing to engross in ground warfare, accepted the hazard of being taken prisoners.hardly ever considering the danger of rape.
Innocent in this regard, they deployed to the steamy jungles of Burma determined to follow their hero to victory and to the liberation of India.
The Rani of Jhansi infantry and nursing units of the INA consisted entirely of civilian volunteers lacking any prior military training. They were recruited from traditional Indian families of the diasporas in Singapore, Malaya and Burma.
The number of women in the Rani Regiment as reported by the press and even by historians has been as high as five thousand. Through new research, this book institutes the precise number.
Almost none of these new soldiers had been engaged in any political activity prior to enlisting in the Rani Regiment. They were profoundly devoted to Bose’s nationalist cause, went through spirited military training before they were deployed to north central Burma in 1944 when the INA, in concert with the Japanese 15th Army, fought the Allied forces in an attempt to cross the border from Burma into the state of Manipur at the city of Imphal.
Because the creation of an Indian all-female squadron of combat soldiers was a drastic military innovation in 1943, and because the role of women in today’s wider milieu of Indian culture has become a predominant and pressing issue, the extensive testimony of the surviving veterans of this unit is timely and urgent.
More than seven decades later, the history of these fearless women soldiers is little known, their astounding service and the part played by Bose having remained principally unmapped.
This book tells their story.
A must read.
This division was the first in chronicled military account that encompassed only women. Undeniably, the Soviet Union’s Red Air Force in World War II had limited regiments of women pilots, but the support staff included men. At any rate, these troops were not formally designated as “women’s regiments”. The RJR’s status as the world’s solitary all-women ground forces fighting contingent remains unchallenged.
Even though history and allegory alike are chock-full with stories of female combatants from Queen Vishpala of the Rig Veda to the Amazons of Greek folklore to the recent Kurdish Peshmerga Force, most of these antique and legendary female warriors fought alone or with bands of soldiers to protect their homes.
The historical Rani of Jhansi was a widow who belonged to the last category.
In addition to the fighters, the women in the RJR included a minor contingent of weapons- trained nurses. They were called Ranis and served in the Azad Hind Fauj, the Army of Free India.
This army in exile consisting of fifty thousand Indian men and women was formed in cooperation with the Japanese army, joining the Axis powers to liberate India from British colonial rule. The Ranis in the INA were deployed in the Burma campaign during the final stages of WWII.
In this well written and punctiliously researched tome, historian Vera Hildebrand speaks of the history of the Ranis.
The book can be broadly carved up into two parts. In the first portion, the author provides a bird’s eye view of the antiquity of the Ranis, while the second half is the interview of the last of the living Rani she could find.
Hildebrand divides her book into sixteen chapters:
1) Searching for the Rani of Jhansi Regiment
2) History of Indian Women in India and the Diasporas
3) Subhas Chandra Bose – A Man Not of His Time
4) Bose and Gandhi at Odds over the Freedom Struggle
5) Subhas Chandra Bose and Women
6) The Indian Freedom Movement in Malaya and Burma Prior to the Arrival of Bose
7) Bose in South-East Asia
8) Creation and Missions of the RJR
9) Captain Lakshmi, Bose and the Recruitment of the RJR
10) Singapore – The Ranis Prepare for War
11) Daily Rani Routines in Camp
12) The RJR in Rangoon and Maymyo
13) RJR Retreats from Rangoon
14) Varying Accounts of the RJR
15) The End of the Quest
16) Final Reflections on Subhas Chandra Bose and the RJR
Five comprehensive events congregated in the summer of 1943 to facilitate the formation of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
1) Since the Bengali Renaissance movement in the 19th century, the perception of Indian women had evolved in constructive ways, and in recent decades Gandhi’s determinations to marshal Indian women for the independence movement had fostered that inclination. Characteristics of life in the Indian communities in Malaya, Singapore and Burma caused this broadminded transferal in the status of Indian women to become more apparent in migrated communities than among Indians residing on the Indian mainland.
2) Centred in Bengal and adversative to Gandhi’s passive resistance, the use of might, including by women, became a bulbous instrument in the hands of insurgents who were fighting for Indian independence.
3) The charismatic Bose, the most protuberant leader endorsing armed rebellion against the British Raj, matured to hold advanced views for his time on gender issues.
4) The outrageously rapid defeat of the British by the Japanese in Burma, Malaya and Singapore in early 1942 had shaken the myth of imperial invincibility and fanned the embers of Indian nationalism in the South-East Asian diaspora, away from daily oppressive colonial realities in India.
5) Tens of thousands of Indian prisoners of war held by the Japanese army in Malaya combined with this intensified Indian nationalism, led Bose to conclude that the best chance for the military liberation of India was an invasion across the Indo-Burma border.
The confluence of these disparate factors inspired Bose to recruit women from the Indian diaspora. And the women dared to exploit the opportunity to enlist in the Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
The dominant themes of this book encompass the details of this configuration of societal and political forces and their manifestation in the formation, enrollment, preparation and placement to Burma of these fighting women.
Bose named the Rani of Jhansi Regiment after Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, the Indian superwoman who died on the battlefield belligerent against the British during the First War of Indian Independence in 1857.
As Lakshmi Swaminathan Sahgal (1914–2012), the leader of the unit, clarified in an interview with the author in Kanpur, in January 2008, ‘Netaji told us that he chose the name “Rani of Jhansi” for the Regiment because he had read an article by an Englishman, who after the Mutiny in 1857 wrote that “if there had been a thousand women like the Rani, we could never have conquered India”.’
In the years since the RJR capitulation in 1945, the story of Subhas Chandra Bose and the Rani Regiment of female combatants, as moniker symbols of both the national fight for independence and of Indian women’s struggle for gender parity, has taken on the aspect of myth.
The author’s interviews with the veteran Ranis together with archival research comprise the substantiation that separates the myth of the Bengali hero and his jungle warrior maidens from historical fact, and this resulting book presents a precise narrative of the Ranis. The facts are nearly as imposing as the myth.
A principal reason for the customary omission of women from ‘ground combat’ has been to avert them from becoming prisoners of war and suffering rape. The Rani of Jhansi soldiers, fully supposing to engross in ground warfare, accepted the hazard of being taken prisoners.hardly ever considering the danger of rape.
Innocent in this regard, they deployed to the steamy jungles of Burma determined to follow their hero to victory and to the liberation of India.
The Rani of Jhansi infantry and nursing units of the INA consisted entirely of civilian volunteers lacking any prior military training. They were recruited from traditional Indian families of the diasporas in Singapore, Malaya and Burma.
The number of women in the Rani Regiment as reported by the press and even by historians has been as high as five thousand. Through new research, this book institutes the precise number.
Almost none of these new soldiers had been engaged in any political activity prior to enlisting in the Rani Regiment. They were profoundly devoted to Bose’s nationalist cause, went through spirited military training before they were deployed to north central Burma in 1944 when the INA, in concert with the Japanese 15th Army, fought the Allied forces in an attempt to cross the border from Burma into the state of Manipur at the city of Imphal.
Because the creation of an Indian all-female squadron of combat soldiers was a drastic military innovation in 1943, and because the role of women in today’s wider milieu of Indian culture has become a predominant and pressing issue, the extensive testimony of the surviving veterans of this unit is timely and urgent.
More than seven decades later, the history of these fearless women soldiers is little known, their astounding service and the part played by Bose having remained principally unmapped.
This book tells their story.
A must read.
June 19, 2021
Being a Bengali, I am always interested in Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. I have read quite a few books about him, his freedom struggle, his armed resistance named INA and his mystery-wrapped final exit. However those books are mostly by Bose loyalists and hence give one sided view of the time. Vera's book is different from those books. She examined a new set of documents, namely the British interrogation records besides the interviews of the "Ranis" which makes this book unique in a way. Also she refrained from making any good or bad judgement, rather she stated only the facts without taking any side.
This book offers a different insight to the Rani Jhansi Regiment and Captain Lakshmi. A good read indeed.
This book offers a different insight to the Rani Jhansi Regiment and Captain Lakshmi. A good read indeed.
August 6, 2017
Subhash Chandra Bose, “Netaji” as many Indians know him, was an Indian leader who established a provisional government in exile in Singapore in 1943, and created a rebel Indian National Army (INA) to fight for Indian independence.
Vera Hildebrand describes his creation of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR), an infantry regiment of women within the INA in 1943, as “one of the more improbable events of the Asia-Pacific theatre in World War II”.
I see RJR as proof of Bose’s ability to think beyond barriers and push for pan-Indian unity. He had already taken a huge unifying steps by creating common messes where neither beef nor pork were served, and soldiers of all faiths ate together. His choice of an Urdu motto for the Indian National Army (Ittehad, Itmad aur Qurbani – Unity, Faith and Sacrifice) helped to reassure Muslims of his secular credentials.
Hildebrand’s work is a solid product of research and impartiality. It is a huge achievement that in 2008 she was able to trace out all the survivors of the RJR, conduct interviews with them and correlate them with secondary sources, including some which she uncovered for the first time. Today, there would of course have been fewer survivors to talk to.
One of the lines of the book that stayed with me is that "the facts are nearly as impressive as the myth". Interestingly, the back-cover text chooses to mangle this to “the truth is every bit as impressive as the myth”.
The distinction is important because Hildebrand’s work is very impartial. It is clear that there are no sacred cows for her. She points out that Bose abandoned his wife and daughter in Europe at a time when the tide had turned against the Axis, and that his concern was more for his image than for their safety. On the other hand, he was truly fatherly towards the RJR, and ensured that they were safely withdrawn from Rangoon to Bangkok, travelling with them and refusing to take a safer and faster passage out for himself. Hildebrand documents some issues that the “myth makers” would never touch upon – for example romantic relations between the women of the RJR and the rest of the INA. I found it interesting that Captain Lakshmi’s transfer was likely to have been an effort to contain the fallout of her affair with her future husband. Also, there were cases of Ranis being discharged after they became pregnant. Equally interesting was the fact that apart from Bose’s charisma, oratory and sincerity, it was brute force applied by his “evil genius” aide General Chatterjee that helped to raise funds for the INA. Another aide, Anand Mohan Sahay, directly used methods borrowed from the Japanese Kempetai to motivate Indians in South East Asia to “donate” funds. She does note, however, that C. Hugh Toye, Head of British Intelligence in Burma, was emphatic that Bose himself did not directly sanction any torture.
What role Bose really had in mind for the RJR if the INA’s military campaign had been more successful remains unknown. They were clearly trained for combat and nursing, with a focus on combat. This, at a time when the Japanese Army was using comfort women, was an act incredibly far ahead of its times.
Sadly, Bose’s legacy of communal harmony and gender equality was shattered during the genocide of Indian partition, and for decades he was relegated to the status of a regional hero of West Bengal – an ironic fate for someone who smashed barriers of caste, religion and even gender. Shyam Benegal’s 2005 film was titled Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose: the Forgotten Hero. An interview with the Captain Lakshmi Sahgal (the leader of RJR) provides some interesting context to the film.
While Hildebrand does discuss Bose’s limitations and failures, I thought one piece that was missing – given the context of the book – was an analysis of how the RJR is one of the many proof points that Bose was completely anti-Nazi in his beliefs, and it was only lack of alternatives that led him to ally with the Nazis and the Japanese. The Nazis had clearly defined roles for women: church, children, home.
Still, Women at War deserves to become a classic for its painstaking, impartial and exhaustive approach to a grossly under-studied topic. And the bottom line remains that it is enough that the facts are nearly as impressive as the myth.
Vera Hildebrand describes his creation of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR), an infantry regiment of women within the INA in 1943, as “one of the more improbable events of the Asia-Pacific theatre in World War II”.
I see RJR as proof of Bose’s ability to think beyond barriers and push for pan-Indian unity. He had already taken a huge unifying steps by creating common messes where neither beef nor pork were served, and soldiers of all faiths ate together. His choice of an Urdu motto for the Indian National Army (Ittehad, Itmad aur Qurbani – Unity, Faith and Sacrifice) helped to reassure Muslims of his secular credentials.
Hildebrand’s work is a solid product of research and impartiality. It is a huge achievement that in 2008 she was able to trace out all the survivors of the RJR, conduct interviews with them and correlate them with secondary sources, including some which she uncovered for the first time. Today, there would of course have been fewer survivors to talk to.
One of the lines of the book that stayed with me is that "the facts are nearly as impressive as the myth". Interestingly, the back-cover text chooses to mangle this to “the truth is every bit as impressive as the myth”.
The distinction is important because Hildebrand’s work is very impartial. It is clear that there are no sacred cows for her. She points out that Bose abandoned his wife and daughter in Europe at a time when the tide had turned against the Axis, and that his concern was more for his image than for their safety. On the other hand, he was truly fatherly towards the RJR, and ensured that they were safely withdrawn from Rangoon to Bangkok, travelling with them and refusing to take a safer and faster passage out for himself. Hildebrand documents some issues that the “myth makers” would never touch upon – for example romantic relations between the women of the RJR and the rest of the INA. I found it interesting that Captain Lakshmi’s transfer was likely to have been an effort to contain the fallout of her affair with her future husband. Also, there were cases of Ranis being discharged after they became pregnant. Equally interesting was the fact that apart from Bose’s charisma, oratory and sincerity, it was brute force applied by his “evil genius” aide General Chatterjee that helped to raise funds for the INA. Another aide, Anand Mohan Sahay, directly used methods borrowed from the Japanese Kempetai to motivate Indians in South East Asia to “donate” funds. She does note, however, that C. Hugh Toye, Head of British Intelligence in Burma, was emphatic that Bose himself did not directly sanction any torture.
What role Bose really had in mind for the RJR if the INA’s military campaign had been more successful remains unknown. They were clearly trained for combat and nursing, with a focus on combat. This, at a time when the Japanese Army was using comfort women, was an act incredibly far ahead of its times.
Sadly, Bose’s legacy of communal harmony and gender equality was shattered during the genocide of Indian partition, and for decades he was relegated to the status of a regional hero of West Bengal – an ironic fate for someone who smashed barriers of caste, religion and even gender. Shyam Benegal’s 2005 film was titled Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose: the Forgotten Hero. An interview with the Captain Lakshmi Sahgal (the leader of RJR) provides some interesting context to the film.
While Hildebrand does discuss Bose’s limitations and failures, I thought one piece that was missing – given the context of the book – was an analysis of how the RJR is one of the many proof points that Bose was completely anti-Nazi in his beliefs, and it was only lack of alternatives that led him to ally with the Nazis and the Japanese. The Nazis had clearly defined roles for women: church, children, home.
Still, Women at War deserves to become a classic for its painstaking, impartial and exhaustive approach to a grossly under-studied topic. And the bottom line remains that it is enough that the facts are nearly as impressive as the myth.
September 28, 2020
Women At War by Vera Hildebrand
What I liked about this book -
Stories which need to be heard specially when lacking books or any written form or testament to what women can do, I am thankful to Vera for writing such a piece of history which needs to be known, that if women despite the oddalities when put to a task can piously set to do it.
- Coming to the book, what I admired were proses of Subhash Chandra Bose which gives a suitable picture of how he was as a man, his ambitions and thereon interpretations of people on accounts of his historic ideas.
- RJR : Accounts of Rani's and how in the pre independent era, group of diaspora women had joined to serve the country, their views, their experiences
-Well researched even though it is mentioned in the book that how several accounts is docs relating to INA were destroyed.
Dislikes -
- The starting chapters were based on facts gathered from various resources which did provide real accounts of what happened , RJR routine, the Rani's reteospect (some of them) and the whole concept of RJR from other accounts. Some of the chapters towards end felt repetitive.
Also though I am aware of the Indian patriarchy,
still it pinched to read about how it still persists even now.(but I'm glad Vera addressed them)
- In some accounts I felt when the writer gave their own understanding of the situation ( obviously from the well researched materials and after having interviews) , her own exclamaints felt judgemental and somewhat not required given the integrity of the cause and the historical accounts she was writing about.
All in all a must read as it tells an important historical account and of the bravery of women and men.
What I liked about this book -
Stories which need to be heard specially when lacking books or any written form or testament to what women can do, I am thankful to Vera for writing such a piece of history which needs to be known, that if women despite the oddalities when put to a task can piously set to do it.
- Coming to the book, what I admired were proses of Subhash Chandra Bose which gives a suitable picture of how he was as a man, his ambitions and thereon interpretations of people on accounts of his historic ideas.
- RJR : Accounts of Rani's and how in the pre independent era, group of diaspora women had joined to serve the country, their views, their experiences
-Well researched even though it is mentioned in the book that how several accounts is docs relating to INA were destroyed.
Dislikes -
- The starting chapters were based on facts gathered from various resources which did provide real accounts of what happened , RJR routine, the Rani's reteospect (some of them) and the whole concept of RJR from other accounts. Some of the chapters towards end felt repetitive.
Also though I am aware of the Indian patriarchy,
still it pinched to read about how it still persists even now.(but I'm glad Vera addressed them)
- In some accounts I felt when the writer gave their own understanding of the situation ( obviously from the well researched materials and after having interviews) , her own exclamaints felt judgemental and somewhat not required given the integrity of the cause and the historical accounts she was writing about.
All in all a must read as it tells an important historical account and of the bravery of women and men.
April 24, 2018
Great book on Bose's concept of an all-female regiment which was intended to be part of his Indian National Army, raised to fight the British in the South-east Asian theatre during WWII. Hildebrand does an excellent task of impartially assessing Bose's record both as a politician and nationalist (impressive and charismatic) as well as a military leader (not very good and tactically weak).
What she does unearth is that the Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR) was much smaller than was popularly claimed by former officers such as Lakshmi Seghal and other hagiographers of Bose and was never seriously planned nor ready to take part in combat operations. Bose's intention were never made very clear, and though he constantly promised the women that they would fight and die alongside their male INA comrades, he took care to ensure they never saw active duty. Their main role seems to have been for propaganda and symbolic purposes. Despite this it is touching to see that when the author, interviewed the 22 surviving Ranis, that they all expressed disappointment (with only 3 exceptions) that they were not able to fight and sacrifice their lives for their country. Most of them recall their time with the RJR with immense fondness and Bose as almost a semi-divine figure that could do no wrong.
What she does unearth is that the Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR) was much smaller than was popularly claimed by former officers such as Lakshmi Seghal and other hagiographers of Bose and was never seriously planned nor ready to take part in combat operations. Bose's intention were never made very clear, and though he constantly promised the women that they would fight and die alongside their male INA comrades, he took care to ensure they never saw active duty. Their main role seems to have been for propaganda and symbolic purposes. Despite this it is touching to see that when the author, interviewed the 22 surviving Ranis, that they all expressed disappointment (with only 3 exceptions) that they were not able to fight and sacrifice their lives for their country. Most of them recall their time with the RJR with immense fondness and Bose as almost a semi-divine figure that could do no wrong.
July 5, 2020
The Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR) : The first all-female fighting unit in military history
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' I want a unit of brave Indian women to form a "Death-Defying Regiment" who will wield the sword which the brave Rani of Jhansi wielded in India's First war of Independence. '
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
Women at war, Subhash Chandra Bose and the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, was thoroughly researched and a beautifully written book on a subject, which in India, very few people are aware of.
For the detailed review you can also visit - https://dontbignorant.in/women-at-war...
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' I want a unit of brave Indian women to form a "Death-Defying Regiment" who will wield the sword which the brave Rani of Jhansi wielded in India's First war of Independence. '
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
Women at war, Subhash Chandra Bose and the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, was thoroughly researched and a beautifully written book on a subject, which in India, very few people are aware of.
For the detailed review you can also visit - https://dontbignorant.in/women-at-war...
August 11, 2020
One of the most respected leaders, who ever lived. As said, who was ahead of its time, gave hope to millions to Dream of a Free Nation, which we are longing even Today. Live for others- if you want to Live. "Democrat at heart, but Dictator in effect".
Rani Karuna a young Teenager, with her most cherished possession– a tiny portrait of Bose. With a sweet smile that lit up her beautiful face, Karuna remembered, ‘Netaji made me fight for India. My hope was to fight like Rani Lakshmibai Queen of Jhansi.
Always makes me think How Political rivalalry destroyed India's most respected leaders who lived for others?
Rani Karuna a young Teenager, with her most cherished possession– a tiny portrait of Bose. With a sweet smile that lit up her beautiful face, Karuna remembered, ‘Netaji made me fight for India. My hope was to fight like Rani Lakshmibai Queen of Jhansi.
Always makes me think How Political rivalalry destroyed India's most respected leaders who lived for others?
June 6, 2017
It was a very interesting read. I did not know many of the facts presented in this book, and they opened my mind about my country's struggle for independence.
This book is brutally factual. Vera Hildebrand has done a fantastic job in segregating fact from fiction and presenting a very true picture of what actually happened.
But I think the title is misleading. The women never actually go to war! They never really take part in combat! One possible explanation for this, as given in this book, is that these female soldiers were just a propaganda unit and were never actually meant to fight! That ruins things a bit, doesn't it? So 'Women at War' is a bait to captivate readers. Of course, if you consider it in a figurative sense, they broke traditions and took a majot step in gender equality. But still, my problem persists. They never fought the enemy. They were never 'at' war. My problem is with the use of the preposition.
Nonetheless, the book managed to transport me to the jungles of Burma and the camps of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. This book has developed my understanding of the freedom struggle.
This book is brutally factual. Vera Hildebrand has done a fantastic job in segregating fact from fiction and presenting a very true picture of what actually happened.
But I think the title is misleading. The women never actually go to war! They never really take part in combat! One possible explanation for this, as given in this book, is that these female soldiers were just a propaganda unit and were never actually meant to fight! That ruins things a bit, doesn't it? So 'Women at War' is a bait to captivate readers. Of course, if you consider it in a figurative sense, they broke traditions and took a majot step in gender equality. But still, my problem persists. They never fought the enemy. They were never 'at' war. My problem is with the use of the preposition.
Nonetheless, the book managed to transport me to the jungles of Burma and the camps of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. This book has developed my understanding of the freedom struggle.
August 4, 2020
A well researched book on the Rani of Jhansi regiment. The author actually met the survivors and their relatives. The book tells the truth of what the regiment did and what we are actually made to believe by jingoistic historical narratives. Very fascinating and balanced narrative.
June 26, 2023
Barely started. Writer's lack of the understanding of Indian society is so evident that reading this book would be a waste of time.
May 17, 2024
Best book in the uni!!!!!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews