Unsung Heroes Detail

Lt. Bharati ‘Asha’ Sahay Choudhry was born in Kobe, Japan, in 1928. Her father, Anand Mohan Sahay, was a Minister in the Cabinet of the Azad Hind Government and a Political Adviser to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He was also a close associate of Dr. Rajendra Prasad before he went to Japan and launched the Indian National Congress branch in Kobe. He worked closely with Rash Behari Bose and was instrumental in bringing Netaji to Japan in 1943 and forming Indian Independence League branches across Asia. Along with Netaji, he was the second to step foot in the Andamans when the islands were liberated. After the Japanese surrender, he was imprisoned in Singapore along with other members of the INA. Asha met Netaji with her mother, Sati Sen Sahay when she was 15. Sati was the niece of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and participated in the non-cooperation movement. She studied in Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan and played a crucial role in instilling patriotism in Asha from a young age. Asha was formally inducted into the Rani of the Jhansi Regiment in early 1945. She trained in Bangkok and was imprisoned after the Japanese surrender. She was reunited with her father in April 1946 and they returned to India along with Asha’s uncle, Satyadev Sahay, who served as Director of, the Intelligence Bureau, INA. The three toured India spreading the word of the efforts of the INA to liberate India. Her diary, written in Japanese between 1943 and 1947, is one of the most significant personal accounts of the Indian freedom movement, wherein she forges a path that takes her from war-torn Tokyo to the jungles of Thailand. She learns how to hold a rifle and shoot the enemy, and she discovers what it means to be a patriot fighting for the liberation of a country she has no memories of but carries deep in her heart. Asha is 94 years old and lives in Patna with her son, Sanjay Choudhry, and daughter-in-law, Ratna.