"This is my father, Capt Yadav," and pointing to us, "these are the two visitors from Sri-Lanka," said Yadav junior, introducing us to the family as we walked into a house in the outskirts of New Delhi. A prominently inscribed name board on the wall at the entrance uniquely identified the chief occupant of the house as "Freedom Fighter", who is a living memory of the Indian freedom struggle, and the entire community in that housing estate takes pride.

Two of us, Mr. Navin Gooneratne, Patron on the Mahatma Gandhi Centre, Colombo and Dr. Mohamed Saleem, President of this centre were recently invited by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh to speak at an international conference titled "Cooperative Development, Peace and Security in South Asia" held from 27th to 29th November 2008. On our way to Chandigarh from Delhi we were hosted by the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), and Yadav Junior is the Protocol Officer of this Institute. From a casual conversation with him we learnt that Capt. Yadav has been a freedom fighter with the Indian National Army (constituted to free India from the British under the leadership of Subash Chandra Bose), and he would not mind talking to the two Sri-Lankans who were anxiously inquisitive to meet with this nonagenarian when Yadav junior revealed his father’s age after fixing an appointment for us.

"You are very welcome to this house" were the greeting words of Captain Yadav as he stood up stretching his hand to reach ours when we walked through the door on Sunday, the 30th November 2008. "We are indeed very honoured and grateful, Sir, for giving us this rare opportunity to meet you" responded Navin. At the outset he seemed pensive, and explained that he was sad about the terror siege, loss of innocent lives and properties at Mumbai just 72 hrs before and engagement of the special security personnel to restore normalcy. "This is not what we expected in a country for which we sacrificed our lives to create" murmured Capt. Yadav as he settled down with us to engage in a conversation over the next 90 minutes.

Capt. Ganesh Lal Yadav was born in 1912 in a village called Kanwali, Rewari District of Haryana State. He was one among the four children (two boys and two girls) to his parents, and he remembers his early days walking with his brother to the Kanwari Primary School. After four years of schooling he shifted to a secondary school at Kosli where he studied up to the Matriculation level before moving to the town Rohtak, at the age of 18years, for a pre-degree course with the intention of joining a degree programme. Child marriages were still common, and by family agreement Ganesh Lal was given in marriage just before he went to Rohtak. Societal customs required the newly wedded bride to live in the husband’s house, but Ganesh Lal never had a chance of seeing his wife as he became a victim to the future events that awaited him.

After finishing his first year qualifying exam, student Ganesh Lal Yadav with two other fellow students unsuspectingly strolled into an area where some British officers were engaged in a recruitment exercise for the Army. Curiosity and youth adventure pushed these students to go through the recruitment tests, to be told by the British officers that all three of them qualified and they were recruited immediately. According Yadav, they were not even allowed to return back to the college campus or to contact the family but were pushed into an army truck that took the new recruits to Agra. Information about their recruitment was later conveyed to the family by the Army office. The new Recruits were given a nine months training while attached to the 4th Komon Regiment, and later sent to the Hyderabad regiment in the N. W. Frontier.

In 1939, entire battalion which soldier Ganesh Lal Yadav was serving was sent to Singapore to quell civil tensions brewing against the British. When sirens of the Second World War intensified in 1942 the British forces in Singapore could not hold on to the territory against the advancing Japanese army. The British commanding officer Gen. Perceival at that time in Singapore ordered the servicemen under him to surrender to the Japanese Army, and Soldier Yadav was among them taken as prisoners of war.

Back in India, agitation against the British had gained uncontrollable momentum, and there were many in the civil service who disobeyed orders from the British. A leading Indian named Ras Bihari Bose attached to the Civil Service was one of them who came under the wrath of the British administration. As a result, he was expelled from India to Singapore, like what happened to many before him, as a punishment for anti-British activities and warning to all others with similar anti-British trait. The surrender of British army to the Japanese, and Indians as prisoners of war in Singapore was an opportunity to form a Indian fighting force against the British, and Ras Bihari Bose communicated this to his brother Subash Chandra Bose (also people affectionately called him Netaji) who was at that time touring Germany.

Netaji arrived in Singapore and, as Japanese had favoured any anti-British move, it was not difficult for Netaji to secure Japanese assistance for constituting the Indian National Army. According to Capt Yadav, there was spontaneous support for Netaji in Singapore from the people of Indian origin and also from others in the region. People voluntarily brought whatever savings they had in the form of cash, jewelry etc freely and filled in the coffers of the Indian National Army. There was no dearth of funds for the newly formed army under the command of Subash Chandra Bose to operate from the Burmese border.

Netaji too was in the civil service of India, and was an anti-British activist. He was also the President of a Committee of the Indian Congress, and therefore was in the inner circle having direct access to (Mahatma) Gandhi. Netaji was one of the few who could visit Gandhi when he was kept under detention by the British. A large number of Gandhi followers would walk with Netaji up to the Prison gate wherever Gandhi was held, and would wait for hours for Netaji to return after audience with Gandhi. Occasionally, Gandhi would walk back with Netaji to the prison open yard, and a glimpse of Gandhi was sufficient to drive the mass of people thronged outside the prison to a frenzy of Nationalism. On one such occasion Ganesh Lal Yadav was waiting outside the Red Fort Prison when Netaji went through the prison gate but returned within minutes agitated, complaining that Gandhi had not agreed to his proposal of resorting to militancy and armed struggle against the British to free India. Apparently, Gandhi had decreed against taking arms, saying that, he was not prepared to expose innocent people of India to be slaughtered by the military might of the British Army.

Soldier Yadav didn’t have any reservation to join Netaji in Singapore as he was able to recall Netaji’s last meeting with Gandhi, and he believed in Netaji’s sincerity about armed confrontation against the British. Soldier Yadav was given the rank of a Captain in charge of the intelligence division of the newly formed Indian National Army.

Captain Yadav recalled two incidents with Netaji. On the 17th August 1945 Netaji addressed his troops, and his words moves people even today as much as they did when he spoke on that day. He declared "The future generation of Indians who will be born, not as slaves but free men, because of your colossal sacrifice, will bless your names and proudly proclaim to the world that you, their forbearers, fought and lost the battle in Manipur, Assam and Burma, but that through temporary failure you paved the way to ultimate success and glory".

The other incident is about an order from Netaji (to Captain Yadav) to take control of a strategic position, Sita Hill in Burma. While advancing towards Sita hill with his troops, which included some Japanese, Captain Yadav realized that the British (Indian) Army was also moving in to take control of Sita hill. The advancing INA troops paused at a place which apparently had been vacated a short while before by the British (Indian) Army. Realizing the British (Indian) army was in the neighbourhood Capt Yadav decided to go alone on an intelligence mission. He came under direct fire from a British (Indian) Army hideout. With bullets lodged in right arm and leg and profusely bleeding, Capt. Yadav retreated and rode his motorcycle back to warn his troops positioned few kilometers away about the impending danger of siege. His bravery saved all his troops but, Capt. Yadav refused to escape with the rest of them as he was physically weak and, assuming that he had reached his final moments, he did not wish to be a burden or hindrance to the escape of others.

The Indian Troops that caught up found Capt. Yadav unconscious and took him as a prisoner of war. Some in the British (Indian) Army had recognized him as they had been in the same unit as Capt. Yadav when he was with the Hyderabad Regiment. Wounded Yadav was interrogated and sent for treatment. His bullet wounds did not heal for a long time and medical opinion in Lucknow hospital favoured amputation. As he was persuaded by a nursing sister not to agree for amputation he got himself discharged and went to a hospital in Agra under the special care of the same a nursing sister who by then had been transferred there from the Lucknow hospital. He slowly responded to treatment, and Capt. Yadav is still grateful and sentimentally attached to this ‘unknown nursing sister’ who had saved him from the trauma of amputation.

In 1947, India became independent, and all those who served in the Indian National Army were considered heroes. They were not rebels any more and therefore released. The free man, Capt. Yadav, still continued in the Agra hospital recuperating from his injuries. Also, he did not know where he would go to when released from the hospital as he had no contacts with any member of his family for many years. His village has assumed that Ganesh Lal Yadav was dead or had gone missing in action. A male attendant in the same hospital who happened to be from Kanwali had alerted family members that Yadav was alive, and that brought about the reunion of Capt. Yadav with his family. Soon he realized that many of the close family members were no more; including the young girl his family had identified to be his wife.

Capt. Yadav was a lost man when he was discharged from the hospital having no skills to restart life; and his injuries left him handicapped without full use of his limbs. He slowly learnt new skills, and family pressure made him to marry again. The sister of his ‘previous wife’ (who was not born at the time of his first marriage) took ‘pity’ on him and married him in 1954. With this, according to Capt. Yadav, he started a new life in Independent India. Although Capt. Yadav is older to his wife by about 32 years, he attributes every good thing that happened to him after marriage to his wife.

At the age of 96 and handicapped, with some bullet marks still not properly closed with flesh, Capt. Yadav is a very determined person. He still manages to move around the house unaided, and he protests against the concerned watchful eyes of the family even from a distance. According to his wife, he starts daily routine by making his bed as soon he wakes up by 5 a.m. in the morning and then waits for the cashier of his small fruit stall at the top of the lane to give instructions for the day and to receive the accounts at the end of the day.

Capt. Yadav holds no enmity against the British who occupied his country and caused a lot of personal injuries to him. He said that British hated the Indian National Army to such an extent that in July 1945 the British army demolished a memorial monument within two months from the date it was erected in the name of the INA in Singapore. All the more reason why Capt. Yadav was proud to show us the replica of this monument presented to him by the Government of Bengal and it reads:

"In the final month of Japanese occupation of Singapore a memorial dedicated to the "unknown warrior" of the Indian National Army (INA) was constructed at this site. The local INA was formed in 1942 with the Japanese support. It sought to liberate India from the British and consisted mainly of prisoners of war from the British Indian Army. Subhas Chandra Bose, who led the INA from 1943 onwards, laid a foundation stone at the monument site in July 1945. The urudu words inscribed on the monument read: IIEFAQ (Unity), ITMAD (Faith) and KURBANI (Sacrifice)."

Capt. Yadav concluded "I thought that Unity, Faith and Sacrifice would be basis of the new India that the Mahatma Gandhi wanted to build. I have not seen this happening, and I have no strength to start another struggle again. But we cannot stop struggles coming up in many forms in the future, and the recent Bombay incident is a manifestation of our failure to uphold unity, faith and sacrifice as our guiding principles.

As Navin and I left departed we reflected on the wisdom of Capt. Yadav. Navin is of the opinion that it will be a shame if Capt. Yadav’s story is not documented as an inspiration for the future generation. Probably there are not many left anywhere in world to relate first hand such a story from that era. We were fortunate to listen to this story from Capt. Yadav himself.