Art Of Teaching

I saw her photo pop up in my face book page and was intrigued to read about her. So, I purchased the above book costing just 160/-, and what I read brought tears of anger and also frustration at how women are physically abused when their mental strength and courage cannot be diminished under any circumstances.

Neera Arya took birth in a illustrious & well-known businessman Seth Chhajumal’s family on the day of 5^th March,1902 in Khekra Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. She grew up in the nationalist spirit and always had a visualization of becoming a part of the Indian Freedom Movement.

Calcutta was the centre of her father’s business, so they were staying at Calcutta and she acquired her education from Calcutta.  She was multilingual as  she knew quite a few languages along with Bengali, Hindi and English.

 Her husband was Shrikant Jairanjan Das who was working as a CID Inspector in British India. The irony of their marriage was that they were two dissimilar individuals, who followed different ideals.  Neera Arya was a dedicated nationalist whereas her husband was a loyal British servant. She secretly joined the Jhansi Regiment in Azad Hind Sena. The British Government believed that this regiment was formed to spy on the British Government and its activities.

 Shrikant Jairanjan Das was prearranged to have the responsibility to infiltrate on the activities of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and to assassinate him at the first available instance.  Shrikant Jairanjan Das got a chance and opened fire on Netaji but luckily, he survived as the bullet hit his driver. When Neera came to know this, she stabbed her husband to death to save the life of Netaji.

Nejaji named her “Naagin” for killing her husband for the sake of Indian Independence. The fact is that when Azad Hind Sena surrendered and the trial took place in the Red Fort, all the prisoners of Azad Hind Sena were released, except for Neera. She was sentenced to “Kalapani” for the murder of her husband. She was also reportedly accused as an undercover agent by the British Govt.

 Not only that, she was tortured every day. This we come to know from her autobiography, written by an Urdu Female writer by the name of Farhana Taj.

If we go through her autobiography one of the most heart-wrenching part is when she narrates that when she was undergoing trial, she was taken to Andaman Jail from Calcutta. She narrated the imagery of small cells where many women like her who had opposed the political powers were serving their sentences.

She talks of her torture when she recalls that the blacksmith who had come to remove her shackles, took off a little skin from her hands which she ignored thinking maybe it was by mistake. But when he was cutting of the shackles from her legs, he hit her bones with a hammer two to three times, that she could not bear the pain and cried out in agony saying that was he blind that he was hitting her legs. The blacksmith replied arrogantly that he could hit on her heart also and she would not be able to do anything about it. She then spit on him saying that at least he should learn to respect women.

The Jailor who was watching all this asked her where was Netaji hiding? He further added that he could let her go if she disclosed his whereabouts. She replied fiercely that he had expired in a plane crash and the whole world knew about it. The jailor angrily rebuked her and said that she was lying and he knew that Netaji was Alive and she was very much aware of his whereabouts.

Neera replied that yes, Netaji was alive, in her mind and in her heart. On hearing this the jailor became furious with rage and retorted that in that case, they would remove Netaji from her heart and started touching her in appropriately and tore her blouse and made her chest naked. Then he looked at the blacksmith and gave him the signal.

The blacksmith took out a breast ripper and started pressing her right breast to cut it off. Though the ripper had no edge to it but the limits of pain was unbearable and Neera was screaming in pain and agony.

The jailor held her neck and hit her with a tweezer saying that if she ever argued, she would be bereft of both her breasts.

When India got independence, she was released from prison, But nobody appreciated the efforts of this unsung hero, It is a real shame that many such freedom fighters who contributed to this nations independence were never given recognition of any kind.

It is sad that Neera Arya spent the last days of her life selling flowers and living in a small hut in Falaknuma, Hyderabad.   Even her cottage was not spared or she was not provided with any alternate residence when the Indian Government demolished the structure saying that it was constructed on Government land.

She expired on 26^th July,1998 after living a life of dire poverty. It is a SHAME that even the Indian Government did not bother to acknowledge her sacrifices.

THE QUESTION REMAINS – DID SHE DESERVE THIS TYPE OF TREATMENT IN INDEPENDENT INDIA? WHY DID THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT NOT ACKNOWLEDGE HER PAIN AND SUFFERINGS AND GIVE HER THE RESPECT SHE DESERVED? I SALUTE THIS LADY WHO GAVE UP HER EVERYTHING FOR THE INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE

THERE ARE MANY MORE SUCH UNSUNG HEROES ABOUT WHOM I SHALL WRITE IN THE COMING BLOGS.

JAI HIND.