Sixty-nine years after India finally got its hard won independence, the courage and contributions of many little known freedom fighters have faded away from public memory. Largely overlooked by writers and historians, these men and women laid the foundation of India’s freedom from the British. One such unacknowledged heroine is a woman few Indians know about, a woman who lived a life of intrigue and danger to help her nation fight colonial rule.
Saraswathi Rajamani was born in Burma, in a family of freedom fighters, in 1927. Her father, an affluent miner from Trichy, was a staunch supporter of the freedom struggle; he settled down in Burma to escape arrest by the British authorities.
Rajamani grew up in a liberal household where there was little to no restrictions for the girls. The deeply patriotic girl was barely 10 when she met Mahatma Gandhi, who was visiting their palatial home in Rangoon (present day Yangon, the erstwhile capital of Burma).
Rajamani’s entire household had gathered together to meet Gandhi ji, who was already an important leader of the freedom struggle by then. As the family excitedly introduced themselves to the Mahatma, it was discovered that little Rajamani was missing. After a frantic search (Gandhi ji joined in too), the 10-year-old was found in the garden, honing her shooting skills.
Shocked to see the child with a gun, Gandhi ji asked Rajamani why she needed a gun.
“To shoot down the Britishers, of course,” she crisply answered, without even looking at him.
“Violence is not the answer, little girl. We are fighting the British through non-violent ways. You should also do that,” Gandhi ji urged.
“We shoot and kill the looters, don’t we? The British are looting India, and I am going to shoot at least one Britisher when I grow up,” said a determined Rajamani.
She was just 16 when Bose visited Rangoon at the height of World War II to collect funds and recruit volunteers for INA. Unlike Gandhi ji and the Indian National Congress, Bose urged everyone to take up arms to liberate India from British rule. Deeply impressed with his fiery speech, Rajamani removed all her expensive gold and diamond jewellery and donated it to the Indian National Army.