No language barriers, we were all one, recalls INA veteran

As India celebrated the 125th birth anniversary of

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

, far away in

Malaysia

, K R Somasundram nostalgically recalled how as a 14-year-old, he convinced INA officials that he was ready, fit and 16 years old, the minimum age required to join the

Azad Hind Fauj

.

“Possibly my demeanour misled them, or my eagerness won them over,” chuckles

Somasundaram

, now 90, chairman of Malaysia’s plantation workers’ cooperative, the National Land Finance Cooperative Society Limited (NLFCS).

Somasundram wasn’t the only one. Recruitment officers of the INA met hundreds of young boys and even girls from different parts of Malaya peninsula and the island of

Singapore

, eager to lay down their lives for India’s freedom after listening to Netaji’s stirring

speeches

. Remembering one such speech at Singapore’s Cathay Theatre, Somasundaram said, “Such was the magnetism of Netaji’s words that more than 2,000 people, both soldiers and citizens, stood still in overwhelming silence for two hours before breaking into thunderous applause after his speech.”

For Somasundram himself, his first brush with the fiery leader came about as a helper in a shop in his hometown. “With the British retreating in 1942, our schools also closed and my father decided to send me to work at his friend’s shop. I heard inspiring stories of India’s freedom struggle and also read them in newspapers.”

“The one thing that really built the Azad Hind Fauj and stands even today as a testimony to Netaji’s leadership is the

training

we received as army recruits,” added Somasundram. At the Azad School of Training, Somasundram underwent a 9-month course in guerilla warfare and jungle training, under former Indian Army officers who had joined the INA. “Roman Hindi was used in the INA and hence no language barriers existed; we were all one,” he said.