Born in Japan, India’s freedom fighter Lt Asha Sahay passes away in Patna at 97

Sahay was born on February 2, 1928, at Kobe in Japan to the couple Anand Mohan Sahay and Sati Sen Sahay, and when she died at 97, she was one of the oldest living freedom fighters in India. She was better known by her wartime name ‘Lt Asha Sahay’ that she earned when she joined as a lieutenant of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment in the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose-led Indian National Army (INA).

Born in Japan, one of the oldest surviving freedom fighters of India, Bharati Asha Sahay — better known by her wartime name ‘Lt Asha Sahay’, a lieutenant of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose-led Indian National Army (INA) — who took up arms against the British for India’s Independence, passed away at her son’s residence in Patna’s Sri Krishna Puri locality late on Tuesday evening. She was 97.

Bharati Asha Sahay aka Lt Asha Sahay

“My mother passed away peacefully in the presence of her family at 11.55pm on August 12, after a brief bout of recent illness. The cremation is at 4pm today,” said younger son Sanjay Choudhry, 68, former chief of public relations at Tata Steel and Coca-Cola.

Ambassador of Japan to India, Keiichi Ono and Anita Bose Pfaff, daughter of Netaji, were among the first few to have mourned her death, said Choudhry. She also leaves behind her daughter-in-law Ratna Choudhry, grandsons Tanuj Choudhry, his wife Tanvi Choudhry, and Harsh Choudhry, his wife Kanika Choudhry, and four great grandchildren.

Her elder son, the late Capt (Dr) Praveer Choudhry with the Indian Army, died early at the age of 29 years during a road accident in 1979. Sahay’s husband the late Dr LP Choudhry, a doctor with Tata Steel, died in 1985.

Sahay was born on February 2, 1928, at Kobe in Japan to the couple Anand Mohan Sahay and Sati Sen Sahay, the vanguard of India’s Independence movement. Her father was the founding secretary of the Indian Independence League, which in partnership with the Japanese government and the Indian soldiers of the British government, set up the INA, and called Netaji to lead it.

Sahay grew up in Japan and lived through the Second World War. She completed her schooling in Japanese and graduated from Showa Women’s University in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. She was popularly known as “Asako-san” in Japan.

“I vividly remember my meeting with Asako-san this past April — as if it were only yesterday. With her warm smile and remarkably fluent Japanese, she shared with me fond memories of her student days in Japan, as well as her memories of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi. These moments will always remain in my heart. In honour of Asako-san’s legacy, I am committed to continuing her mission and will dedicate myself to further strengthening the ties between the countries she so dearly loved — Japan and India,” wrote Keiichi Ono, Japan’s ambassador to India, in his condolence letter to her son Sanjay.

Sahay first met Netaji at the age of 15 when her mother took her to the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. She asked to join the INA, but Netaji told her to wait a year. At 17 years of age, she travelled to Bangkok and joined the Rani of Jhansi Regiment as a lieutenant in May 1945, when she met Netaji the second time. Thereafter, she met Netaji the last time when he disbanded the INA before his last journey, which ended in a plane crash in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 18, 1945.

Sahay returned to India in 1946 with her father and uncle, Satyadev, head of INA’s intelligence wing, after their release from Pearl Hill Prison in Singapore. She then accompanied her father on a national tour to recount the sacrifices of the INA, which helped spark both popular uprisings and mutinies in the British Indian armed forces, fast-tracking India’s independence.