Rani of Jhansi Regiment

3 Service

The Rani of Jhansi Regiment was the Womens Regiment of the Indian National Army, the armed force
formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia
with the aim of overthrowing the British Raj in colonial
India, with Japanese assistance. It was one of the very few
all-female combat regiments of the Second World War on
any side. Led by Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan (better
known as Lakshmi Sahgal),[1] the unit was raised in July
1943 with volunteers from the expatriate Indian population in South East Asia.[2] The unit was named the Rani
of Jhansi Regiment after Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi.[3]

During the INAs Imphal campaign, an initial contingent

of nearly a hundred of the Rani of Jhansi troops moved to
Maymyo, part of which was intended to form a vanguard
unit to enter the Gangetic plains of Bengal after the expected fall of Imphal. A part of the unit also formed the
nursing corps at the INA hospital at Maymyo. Following
the failure of the siege of Imphal and the INAs disastrous
retreat, the Rani troops were tasked with coordinating the
relief and care of the INA troops who arrived at Monywa
and to Maymyo and were not used in combat.

4 End of the regiment

1

Establishment
After the fall of Rangoon and the withdrawal of the Azad
Hind government and Subhas Chandra Bose from the city
and through Burma, the troops originally from Burma
were allowed to disband, while the remainder of the regiment retreated along with the retreating Japanese forces
on foot and, when available, on mechanised transport.
During the retreat it suered some attacks both from Allied air attacks, as well as from the Burmese resistance
forces. The total number of casualties suered is not
known. The unit later disbanded.

Bose announced the formation of the Regiment on 12

July 1943.[4] Most of the women were teenage volunteers
of Indian descent from Malayan rubber estates; very few
had ever been to India.[5] The initial nucleus of the force
was established with its training camp in Singapore[6]
with approximately a hundred and seventy cadets. The
cadets were given ranks of non-commissioned ocer
or sepoy (private) according to their education. Later,
camps were established in Rangoon and Bangkok and by
November 1943, the unit had more than three hundred
cadets.[6]

5 See also
Lakshmi Sahgal
Indian National Army

Training

Janaki Davar

Training in Singapore began on 23 October 1943.[7] The

recruits were divided into sections and platoons and were
accorded ranks of Non-Commissioned Ocers and Sepoys according to their educational qualications. These
cadets underwent military and combat training with drills,
route marches as well as weapons training in ries, hand
grenades, and bayonet charges. Later, a number of
the cadets were chosen for more advanced training in
jungle warfare in Burma.F.<[6] The Regiment had its rst
passing out parade at the Singapore training camp of ve
hundred troops on 30 March 1944.[6]

6 Footnotes
[1] Pradeep, K. (25 July 2012). A revolutionary and a
singer. The Hindu. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
[2] Joyce Lebra, Women Against the Raj: The Rani of Jhansi
Regiment (2008) ch. 1-2
[3] Edwardes, Michael (1975) Red Year: the Indian Rebellion
of 1857. London: Sphere; p. 126
[4] Indian National Army: Womnes Regiment: How It All
Began. www.nas.gov.sg. National Archives of Singapore. 2003. Retrieved 18 February 2015.

Some 200 of the cadets were also chosen for nursing

training, forming the Chand Bibi Nursing Corps.
1

[5] Lebra, ch 2
[6] Indian National Army: Womens Regiment: Life in
camp. www.nas.gov.sg. National Archives of Singapore.
2003. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
[7] Sahgal, Lakshmi (23 July 2012). My days in the Indian
National Army by Lakshmi Sahgal. NDTV-New Delhi
Television. Retrieved 18 February 2015.

Sources
Hills, Carol and; Daniel C. Silverman (October
1993). Nationalism and Feminism in Late Colonial
India: The Rani of Jhansi Regiment (pdf). Modern
Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press) 27 (4):
741760. ISSN 0026-749X via Cal State LA.
Lebra, Joyce Chapman (2008). Women Against the
Raj: The Rani of Jhansi Regiment. Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9-78981-230-8092 via Googlebooks.

External links
The Womens Regiment. National Archives of Singapore.
Freedom To Us: Intensive training of the Women
troops of the Indian National Army, Nippon News,
No. 204. in the ocial website of NHK.

EXTERNAL LINKS

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9.1

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