100-year-old recalls fighting alongside Subhas Chandra Bose

On the 125th anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary, we speak to freedom fighter Parmanand, who is among the last surviving members of the Azad Hind Fauj or the Indian National Army. The centenarian was a part of the British army regiment that had reached Singapore to fight against Japan in 1942. He was taken into captivity by Japan as a Prisoner of War and later joined the INA formed by Subhash Chandra Bose in 1943. With the INA, he travelled to various places from Myanmar (then Burma) to Assam to fight against the British army. He was caught spying on a British base and sent to a Multan jail. He was later court martialled for deceiving the British government. Currently, Parmanand lives in Fazilpur Badli village in Farrukhnagar with his family and was among the four INA veterans who took part in the Republic Day parade in 2019