Freedom Fighter- Ms. Manvati Arya

Hello readers...
This is an interview I took of a very courageous woman... a woman who fought against the Britishers by bringing the Indian women together...
Ms. Manvati Arya...now 88 years old...but who still speaks with the same zeal... for the freedom of nation...and for the freedom of mind....


"I Manvati Arya, a member of India National Army, was influenced by Netaji from my childhood even when I was 5 or 6 yrs old. My father was into postal services but just to earn a living, deep in his heart he was a great patriot. In fact he used to collect funds and send parcels to of khadi and books to India. He himself self studied and had send me to school only when I was 11 yrs old.

At that time Japan invaded India and we had to evacuate in a hut. Then I went to the SSP (postal) to give three month advance of my father’s salary and thus we were prevented from leaving Burma. But we were happy that we got freed from British, because Japanese are at least Asians.

I started taking tuitions and opened a primary school for our livelihood. At that time Rasbihari Bose launched the Indian independence league in mamio (Burma) which was also the foundation stone of INA. There main work was propaganda and collection of funds.

Then we moved to Rangoon. When I used to attend the IIL women’s meeting then I used to feel really bad because all they used to discuss was freedom stories, sing freedom songs and then have high tea.
Then I prepared a scheme of around eleven pages for work among women (I type-write it even when I was an amateur). One of the works for women who could not come out of their homes was to prepare bandages out of old clothes and dry fruit packets.

I presented that scheme to Capt Laxmi Sehgal who had come there for a meeting. But she said present it directly to Bose tomorrow. (She did not know Hindi so I used to act as an interpreter to her)
Next day when I met Subhash Chandra Bose and gave him my scheme then he said, “Scheme on paper does not work; the person who has prepared the scheme has to work.”
And he insisted me to work full time saying you will get more money than you currently earn. ‘He was a very good judge of person.’ The next day when I went to the office at 8am I found my office prepared and I was provided with sub-ordinates and a Tonga.

Major turning points of my life were first meeting Subhash Chandra Bose. He was a man with spiritual strength. In fact he used to meditate even at war fronts and after meetings.
The second major turning point of my life was getting married to Doctor Saheb (Mr. Krishna Chandra Arya). We declared each other husband and wife without any formal wedding or spending money. There were just a few journalists and it was a huge decision for that time. We always shared our work be it was bringing up kids, cooking or politics. I even worked as a translator of UNI for Dainik Jagran when Mr. Arya was in jail and I was pregnant and needed money for livelihood. Later when he was released, her job was transferred to him and she was asked by Mr. Pooranchand to rest and take care of herself.

And the third major turning point was when I joined a camp for Vipashna Sadhna when I found that my younger son Dinesh started drinking. I was very short tempered but there in the camp I had to be silent for ten days which really helped me pacify my anger. And since then I practice it till date and have gained control over my anger.

One of most Striking incident of my life was that when I a Brahmin was married to a drunkard who even sold all my jewellery for his drinks. In fact my father used to send money order from Burma so that we can survive. Then when I was invited to the forward bloc I agreed readily. For my work I came to Kanpur. In the mean time my father came down from Burma and rescued me from my husband. And till today I haven’t wore a single piece of jewellery.

As per what we had thought of India has evolved in these 60 years. Economic development is going as per what we had desired. But yes morality has gone down, character of people has declined and an imbalance between materialism and spiritualism has occurred.

We thought independence was priority. At that time there were two schools of thoughts- one who were the radicals and who wanted independence first. And the other, who were followers of Gandhi, said first we should make ourselves self-dependent and only then we can attain independence.

Gandhi ji said, “Make your education superior to the education of the rulers then they will realize that you are more superior and will leave.”

The younger generation should contribute first to themselves. If every youth first see to his reformation then easy it would be to reform the whole nation. Character is the foundation of the nation.”