Neera Arya who preferred being tortured to protect Mr Subash Chandra Bose..

Neera Arya was born on March 5 1902 in Khekra Nagar, Uttar Pradesh in a distinguished & eminent businessman Seth Chhajumal’s family. Since her childhood. She was a true nationalist & always had a vision of becoming a part of the freedom fighter movement. She was also reportedly accused as an undercover by the British Govt.

That was the time when her father’s business was flourishing in Calcutta, though his business was spread across the country but Calcutta was the centre of his business and that was one of the reasons why her education was done in Calcutta. During that period of time, she had learned quite a few languages along with Bengali, Hindi, English.

Her father got her married to a CID Inspector “Shrikant Jairanjan Das” in British India but they were two different individuals, Neera Arya was a true nationalist but her husband was a true British servant. She was highly motivated & she had an urge of getting us freedom, so she ended up joining the Jhansi Regiment in Azad Hind Fauz after the marriage. It was the regiment that the British always accused them of spying on British Govt.

It was the time when Neera’s husband Jairanjan Das was given the responsibility to spy on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the founder of Azad Hind Fauz & to assassinate him. On the other hand, Neera had promised to save the life of NSCB. There was a time when Jairanjan Das had open fired on NSCB but fortunately, he escaped death & the bullet hit his driver. When Neera got to know about it she had stabbed her husband to death to save the life of Chandra Bose

But when NSCB got to know abt this, he named her “Naagin” 4 killing her husband. However, after her surrender of the Azad Hind Fauj, when the trial took place in the Red Fort, all the prisoners were released, except that Neera was sentenced to “Kalapani” for the murder of her husband, where she was tortured every day.

Neera had written her autobiography and she had shared some of her despairing life stories to an Urdu writer “Farhana Taj” who had written the heartwarming stories of Neera in her novel. One of the heartwarming parts of that Atma Katha was:

When I was going under trial & when I was sent to Kalapani, during that time I was brought to Andaman from Calcutta Jail wherein we had small cells & there were many other
women as well who were serving their punishment & those women got there for opposing political decisions. I had a worry in my mind that how would I get freedom while living on an unknown island in this deep sea, so I never paid attention to a blanket so I just slept on the ground despite how cold it was. It was around 12 O’clock a guard came with two blankets & threw them on me & left without even speaking. It broke my sleep when the blankets fell upon me & I felt bad about it, but at the same time I had a satisfaction of getting the blankets but still, my worry was how to get rid of those chains that were tied around my hands & legs and I was having a feeling of parting away from my motherland.

The next day when Blacksmith came in & when he started cutting off the chain from my hand he took off a little skin of my hand & I ignored but when he started cutting off the shackles from my legs with the help of a hammer he hit my bones 2-3 times instead of the shackles. It was so painful that I grieved & said; “are you blind that you’re hitting my legs”? then he replied, I can even hit on your heart as well, what can you do about it?

I knew that I was a slave & I can’t do anything but still I was so angry that I spitted on him & said: “learn to respect women”. At that time there was a Jailer as well who was watching all of these and he said we can let u go if you tell us where’s NSCB? So, I replied, he died in a plane crash & the entire world knows about it.

The Jailer replied, u’re lying & he’s still alive
So I replied yes, he’s alive
Then Jailer asked where’s he then?
I replied, in my mind & in my heart!
The jailer got furious and said, “Then we will remove Netaji from your heart”. The jailer touched me inappropriately & tore my cloth apart in my chest area and indicated the blacksmith. The blacksmith immediately took a breast ripper & started pressing my right breast to cut it off. Though there was no edge in it but it had crossed all the limits of pain & meanwhile, the jailer holds my neck & said if I ever argue with anyone then he will take off both my balloons out of my chest. The jailer also hit me with a tweezer that was lying there & said be thankful to our Queen Victoria that this breast ripper was not heated or else your breast would’ve been chopped off your chest.
There were many such brave stories of our “Veer Yodhas” who contributed to this country in giving us freedom but unfortunately, they never got recognition in our textbooks Such warriors never got the respect which they really deserved, Neera Arya spent her last days of her life selling flowers and she lived in a small cottage in Falaknuma, Hyderabad. But not only that her cottage was also demolished by the Govt as it was constructed on a Govt land. She left the world on 26 July 1998 but unfortunately, she still never got any recognition and/or the honor she really deserved to have.