From My Bones/Foreword
Book by Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon (1998):
New Delhi: Aryan Books International. ISBN 81-7305-148-8.This Chapter is being improved
A historian's perspective of an event or series ofhistorica1 events differs from the more intimate subjective view of a participant in the same event or series of events. As a historian of the Indian National Army (see Jungle Alliance; Japan and the Indian National Army, Singapore: Asia Pacific Press, 1970), I had the rare opportunity of meeting the tE!!.e national heroes of the INA tried by the British in the Red Fort at the en 0 World War II : Gen. Shah Nawaz Khan, Co!. P.K. Sahgal, and Co!. Gurbakhsh Singh Dhillon. I spent many enjoyable hours in the company of the latter two in particular and gained valuable insights from their recollections. Shah Nawaz, the first of the three whom I met was actually in Tokyo when in 1955 he was there to inquire into the circumstances of Sub has Chandra Bose's death, was the first of the three to write his recollections of his role in the INA (My Memories of the INA and its Netaji, Delhi : Rajkamal Publications, 1946).
Nearly fifty years later in 1993, Professor Peter Fay's work The Forgotten Army: The Indian National Army (University of Michigan Press) appeared, centred around the roles of Co!. Sahgal and his wife Co!. Lakshmi Swaminadhan Sahgal, Commander of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, the women's unit of the INA. Fay's account is based on many months spent in the company of this illustrious couple, during which he taped their detailed recollections. Co!. Sahgal unfortunately died several months before Fay's book appeared.
Now Co!. Dhillon is the onl survivor of this heroic trio. I have been' particularly anxious that th~ record of his experiences that contributed so signally to India's independence may not to be lost to history. Dhillon has the advantage in recording his recollections of several decades, during which he has often shared his memories in vivid and generous detail at the annual seminars held every 23rd
FROM MY BONES
January at the Netaji Research Bureau in Calcutta At th .
and 0 h . ese semmars
n numerous ot er occasions at Meerut Jha . G I'
K k h ' , nSI, wa lOr
h'uru s etra, Hlsar and elsewhere he has captivated audiences with
IS sp~llbou~d eloquence and his own Urdu poems rendered in fie rheton~. ~I1e En,glish is not Co!. Dhillon's first language, his ear~ educatIon ,10 E~ghsh and his distinctive gift with words imbue his account wIth hIstoric value and vivid realism.
, ,Co!. Dhil,lo~'s m~moirs reveals to the reader his unshakable pnnclples, patriotIc dedIcation to the cause of independence c
under fi h' t ' I ' ourage
Ire, IS onca sense, as well as his humanity and f
hum 't 'h' sense 0
, our, JUS as 10 IS struggle they contributed so vitally to India's
mdependence.
It was t' 'I
my grea, ~nV1 ege to have Co!. Dhillon as a personal friend
for many ~ears, and It IS a pleasure to be invited to provide this preface. My hope IS th~t th~ means to publish this historical memoir be found to ensure that It wIll be available to coming generations in India and elsewhere.
Jai Hind!