A fillip for India's Veerangana tradition

Economic Times

2 days ago

One family factoid that my mother proudly revealed when I displayed a brief teenage fascination for tanks, fighter aircraft and warships was that her second eldest sister (in a family of five daughters and a son) served in the Women's Auxiliary Corps during World War II. My feisty aunt, who went into a totally different career eventually at All India Radio, apparently drove trucks and jeeps, one of the few roles open to women in the armed forces back then.She was athletic in her youth, belying her tiny stature, even playing tennis-in a saree, as per the norms of the day. So when India was tapped for volunteers by its colonial ruler as the war in Europe spread around the world, she eagerly grabbed the opportunity to wear a uniform and serve. The teenage me marvelled at my aunt (already a portly radio professional by the time I came along) grabbing such an unusual opportunity as the daughter of a senior civil servant.
Seeing the smiling faces of the 17 cadets of the first batch of women to graduate from India's National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla in Pune last Friday, many Indians would probably be reminded of Colonel Sophiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, the calm and steely 'faces' of the Indian armed forces during the tense days of Operation Sindoor earlier in May. But I imagined my late aunt instead; she would have been over a century old now.
India has had a very long history of women in combat, although the school textbooks tend to stick to references to their roles in the British Indian Army, as well as the women-only Rani of Jhansi regiment of Indian National Army. In fact, the latter actually belied the long-held belief that women cannot (and perhaps even should not) be deployed in combat roles and would not have the strength or stamina to undergo the required training. The INA women did it all. Their grit and fighting spirit should have inspired the Indian armed forces to carry forward the legacy of the Rani of Jhansi regiment after Independence but the institution remained beholden to the British military heritage. Though women joined the medical and judicial wings, they were commissioned to some selected other arms only from the end of the 20th century. And a quarter of the 21st century has elapsed before this first batch of women graduated from NDA.Even now, there will be many doubts about whether Indian women have the wherewithal to serve in the fighting divisions of our armed forces in the same way as men. There are already qualifying 'expert' comments about how women will perform their roles well as soldiers today as wars have become more technical rather than physical. Less battle cries and engaging the enemy in tank, gun and one-to-one combat and more drone, missile and cyberattacks.That is a disservice to the long tradition of veeranganas-brave women-in Indian history, a part of our heritage that has been woefully under-appreciated. India is unique in terms of its consistent reverence for feminine power, Shakti. The warrior goddesses of other ancient faith systems have been forgotten and supplanted by others that do not revere women in their fierce fighter form. Yet India has held true to that belief through the vicissitudes of history. When this first batch of women NDA graduates took that 'Antim Pag' or Last Step from the precincts of their training academy into the world of soldiers defending India, they were taking the first step towards fully reasserting our ancient faith in Shakti. All women in uniform who preceded them (per force in limited roles in our armed forces so far) will not be the only ones wishing them a valorous future. My aunt and mother will be smiling too, somewhere.