‘Our only goal was to ensure that the country was free’
By Sadia Akhtar
On a sunny afternoon, as one walks through the quiet lanes of Fazilpur Badli village in Farrukhnagar, a lilting sound wafts through the air as one approaches the house of freedom fighter Parmanand. Dressed in a kurta-pyjama, the 100-year-old lies on a charpoy in the courtyard of his house reciting fragments of poems from memory.
“Gandhi, Nehru aur Subhas, Azad jo brigade they/ Singapur ke junglomein mein hum roz karte parade they [Gandhi, Nehru and Subhas, the brigades of Azad Hind Fauj/ We’d conduct parades every day in the jungles of Singapore],” recited Parmanand, one of the last surviving members of the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army or INA). He was among the four INA veterans who took part in the Republic Day celebrations in 2019, and is among the few surviving freedom fighters who participated in the struggle for independence.