Social Memory and Indian Women from Malaya and Singapore in the Rani of Jhansi Regiment

The Rani of Jhansi Regiment (RJR) is scarcely visible in the social memory of the Japanese occupation in Southeast Asia and the activities of Subhash Chandra Bose on behalf of the Indian nationalist movement. The few memoirs that do exist were written by elite and well-educated RJR veterans, and they celebrate a sense of unity among Indians from various background who supported Bose’s efforts, including soldiers who came to the RJR from working class backgrounds in Malaya and Singapore. Using recollections from witnesses to and participants in the Indian nationalist movement in Japanese-occupied Malaya and Singapore, this article challenges the elite view by exploring alternative perceptions of Bose’s activities. Illustrating the importance of gender and socio-economic boundaries in Bose’s nationalist movement, this article argues that differences in class and caste estranged subaltern Indian women during the Occupation.