The Legend of INA
Moirang and Shishak's INA flag: It is hard to find a Bengali who has not heard of or read about the legendary Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Many of them also know of the existence of a well-kept memorial to the Indian National Army at Moirang in the picturesque Loktak Lake area, 32 km from Imphal town, but have not visited it. It is built on the site where, on 4 April 1944, Netaji hoisted the INA flag on Indian soil for the first time (Meitei insurgents assert Manipur was never part of India and still is not). A contributor to Imphal Free Press, Waikhom Shana, reported last week that an INA flag, made of khadi and with an emblem of a springing tiger and which was hoisted for the first time on Indian territory, “is still in good shape and is in the custody of YA Shishak of Sangshak” in Manipur’s Ukhrul district. Now in his 70s, Shishak told Waikhom that he had worked for the Maratha Infantry as well as for the Japanese as a peon and that he had also been taken to Japan twice. INA men ...