Overview

Lt. Bharati “Asha” Sahay Choudhry was not just a freedom fighter — she was a teenage warrior of the Indian National Army.

Born in Kobe, Japan in 1928 to revolutionary parents Anand Mohan Sahay and Sati Sen Sahay, Asha grew up at the heart of the overseas Indian freedom movement. At just 15, she met Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Tokyo. That meeting changed her life forever.

By 17, in the final years of World War II, she had joined the legendary Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the INA in Bangkok — training with rifles, machine guns, and military drills, ready to fight the British Empire. She endured wartime bombings, food shortages, language barriers, and eventually imprisonment after Japan’s surrender.

From surviving the chaos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to being jailed for her role in the freedom struggle, her life is a testament to courage beyond age.

After independence, she documented her extraordinary journey in “The War Diary of Asha-san”, preserving the powerful story of women in the diaspora who took up arms for Bharat.

Lt. Asha Sahay passed away in 2025 at the age of 97 — but her legacy lives on.