Saraswathi Rajamani: The 16-Year-Old Spy Who Defied Empires for India's Freedom

Synopsis

Saraswathi Rajamani joined the Indian National Army at sixteen years old. She disguised herself as a boy named Mani for espionage missions. Rajamani rescued a captured spy by entering a British camp as a dancer. She later donated her jewels and managed family mines for the cause. Her courage and patriotism are remembered as a significant historical contribution.

Some of India's most extraordinary freedom fighters are also its least known. Saraswathi Rajamani was just 16 when she gave up a life of comfort, disguised herself as a boy and became one of the INA's youngest spies.

Historical accounts describe Saraswathi Rajamani as a teenager who chose patriotism over privilege. As the only child of a prosperous mining family in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar), she had every reason to live a comfortable life. But after hearing Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's call to join the freedom movement, the 16-year-old took a path few would dare to take.

A gold mine, a bazaar speech, and a life-changing afternoon

According to a 2017 TOI report based on a conversation with Saraswathi Rajamani, her father owned a gold and tungsten mining business in Burma (now Myanmar), employing around 3,000 Chinese workers and 1,000 Gorkhas.

The turning point in her life came in July 1943, when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose addressed a gathering at a bazaar near her home in Kamayut, Rangoon (now Yangon).

During the speech, Bose spoke about raising the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, an all-women's wing of the Indian National Army, saying he wanted a force of brave Indian women who would wield the sword once carried by the Rani of Jhansi during the 1857 uprising.

Live Events

As recalled by Rajamani in a 2017 TOI interview, Bose said: "I want a unit of brave Indian women to form a death-defying regiment that will wield the sword which Rani of Jhansi wielded in India's First War of Independence in 1857."

His call, "Give me blood, and I will give you freedom," left an impression on the teenage Rajamani.

She went home that day and told her father she was resigning from her job managing the family's mines. Then she gathered up every last piece of her jewellery and donated it to the INA.

Netaji, worried that a teenager might have acted on impulse, personally visited her home the next day to return the jewels. Rajamani wouldn't hear of it. She insisted the gold be used for the cause, not returned to her.

Impressed by her stubbornness, he gave her a new name 'Saraswathi' and from that day on, she was Saraswathi Rajamani.

Becoming "Mani": The boy who spied on the British

Once inside the INA's intelligence wing, Rajamani was assigned to one of the most dangerous jobs going: espionage. Disguised as a boy, going by the name "Mani", she infiltrated a British military base in Kolkata.

Records suggest that for nearly two years, Rajamani and a handful of fellow operatives disguised themselves as boys and gathered intelligence from British-controlled areas.

The rescue: Dancer by disguise, rebel underneath

Several historical accounts recount an extraordinary episode from Rajamani's time with the INA. After a fellow spy was captured by British troops, she reportedly entered the British camp disguised as a dancer, drugged the guards and rescued her colleague. She was shot in the leg while escaping but managed to avoid capture.

According to the TOI report, Rajamani carried bullet scars for the rest of her life, including one sustained during her time with the INA. She spoke with pride about the final bombardment of the Burma Campaign in 1945, recalling, "I lifted so many people from a trench, climbed up a ladder and got them to safety."

The report also quoted Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as telling her father when he brought her home in 1945: "Take care of this girl. For me, 100 such girls will do."

Life after the INA

When Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose disbanded the INA after the Second World War, Rajamani's role in the freedom movement came to an end. But, by all accounts, her patriotism never faded.

Rajamani later settled in Chennai, where she spent her final years in a modest one-bedroom government flat on Peters Road.

Her journey reached a new generation in 2016, when it was featured in the EPIC Channel series Adrishya. She also penned her autobiography, published in Hindi as Haar Nahi Manungi ("I Will Not Accept Defeat").

She passed away on 13 January 2018 after a cardiac arrest, leaving behind a legacy that proves courage isn't measured by age. At just 16, she changed history, and that's a story worth remembering every Independence Day.