Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose: ‘Look Here I Have Mixed Your Hindu And Muslim Cha And Made Jai-Hind Cha Out Of It”

By Saquib Salim, New Age Islam 26-11-2022 The British divided Indians in every possible fashion. As a result back then at public places, like railway stations, one could find separate water tanks for Hindus and Muslims, brazenly called. Hindu Pani and Muslim Pani. Similarly, food and tea stalls also had a Hindu or a Muslim tag…. Capt Lakshmi Sehgal with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose ----- A Slice Of History When Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose organised Azad Hind Fauj, he ensured that communal division do not plague the national freedom struggle. Religions of soldiers did not define their commitment to India. Lakshmi Sehgal of the Indian National Army (INA) said, “Hindu, Muslim. Sikh and Christian all felt that they were Indians first, last and always.” In 1945, after the War was over, soldiers were arrested and brought to India by the British. Trains ferried these soldiers as Prisoners of War. On one such instant, a battalion of INA soldiers on-board a train, under arrest of the British, heard cries of tea vendors at a railway station - Muslim Cha, Hindu Cha (Muslim tea, Hindu tea). The INA soldiers felt agitated. They had not imagined that their country for which they had been waging a war was still divided along religions. Lakshmi Sehgal recalled, “what a shock to get back to India and hear on our very first railway journey at home, after an absence of six years, the voice of cha (tea) vendors calling out ‘Hindu Cha’ and ‘Muslim Cha’. Such a thing went against the grain of every member of INA.” The INA officers deplored this communalism and expressed hopelessness. It was when an INA Sepoy stood up and told everyone that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had taught us to act instead of witnessing a situation helplessly. A newspaper reported, “he jumped out of the train and set for both the tea vendors. Heading out his battered mess tin he asked the Hindu Cha Wallah to pour a cup into it and then turning to the Muslim Char Wallah, asked him to do likewise. Then turning to both he said: ‘Look here I have mixed your Hindu and Muslim cha and made Jai-Hind Cha (Jai-Hind Tea) out of It.” Separate water, tea and food for Hindus and Muslims at railway stations was banned a few months later when Asaf Ali took charge of the Railway Ministry in the interim government. Source: What was Jai-Hind Tea of Azad Hind Fauj? URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/netaji-bose-hindu-muslim-cha-jai-hind-tea/d/128494 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism