Far from Panimora, on the eastern front of Orissa is Champailo, another village that sacrificed many of its sons for the freedom the country. Here, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose remains the ideal. Situated about 60 kms 
from the state capital Bhubaneswar, Champailo is known for the 23 young people of the village, who went to Rangoon looking for a job and ended up joining Netaji’s Indian National Army (INA). We heard the real account of the heroics from Brahmachari Uttaray, one of the very few of the 23 still around. “It was 1943. We had no work in our village. To earn a living, we finally decided to go to Rangoon and were working there as daily labourers. That was the time when we heard Netaji’s call to fight against the ‘goras’. We could sleep no more in peace. Finally in a meeting at Mangla in Burma, we decided to join INA. Netaji said that independence is not possible without blood.” Asked about the difference between India then and now, he replied, “Back then we were fighting to free our country. We thought everything will be alright after independence and we'd live happily, but nothing like that happened. Today, the government may pay us Freedom Fighter’s Allowance, but there are no real feelings for us.”
In the village, however, the legacy of their fathers’ and forefathers’ sacrifice is still held in high esteem. Freedom fighter Daitary Champatiray’s son Pramod Pratap Singh said, “Every year we celebrate Netaji Jayanti and pay homage to the brave freedom fighters of our village.” Vir Sen Baral and Anand Samanth Ray, sons of two INA soldiers also recall with great pride the days of the struggle and the post-independence period. The latter experiences were, sadly, pocked with dispassion and disillusionment. We certainly owe it to the sacrifice of those selfless heroes to restore our country to its glory of yore…
With inputs from Ajit Nayak
from the state capital Bhubaneswar, Champailo is known for the 23 young people of the village, who went to Rangoon looking for a job and ended up joining Netaji’s Indian National Army (INA). We heard the real account of the heroics from Brahmachari Uttaray, one of the very few of the 23 still around. “It was 1943. We had no work in our village. To earn a living, we finally decided to go to Rangoon and were working there as daily labourers. That was the time when we heard Netaji’s call to fight against the ‘goras’. We could sleep no more in peace. Finally in a meeting at Mangla in Burma, we decided to join INA. Netaji said that independence is not possible without blood.” Asked about the difference between India then and now, he replied, “Back then we were fighting to free our country. We thought everything will be alright after independence and we'd live happily, but nothing like that happened. Today, the government may pay us Freedom Fighter’s Allowance, but there are no real feelings for us.”In the village, however, the legacy of their fathers’ and forefathers’ sacrifice is still held in high esteem. Freedom fighter Daitary Champatiray’s son Pramod Pratap Singh said, “Every year we celebrate Netaji Jayanti and pay homage to the brave freedom fighters of our village.” Vir Sen Baral and Anand Samanth Ray, sons of two INA soldiers also recall with great pride the days of the struggle and the post-independence period. The latter experiences were, sadly, pocked with dispassion and disillusionment. We certainly owe it to the sacrifice of those selfless heroes to restore our country to its glory of yore…
With inputs from Ajit Nayak
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