IT WAS a moment to cherish for a Malaysian woman, a veteran of the Indian National Army (INA) that fought to liberate India from British rule, who was honoured on her 101st birthday.

Anjalai Ponnusamy from Sentul, Kuala Lumpur is one of the few surviving women recruited under the INA women’s wing — the Rani of Jhansi Regiment — by Indian nationalist Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya.