256 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
march to victory or to spill its last drop of blood on the way,” he said to
the Chettiars (the leading Tamil community of financiers) and other
merchants on October 25, 1943, “the rich people are asking me whether
total mobilization means 10 percent or 5 percent. I would ask these
people who are speaking of percentage whether we can tell our soldiers
to fight and spill only 10 percent of their blood and save the rest.”^39 In
the end, the Provisional Government gratefully accepted 100 percent
from the enthusiastic and settled for 10 percent from the reluctant.
Netaji turned out to be a very successful fundraiser, ensuring receipts
of nearly two million Straits dollars a month by the close of 1943. At a
particularly successful event attended by fif teen thousand Indians at
Penang in August, he raised two million dollars in one day.^40 The Chet-
tiars from Tamil Nadu were among the big con trib u tors to the coffers
of the Azad Hind government.
When priests of the main Chettiar temple in Singapore came to in-
vite Netaji to a religious ceremony in October, they were turned away
because of their inegalitarian practices. He acceded to their request
only after they agreed to host a national meeting open to all castes and
communities. He went to that temple gathering flanked by his Muslim
comrades Abid Hasan and Mohammad Zaman Kiani. “When we came
to the temple,” Hasan has written, “I found it filled to capacity with the
uniforms of the INA of fi cers and men and the black caps of the South
Indian Muslims glaringly evident.” He hesitated to enter the inner sanc-
tum, but a priest gently pushed him in. Tilaks made of sandalwood
paste were put on their foreheads in true Hindu fashion. Netaji wiped
his off on leaving the temple and so did his followers. Abid Hasan
could not remember the speech that Netaji gave on that occasion. “The
memory I retain,” he wrote much later, “is one of an invigorating music
as that of a symphony dedicated to the unity of the motherland and
the common purpose of all Indians to be united in their efforts to es-
tablish their identity.” The echo of that music was to sustain him dur-
ing the trials and tribulations on the battlefield.^41
The Azad Hind government inculcated this spirit of unity with a
subtle sense of purpose. “Jai Hind!”—“Victory to India!”—was chosen
from the very outset as the common greeting or salutation when Indi-
ans met one another. Hindustani, a mixture of Hindi and Urdu written