BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar wants recognition for Indian-origin WW2 spy Noor Inayat Khan

Bengaluru: Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP is seeking special recognition in India for Noor Inayat Khan, an Indian-origin spy who worked for Britain during World War II.

Noor Inayat Khan was recently in the headlines when she became the first Indian-origin woman to be honoured with a commemorative Blue Plaque in London. The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, also of Indian origin, had said in July that the country had been considering a proposal to feature influential ethnic minority figures on a set of coins to celebrate the UK’s diversity, and that Noor Inayat Khan was one of the figures on the list.

She was a descendent of 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, and the first female undercover radio operator to be sent to German-occupied France by Britain in World War II.

Chandrasekhar told ThePrint that for the last 14 years, he has been requesting the central government to accord recognition to Khan.

“She was the first woman to have landed in enemy territory of occupied France during World War II. Noor Inayat Khan has been recognised by the British and French governments. It is appropriate that India too does the same with a fitting tribute. It can name the children’s bravery awards after her,” Chandrasekhar said.

Chandrasekhar also pointed out that late President of India Pranab Mukherjee had visited Noor’s memorial in France when he was defence minister under UPA-I.

How she became a spy

Noor Inayat Khan was born in Moscow in 1914 to Indian-origin father Hazrat Inayat Khan and American mother Ora Ray Baker. Khan’s parents were married at the Ramakrishna Ashram in the US, and her mother took the name Sharada Ameena Khan.

The family moved to Paris and then London after World War I, and Noor, who had worked as a children’s writer in Paris, joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, an arm of the UK’s Royal Air Force, to train as a wireless operator. She assumed the name ‘Madeleine’ and was the first radio operator to be sent to Paris by Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE).

Such was her dedication to her job that when members of the SOE were being arrested by the Nazi police, she continued to send messages to London, until one day, she was arrested. The Nazis executed her in 1944 at the Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany.

Noor’s Indian roots

Belagavi-based Kannada writer Chandrashekhar Mandekolu has chronicled her life in the book, Noor Inayat Khan — Nazi Horattada Ardhrakavya (a tragic poem of the anti-Nazi struggle).

He has also mentioned how Noor had a great affinity towards Indian religious texts. “She had a copy of the Upanishads, and also translated 20 stories from the Jataka Tales into English,” he told ThePrint.

Explaining her link to Tipu Sultan, Mandekolu said that Noor’s grandfather, Ustad Maula Bakhsh Khan, a noted musician from Baroda, had performed in the Wadiyar king’s court. Tipu, having heard of his fame, had married off his granddaughter Qasim Bi to him.

She continues to be a popular figure three quarters of a century after her death. In 2019, actor Radhika Apte portrayed Noor in a film called Liberte: A Call to Spy.

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