Legends 1 - Saudagar

Walking in the Aberdeen bazaar in Port Blair in the 90s you would often be accosted by a small wiry man with a snow white goatee and round glasses. He’d demand to know why you didn’t greet him! "Janta nahi main kaun hai!" he’d ask indignantly. "Mai, Suadagar!" he would proclaim with a touch of arrogance. As a kid you were part scared and part in awe of him. Of course everybody knew him. His fame had traveled far and wide among the islanders. In his 90s he was still very fit. Surely human meat must hold the key behind his good health. Human meat? This is Suadagar’s story.

In the year 1942 World War II was at its peak. The Japanese were rampant in South-East Asia. After a string of triumphs over the British and the American Pacific fleet the Japanese had occupied most of South East Asia and were heading steadily towards India, the jewel in the British colonial crown. Aided by the Indian National Army headed by Subash Chandra Bose, they wrested control of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from the British. It was the first Indian territory to become free of the British control with Netaji hoisting the Indian Flag at Port Blair. The residents of the islands rejoiced, for the dream of freedom had come true.The dream however quickly turned into nightmare. The Japanese occupiers displayed cruelty that surpassed the worst of the British. They raped and pillaged at will. When their supply ships began to come under increasing British pressure, they suspected to have a spy in their midst. They also had a food shortage problem in their hands. They quickly set out to eliminate the problems. This was no time for finesse. They rounded up anyone who was educated, anyone suspected to have sympathies with the British, anyone who was old infirm or otherwise unproductive. Initially they shot them and buried them alive in mass graves at a place called Patthar Gadda outside Port Blair. When they realized this was taking more time than necessary, the Japanese took these prisoners out to the sea and threw them overboard. Anyone who tried to swim was mercilessly hacked down by the ships propellers.

Saudagar was one such prisoner. Being very fit and an expert swimmer, when he was thrown overboard, he swam under water escaping the notice of his Japanese captors, made his way to an uninhabited island. He hid there for 14 days. He survived by eating the flesh of the bodies that were washed to the shore. Luckily for him these were the last days of Japanese occupation. Soon it was over.Suadagar survived, the only one to do so. To this day his name evokes awe among us.

Suadagar died in 1997 at the age of 102