How I helped Captain Mohan Honawar’s family find out more about their uncle’s bravery in a PoW camp
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Captain Mohan Honawar left India in May 1941, one of the thousands of men in the colonial Indian army defending the British empire in Malaya and Singapore. He did not return.
The official record states that he died in New Guinea on October 31, 1944, but does not mention how. With his wife and five siblings all dead, and without any children, the memory lives through his nieces who believe he was perhaps beheaded by the Japanese.
In a family memoir published in 2020, there is a chapter about Mohan Kaka that incorporates letters kept by his wife and mother, and memories from his brother Prem who embarked on a crusade to find out what happened to him.
Mohan Honawar was born on January 25, 1911, and grew up in Dharwad where he served with distinction in the Territorial Army, a volunteer unit of civilians. After studying in Pune’s Law College, he joined Lever Brothers in Mumbai. He and his wife Ratna lived in the Matunga neighbourhood. But he continued his military connection, becoming a reserve officer in the Indian Army attached to the 5/14 Punjab Regiment. When World War II broke out, Honawar was called up.
Correspondence with his family shows that soon after going to Malaya,...