Indian National Army: Subhas Chandra Bose, Azad Hind and the INA Trials

Subhas Chandra Bose and His Break with the Congress

Tripuri Crisis, the Forward Bloc and the 1939 War Debate

Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23 January 1897 in Cuttack. He qualified in the first Indian Civil Service examination but chose nationalism over the service. By 1938 he was a leader of national stature and became Congress President. He stood for unqualified swaraj, including the use of force against the British, which set him against Gandhi.

In 1939 Bose was elected president again, defeating Gandhi's preferred candidate, Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Manoeuvres in the Congress Working Committee soon forced him to resign. On 22 June 1939 he organised the All India Forward Bloc, a faction within the Congress meant to consolidate the political left; its main strength was in Bengal.

When war broke out in 1939, the Congress split over what to do. A coalition of leftist groups, Bose and his Forward Bloc, the Congress Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the Royists, called it an imperialist war that gave an opportunity to win freedom through an all-out struggle. They urged the Congress to launch an immediate mass struggle, and Bose even proposed a parallel Congress to organise one.

• Gandhi’s view: The Allied cause was just, communal tension could turn a struggle into riots, the Congress organisation was in shambles, and the masses were not ready.
• His alternative: Tone up the organisation, carry on political work and negotiate until every chance of a settlement was exhausted.
• Ramgarh, March 1940: The Congress would resort to civil disobedience only when its organisation was fit or circumstances precipitated a crisis.

Bose organised protests in Calcutta for the removal of the Holwell Monument. He was jailed, released after a seven-day hunger strike, and his house was kept under watch by the CID.

Bose's Escape from India and the Road to South-East Asia, 1941 to 1943

Escape from Calcutta, Berlin and the Free India Legion

In January 1941 Bose slipped out of his Elgin Road house in Calcutta, disguised as a Pathan. He travelled through Peshawar and Kabul, reached Moscow on an Italian passport in the name of Count Orlando Mazzotta, and was flown on to Berlin.

• Azad Hind Radio: He broadcast to India on the German-sponsored station.
• Free India Centre: He set it up in Berlin.
• Indian Legion: He raised it from Indian prisoners of war captured in North Africa while fighting for the British; it is also called the Free India Legion.
• Hitler, May 1942: At their only meeting Hitler refused Bose’s requests and arranged a submarine voyage to East Asia instead.

In February 1943 Bose boarded a German submarine. Off Madagascar he was transferred to a Japanese submarine, the only civilian transfer between submarines of two navies in the war, and landed in Japanese-held Sumatra in May 1943. His meeting with the Japanese Premier, Tojo, on 10 June 1943 won him Japan's backing.

Indian National Army: Founding, Revival and the Azad Hind Government

Who Founded the Indian National Army? Mohan Singh and the First INA

The Indian National Army was founded by Mohan Singh, an officer of the British Indian Army who chose not to retreat with the British in Malaya and turned to the Japanese for help. The Japanese intelligence officer Iwaichi Fujiwara worked with him, and some accounts call the INA Fujiwara's brainchild. Subhas Chandra Bose did not found the INA; he revived and led it from 1943.

• Recruits: The Japanese handed Indian prisoners of war to Mohan Singh; after the fall of Singapore he brought 45,000 into his sphere of influence, and by the end of 1942 some 40,000 men were ready to join.
• First division: Formed in September 1942 with 16,300 men; the Quit India Movement gave the INA a fillip.
• Aims: It would act only on the invitation of the Congress and the people of India, and many saw it as a check on Japanese misconduct towards Indians.
• Break-up: The Japanese wanted a token force of 2,000; Mohan Singh wanted 2,00,000. The first INA was disbanded in December 1942 and Mohan Singh was taken into custody.

Bose Takes Command: Azad Hind Fauj, 'Dilli Chalo' and the Rani of Jhansi Regiment

Bose reached Singapore in July 1943, where Rash Behari Bose handed over the Indian Independence League and the army to him. He renamed the INA the Azad Hind Fauj, the Army of Free India. Its strength rose to 30,000, with plans to recruit 20,000 more, largely from British Indian soldiers held as prisoners of war.

• Mass support: Indians living in South-East Asia enlisted and gave money in answer to Bose’s call for sacrifice.
• Slogans: ‘Dilli Chalo’ (On to Delhi) was the call Bose gave the INA’s soldiers; at a rally in Burma on 4 July 1944 Bose said, ‘Give me blood, and I shall give you freedom!’
• Rani of Jhansi Regiment: Announced on 12 July 1943 and named after Rani Lakshmi Bai, the women’s regiment was led by Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan, later Lakshmi Sahgal.

Provisional Government of Azad Hind, 21 October 1943

On 21 October 1943 Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind in Singapore, with 11 ministers and eight representatives of the INA. Bose was Head of State, Prime Minister and Minister for War and Foreign Affairs, and Supreme Commander of the INA. The government had headquarters at Rangoon and Singapore, and it declared war on Britain and America in October 1943.

• Recognition: Nine Axis states recognised it, among them Germany, Japan, the Italian Social Republic, Croatia, Burma’s provisional government, Manchukuo and the Japanese-controlled Philippines.
• Attributes of a state: It produced its own currency, postage stamps, court and civil code.
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands: On 6 November 1943 Japan declared that the islands would be transferred to it; the islands were renamed Shaheed and Swaraj, though the Japanese Navy kept real control.
• Port Blair, 30 December 1943: During his visit of 29 to 31 December, Bose hoisted the tricolour, declaring the islands the first Indian territory freed from colonial rule.

Imphal-Kohima Campaign, Retreat and the Death of Bose

Imphal and Kohima Campaign of 1944

The INA's first major action was the Japanese offensive towards Manipur in 1944, code-named Operation U-Go. INA brigades named after Gandhi and Nehru fought beside Japanese divisions, and one battalion under Shah Nawaz Khan advanced towards Imphal and Kohima. A special unit took Moirang in early April, where the Indian tricolour was raised for the first time on the Indian mainland.

• The sieges failed: Commonwealth forces held Imphal and Kohima for months, then counter-attacked and drove the Japanese and the INA back into Burma.
• Japanese treatment: INA units were denied rations and arms and made to do menial work, which demoralised them.
• Losses: Fully half of the INA contingent that took part was killed.
• Collapse: After Rangoon fell in May 1945 the INA more or less ceased to exist; 16,000 of its 43,000 recruits were captured.

During the campaign, on 6 July 1944, Bose spoke on Azad Hind Radio from Singapore, called Gandhi the Father of the Nation and asked for his blessings for the war. It was the first time Gandhi was given that title.

Death of Subhas Chandra Bose in 1945 and the Inquiry Commissions

Subhas Chandra Bose died on 18 August 1945, aged 48, of third-degree burns after his plane crashed on take-off at Taihoku in Japanese-ruled Formosa, now Taiwan. His ashes are kept at the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo. Many of his supporters, especially in Bengal, refused to believe that he had died.

• Figgess Report, 1946: The Allied command in South-East Asia had Colonel John Figgess investigate the death; his report was submitted on 25 July 1946 and kept confidential.
• Shah Nawaz Committee, 1956: A three-member committee headed by Shah Nawaz Khan interviewed survivors of the crash.
• Khosla Commission, 1970: It agreed with the earlier findings on the main facts of the death.
• Mukherjee Commission, 1999 to 2005: Appointed after a court order, it rejected the crash account; its report was tabled in Parliament on 17 May 2006, and the Government rejected its findings.

INA Trials at the Red Fort, 1945 to 1946

INA Trials: Sahgal, Dhillon and Shah Nawaz Khan

The INA trials, also called the Red Fort trials, were courts-martial of INA officers held between November 1945 and May 1946. The British first planned public trials of several hundred prisoners and held the first at the Red Fort in Delhi in November 1945, putting in the dock together a Hindu, Prem Kumar Sehgal, a Muslim, Shah Nawaz Khan, and a Sikh, Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.

• The charge: The three were charged with waging war against the King-Emperor, as well as murder and abetment of murder.
• The defence: The Congress declared its support for the INA cause, and Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Kailash Nath Katju, Jawaharlal Nehru and Asaf Ali defended the accused.
• The verdict: All three were sentenced to deportation for life, but public pressure forced the Commander-in-Chief, Claude Auchinleck, to release them.
• The slogan: ‘Laal quile se aayi aawaz, Sahgal, Dhillon, Shahnawaaz’ rang out across the country.

INA Agitation and the Upsurges of 1945 to 1946

The campaign for the release of INA prisoners was conducted with an intensity never seen before. The Viceroy's own phrase for the period was the edge of a volcano. The central question became Britain's right to decide a matter concerning Indians, so the issue took on an Indian versus British colour.

• INA Day and INA Week: INA Day fell on 12 November 1945, and INA Week ran from 5 to 11 November.
• Broad support: The Muslim League, the Communist Party, the Unionists, the Akalis, the Justice Party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Sikh League backed the INA cause alongside the Congress.
• Inside the Raj: Government employees collected funds, and men of the armed forces attended meetings, some in uniform.

Gandhi and Bose Compared, and the Legacy of the INA

Gandhi and Bose: Differences in Their Approach to Freedom

Gandhi and Bose shared the goal of complete independence and respected each other; Bose did not share Gandhi's ideal of ahimsa, but still honoured him as the Father of the Nation. They differed on means, timing and allies. Bose also wanted a socialist regime and a strong central government for some years after freedom.

Significance and Legacy of Bose and the Indian National Army

The INA did not free India by arms, and the Raj was never seriously threatened by it. Its larger effect came after the war. The trials turned the INA's cause into a national one and drew sympathy even from men of the armed forces, and the upsurges they set off prompted the British to extend some concessions.

• Remembering Netaji: The Government declared 23 January Parakram Diwas by a notification of January 2021, the 125th birth anniversary year.
• Islands: In 2018 Ross Island was renamed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, and Neil and Havelock became Shaheed and Swaraj Dweep.
• Memorials: A museum on Bose and the INA opened at the Red Fort in 2019, and a 28-foot granite statue of Netaji was unveiled at India Gate on 8 September 2022.

Sources and Further Reading

• NCERT: Our Pasts III (Class VIII), The Making of the National Movement, 1870s to 1947
• NCERT: Politics in India since Independence (Class XII), India's External Relations
• PIB (Ministry of Culture): Anniversary of the formation of the Azad Hind Government, 2021
• PIB (Ministry of Culture): 23 January to be celebrated as Parakram Diwas, 2021
• PIB: Statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose unveiled at India Gate, 2022
• Utsav (Ministry of Tourism): Commemoration of First Flag Hoisting by Netaji, Port Blair
• Odisha Review (Government of Odisha): Azad Hind Fauj, A Saga of Netaji, 2008
• Odisha Review (Government of Odisha): Re-Reading Netaji Subhas in the Context of the Imphal Expedition, 2016
• Wikipedia: Subhas Chandra Bose
• Wikipedia: Indian National Army
• Wikipedia: Indian National Army trials
• Wikipedia: Death of Subhas Chandra Bose
• Wikipedia: Rani of Jhansi Regiment
• UPSC: Previous year question papers