Indian National Army

From Freepedia

The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an auxiliary force to the Imperial Japanese Army in its southern mainland campaign during the Second World War. It was created primarily by the recruitment of Indian prisoners of war who, in the course of service in the armed forces of the British Indian Empire, had been captured by Japanese forces.

Contents

Origin

The Japanese fostered the I.N.A. at least as much for its propaganda value in the portrayal of their war aims as anti-colonial, as for the military value of I.N.A. forces in the field. The initial military unit was formed on May 1942 when PoWs were used by Italians in the war against their colonial masters the British. However it was reported that the Indians were found to wavering in loyalty especially after the Axis defeat in El Alamein in November 1942. They were disbanded but revived again by the Germans as the Tiger Legion

Generally little allegiance was shown to the Japanese cause, many joining simply to avoid the harsh prison environment, or to escape back to the British lines. Combat effectiveness was questionable in general, although the first division fighting in the Arakan, Imphal and Kohima reported only 2,600 survivors of the 7,000 men committed to battle.

The Indian prisoners recruited to the I.N.A. regarded themselves as freedom fighters attempting to liberate their country from imperial rule. The I.N.A. was initially founded under, and commanded by Rash Behari Bose (founder of the Indian Independence League) and Captain Mohan Singh, but control later passed to Subhash Chandra Bose once he had made the journey from Germany to Japan via the Indian Ocean in German and Japanese submarines.

The clarion call of the INA was "Jai Hind" (meaning Victory to India) and "Give me blood and I will give you freedom". Image:Azadcomm.jpg

Rise and Fall of the INA

Image:India1931flag.png
The troops eventually reached India via Burma with the help of Japanese Imperial Army and the tricolour (left) was hoisted for the first time on Indian soil in Moirang, Manipur. The Provisional Government of Azad Hind was established at Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Kohima, even if for a few months, during the course of Japan's conquest of Burma but made no progress after Japan's retreat started in full, following the decision to surrender in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

At the conclusion of World War II, the government of British India brought to trial on treason charges some of the captured INA soldiers. The prisoners of the I.N.A. were categorized as extremists and turncoats thereby eligible for the death penalty, life imprisonment or a fine as punishment. After the war, three officers of the I.N.A., General Shah Nawaz Khan, a Muslim, Colonel Prem Sehgal, a Hindu and Colonel Gurbux Singh Dhillon, a Sikh were put to trial at the Red Fort in Delhi by the British for "waging war against the King Emperor", i.e., the British sovereign. The three defendants were defended by Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai and others on the logic that they should be treated as prisoners of war as they were not paid merceneraries but bona fide soldiers of a legal government, the Provisional Government of Free India, or the Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind, "however misinformed or otherwise they had been in their notion of patriotic duty towards their country" and as such they recognized the free Indian state as their sovereign and not the British sovereign.

When the people of India realised that all the major communities of India were put to trial they participated in massive public demonstrations imploring the British to free the prisoners. In Calcutta, and Madras the British resorted to firing on unarmed demonstrators thereby killing cripples, women and children taking part in the protests. All over the Indian subcontinent, the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, divided by ideology, joined hands in demanding freedom of the I.N.A. prisoners of war. The I.N.A had for them, so visibly elucidated by Mahatma Gandhi, achieved what individually the Congress, the League and Gandhiji could not: putting the cause of the Indian nation state above communal, sectarian and divisive ideologues and thereby joining hands to expel the British. The greeting of Jai Hind had transcended all other religious and communal oriented greetings.

The initial trials collapsed in the pre-independence political climate, after which the British Government and the Congress Party leadership tacitly agreed that the existence of the I.N.A. was a shared embarrassment which should be forgotten as soon as possible. Most of the I.N.A. soldiers were set free after cashiering and forfeiture of pay and allowance. On the recommendations of Lord Mountbatten, as a precondition for Independence, followed in toto by Nehru, the I.N.A. soldiers were not reinducted into the Indian Army.

Independent India's attitude to the I.N.A. was somewhat confused: on the one hand, following the recommendations of Lord Mountbatten, the I.N.A. soldiers were not permitted to re-enroll in the Indian Army; on the other, members of the I.N.A. received an Indian state pension as freedom fighters which Indian volunteers for the British Indian Army during World War II did not.

Consequences of the I.N.A. Trials

Soon after the I.N.A. trials there were outbreaks of mutiny in the Royal Indian Navy; some officers and men began calling themselves the Indian National Navy and gave left handed salutes to British officers. At some places, NCOs in the British Indian Army started ignoring orders from British superiors. In Madras and Pune, the British garrisons had to face revolts within the ranks of the British Indian Army. In Calcutta, Madras and Lahore, the British troops were given orders to 'shoot at sight' at unarmed demonstrators, including women, cripples and children who were protesting the trial of the I.N.A. at the Red Fort in Delhi. The Muslim League and the Indian National Congress brought out jointly - organized processions in protest of the trials. The I.N.A. was regarded as a truly national army by them, as it represented all the major communities of India.

The British Indian Army, the primary tool of conquest had till date been apolitical and distanced from the population of India. But the wide publicity created by the I.N.A. trials created something the most efficient British blackout of politically sensitive information (before and during the war) could not: creation of a new political awareness among Indian soldiers. For them, now they had a choice other than the British sovereign - the free sovereign Indian state.

Azad Hind decoration

An "Azad Hind" (Free India) decoration was also instituted by Bose for the Indian Legion fighting alongside Germany. Both Indians and Germans were eligible for the decorations.Image:Azad1stclass.jpg 


    Grand Star: "Sher-e-Hind" (Tiger of India)
    1st Class Star: "Sardar-e-Jang" (Leader of Battle)
    2nd Class Star: "Vir-e-Hind" (Hero of India)
    Shahid-e-Bharat: (Martyr of the Motherland)

See also

Reading List

  • Japanese-trained armies in Southeast Asia : independence and volunteer forces in World War II / Joyce C. Lebra, New York : Columbia University Press, 1977
  • Jungle alliance, Japan and the Indian National Army / Joyce C. Lebra, Singapore, Donald Moore for Asia Pacific Press,1971
  • Brothers Against the Raj --- A biography of Indian Nationalists Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose / Leonard A. Gordon, Princeton University Press, 1990
  • Lost hero : a biography of Subhas Bose / Mihir Bose, Quartet Books, London ; 1982
  • Democracy Indian style : Subhas Chandra Bose and the creation of India's political culture / Anton Pelinka ; translated by Renée Schell, New Brunswick, NJ : Transaction Publishers (Rutgers University Press), 2003
  • Subhas Chandra Bose : a biography / Marshall J. Getz, Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., USA, 2002
  • Netaji and India's freedom : proceedings of the International Netaji Seminar, 1973 / edited by Sisir K. Bose. International Netaji Seminar (1973 : Calcutta, India), Netaji Research Bureau, Calcutta, India, 1973
  • Japan's Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere in World War II : selected readings and documents / edited and introduced by Joyce C. Lebra, Kuala Lumpur ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1975
  • A Concise History of India / Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf
  • A History of India / Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund
  • The Glass Palace / Amitav Ghosh, London: HarperCollins ,2001 (a novel which has a large section on the Burma front which skillfully describes the motivations of those Indian officers who joined the INA and those who did not)

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Indian_National_Army.html"


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