Q. Write a short notes on: Subhash Chandra Bose and the INA? [66th BPSC-2021]
Ans:
The Indian National Army was an armed force formed by Indian collaborationists and imperial Japan in Southeast Asia during World War II. During 1943, INA came under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose. ©crackingcivilservices.com
Subhas Chandra Bose saw it a golden opportunity to ally with British enemy to liberate India by launching military campaign from outside. With these basic ideas, he made good his escape from India and proceeded first to Germany and thence to Japan.
The INA was formed in two phases. The idea of the INA was first conceived in Malaya by Mohan Singh, an Indian officer of the British Indian Army, when he decided not to join the retreating British army and instead went to the Japanese for help. Indian prisoners of war were handed over by the Japanese to Mohan Singh who then tried to recruit them into an Indian National Army. By the end of 1942, forty thousand men expressed their willingness to join the INA.
The leaders of The INA had made it clear that, it was to go into action only on the invitation of the Indian National Congress and the people of India. The INA was also seen by many as a means of checking the misconduct of the Japanese against Indians in South-East Asia and a bulwark against a future Japanese occupation of India.
The outbreak of the Quit India Movement gave a fillip to the INA as well. Anti-British demonstrations were organized in Malaya. On 1 September 1942 the first division of the INA was formed with 16,300 men. However, by December 1942, serious differences emerged between the Indian army officers led by Mohan Singh and the Japanese over the role that the INA was to play. By the beginning of 1943 the first INA experiment virtually collapsed.
The second phase of the INA began when Subhas Chandra Bose was brought to Singapore on 2 July 1943. He went to Tokyo and Prime Minister Tojo declared that Japan had no territorial designs on India. Bose returned to Singapore and set up the Provisional Government of Free India on 21 October 1943. The Provisional Government then declared war on Britain and the United State and was recognised by the Axis powers and their satellites. And Bose became the supreme commander of its army the Indian National Army.
Subhas Bose set up two INA headquarters, in Rangoon and in Singapore, and began to reorganize the INA. He named the regiments of INA after Gandhi, Nehru, Maulana Azad, and himself. There was also an all-women regiment named after Rani of Jhanshi, Lakshmibai. Bose also sustained the support for INA by giving motivational speeches at various rallies and on Azad Hind Radio. Bose’s most famous quote was “Give me blood, and I shall give you freedom!” In this, he urged the people of India to join him in his fight against the British Raj. In a speech broadcast by the Azad Hind Radio from Singapore, Bose addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the “Father of the Nation” and asked for his blessings and good wishes for the war he was fighting.
The INA fought in some key battles against the British Indian Army in Burmese territory. One INA battalion commanded by Shah Nawaz was allowed to accompany the Japanese Army to the Indo-Burma front and participate in the Imphal campaign. But the discriminatory treatment which Included being denied rations, arms and being made to do menial work for the Japanese units, completely demoralized the INA men.
The failure of the Imphal campaign, and the steady Japanese retreat thereafter, quashed any hopes of the INA liberating the nation. But, when the INA men were brought back home and threatened with serious punishment, a powerful movement emerged in their defence.
Bose still remained optimistic, thought of regrouping, and after Japanese surrender, contemplated seeking help from Soviet Russia. However, on 18 August 1945, he died in an air crash. ©crackingcivilservices.com
