Short Note on Indian National Army

Indian National Army was formed by Captain Mohan Singh in the year 1942 in Singapore. It is also known as Azad Hind Fauj. In the Second World War, while fighting against Japan, around 42000 Indian Sepoys were captured by Japan and were put into Singapore jail. Captain Mohan Singh asked Japan to give weapons to fight against the British. Japan military officer Fujiwara accepted the demand. In 1943, Indian National Army came into the hands of Subhash Chandra Bose, who came to Japan at that time.

Subhash Chandra Bose and Indian National Army (INA)

• In 1938 Haripura session of Congress, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was elected as the Congress President. Mahatma Gandhi opposed Subhas Chandra Bose's candidature as the president.
  
  In 1939 Tripuri Congress session, Subhash Chandra Bose contested again. In this election, Gandhiji supported Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Pattabhi Sitaramayya was defeated and Subhas Chandra Bose was re-elected.
  
  
• During 1939-1940, Subhas Chandra Bose came out of Congress and founded Forward Bloc political party.
  
  
• During 1940-1941, he was kept in house arrest. In 1941, he came out of house arrest and left India never to come back.
  
  
• He reached Berlin to take assistance from Adolf Hitler. Hitler asked him to contact Japan. When he reached Japan, Indian National Army was leaderless. Bose gave a call to the Nation "Give me blood, I will give Independence".
  
  
• There were two headquarters of Indian National Army, Rangoon and Singapore. There was a regiment for women called Rani of Jhansi regiment, headed by Captain Lakshmi Sahgal.

Battle of Kohima 1944

• In the Kohima expedition, 8000 soldiers of Indian National Army were led by 3 leaders, (i) Shah Nawaz Khan, (ii) Prem Sahgal and (iii) Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon. The slogans were "Dilli Chalo" and "Jai Hind".
  
  
• These people were defeated in the Battle of Kohima. 8000 soldiers including 3 leaders were captured as prisoners. They were put in the Red Fort and put for trial known as Red Fort Trials or INA Trials.
  
  
• Because of the famous Indian Lawyers, Jawaharlal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Bhulabhai Desai, Asaf Ali and Kailashnath Katju, all the captured prisoners were acquitted.

On 18th August 1945, Subhash Chandra Bose started from Taihoku (now Taipei) in Formosa (now Taiwan) to Tokyo. According to Japanese sources, the plane crashed upon take off from Taihoku. Justice M.K. Mukherjee Commission (2005) stated that Subhas Chandra Bose did not die in the plane crash. It is still disputable that he lived near Faizabad in India as a Swamiji called Gumnami Baba.