Indian National Army

The Indian National Army (INA) represented the culmination of external armed resistance against British colonial rule during the Second World War. Operating as a distinct military force backed by geopolitical alignments in East Asia, the INA transformed the character of the Indian national movement. It created a strategic pincer effect, complementing the domestic, leaderless upheaval of the Quit India Movement and ultimately breaking the institutional loyalty of the British Indian Armed Forces.

Phase I: Conceptualization and the First INA (1942)

The genesis of the INA was directly linked to the rapid collapse of British imperial defenses in Southeast Asia under the Japanese military onslaught.

The Malayan Campaign and the Surrender

• The Origin: Following the fall of Singapore and Malaya in early 1942, tens of thousands of British Indian Army soldiers were abandoned by their British officers and taken as Prisoners of War (POWs) by the Japanese.
• The Role of Mohan Singh: Captain Mohan Singh, an officer of the 14th Punjab Regiment, chose not to retreat. He was influenced by Major Fujiwara of the Japanese Intelligence Wing (Fujiwara Kikan), who advocated for an independent Indian army to liberate the homeland.
• Formal Launch: The first INA was formally structured in September 1942, drawing nearly 16,000 Indian POWs into its combat ranks.

Structural Collapse

• The Conflict of Interest: The first phase was short-lived due to profound disagreements between Captain Mohan Singh and the Japanese High Command. Singh insisted on absolute operational autonomy and demanded that the INA be recognized as a sovereign allied army, whereas the Japanese military bureaucracy sought to use the force primarily for auxiliary duties and psychological warfare.
• Dissolution: In December 1942, Mohan Singh was arrested by the Japanese, and the first INA was officially dissolved, entering a period of absolute organizational paralysis.

Phase II: Subhas Chandra Bose and the Revitalization (1943–1945)

The arrival of Subhas Chandra Bose in Singapore via a hazardous German-Japanese submarine voyage (U-180 and I-29) in July 1943 marked the radical rebirth of the military apparatus.

The Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind Sarkar)

• Declaration of Sovereignty: On October 21, 1943, Bose proclaimed the establishment of the Azad Hind Sarkar in Singapore. This provisional government was recognized by nine sovereign nations, including Germany, Japan, Italy, and Croatia.
• Institutional State Machinery: The government possessed its own state infrastructure, including:
  • The Azad Hind Bank: Headquartered in Rangoon, it issued its own currency notes and national war bonds.
  • The Official Anthem: Subh Sukh Chain, a Hindustani adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana.
  • Territorial Jurisdiction: The Japanese officially handed over the liberated territories of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the Azad Hind Sarkar, which Bose renamed Shaheed (Martyr) and Swaraj (Self-rule) Islands.

Military Reorganization and Brigades

Bose restructured the INA into a highly disciplined combat force consisting of four major combat brigades and an unprecedented vanguard unit:

• Gandhi Brigade: Commanded by Colonel Inayat Kiani.
• Nehru Brigade: Commanded by Colonel Aziz Ahmed Khan.
• Azad Brigade: A specialized mechanized infantry unit.
• Subhas Brigade: Commanded by Colonel Shah Nawaz Khan; it served as the frontline vanguard unit during the border offensives.
• Rani of Jhansi Regiment: One of the earliest all-female combat infantry regiments in modern military history, commanded by Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan (Sahgal), composed primarily of volunteer daughters of Tamil rubber plantation workers from Malaya.

Strategic Synergy with the Quit India Movement

While separated by thousands of miles, the INA and the domestic Quit India Movement operated in a state of tactical interdependence.

The Propaganda Multiplier

• Countering Censorship: The INA operated powerful shortwave radio stations (Azad Hind Radio) broadcasting from Singapore, Rangoon, and Saigon. During 1942 and 1943, when the British Raj imposed a total media blackout on the Quit India underground resistance and the atrocities committed by colonial troops, Bose used these broadcasts to relay information back to the Indian public.
• The Psychological Shift: The news of an organized Indian army advancing toward the eastern frontiers shattered the myth of British military invincibility, boosting the morale of the underground cadres of the Prati Sarkars (parallel governments) in Satara and Tamluk.

The Infiltration Strategy

• The Spy Network: The INA, in coordination with the Indian Independence League, set up espionage schools in Penang and Rangoon. Secret agents were systematically dropped by Japanese submarines onto the coast of Orissa or infiltrated through the dense jungles of the Arakan hills.
• Objective: These agents were instructed to establish secure contact with the underground socialist networks of Jayaprakash Narayan’s Azad Dastas to coordinate a joint armed insurrection when the INA breached the Assam border.

The Military Campaigns on the Indian Frontier (1944)

The INA launched its conventional military offensive against the British Empire under the strategic umbrella of Operation U-Go, the Japanese offensive into Northeast India.

The Arakan Offensive

• In early 1944, the Subhas Brigade engaged the British West African Division in the Arakan hills of Burma, successfully capturing the strategic outpost of Paletwa and securing the flank for the main military advance.

The Battles of Imphal and Kohima

• The Advance: In March 1944, INA forces crossed the Indo-Burma border. On April 14, 1944, Colonel Shaukat Malik hoisted the tricolor flag of free India at Moirang in Manipur, establishing the first liberated administrative headquarters on the Indian mainland.
• The Logistical Disaster: The military offensive ultimately stalled and collapsed due to three decisive factors:
  1. Monsoon Disruption: The premature arrival of torrential monsoons completely washed away the primitive supply lines through the Burmese jungles, inducing mass starvation and malaria among the troops.
  2. Air Superiority: The Anglo-American forces possessed absolute air superiority, enabling them to easily resupply the besieged British garrison at Imphal via airlifts, a luxury the INA and Japanese forces completely lacked.
  3. Japanese Strategic Retreat: Following catastrophic losses at the Battle of Kohima, the Japanese 15th Army initiated a total retreat, leaving the INA units exposed without artillery or air defense.

The Aftermath: Red Fort Trials and the End of Empire

Following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the unconditional surrender of Japan in August 1945, the INA forces surrendered to the British. The subsequent attempt by the colonial administration to punish the INA leadership proved to be a fatal miscalculation for the British Raj.

The Red Fort Trials (November 1945)

• The Selection of Defendants: The British selected three high-ranking INA officers to face public court-martial at the Red Fort for treason: Colonel Prem Sahgal (a Hindu), Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon (a Sikh), and Major General Shah Nawaz Khan (a Muslim).
• The Nationalist Backlash: The multi-religious composition of the defendants instantly unified a communally polarized country. The Indian National Congress formed the INA Defence Committee, mobilizing veteran legal minds including Bhulabhai Desai, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, Kailash Nath Katju, and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Triggering the Final Insurrections

The emotional intensity of the INA trials directly instigated the final series of military mutinies that broke the backbone of British imperial administration:

• The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Revolt (February 1946): Ratings aboard HMIS Talwar mutinied in Bombay, actively hoisting pictures of Subhas Chandra Bose and demanding the immediate release of all INA prisoners. The strike spread to 78 ships across the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
• The Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) Strikes: Technical crews across stations in Karachi and Ambala refused orders, striking in open solidarity with the INA veterans.
• The Jabalpur Army Mutiny: Indian soldiers within the regular British Indian Army units stationed at Jabalpur revolted, demonstrating to the British command that they could no longer rely on Indian sepoy regiments to maintain colonial rule over the subcontinent.