The Indian National Army under the command of Subhash Chandra Bose waged a war on the British Government in India with the assistance of the Japanese Army. INA established the first independent government of India.

1. Dr. Monica Sharma
Indian National Army

2. INCEPTION
• The Indian National Army (Also known as the Azad Hind Fauj)
was an armed force formed by Indian Nationalists in 1942,
through the patronage of the Imperial Japanese Army, to
secure the Independence of India
• Founded by Mohan Singh and comprised Indian prisoners of
war in Singapore.
• The Fauj was revived with the determination and leadership of
Netaji and entered in the freedom fight portray in 1943

3. The Indian National Army (INA) was an Indian military
formation that fought on the side of the Japanese,
against the British, between 1942 and 1945.
The INA was the result of an informal alliance between
the radical expatriate Indian political leaders of the
Indian Independence League (IIL) and the Imperial
Japanese Army (IJA). The INA existed in two distinct
incarnations.

4. • It was raised and led initially by a British-Indian Army Officer, Captain
Mohan Singh, who had been captured in the opening stages of the
Japanese invasion of Malaya.
• After the British surrender at Singapore in February 1942, Singh recruited
Ind Indian troops of the British-Army from Japanese Prisoner of War
(POW) camps with a view to eventually fighting the British in India.
• Disagreements between Singh and the Japanese, over both the intended
size and the specific role of the INA, led to Singh’s dismissal.
• He was replaced in June 1943 by Subhas Chandra Bose.
• This second life of the INA proved to be far more robust and substantial
than the first.
• Bose had established an international reputation as a nationalist
politician, although his belief in the best way to achieve independence
increasingly brought him into conflict with other leaders of the Congress
Party.

5. BACKGROUND OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY
• Following the outbreak of World War II, Japan invaded South East Asia.
• At the time 70,000 troops were stationed in the region, most of them along
the Malayan coast.
• Japan conducted a lightning campaign which culminated in the fall of the
Malayan peninsula and Singapore in 1942.
• In the Singapore campaign alone, 45,000 Indian prisoners of war were
captured.
• It was from these prisoners of war that the Japanese decided to create an
auxiliary army which would fight against the British

6. THE FIRST INA
• Was formed under Mohan Singh, a former officer of the British Indian Army
captured during the Malaya campaign.
• Conditions in the prisoner of war camps, as well as resentment against the
British in general, saw many prisoners of war volunteer join the Indian
National Army
• The initiative received considerable support from the Imperial Japanese Army
and from the ethnic Indian population of South-East Asia.
• However, disagreements between Mohan Singh and Japanese Army
Command regarding the autonomy of the Indian National Army led to the
disbandment of the first INA in December 1942

7. .

8. SECOND INA
• Mohan Singh himself recommended that Subash Chandra Bose for the leadership
role. His reputation as a committed nationalist was known to both the Indian
diaspora of South East Asia and the Imperial Japanese Army.
• The activities of Subash Chandra Bose in India had forced the British authorities to
imprison him, but he escaped and reached Berlin in 1941.
• Although the German leadership were sympathetic to his cause, logistic problems
prevented them from granting any support to his quest for raising an army to fight
the British.
• However, the Japanese were ready to support him and upon their personal
invitation, Subash Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore in July 1943 to take
command of what would be known as the second Indian National Army, now known
by its alternative name as the Azad Hind Fauj.

9. FAUJ OF YOUTH
• By the time the Azad Hind Fauj was formally established, it had
a strong strength of 85,000 troops.
• Bose believed in the power of the youth. He inspired the
soldiers to give up on everything and be part of the fight of the
nation.

10. AZAD HIND RADIO
• The fauj selected radio station to encourage
countrymen to fight for freedom. It formed Azad
Hind Radio to broadcast news in the most common
languages of the Indians.

11. OPERATION U-GO
• It was the 1944 Japanese campaign towards British India. Azad hind fauj was a part of this campaign.
• Although there were initial success during the early phases of the operation,
• they were forced to withdraw during the battle of Imphal and battle of Kohima (Fought on April 4th,
1944) which saw the disastrous defeat for the Japanese Army at the hands of the British.
• The INA lost a substantial number of men and materiel in this retreat. A number of units were
disbanded or used to feed into new divisions of the now declining Japanese Army
• Following the Japanese defeat in World War II, most of the members of the INA were captured by the
British.
• Subash Chandra Bose himself escaped and was reported to have died in a plane crash near Taiwan
in September 1945.
•

12. SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE
• He was born on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack, then a part of Bengal Province’s Orissa Division. After
finishing his school education, he briefly studied at Presidency College. He later studied philosophy
from Scottish Church College, University of Calcutta and then went to study in Britain.
• Subhas Chandra Bose qualified the prestigious Indian Civil Services Examination (ICS). However,
he soon quit as he did not want to work under the British government.
• He joined the Independence movement and became a member of the Congress party. He, however,
had major ideological differences with leading figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal
Nehru.
• A radical leader in Congress, he became the President of the party in 1938 but was ousted after
differences with Gandhi and the party’s high command. He differed with Mahatma Gandhi’s
methods of non-violence and wanted to wage war against our colonial rulers.

13. • Netaji Subhas Chandra made his 'great escape' from his ancestral house in
Kolkata in 1941 when he was under house arrest by the then British
government. He made his way to Soviet Union and then to Germany
• With the help of Indians living in Southeast Asia, Bose revived the INA and
assumed charge of it.
• On October 21, 1943, he assumed charge of the Supreme Command of the INA
and announced proclamation of the Azad Hind Government.
• A great orator, Netaji gave a clarion call of independence with his famous ‘Give
me blood, and I shall give you freedom!’ speech. The speech was made in
Burma in 1944 to members of the Indian National Army.

14. • His army clashed with the British forces around Imphal and
Kohima in 1944.
• Britain's struggle to repel a combined force of Netaji-led INA
and Japan during World War II, around Imphal and Kohima in
1944 has been adjudged as the 'greatest ever battle involving
British forces' in a contest run by the National Army Museum in
London.
•

15. PROCLAMATION OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF FREE
INDIA
• On 21st October 1943, Subhash Chandra Bose announced the formation
of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind (Free India) in Singapore, with
himself as the Head of State, Prime Minister and Minister of War.
• Arzi Hakumat-e-Azad Hind, or, in short, Azad Hind Government, an
Indian government-in-exile.
• It started functioning from Singapore with 11 ministers and eight
representatives from the INA.
• The Provisional Government not only enabled Bose to negotiate with
the Japanese on an equal footing but also facilitated the mobilisation
of Indians in East Asia to join and support the Indian National Army
(INA).

16. TASK OF THE GOVERNMENT
• To launch and conduct the struggle that will bring about the expulsion of the
British and their allies from the soil of India.
• It will then be the task of the Provisional Government to bring about the
establishment of a permanent National Government of Azad Hind constituted
in accordance with the will of the Indian people and enjoying their confidence.
• After the British and their allies are overthrown and until a permanent national
Government of Azad Hind is set up on Indian soil, the provisional Government
will ad-minister the affairs of the country’ in trust for the Indian people.

17. • The PGFI was a culmination of the political movement originating in
the early 1940s outside India with the purpose to liberate her from
the British rule.
• The government of Azad Hind soon had its own currency, court,
civil code and national anthem ‘Subh Sukh Chain’.
• The INA had its motto, ‘Ittehad, Itmad aur Qurbani’ (unity, faith and
sacrifice) and
• its national greeting ‘Jai Hind’. Its existence gave greater legitimacy
to the independence struggle.

18. MINISTERS 0F THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF AZAD HIND.
Subhas Chandra Bose
(Head of the State, Prime Minister and Minister for War and Foreign Affairs)
Captain Mrs Lakshmi (Women’s Organisation)
S.A. Ayer (Publicity and Propaganda)
Lt.-Col. A.C. Chatterji (Finance)
Lt.-Col. Aziz. Lt.-Col. N.S. Bhagat, l.t. Col. J.K Bhonsle, Lt.-Col. Gulzara Singh, Lt.-
Col. M.Z. Kiani,
Lt.-Col A.D. Loganadhan, Lt.-Col. Ehsan Qadir,Lt. Col. Shah Nawaz
(Representatives of the Armed Forces)
A.M. Sahay (Secretary)
Rash Behari Bose (Supreme Adviser)
Karim Ghani, Debnath Dass, D.M. Khan, A. Yellappa, ]. Thivy, Sardar Ishar Singh
(Advisers)
A.N. Sarkar (Legal Adviser)

19. RECOGNITION OF PGFI
• The PGFI was recognized by nine Axis-aligned countries:
Japan, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Burma, Thailand, Philippines,
Manchukuo (Manchuria), and the Republic of China (Wang
Jingwei regime).
• It received a note of congratulations from the Prime Minister
of Ireland, Eamon de Valera

20. CELEBRATION EVERY MONTH
• The 21st of every month thereafter was marked as a day of celebration.
• Mass rallies were held and members of INA, Rani Jhansi Regiment and the
IIL together with civilians would affirm their allegiance to the Azad Hind
Government. Schoolchildren sang ‘Vande Mataram’ as the Indian flag was
raised.
• Leaders would talk about the month’s progress at the end of the
programme, which included narrating the advancement of INA at the
Arakan front, update on the gradual transfer of the headquarters closer to
Burma border, later, setting up of the INA headquarters in Rangoon on
January 25, 1944, and its monthly financial position and recognition given by
various countries

21. CONTROL OF ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR
• In an arrangement with the Japanese government in
November, partial governance of the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands were taken over by the PGFI. On
November 13, Bose renamed the islands as ‘Shahid
and Swaraj Dwip

22. • The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were promised to Bose’s Azad Hind Government
by Japan in November 1943, at the Greater East Asia Conference held in Tokyo.
• Bose declared:
Like the Bastille in Paris, which was liberated first in the French Revolution, setting free political prisoners, the Andamans, where our
patriots suffered much, is the first to be liberated in India’s fight for independence…we have renamed Andamans as ‘Shaheed,’ in
memory of the martys; the Nicobar—‘Swaraj.’
• Bose later visited the islands with a Japanese delegation and advertised a similar
notion of liberation,raising the tricolor flag for the first time on Indian soil.

24. ARMY WHICH TRULY EMPOWERED WOMEN
• The army was a believer in women power.
• Rani of Jhansi Regiment was formed as all-women-soldiers under the
Azad Hind Fauj.
• The women were given training like night marches, bayonet charging,
tactical combat, weapon skills and made ready for the battle.

25. Rani Jhansi Regiment

26. Fighting on Equal Footing

28. CONTRIBUTION AND IMPACT
• The exceptional courage, determination and sacrifice the Azad Hind
Fauj showed, reached the people of India and the nation witnessed
a surging wave of revolution.
• The impact of Azad Hind Fauj on Indian revolution is not military
but it seeded the spirit of courage and determination in Indians.
• Fauj made the British government realize the great patriotism of
Indians would not follow the service to the foreign reign.

29. FAMOUS SLOGANS
• He gave the famous battle cry ‘Chalo Dilli’.
• He promised independence to Indians saying, ‘tum
mujhe khoon do, main tumhe Azadi dunga’ (You give me
blood, I will give you freedom).

30. FATHER OF NATION (MAHATMA GANDHI)
• In his radio address, while launching attacks on the British forces, it was
Subhas Chandra Bose who called Mahatma Gandhi the father of the
nation.
• In his last radio address from Burma in 1944 that Subhas Chandra Bose
said,
• "Father of our Nation! In this holy war for India's liberation, we ask for
your blessings and good wishes."

31. RELATIONSHIP WITH NEHRU
• Nehru is said to have cried in public when he heard the news
of plane crash and the death of Subhas Chandra Bose.
• This was the only occasion when Nehru cried in public.
• It was speculated that the confidential files pertaining to
Subhas Chandra Bose would reveal the much anticipated
bitter fight between Nehru and Bose. But when the files were
declassified in 2016, it presented a contrary picture.

32. DEATH
• The death of Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose occurred from
third-degree burns on 18 August 1945 after the overloaded bomber in which
he was being transported by the Japanese crashed in Tohuku, Japanese
Taiwan.
• Many among his supporters, especially in Bengal, refused at the time and
have refused since to believe either the fact or the circumstances of his
death.
• Conspiracy theories appeared within hours of his death and have persisted
since then, keeping alive various martial myths about Bose

33. A memorial to Subhas Chandra Bose
in the compound of the Renkōji
Temple, Tokyo. Bose's ashes are
stored in the temple in a golden
pagoda. Bose died on 18 August
1945. His ashes arrived in Japan in
early September 1945; after a
memorial service, they were
accepted by the temple on 18
September 1945.

34. INA TRIALS

35. RED FORT TRIALS
• “Red Fort Trial” was a court martial of three officers of
the Indian National Army: Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K.
Sahgal, and G.S. Dhillon.
• The officers were tried under Section 121 of the Indian
Penal Code, “waging war against the King.”
•

36. SIGNIFICANCE OF RED FORT
The selection of the Red Fort was significant as:
1. Firstly, the Red Fort had featured heavily in the INA imagination,
their slogan was ‘On to Delhi. Their monthly propaganda magazine
published under the same name carried above the masthead the
picture of the Indian flag in the foreground and the Red Fort in the
background.”
2. The British could thumb their noses at the INA and give visual form
to their failure, ”

37. • Ras Bihari Bose had died in January 1945 in Tokyo.
• Subhash Chandra Bose was also presumed to have died.
• Before the war ended, the INA soldiers started falling into the hands of the
allies. These were taken as Prisoners of Wars and the Court martial began as
early as 1943.
• INA had around 43000 recruits out of which many perished, many fled and
mixed with the civilians, but 16000 were captured. They were stuffed into the
ships and sent to India via Rangoon. Various detention camps had been
organized in Jhingergacha and Nilganj near Calcutta, Kirkee near Pune, Attock,
Multan and at Bahadurgarh near Delhi.
•
The officers of the INA were taken to court martial at the Red Fort of Delhi from
November 1945 and May 1946. Around ten courts-martial were held.

38. FIRST COURT MARTIAL
• The first of these was the joint court-martial of Colonel Prem Sahgal, Colonel Gurubaksh
Singh Dhillon and Major General Shah Nawaz Khan, who had been taken Prisioners of
Wars in Singapore.
• They were charged of “Waging War against the King Emperor” as well as Murder and
abetment of Murder.
• The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League both made the release of the three
defendants, one Hindu, One Muslim and One Sikh

39. Major General Shah
Nawaz Khan
Colonel Gurubaksh
Singh Dhillon
Colonel Prem Sahgal

42. DEFENCE LAWYER
• Their case was taken up by a team of Congress lawyer-politicians including
• K.N. Katju, Asaf Ali, and even Jawaharlal Nehru himself.
• The lead defence counsel was the prominent Bombay advocate Bhulabhai Desai.

43. AN INNOVATIVE ARGUMENT
• The officers on trial were charged with essentially the equivalent of treason – a
matter of domestic law.
• Desai, however, made an innovative argument rooted in international law.
• He suggested that Azad Hind was a legitimate belligerent with the right to wage
war.
• He pointed out that it had an organised military, a functioning government and its
own territory. This territory was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

44. INA RELIEF AND ENQUIRY COMMITTEE,
• The Congress organized an INA relief and enquiry
committee, which provided small sums of money and food
to the men on their release, and attempted to secure
employment for them.

45. HIGH PITCH CAMPAIGN
• The INA agitation was a landmark on many counts:
• Firstly, the high pitch or intensity at which the campaign for the release of INA prisoners
was conducted was unprecedented.
• This was evident from the press coverage and other publicity it got, from the threats of
revenge that were publicly made and also from the large number of meetings held.
• Initially, the appeals in the press were for clemency to 'misguided' men, but by November
1945, when the first Red Fort trials began, there were daily editorials hailing the INA men
as the most heroic patriots and criticizing the Government stand.
• Priority coverage was given to the INA trials and to the INA campaign, eclipsing
international news.

46. • Pamphlets, the most popular one being
were widely circulated.
• 'Jai Hind' and 'Quit India' were scrawled on walls of buildings in Ajmer.
• Posters threatening death to '20 English dogs for every INA man sentenced', were
pasted all over Delhi.
• In Benaras, it was declared at a public gathering that 'if INA men were not saved, revenge
would be taken on European children.’
• One hundred and sixty political meetings were held in the Central Provinces and Berar
alone in the first fortnight of October 1945 where the demand for clemency for INA
prisoners was raised.
Patriots
Not
Traitors

47. INA DAY AND INA WEEK
• INA Day was observed on 12 November and INA Week from
5 to 11 November 1945.
• While 50,000 people would turn out for the larger meetings,
• The largest meeting was the one held in Deshapriya Park Calcutta.
Organized by the INA Relief Committee, it was addressed by Sarat
Bose, Nehru and Patel.
• Estimates of attendance ranged from two to five lakhs .

48. WIDE GEOGRAPHICAL REACH AND THE PARTICIPATION
• The second significant feature of the INA campaign was its wide geographical reach and the
participation of diverse social groups and political parties. This had two aspects.
1. One was the generally extensive nature of the agitation,
2. The spread of pro-INA sentiment to social groups who till now were outside the nationalist
pale.
• The Director of the Intelligence Bureau accepted :
'There has seldom been a matter which has attracted so much Indian public interest, and it is safe to say, sympathy.

49. INA FUND
• ' Municipal Committees, Indians abroad and Gurudwara Committees
subscribed liberally to the INA funds.
• The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee, Amritsar donated Rs.
7,000 and set aide another Rs. 10,000 for relief.
• Diwali was not celebrated in some areas of Punjab in sympathy with the INA
men. Calcutta Gurudwaras became the campaign center for the INA cause.
• The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu Mahasabha and the
Sikh League supported the INA cause.

50. SUPPORT FROM THE ARMED FORCES
• The response of the armed forces was unexpectedly sympathetic, belying the
official perception that loyal soldiers were very hostile to the INA 'traitors’.
• Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) men in Kohat attended Shah nawaz's meetings
and army men in U.P. and Punjab attended INA meetings, often in uniform.
• RIAF men in Calcutta, Kohat, Allahabad, Bamrauli and Kanpur contributed
money for the INA defence, as did other service personnel in U.P.

51. UPSURGES IN SUPPORT OF INA
• The growing nationalist sentiment, that reached a crescendo around the INA trials,
developed into violent confrontations with authority in the winter of 1945-46.
• There were three upsurges - one on 21 November 1945 in Calcutta over the INA trials;
• The second on 11th February 1946 to protest against the seven year sentence given to
one Rashid Ali, an INA officer, and
• The third in Bombay of 18th February 1946 when the ratings of the Royal Indian Navy
(RIN) went on strike.

52. The trial of the three brave Indian National Army (INA) officers
• Opened on 5 Nov 1945.
• On 29 Dec 1945 the Judge Advocate summed up.
• On 31 Dec 1945, the court met briefly to record particulars of character and
service
• On 3 Jan 1946, the three heroes were brought before an officer in the Red Fort
for passing of the sentence.
•
THE TRIAL

53. INA SENTENCE
• The whole country waited with bated breath. Would there be riots or rejoicing. The three INA
officers held their breath. The sentence was pronounced. It was the same for all three. It was:-
• (a) Cashiering (dismissal from service with disgrace)
• (b) Forfeiture of pay and allowances
• (c) Transportation for life
• The last of the above punishments having been remitted by the Commander-
in-Chief , the three officers were free to go.
• 1 It took a few seconds for the words to sink in. The three of them filed out and
went to Asaf Ali’s house.

54. NATION REJOICES
• The news spread like wildfire in Delhi and thence to the rest of the country.
• There was widespread jubilation. Netaji’s dream had been realised.
• The INA had taken Delhi and the country by storm, though not quite in the way he had
visualised.
• The next day a rally was organized, which was presided over by Asaf Ali.
• More than a hundred thousand people came. They shouted Azad Hind Fauj ( Netaji’s
name for the INA) zindabad.
•

55. VIDEOS