Netaji at India Gate: The revolutionary’s due
- September 8, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Netaji at India Gate: The revolutionary’s due
Subject : History
- In the year of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the nation pays tribute to Subhas Bose on September 8 as his statue rises tall next to India Gate.
Indian National Army
- 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.
- The fall of Singapore was crucial, for this brought 45,000 Indian POWs into Mohan
- Singh’s sphere of influence. By the end of 1942, forty thousand men expressed their willingness to join the INA.
- It was repeatedly made clear at various meetings of leaders of the Indian community and of Indian Army officers that the INA would go into action only on the invitation of the Indian National Congress and the people of India.
- The second phase of the INA began when Subhas Chandra Bose was brought to Singapore on 2 July 1943, by means of German and Japanese submarines. 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.
- Subhas Bose set up two INA headquarters, in Rangoon and in Singapore, and began to reorganize the INA.
- Recruits were sought from civilians, funds were gathered, and even a women’s regiment called the Rani Jhansi regiment was formed.
- On 6 July 1944, Subhas Bose, in a broadcast on Azad Hind Radio addressed to Gandhiji, said: “India’s last war of independence has begun. . . Father of our Nation! In this holy war of India’s liberation, we ask for your blessing and good wishes”
- 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. The retreat which began in mid-1944 continued till mid-1945 and ended only with the final surrender to the British in South-East Asia. But, when the INA men were brought back home and threatened with serious punishment, a powerful movement was to emerge in their defence.
INA Trials and Popular Upsurges
- The surviving members of the INA were tried for treason by the British Indian government in the trials that took place at the Red Fort in New Delhi.
- The British had decided to make these trials public. However, their move backfired as this led to a surge of nationalism so great that it was not seen in the entire time that the British were ruling India.
- The Indian populations treated them as patriots rather than traitors that the British army was trying to portray them as.
- As the trial progressed, it also led to a mutiny within the British Indian The British quickly realized that the very force that had kept them in power for so long, which was the army, was slowly going against them.
- An announcement by the Government, limiting trials of the INA personnel to those guilty of brutality or active complicity, was due to be made by the end of August, 1945
- Hailing them as patriots, albeit misguided, Nehru called for their judicious treatment by the authorities in view of the British promise that ‘big changes’ are impending in India.
- Other Congress leaders soon took up the issue and the AICC at its first post-War session held in Bombay from 21 to 23 September 1945, adopted a strong resolution declaring its support for the cause.
- The defence of the INA prisoners was taken up by the Congress and Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, K.N. Katju, Nehru and Asaf All appeared in court at the historic Red Fort trials
- The Congress organised 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 these men.
- The Congress authorized the Central INA Fund Committee, the Mayor’s Fund in Bombay, the AICC and the PCC offices and Sarat Bose to collect funds.
- The INA question was the main issue highlighted from the Congress platform in meetings held all over the country — in fact, very often it was difficult to distinguish between an INA and an election meeting.
- Priority coverage was given to the INA trials and to the INA campaign, eclipsing international news. Pamphlets, the most popular one being ‘Patriots Not Traitors,’ were widely circulated, ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Quit India’ were scrawled on walls of buildings in Ajmer.
- INA Day was observed on 12 November and INA Week from 5 to 11 November1945. INA campaign was its wide geographical
- reach and the participation of diverse social groups and political parties Demands for release were raised at kisan Conferences in Dhamangaon and Sholapur on 16 November 1945 and at the tenth session of the All India Women’s Conference in Hyderabad on 29 December 1945.
- The Muslim League, the Communist Party of India, the Unionist Party, the Akalis, the Justice Party, the Ahrars in Rawalpindi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Sikh League supported the INA cause in varying degrees. The Viceroy noted that ‘all parties have taken the same line though Congress are more vociferous than the others.’
- The Director of the Intelligence Bureau observed that ‘sympathy for the INA is not the monopoly of those who are ordinarily against Government,’ and that it was ‘usually the case that INA men belonged to families which had traditions of loyalty.’