UPSC IAS exam preparation - India's Independence Struggle - Lecture 14

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - being learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

Subhash Chandra Boss and the Indian National Army

[हिंदी में पढ़ें ]

---

1.0 Introduction

The Congress won the 1937 elections and formed popular ministries in many provinces. The growth of socialist ideas had inculcated a new militancy in the nationalist ranks. The time was ripe for another resurgence and a mass movement seemed imminent. But, like it had happened twice earlier, the Congress had to undergo a crisis at the top.

2.0 Bose’s Political Career in India

2.1 Early life of Subhash Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23 January 1897 in Cuttack. Subhas Chandra Bose left India in 1919 for Great Britain with a promise to his father that he would appear in the Indian Civil Services Examination (ICS). Studying at the Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and matriculating on the 19 th of November 1919, he came fourth in the ICS examination and was selected but did not want to work under an alien government serving the British. He resigned from the civil service job and returned to India. Fired with patriotism, he started the newspaper Swaraj and took charge of publicity for the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee. His mentor was Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das who was a spokesman for aggressive nationalism in Bengal. In the year 1923, Bose was elected the President of All India Youth Congress and also the Secretary of Bengal State Congress.

2.2 Bose and the Congress Movement (1921-1939)  

Subash decided to join the Non     co-operation Movement of Gandhiji in 1921. But when Gandhi decided to withdraw the movement after the Chauri Chaura incident he was stunned. In his words. “To sound the order of retreat just when public enthusiasm was reaching the boiling point was nothing short of a national calamity”. Later, Bose was appointed as the principal of the National College set up by Chittaranjan Das, his mentor. A pro-changer, in 1923 he supported the proposal of Das to carry on the struggle against the British from within the legislatures. Bose supported Motilal Nehru and Das in organising the Swaraj Party. In the election to the Calcutta Corporation Chittaranjan Das was elected the Mayor and Subash Bose was appointed the Chief Executive Officer. After the death of Chittaranjan Das in 1925, Bose became the undisputed leader of the Congress in Bengal. When the Prince of Wales visited Calcutta, Subash successfully conducted the boycott of the Prince’s visit and invited the wrath of the British Government. He was deported to Mandalay in 1924, but he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council in his absence. He was released from prison due to illness.

 Subash had great respect for Mahatma Gandhi but differed from him in many ideological and strategic aspects. He belonged to the left wing of the Indian National Congress. Along with Jawaharlal Nehru and Srinivas Iyengar he proposed complete independence as the goal of the National Congress as against dominion status, proposed by the (Motilal) Nehru report of 1928. At the Lahore Congress in 1929 he demanded a socialist programme along with a constructive programme. At the Karachi Congress of 1931 he stood for a socialist Republic and wanted both political freedom as well as economic emancipation. Economic planning, land reforms, basic education and basic civil liberties were to be the objectives of future congress programmes. 

Subash stayed in Europe from 1933 to 1936. During his stay he tried to educate the public opinion against the exploitative British imperialism. He had to suffer imprisonment many times. Subash was the president of the All India Trade Union Congress, the Youth Congress and other organisations. He represented the young and extremist element in the Congress. 

2.3 The rift with Gandhiji

The rift between Gandhi and Bose came in the Fall of 1938, when war in Europe became a distinct possibility. Bose and the Left saw the possibility of war as a tremendous political opportunity, and wanted to use this opportunity to pressure the colonial government for immediate concessions. Gandhi and the Congress Right, on the other hand, wanted to issue a much weaker resolution, hoping that the British would simply do the right thing if war broke out. Bose and the Left refused to give in, and Gandhi was furious. Even though Bose was the Congress president at this time, Gandhi had long enjoyed the status of the unofficial super-president of the Congress, and he did not like Bose’s disobedience.

 

Bose had been a unanimous choice as the President of the Congress in 1938. Bose was up for          re-election in January of 1939. He decided to stand again as a spokesperson of militant politics and radical groups. Bose put forth his candidature on 21st January 1939 by saying that he represented the “new ideas, ideologies, problems and programmes that had emerged with the progressive sharpening of the anti-imperialist struggle in India”.

He maintained that the presidential elections should be fought on the basis of definite programmes and problems. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) however issued a statement saying that the talk of policies and programmes were irrelevant in a Presidential election because these were decided by the various Congress bodies, and that the President was like a constitutional head who symbolised the unity and solidarity of the nation. They, with the blessings of Gandhiji, put forth Pattabhi Sitaramayya as a candidate. 

Bose wanted to give the colonial government an ultimatum demanding immediate independence, and to begin all-out civil disobedience if the government refused. Gandhi and the Congress Right felt otherwise. In any event, Bose won his re-election on 29th January by defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya by 1580 votes to 1377.

This led to a stalemate and bought the brewing crisis to a tipping point at the Tripuri session of the Congress. Though Bose was the Congress president, members of the Working Committee were unwilling to let go of Gandhiji’s leadership. Without their cooperation, the President could not operate effectively; it was a system of checks and balances similar to what we have in the US government.

 

The Working Committee resigned. A resolution was passed expressing full confidence in the working committee and it asked Subhash to nominate his new Working Committee in accordance with Gandhiji’s wishes. Bose found himself unable to form a new Working Committee against Gandhi’s opposition. He tried hard to work out a compromise with Gandhi. He even offered to let Gandhi nominate the entire Working Committee, if Gandhi would accept Bose’s plan to launch an agitation for immediate independence. Gandhi refused to impose a committee on Bose. Left with no option except to resign, Bose did so, just four months into his second term as Congress president.

Bose had probably misunderstood the meaning of his victory. The vote for him was more because he represented the new ideas of aggression that had arisen and not because he was accepted as the supreme leader of the national movement. And certainly the Congress was not ready to forego Gandhiji’s leadership.

 

One of the interesting things about this whole episode is that Bose blamed Nehru more than he blamed Gandhi. He never completely cut his ties with Gandhi, and continued to try to rebuild his bridges. But he never forgave Nehru for not helping him during this crisis.

2.4 Foundation of the Forward Bloc

Bose resigned from the Congress and founded the Forward Bloc in May, 1939. According to Subash Bose, the Forward Bloc was intended to be a “radical and progressive party within the Congress, with a view to rallying the entire left wing under one banner”. The difference between Subash and Gandhi was so wide that there was no question of compromise. Bose was a critic of Gandhian political ideas and technique. Very soon the Forward Bloc became a separate entity. Forward Bloc under Bose’s leadership started a vigorous movement against the British government with the outbreak of the second world war in 1939. When the war began, he argued that ‘British difficulties were India’s opportunity’, an idea not liked by Congress leadership.

Things were now happening very fast for Bose, as usual. In July of 1940, he was arrested and sent to prison again for planning to lead a march demanding the removal of a memorial to the victims of the Black Hole of Calcutta. He went on a hunger-strike, and in December he was released.

 

Before his last arrest, Bose had begun to think about getting himself out of India. He felt that there was little that he could achieve in India under the circumstances. His career in the Congress had stalled, and besides, the Congress was unwilling to do what he wanted it to do. The war, he felt, was too important an opportunity to waste. So he came up with a plan. He would escape from India, get to the Soviet Union, and then go on to Germany. When he got to Germany, he would persuade the Germans to help him in his fight against the British in India.

3.0 The Indian National Army (INA)

 

3.1 The first phase

The INA was first conceived in Malaya by Mohan Singh, an Indian officer of the British Army. He decided not to join the retreating British army and went to the Japanese for help. Indian POWs were handed over by the Japanese to Mohan Singh who then tried to recruit them into the INA. By the end of 1942, forty thousand men had expressed there willingness to join. The INA made it clear that it would go to war against the British only on the invitation of the Indian National Congress and the Indian people. It was also perceived as a bulwark against the future occupation of India by the Japanese.

The outbreak of the Quit India movement added a lot of vigor to the INA. Anti British protests were organised in Malaya and on 1st September, 1942 the first division of INA was formed with 16,300 soldiers. However, by December 1942, serious differences emerged between the INA and the Japanese Government. The main aspect was that whereas the Japanese wanted just a token force of 2,000, Mohan Singh wanted to raise an army of 20,000 soldiers. Mohan Singh and Niranjan Singh Gill, the most senior officers of the INA were arrested by the Japanese authorities.

3.2 The second phase

After his release from prison, Bose was interned in his house at Calcutta under strict police surveillance. Subash escaped from Calcutta on 17th January 1941 eluding police vigilance. The story of his escape from the country is an epic of adventure. After escaping from India Subash passed through Peshawar, Kabul and Moscow and finally reached Berlin on 28th March 1941. In the guise of a Maulavi, he was able to escape the vigilant eyes of the police. With the help of Italian embassy Subash got a passport in the name of Orlando Majjota and reached Germany.

 

In Germany he tried to raise an Indian legion. The Indian community in Germany acclaimed him as their leader ‘Netaji’ and greeted him with ‘Jai Hind’. From Berlin Radio, he frequently urged his countrymen to rise in arms against the British. Bose’s escape to Germany had made a great impression on Gandhiji. Though he had not formally approved many of his actions, now he admired the courage and resourcefulness of Subash in making his escape from India.

 

Russia joining the Allied forces and the victory of Japan in the middle of the Second World War led Subash to think that South-East Asia would be a more suitable ground for raising a national army to free India. Rash Behari Bose, who had settled in Japan since 1915, organised a conference in Tokyo in March 1942 and another in Bangkok in June 1942. Out of these conferences the Indian Independence League was born and it was decided to form an Indian National Army for the liberation of India from British subjection. A Council of Action was formed with Rash Behari Bose as its President and Mohan Singh as commander-in-chief of the Army. 

The Bangkok conference had sent an invitation to Subash Bose to come to East Asia. After a long sea journey he reached Tokyo on 13th June 1943. The Japanese authorities promised to extend help to Bose to expel the British from India and to enable India to achieve full independence.The Japanese Prime Minister Tojo assured him that they had no territorial designs on India. Then Subash went to Singapore where he was offered the leadership of the Indian National Army and the Presidentship of the Indian Independence League. In organising an army of about 60,000 Indian troops Subash received great help from Japan. He proceeded to organise the provisional Government of Free India as well as the Indian National Army. He stirred the INA in the following words. “In this final march to freedom you will have to face hunger, privation, forced marches and death... only when you pass this test will freedom be yours”.

 

Acclaimed as ‘Netaji’, Subash gave the clarion call “Give me blood and I promise you freedom”.  He gave the battle cry of ‘March to Delhi’ or ‘Delhi chalo’ on 21st October 1943. Subash established the provisional Government of Free India, which was recognised within few days by Japan, Germany, Italy, Burma, Thailand, and China. The object was to bring about the expulsion of the British and their Allies from the soil of India. The provisional Government acquired its first Indian territory when Japan handed over Andaman and Nicober islands to it on 6th November 1943. The territories were named as ‘Shahid’ and ‘Swaraj’ island respectively. Subash called upon the Indian people to ‘rally round our banner and to strike for India’s freedom’. The INA brigade assisted by the Japanese army advanced upto the Indian border. The Indian flag was hoisted in Kohima in March 1944. 

On 6th July, 1944, 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 blessings and good wishes”.

The INA carried on a heroic campaign against the Allied Forces. Netaji moved from one battle field to another. He often flew from Tokyo to Manila to Singapore to Rangoon. Unfortunately on one such trip to Tokyo on 18th August, 1945 Bose was severely injured in a plane crash in Formosa (Taiwan) and died. But there is no clear evidence of his death at the Taihaku airport. His death remains mystery till date, and no conclusive report or evidence is available to establish the facts even now. A tragedy indeed!

Various commissions have been constituted by the Indian Government after independence to solve this mystery but no concrete evidence has been found to support any claim. The committees appointed were Shah Nawaz Committee in 1956, Khosla Commission in 1970 and the Mukherjee Commission in 1999. However we are still far away from knowing the exact sequence of events leading to Bose’s death or dissappearance. 

3.3 INA's strategy and successes

INA's strategy during World War II was to avoid set-piece battles for which it lacked arms, armament as well as man-power. Initially, it sought to obtain arms as well as increase its ranks from Indian soldiers expected to defect. Once across the hills of North-East India and into the Gangetic plains, it was expected to live off the land and garner support, supplies, and ranks from amongst the local populace to ultimately touch off a revolution. The INA believed that although the fate of the war was uncertain, initiating a popular revolution with grass-root support within India would ensure that irrespective of the outcome of the war, Britain would not be in a position to re-assert its colonial authority. This was the ultimate aim of the INA.

3.4 The Battle of Imphal and Kohima

In March 1944 the Japanese 15th Army began an advance against India's north-east frontier to forestall a planned British invasion of Burma. They intended to capture the British supply bases on the Imphal Plain and cut the road linking Dimapur and Imphal at Kohima. With Imphal in their hands, the Japanese would also be able to interrupt air supplies to China. It would also give them a base from which to conduct air attacks against India.

Originally, the Japanese intended using the INA only for reconnaissance and propaganda.  However at the insistence of Subhas Chandra Bose the Indian National Army was given strategic responsibilities. Units of the First Division (initially the Subhas Brigade or 1st Guerrilla Regiment), covered the left flank of 33rd Division's advance.The 2nd Guerrilla Regiment was attached later in the battle to Yamamoto Force. The Special Services Group, redesignated the Bahadur Group, acted as scouts and pathfinders with the advanced Japanese units in the opening stages of the offensive. They were tasked to infiltrate through British lines and encourage units of the British Indian Army to defect.

The Japanese had assumed that success would be achieved within three weeks. Adequate supplies after that period could be obtained only if the Japanese captured Allied supply dumps. However due to diverse reasons, the Japanese could not succeed in their objective and had to withdraw from Kohima and Imphal. The defeat at Kohima and Imphal was the largest defeat to that date in Japanese history. They had suffered 55,000 casualties, including 13,500 dead. Most of these losses were the result of starvation, disease and exhaustion.

During the last three months of 1944, Japanese forces had withdrawn to the banks of the Irrawaddy in Burma, where they intended to make a stand. Netaji enthusiastically offered the reorganized INA First Division, when the Japanese 15th division was ordered to oppose the British. Subsquently, the 2nd Division was also readied for action. In February 1945, the INA held some positions in the region of Mandalay in Burma, giving battle to the advancing enemy. This was the second campaign of Netaji's army, and it held out tenaciously at Nyaungu for some time. However, allied troops later crossed the Irrawaddy at several points and the Japanese and INA units were surrounded. There were some desertions. Despite unique examples of heroism and Netaji's presence in the battlefields, risking his own life in the face of enemy attacks, the second campaign of the INA (which was purely a defensive one) finally had to give way to the gradual reconquest of Burma by the British.

3.5 The defeat of the INA

With the defeat of Japan in the war, the INA too met with reverses. The surrender of Germany on 7th May, 1945, bombing over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August, 1945 and the reported death of Subash Bose broke the backbone of the INA. In       mid-1945, the INA finally surrendered to the British in South-East Asia. But when the INA men were brought back home and threatened with severe punishment, a powerful movement emerged in their defence.

The saga of Subash Bose and INA still remains a great source of inspiration for the youth of India. The epic struggle of Subash Bose and INA against British colonialism occupies an unchallenged place in the history of freedom struggle in India. Subash Bose being a man of action was convinced of the historic necessity of an armed uprising for achievement of freedom. Although many people have criticised Subash for taking the help of fasicist and Nazi powers to try to gain independence, his patriotism is beyond comparison. For his burning patriotism, his devotion to the cause of Indian freedom and his intense suffering for the sake of his country (he was imprisoned ten times and was in jail for eight years), Subash will always be hailed as a national hero. Apart from the memory of the INA, the lasting gift of Netaji is our national salutation ‘Jai Hind’.

Leading individuals in Indian Independence movement in 1920s, 30s and 40s

Chittaranjan Das was an Indian politician and founder-leader of the Swaraj Party in Bengal under the British Raj. He was an influential orator and carried political foresight, and tact which gave him a leading position in the Congress. 

1. Chittaranjan Das is generally referred as Deshbandhu which means "Friend of the nation".
2. He completed his education in England, where he became a Barrister. His public career began in 1909 when he successfully defended Aurobindo Ghosh on charges of involvement in the Alipore bomb case.
3. Das maintained close contact with Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh and helped them in publishing the Bande Mataram, an English weekly for propagating the ideals of swaraj.
4. Das was politically most active between 1917 and 1925. In 1917, he presided over the Bengal Provincial Conference and put forward a plan for village reconstruction through the establishment of local self-government, cooperative credit societies, and the regeneration of cottage industry.
5. Das denounced the Montagu-Chelmsford Reform, which established a diarchy for India, and joined Gandhi's non-cooperation movement (NCM) in 1920 and sacrificed a comfortable life when he became attached to the Indian national freedom movement.
6. He initiated a ban on British clothes in Bengal during the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1919 to 1922.
7. Das  was arrested in the year 1921 with his wife and son and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. He was elected as the president of the Ahmedabad Congress in the same year .
8. Das also brought out a newspaper called 'Forward' and later changed its name to Liberty, to fight the British Raj. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was the editor of this newspaper. Bose considered Das as his mentor.
9. Das was also a voracious reader, he was closely associated with a number of literary societies and wrote poems, apart from numerous articles and essays.
10. Das, a few years before his death, gifted his house and the adjoining lands to the nation to be used for the betterment of the lives of women. At present, it is a big hospital called Chittaranjan Seva Sadan and has gone from being a women's hospital to one with multiple specialties.

1. Inspired by the French Revolution of 1789 : At a young age,  he had his mind preoccupied with ideas of revolution which were only fueled by the revolutionary novel called Ananda Math (The Abbey of Bliss) by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhay, a novelist from Bengal. His passion for revolution was deepened by nationlistic speeches by Swami Vivekanand and Surendranath Banerjee. His teacher, Charu Chand, moulded his mind with revolutionary ideas during Bose’s days of growing up in Chandannagar.
2. The Alipore Bomb Case :  Rashbehari, like any other Bengali, was deeply angered by the partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905. Grouped with revolutionary organisations like Yugantar, Rashbehari Bose contributed with his skills of preparing bombs to the mission of bombing Magistrate Kingsford. The two bombers, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki missed Kingsford, killed two British women instead and were hanged to death after the Alipore Bomb case trial of 1908. Rashbehari managed to escape Bengal for Dehradun, meeting fellow revolutionaries of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
3. The Delhi Conspiracy Case : In 1912, Rashbehari prepared the plan for bombing the Viceroy of India at that time, Lord Hardinge. Although, it was yet another failed attempt, the incident shook the British Raj to its roots. The British made every effort to pacify revolutionary activities of Punjabis and Bengalis as an aftermath of the attack and Rashbehari managed to escape once again. For the next three years, Rashbehari was seen as an active member of the Ghadar Movement.
4. Rashbehari and the Ghadar Movement : It was a party founded by the Punjabis in U.S and Canada with a strong dream of an independent India. By 1914, not only the Indians settled in America and Canada were coming back to India to join the freedom struggle, but they were also bringing ammunition with them. The leadership of the revolution was entrusted with Rashbehari Bose who had planned for a an uprising against the British officers on February 21, 1915. However, intelligence was leaked out and the plan had to be scrapped. Rashbehari, eventually left for Japan where a new chapter of his revolution began.
5. Rashbehari Bose and the Black Dragon Society : The Black Dragon Society was one of the most notoriously extremist groups in Japan that was founded in 1901. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the father of the Republic of China (ROC), introduced Bose to the formidable leader chief of the Black Diamond Society, Toyama Mitsuru. Since Rashbehari believed in violent means to attain freedom just like the Black Dragon Society, the match in ideals led the Society to help Bose with protection during his refuge in Japan while he acquainted the Japanese extremists with the issues faced by the Indians back home. 
6. Persuaded Japanese authorities to support India : Rashbehari moved to Japan pretending to be a distant relative of Rabindranath Tagore. He married a Japanese woman, worked as a journalist and had a Japanese citizenship by 1923. He, along with A.M Nair, persuaded the Japanese authorities to support the Indian freedom movement outside India. It was during the conference in Tokyo held between 28th to 30th March, 1942, convened by Bose that the decision of establishing the Indian Independence League was taken.
7. Handed over the leadership of Azand Hind Fauj to Subhash Chandra Bose : The second conference of the Indian Independence League in 1942 concluded with the decision of inviting Subhash Chandra Bose to the league. At the time of friction between Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose, Rashbehari handed over the Azand Hind Fauj flag to Bose. Rashbehari was not in power anymore but it was his organisational structure which formed the basis of the Indian National Army or the Azad Hind Fauj led by Netaji Bose.
8. Rashbehari – a favourite in Japan : Instituted in 1875 by the Japanese emperor Meiji, Rashbehari Bose was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government. He was married to a daughter of restaurant owner in Tokyo where he introduced the famous Indian Curry in Japan which is still a delicacy in the country. The restaurant was called Nakamuraya and his famous recipe of the Indian curry earned him then nickname, “Bose of Nakamuraya”.

 

Join PT courses | PT Youtube | PT App | Contribute |  Testimonials