Imagine This...
It's 1943. Southeast Asia. A man the British believed was under house arrest in Calcutta is standing before thousands of Indian soldiers — prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in Malaya and Singapore.
Subhas Chandra Bose — former Congress President, twice elected and twice forced out by Gandhi — has pulled off the most dramatic escape in Indian political history. He traveled in disguise through Afghanistan, reached Nazi Germany, took a submarine to Japan, and now commands an army.
He addresses his troops:
"Give me blood, and I will give you freedom!"
Give me blood, and I will give you freedom! This is not a battle for territory. This is a battle for the soul of India. The roads to Delhi are calling. Chalo Delhi!
The Indian National Army (INA) — 60,000 strong — will march into India from Burma, fight at Imphal and Kohima, and be defeated. Bose will die in a plane crash (officially) on August 18, 1945.
But here's what the British didn't expect: when they tried the INA officers at the Red Fort in 1945, all of India united — Congress, League, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh — to defend them. The British Indian Army — the backbone of the Raj — was no longer reliable.
The INA lost the battle. It won the war.
The Great Escape — How Bose Reached Tokyo
THE MOST DRAMATIC ESCAPE IN INDIAN HISTORY:
JANUARY 1941 — CALCUTTA:
Bose is under house arrest.
The British are watching.
He disguises himself as "MUHAMMAD ZIAUDDIN"
— a Muslim insurance agent
— grows a beard, wears a fez
— walks out of his own house past British guards
JANUARY-MARCH 1941:
Travels by car to Peshawar (NWFP)
Crosses into AFGHANISTAN on foot
With a forged Italian passport as "ORLANDO MAZZOTTA"
Reaches KABUL → Soviet Embassy
→ Travels to MOSCOW → then BERLIN
APRIL 1941 - FEBRUARY 1943: NAZI GERMANY
Meets HITLER (May 29, 1942)
→ Hitler is uninterested in India
→ Offers vague promises, no real support
→ Bose forms the "Free India Legion"
(Indian POWs from North Africa)
but it sees limited action
Bose realizes: Germany can't help.
Japan CAN — they're in Southeast Asia,
on India's doorstep.
FEBRUARY 1943 — THE SUBMARINE:
Bose boards a GERMAN U-BOAT (U-180)
Transfers mid-ocean to a JAPANESE SUBMARINE (I-29)
— the only civilian transfer between Axis submarines
in the entire war
Reaches TOKYO, May 1943.
Now he can build his army.
The Indian National Army (INA)
THE ARMY THAT FOUGHT FROM THE EAST:
ORIGINS:
Captain Mohan Singh (Indian officer, British Army)
formed the first INA in 1942 from Indian POWs
captured by Japan at Singapore (Feb 1942).
80,000 Indian soldiers surrendered at Singapore
— the largest British surrender in history.
Many of these soldiers — humiliated by British
defeats, inspired by nationalism — joined the INA.
BOSE TAKES COMMAND (July 1943):
Mohan Singh's first INA had dissolved
(disagreements with Japanese).
Bose revives it. Reorganizes. Inspires.
→ 60,000 soldiers
→ Funded by Indian diaspora in Southeast Asia
(Indian merchants donate gold, jewelry, savings)
→ Includes the RANI OF JHANSI REGIMENT
— an all-women's combat regiment
— named after Lakshmibai
— led by Captain Lakshmi Sahgal
AZAD HIND GOVERNMENT (October 21, 1943):
Bose declares the PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
OF FREE INDIA — "Azad Hind"
→ Recognized by Japan, Germany, and Axis allies
→ Has its own currency, stamps, courts
→ Administers the Andaman & Nicobar Islands
(renamed "Shaheed" and "Swaraj" islands)
→ India's first independent government
— even if in exile
Imphal and Kohima — The March on India
OPERATION U-GO — THE MARCH ON DELHI (March-July 1944):
THE PLAN:
INA + Japanese forces invade India from Burma
Target: IMPHAL and KOHIMA (Manipur/Nagaland)
Ultimate dream: "CHALO DELHI" — march to Delhi
MARCH 1944:
INA crosses into Indian soil
→ First Indian army to fight FOR India
on Indian soil since 1857
→ Bose's troops plant the Indian tricolor
on Indian territory
THE BATTLES:
IMPHAL (March-July 1944):
Brutal fighting. 4 months.
Japanese/INA forces besiege the city.
British forces hold — barely.
Monsoon arrives. Supply lines collapse.
KOHIMA (April-June 1944):
Called "the Stalingrad of the East"
Fighting in the District Commissioner's
tennis court — hand-to-hand combat
across a single tennis net.
The furthest point of Japan's advance.
The hinge of the war in Asia.
THE DEFEAT:
→ Japanese supply lines collapse
→ Monsoon + disease + starvation
→ 50,000 Japanese/INA casualties
→ INA retreats back through Burma
→ Many soldiers die of starvation and disease
on the retreat
Militarily: TOTAL DEFEAT.
Politically: That's not what mattered.
Bose's Death — The Mystery
AUGUST 18, 1945 — TAIPEI:
The war is over. Japan has surrendered.
Bose is flying from Saigon to Tokyo
(possibly to reach the Soviet Union).
His plane crashes on takeoff at Taipei.
Bose suffers severe burns.
He dies hours later.
... OR DID HE?
THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES (still alive):
→ Some believe Bose survived
→ Escaped to the Soviet Union
→ Lived as a monk in India
→ The "Gumnami Baba" theory
→ Multiple government inquiries:
Shah Nawaz Committee (1956): plane crash
Khosla Commission (1970): plane crash
Mukherjee Commission (2005): inconclusive
India has NEVER officially accepted
his death certificate.
The mystery of Bose's death is
India's JFK moment.
What is certain: after August 18, 1945,
Subhas Chandra Bose was never seen again.
The Red Fort Trials — The Real Victory
This is where the INA won:
THE INA TRIALS (November 1945 - May 1946):
THE SETUP:
After the war, the British arrested INA officers
and tried them for "WAGING WAR AGAINST THE KING"
Venue: RED FORT, DELHI
— where Bahadur Shah Zafar was tried in 1858
— the symbolism was inescapable
THE THREE DEFENDANTS:
Shah Nawaz Khan (Muslim)
Prem Kumar Sahgal (Hindu)
Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon (Sikh)
One Muslim, one Hindu, one Sikh.
ALL fighting for India.
The Two-Nation Theory — DEMOLISHED in one trial.
THE DEFENSE:
Led by JAWAHARLAL NEHRU
(who put on his barrister's gown for the first time
in decades) and Bhulabhai Desai.
Congress, Muslim League, Communist Party —
ALL supported the INA defendants.
For the ONLY time in history:
Jinnah and Nehru were on the same side.
THE VERDICT:
Guilty — but sentence COMMUTED.
The British didn't dare execute them.
Protests erupted across India:
→ "INA ZINDABAD!" — on every wall
→ Strikes in Bombay and Calcutta
→ Most critically: INDIAN SOLDIERS
in the British Indian Army began
showing sympathy for the INA
→ The ROYAL INDIAN NAVY MUTINY (Feb 1946)
was directly inspired by the INA trials
THE BRITISH CALCULATION:
If the Indian Army is no longer loyal,
Britain CANNOT hold India.
Not with 57 battalions.
Not with a million soldiers.
Not with anything.
The INA trials broke the last pillar
of British power: MILITARY LOYALTY.
The INA and Netaji's activities, which made the Indian ones in the armed forces unreliable, were among the most important reasons for Britain's decision to leave India.
Bose vs Gandhi — The Other Path
THE TWO VISIONS:
GANDHI: BOSE:
Non-violence Armed struggle
Moral authority Military power
"Suffer and win" "Fight and win"
British conscience Geopolitical pressure
Village-based India Industrialized India
Spiritual Military-political
Stayed in India Escaped to fight abroad
THE RIFT:
1938: Bose elected Congress President
1939: Re-elected AGAINST Gandhi's candidate
Gandhi's camp obstructs him
Bose resigns. Forms Forward Bloc.
1940: Arrested by the British
1941: ESCAPES to Germany → Japan → INA
BOSE'S VIEW OF GANDHI:
"I respect the Mahatma. But non-violence
will not defeat an empire.
Only force can remove force."
GANDHI'S VIEW OF BOSE:
Called him "the prince among patriots."
But disagreed with his methods completely.
THE TRUTH:
The British feared BOTH.
Gandhi made ruling India morally impossible.
Bose made ruling India militarily impossible.
Together — one in India, one abroad —
they made the British position UNTENABLE.
Why This Moment Matters
- The INA broke military loyalty. The British Indian Army — 2.5 million strong in WWII — was the backbone of the Raj. When Indian soldiers began sympathizing with the INA, the last pillar of British power cracked.
- The Red Fort trials united India. One Hindu, one Muslim, one Sikh — defended by both Congress and League. For one moment, the Two-Nation Theory was meaningless. Every Indian was on the same side.
- Bose represented the alternative. Not everyone believed in non-violence. Bose gave voice to the millions who wanted to fight, not suffer. His popularity — then and now — shows that India's freedom story has more than one hero.
- The INA women's regiment was revolutionary. The Rani of Jhansi Regiment — women in combat — was decades ahead of its time. Captain Lakshmi Sahgal became a symbol of what women could do.
- Attlee confirmed it. The British Prime Minister later said the INA's impact on military loyalty was a primary reason Britain decided to leave India. Not just Gandhi. Not just Congress. The INA.
Bose said "Chalo Delhi." The INA never reached Delhi. But the fear that the next time they might — and that the British Indian Army might JOIN them — is what ended the Raj.
Part of the Modern History series. This article covers the twenty-third event in the Complete Timeline Overview timeline.
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