Fighting for India's forgotten army

By John Zubrzycki

NEW DELHI (JP): On Aug. 18, 1945, three days after the end of the World War II, a twin-engined bomber carrying several senior Japanese officers and an Indian called Subash Chandra Bose took off from Taihoku in Formosa (now Taiwan) bound for Manchuria.

As it began its ascent, the plane lost part of its port propeller, caught fire, dived steeply and crashed. With his clothes alight, Bose clambered out of the wreckage suffering from severe burns and head injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital.

"I feel I shall die very soon," he managed to say. "I have fought for India's freedom until the last. Tell my countrymen 'India will be free before long'."

Bose's death ended one of the most extraordinary and controversial episodes of the war. As leader of the Indian National Army (INA), he mobilized more than 40,000 Indian troops picked from prisoner of war camps in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia and turned them into a force for the liberation of India.

But Bose's support of Japan, his dalliance with Hitler and his advocation of an armed struggle to overthrow British rule, would condemn the INA to little more than a footnote in the official history of India's freedom struggle.

"They want to forget us. We are inconvenient reminders that the official version of the struggle for freedom, which says that India has won its independence through peaceful non-violent means, is not all true," says Captain SS Yadav, a 78-year-old veteran of the INA's fourth anti-craft regiment.

From the cramped confines of a two-roomed flat deep inside the walled city of old Delhi, Captain Yadav, the secretary of the All India INA Committee, is fighting to restore the image of India's forgotten army.

A life-size portrait of Bose in the khaki fatigues of a field commander stands propped up against a filling cabinet. Faded maps of the India-Burma theater cover the lime-washed walls.

In February 1942, 85,000 allied soldiers stationed in Malaya surrendered to the Japanese. Two-thirds were Indians and of these some 40,000 threw off their allegiance to the Crown and joined the army of "Free India".

"We went to war sincerely and loyally, but we were treated like slaves by the British Army. A slave has no oath of allegiance," recalls an embittered Yadav.

A "provisional government" was formed under the presidency of Bose with assurances from the Japanese that once the British Army was defeated, the INA would take over the administration of a newly independent India.

Apart from POWs in Malaya, tens of thousands of more Indians living in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations rallied to Bose's "Dilli Chalo" or "March to Delhi" slogan. But the Japanese, short of equipment and supplies, never armed more than 15,000 INA front-line fighters.

The INA's moment of glory came on 15 March 1944 when the Indian tricolor emblazoned with a springing tiger was hoisted on Indian soil at Molrang near Imphal. But shortly after, the Japanese and their Indian allies were routed from the borders of India in a devastating defeat that marked the turning point of the war in the East.

Capt. Yadav still believes the Japanese were genuine in their intentions toward the INA despite their brutal occupations of other Asian nations and their record of racism and imperialism.

"We shared our meals together, fought together and suffered together," he says. "There is no question that after capturing Imphal and Dimapur we would have marched to Delhi."

Fifty years after his death, the controversy that surrounded Bose is as alive as ever.

Many former INA members still refuse to accept that Netaji, as Bose was known to his followers, died in a plane crash, believing instead that he fled to Stalin's Russia to avoid being put on trial. Some even believe he is still alive.

Although many Indians found Bose's fraternity with the fascist powers abhorrent, others admired the courage and spirit with which he and his followers fought for India's independence .

"Bose criticized Hitler for stating that the white races were born to rule over the colored races," says Capt. Yadav in defense of Bose's attempts to enlist German support. "He was not afraid to criticize Hitler for his invasion of Russia either."

Following the war, popular opinion forced the British to release INA soldiers taken prisoner during the reconquest of Malaya and Burma in 1945 and to call off court marshals of INA officers accused of "waging war against the King Emperor".

Despite their defeat on the battlefield, Capt. Yadav believes that INA's defiance of British military power was a turning point in the independence campaign.

"The British left India because they realized that after the INA struggle, even the sword arm with which they ruled India, the British Indian Army, could no longer be trusted to follow them blindly."

But the Indian government has steadfastly refused to give the INA the recognition Capt. Yadav and other veterans believe it deserves. "We tried to create a new society by destroying the artificial barriers of caste, creed and language. But to Nehru (India's first prime minister) we were revolutionaries ready to stage a military coup."

As in previous years, there has been no official ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of Bose's death. But in October a group of veterans plan to resurrect the slogan of "Dilli Chalo" and recreate the route the INA followed from Singapore to India via Malaysia, Thailand and Burma. The expedition will include INA veterans, historians, anthropologies and a film crew.

Bose still commands a loyal following among Indians abroad. A UK group has floated plans for a feature film on the INA and intend asking Arnold Schwarzenegger, who they claim bears a striking resemblance to Bose, to play the lead role.

Meanwhile a committee in India formed to draw up plans for the centenary of Bose's birth in 1997, plans to approach Michael Jackson to raise awareness about the controversial freedom fighter among Indian youth.

Says committee coordinator, Salil Ghose, "Jackson is an icon to the youngsters. So if he just composes one song, even if he does not sing it, it will be enough."