Indian National Army(INA)

Introduction:

Indian National Army is referred to as INA. Indian nationalists established the Indian National Army (INA), also called Azad Hind Fauj, in 1942 as part of "World War II".

Under the support of the Imperial Japanese Army, Indian Nationalists established the Indian National Army to win India's freedom.

On August 18, 1942, in Singapore, the Indian National Army was formed to free India from British rule. The group was founded and primarily led by Subhas Chandra Bose, known as Netaji. Bose enthusiastically recruited thousands of Indian soldiers and citizens from the Southeast Asian region to join the INA because he firmly believed that fighting was the only way to attain freedom.

The Indian National Army's history:

Japanese attacked South East Asia when the Second World War broke out. Seventy thousand soldiers had been posted in the area at the time, primarily around the coastline of Malaya. In 1942, Japan launched an explosive assault that resulted in the collapse of Singapore and the Malayan Peninsula. About forty-five thousand Indian prisoners of battle were taken captive during the Singaporean fight alone. The Japanese decided to form a support force to combat the British based on these prisoners of war.

Due to the conditions they were living in the internment facilities and their general dissatisfaction with the British, several prisoners of war offered to enlist in the Indian National Army.

The Imperial Japanese Army and the Southeast Asian ethnically Indian people both provided the project with substantial backing. Yet, the first Indian National Army was dissolved in December of 1942 as a result of differences over autonomy between Mohan Singh and the Japanese Army Administration.

The second instalment of INA and Subash Chandra Bose:

Although Mohan Singh's activities had infuriated the Japanese Army Command, they eventually yielded and created the second Indian National Army. Subash Chandra Bose was suggested by Mohan Singh directly to the position of leadership. The Imperial Japanese Army and the Indian diaspora in Southeast Asia were both aware of his image as a fervent nationalist. They had been, therefore, more receptive to the notion of Subash Chandra Bose leading an Indian army. Subash Chandra Bose was imprisoned by the British due to his efforts in India, yet he got away and made it to Berlin in 1941.

While the German leadership sympathized with him, it could not back him in his efforts to raise a military to oppose the British due to logistical issues. But the Japanese were willing to support him, so in July 1943, at their very own invitation, Subash Chandra Bose came to Singapore to assume leadership of the future Second Indian National Army—better known today as the Azad Hind Fauj.

In March of 1942, Rash Behari Bose established the Indian Freedom League. Bose persuaded the Japanese government to back the Indian independence movement amid World War II. He was crucial in garnering global backing for the Indian independence cause.

The option was made to bring in and designate Subhash Chandra Bose to serve as League's head during the League's second summit in June of 1942. The armed wing of the Alliance was the Indian National Army (INA), which Subhash Chandra Bose constructed according to the general plan provided by Rash Behari Bose.

How the Azad Hind Fauj Operates:

An influx of individuals seeking to join the INA occurred following Subhash Chandra Bose's assumption of charge over the Azad Hind Fauj. Subash Chandra Bose accepted that the INA would continue to report to the Japanese Army. Still, he considered this an inevitable cost to achieve the final goal of releasing India under the British Empire. The Japanese campaign targeting British India in 1944, known as Mission U-Go, involved the Azad Hind Fauj. Despite the INA's early successes, they had to withdraw at the conflict of Imphal with the War of Kohima (which took place on April 4, 1944), which resulted in the Japanese Army's catastrophic failure at their own hands of the British.

During this withdrawal, the INA suffered significant casualties and material losses. Many regiments of the increasingly collapsing Japanese Army had to dissolve or feed into newly formed divisions.

The majority of the INA's men were taken prisoner by the British when Japan was defeated in World War 2. It is said that Subhash Chandra Bose personally perished in an aircraft crash in Taiwan in September of 1945, having avoided captivity.