The leader who chose another road
Gandhi believed India would be freed by non-violence. Subhas Chandra Bose believed it would be freed by an army. He went abroad, built one, and though it lost every battle, it may have won the war.
Subhas Chandra Bose, known as Netaji, was the leader who broke with Gandhi over method — he believed only armed force would end British rule, and that a world war was India's chance to use it. This page covers Bose and the Indian National Army (INA) in full, and then the events that flowed directly from it: the Forward Bloc, the Red Fort trials, and the Royal Indian Navy mutiny of 1946.
Bose before the INA
- Bose was elected Congress President at Haripura in 1938, and again at Tripuri in 1939 — where he defeated Gandhi's candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya
- Gandhi called that defeat his own, and Bose, unable to work with the Gandhian leadership, resigned the presidency
- In 1939 he founded the Forward Bloc within the Congress, to unite the radical left
- On the outbreak of war he was placed under house arrest; in January 1941 he escaped from Calcutta, travelling in disguise through Afghanistan and the Soviet Union to Germany
Bose reached Germany in 1941, where Indian prisoners of war formed the first Indian Legion, and where he was first called Netaji — respected leader. In 1943 a German and Japanese submarine carried him to Southeast Asia. He is also remembered for the greeting Jai Hind, and the call Give me blood and I will give you freedom, addressed to Indians in Southeast Asia.
The Indian National Army
The INA — Azad Hind Fauj — was first formed in 1942 by Captain Mohan Singh, out of Indian soldiers captured by Japan in Singapore. It faltered amid disputes with the Japanese. Then Bose arrived.
- Bose took command of the INA in 1943 and revived it as a disciplined nationalist force
- On 21 October 1943 he proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India — the Azad Hind government — at Singapore, with himself as head of state, prime minister and commander-in-chief
- The Azad Hind government declared war on Britain and America, and was recognised by the Axis powers and their allies
- Japan handed over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which Bose renamed Shaheed and Swaraj
- The INA had brigades named after Gandhi, Nehru and Azad, and the Rani Jhansi Regiment, an all-woman unit led by Captain Lakshmi Sahgal — one of the first women's combat units in Asia
- At its peak the INA numbered around 60,000
The INA, alongside Japanese forces, advanced into northeast India and reached Imphal and Kohima, planting the tricolour on Indian soil. But the offensive failed — supply lines collapsed, the monsoon set in, and Japanese support crumbled. The INA never recovered.
After Japan's surrender, Bose reportedly died in a plane crash at Taihoku (Taipei) in Taiwan on 18 August 1945. His body was never recovered, and the absence of it has produced enduring speculation. His reported death ended the INA's campaign — but not its influence.
The INA lost militarily — but its real effect came afterwards. It had shown that Indian soldiers would fight against the Raj, and it had done so as a secular force uniting Hindu, Muslim and Sikh under one flag. When the British put its officers on trial, the question it raised — whether the Indian Army could still be trusted to hold India down — turned out to be the one that mattered most in 1945–46.
Related — the Forward Bloc
The All India Forward Bloc was founded by Bose in 1939, after he left the Congress presidency. Its aim was to rally the radical and left-wing elements of the Congress into a single bloc pressing for full independence through mass struggle. It survived Bose's departure abroad and continues as a political party today, but its historical importance is as Bose's own political vehicle in the year before he left India.
Related — the Red Fort INA trials, 1945–46
After the war the British court-martialled captured INA officers for treason at the Red Fort in Delhi, between November 1945 and May 1946. The choice of venue backfired badly.
- The first and most famous trial was of three officers together — Shah Nawaz Khan (a Muslim), Prem Sahgal (a Hindu) and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon (a Sikh) — a combination that made the trial a symbol of national unity
- The INA Defence Committee was formed to defend them, including Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Kailash Nath Katju, Asaf Ali and Jawaharlal Nehru, who returned to law for the occasion
- Bhulabhai Desai led the defence
- The trials produced mass protests across India, cutting across communal lines — the accused were seen not as traitors but as patriots
- The three were found guilty but their sentences were remitted in the face of the public storm — the government dared not carry them out
- Captain Mohan Singh, the INA's original founder, was not among those tried at the Red Fort
The British chose the Red Fort because it was where they had tried Bahadur Shah Zafar after the Revolt of 1857 — a place meant to display the Raj's power to punish rebels. The plan misfired. Instead of overawing India, the trials united it in sympathy with the accused, and the commander-in-chief himself, Claude Auchinleck, quietly advised leniency for fear of what the trials were doing to the loyalty of the Indian Army.
Related — the Royal Indian Navy mutiny, 1946
The INA trials fed directly into the most alarming event of all for the British: unrest within the armed forces themselves.
- In February 1946, Indian ratings of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied, beginning aboard HMIS Talwar in Bombay under leaders such as M.S. Khan
- The immediate causes were poor food, racial insults and bad conditions — but the deeper spark was the nationalist mood the INA trials had created
- It spread to some seventy-eight ships and shore establishments and around 20,000 sailors, with Jai Hind and Netaji Zindabad raised as slogans
- Vallabhbhai Patel and the Congress leadership persuaded the ratings to surrender, promising their grievances would be addressed — the national leaders feared an uncontrolled uprising
- The mutiny convinced the British of a hard truth: the armed forces on which the Raj ultimately rested could no longer be relied upon to hold India
Why did the Red Fort INA trials backfire on the British?
The British held them at the Red Fort to display their power to punish rebels, as they had with Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1857. Instead, the trial of Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon — a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh together — became a symbol of national unity. Mass protests erupted across communal lines, the accused were seen as patriots, and the government had to remit their sentences, while unrest spread to the armed forces.
Forward Bloc 1939, INA revived 1943, Azad Hind government 1943, Imphal 1944, Bose reported dead 1945, trials 1945-46, RIN mutiny 1946. And the three tried together: Shah Nawaz, Sahgal, Dhillon — Muslim, Hindu, Sikh.
Everything on one look
Bose, the INA, the trials and the mutiny.
- Bose defeated Sitaramayya at Tripuri in 1939 and then resigned
- Bose founded the Forward Bloc in 1939
- Bose escaped from Calcutta in 1941
- The INA was first formed by Captain Mohan Singh in 1942
- Bose took command of the INA in 1943
- The Azad Hind government was proclaimed at Singapore in 1943
- The INA reached Imphal and Kohima in 1944
- Bose reportedly died in a plane crash on 18 August 1945
- The Red Fort trials were held from 1945 to 1946
- Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Dhillon were tried together
- Bhulabhai Desai led the INA defence
- The Royal Indian Navy mutiny broke out in February 1946
- Bose founded the Forward Bloc in 1939, not the INA
- The INA was first formed by Captain Mohan Singh in 1942
- Bose took over and revived the INA in 1943
- The Azad Hind government was proclaimed at Singapore, not Tokyo
- Bose renamed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Shaheed and Swaraj
- The Rani Jhansi Regiment was led by Captain Lakshmi Sahgal
- Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon were the three tried together
- Bhulabhai Desai led the defence at the Red Fort trials
- Mohan Singh was not among those tried at the Red Fort
- The RIN mutiny began on HMIS Talwar in Bombay in 1946
- Subhas Chandra Bose was known as Netaji
- Bose was elected Congress President at Haripura in 1938
- Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya at Tripuri in 1939
- Bose founded the All India Forward Bloc in 1939
- Bose escaped from Calcutta in January 1941
- Bose reached Germany, where he was first called Netaji
- The greeting Jai Hind is associated with Bose
- Give me blood and I will give you freedom was Bose's call
- The INA was first formed by Captain Mohan Singh in 1942
- The INA is also called the Azad Hind Fauj
- Bose took command of the INA in 1943
- Bose proclaimed the Azad Hind government at Singapore in 1943
- The Azad Hind government declared war on Britain and America
- Japan handed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the Azad Hind government
- Bose renamed the islands Shaheed and Swaraj
- The INA had brigades named after Gandhi, Nehru and Azad
- The Rani Jhansi Regiment was an all-woman unit under Captain Lakshmi Sahgal
- The INA numbered around sixty thousand at its peak
- The INA reached Imphal and Kohima in 1944
- Bose reportedly died in a plane crash at Taipei on 18 August 1945
- The Red Fort INA trials were held from November 1945 to May 1946
- Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon were tried together
- The three represented a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh
- Bhulabhai Desai led the INA Defence Committee
- The defence team included Tej Bahadur Sapru, Katju, Asaf Ali and Nehru
- The guilty verdicts were remitted after mass protests
- The Red Fort was chosen because Bahadur Shah Zafar had been tried there
- Claude Auchinleck advised leniency in the INA trials
- The Royal Indian Navy mutiny broke out in February 1946
- The RIN mutiny began aboard HMIS Talwar in Bombay
- The RIN mutiny spread to around seventy-eight ships
- Vallabhbhai Patel persuaded the ratings to surrender