Table Of Content

; Still '*s\ - > >' 11111 ; lliliiiii' % :. § v : ; •’ .• •• . '.••••• ••.- • ■:•:•.•.•■: :S : . f ’ ’ •• : f)J$ %/V/ % 'a S tffllik ill Pf£kty WMm. Hitt ' .i •. . /- ■. ; '..i . The last days of the Raj bring to mind Gandhi’s nonviolence and Nehru’s diplomacy. These associations ob¬ scure another reality: that an army of Indian men and women tried to throw the British off the subcontinent. Now The Forgotten Army brings to life for the first time the story of how Subhas Chandra Bose, a charismatic Bengali, attempted to liberate India with an army of former British Indian sol¬ diers—the Indian National Army (INA). The story begins with the British Indian Army fighting a heroic rearguard action against the invading Japanese down the Malaysian penin¬ sula, loyally holding out until the fall of Singapore, and ends with many of these same soldiers defeated in their effort to invade India as allies of Japan. Peter Ward Fay intertwines powerful descriptions of military action with a unique knowledge of how the INA was formed and its role in the broader struggle for Indian independence. The author incorporates the personal reminiscences of Prem Sahgal, a senior officer in the INA, and Lakshmi Swaminadhan Sahgal, leader of its women’s sections, to help the reader understand the motivations of those who took part. Their experiences offer an engagingly personal element to the political and military history. (Continued on back flap.) Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Public.Resource.Org https://archive.org/details/forgottenarmyindOOpete The Forgotten Army The Forgotten Army India's armed struggle for independence 1942—1945 Peter Ward Fay ANN ARBOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS Copyright © by the University of Michigan 1993 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America 1996 1995 1994 1993 4321 The photographs that appear in this book are courtesy of Prem and Lakshmi Sahgal, and Netaji Bhawan. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fay, Peter Ward, 1924- The forgotten army: India’s armed struggle for independence, 1942—1945/Peter Ward Fay. p. CM. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-472-10126-9 (alk. paper) 1. Indian National Army—History—World War, 1939-1945. 2. India—History—Autonomy and independence movements. 3. World War, 1939-1945—India. I. Title. D767.63.F39 1993 93-6005 954.03*59—DC20 CIP Contents Preface vii Introduction i I Prem's Youth ii 2 Lakshmi’s Youth 33 3 The Fall of Malaya 51 4 Farrer Park 73 INA 5 The Beginning of the 87 6 “Quit India!" 113 7 Waiting for a Leader 137 8 Subhas Chandra Bose 153 9 Congress Rebel 171 io A Fresh Start 201 ii “And They Were All My Brothers" 223 12 High Hopes in Burma 239 H Disaster at Imphal 273 H “Blood! Blood! Blood!" 305 Mount Popa 325 i5 16 The Leader Lost 361 Let India Learn 387 17 VI CONTENTS 18 Jiffs 409 19 Auchinleck’s Dilemma 439 20 Trial at the Red Fort 465 21 The Triumph of the INA 493 Appendix 525 Notes 527 Glossary 549 A Note on Sources 553 Index 565 Maps India and Burma 15 Singapore 45 Malaya 53 Burma and Malaya 97 North Central Burma 267 North Burma 277 The Chindwin 289 South Central Burma 331