" Battle of Imphal and Indian Independence"
Introduction:-
Netaji declared
war on England and America at the Padaung mass rally opposite the stately
municipal buildings. Shouts and slogans rent the air and volley after volley of
frenzied cheering greeted the news. For an hour the vast audience of over
50,000 was uncontrollable. The people
broke through the cordon at several
places, trying to reach the platform. In February, 1944, Netaji said in an address
to the Army; “ Soldiers of India ! There- there in the distance- beyond the
river; beyond those jungles; beyond those hills, lies the promised land- the
soil from which we sprang, the land to which we will now return. Hark ! India
is calling ! India’s metropolis, Delhi, is calling ! Three hundred and eighty-
eight million of our countrymen are calling ! Blood is calling to blood. Get up
! We have no time to lose. Take up your arms ! There in front of you is the
road that our pioneers have built. We shall march along that road. We shall
carve our way through the enemy’s ranks, or , if God wills, we shall die a
martyr’s death. And in our last steps we shall kiss the road that will bring
our army to Delhi. The road to Delhi is the road to freedom, ‘ Chalo Delhi !”.
Important Battles Fought by INA for Imphal :-
The battle of Imphal was fought from March
1944 to July 1944. It was fought between
the Allied force under the British and the Japanese with the Indian National
Army on the other side. The Battle of Imphal was declared as the greatest
battle of United Kingdom by British Army
Museum. Some important battles
fought by INA are listed below:-
1.
Battle of Mittong
Khunou
2. Battle of Palel Airfield
(On
May 2, 1944, a large scale offensive under Lt Col Kiani was launched by the
Gandhi Guerillas to capture the Palel Airfield. This regiment was already
stationed in the Imphal sector. The INA wanted to occupy this strategically
important aerodrome before the Japanese could get near it. The soldiers, who
already had nothing to eat for three days, were given two chapattis before
launching out on this momentous campaign in the late hours of the night. Lt.
Lal Singh and Captain Kapur Singh were killed in the attacked on Palel
Airfield. 13 other ranks of the INA were also wounded.)
3. Battle of Khanjol.
(
For the battle of Khanjol, Lt Ajaib Singh was decorated with the Sardar-e-jang
and Sepoy Kehar Sigh received the Sher –e-Hind , the Lion of India).
4. Battle of Popa Hill
5. Battle of
Pagan
6. Battle of Magwe Taundwingyi
7. Battle of Kabyu
8. Battle of Legyi
9. Battle of Sade
10. Battle of Taungzin
All these battles and various others proved
beyond any shadow of doubt the superior fighting qualities of the INA soldiery.
Aftermath of Battle of Imphal:-
The Indian
National Army was defeated in the Battle of Imphal which fought during March-
July 1944. On August 15th 1945, with the Japanese surrender in the 2nd World
War, the INA was left with no option but to surrender. Almost all of them
surrendered after their retreat from the Indian Border.
It became one of the most important and difficult post war problems for the British Empire to decide how to deal with 19500 former I.N.A officers and men who participate the Imphal Campaign. The disposal of the question might well decide the success or failure of the British control of post-war India. The trial was the most ominous event since the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Its outcome would produce enormous impact and have a decisive influence on Indian officers and men in the British Indian Army, the watchdog for the administration of the British Empire over India.
The British government of India thought it would demonstrate the prestige and power of the British Empire by executing betrayed INA officers following a military trial and by attempting to teach the Indian people, particularly Indian officers and men of the British Indian Army, a lesson in order to establish an unshakable control of India. The British thought it could be done. The decision produced a consequence opposite to their wishes; the British miscalculated and blundered despite their unrivalled experience in the administration of Indians, and their implementation of policy.
Gandhi, Nehru and other leaders of the Indian National Congress seized opportunity on the blunder of the British Empire. They took advantage of the trial whereby the British were determined to punish severely 20000 INA officers and men, whose relatives and friends were also serving in the British Indian Army. Congress leaders tried to win British Indian Army officers and men to the Congress side and to mobilize the Indian masses in an anti- British movement. The trial was a God- given opportunity that would tip the scales of the movement decisively. It was as if Congress had laid a snare and the British Government had been caught.
On September 14, Congress held an executive Committee in Poona and adopted and declared the resolution that I.N.A. officers and men are heroes who fought for the independence of India and they should be released at once.
The mass movement had started by then. In December 1945, Col Dhillon once said, ‘Don’t worry. India will gain independence within a year. If they execute any one of us, no Englishman will leave India alive.’
It became one of the most important and difficult post war problems for the British Empire to decide how to deal with 19500 former I.N.A officers and men who participate the Imphal Campaign. The disposal of the question might well decide the success or failure of the British control of post-war India. The trial was the most ominous event since the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Its outcome would produce enormous impact and have a decisive influence on Indian officers and men in the British Indian Army, the watchdog for the administration of the British Empire over India.
The British government of India thought it would demonstrate the prestige and power of the British Empire by executing betrayed INA officers following a military trial and by attempting to teach the Indian people, particularly Indian officers and men of the British Indian Army, a lesson in order to establish an unshakable control of India. The British thought it could be done. The decision produced a consequence opposite to their wishes; the British miscalculated and blundered despite their unrivalled experience in the administration of Indians, and their implementation of policy.
Gandhi, Nehru and other leaders of the Indian National Congress seized opportunity on the blunder of the British Empire. They took advantage of the trial whereby the British were determined to punish severely 20000 INA officers and men, whose relatives and friends were also serving in the British Indian Army. Congress leaders tried to win British Indian Army officers and men to the Congress side and to mobilize the Indian masses in an anti- British movement. The trial was a God- given opportunity that would tip the scales of the movement decisively. It was as if Congress had laid a snare and the British Government had been caught.
On September 14, Congress held an executive Committee in Poona and adopted and declared the resolution that I.N.A. officers and men are heroes who fought for the independence of India and they should be released at once.
The mass movement had started by then. In December 1945, Col Dhillon once said, ‘Don’t worry. India will gain independence within a year. If they execute any one of us, no Englishman will leave India alive.’
Indian mass movement after Battle of Imphal
Netaji Subash Chandra Bose’s discretion had enabled the INA to
take part in the Imphal Campaign and had brought the INA within reach of
Independence. Though the military campaign had ended in a fiasco, the political
war of anti-British and pro-Independence agitation as a result of INA brought
to victory.
With the progress of the first INA court martial, the Indian people’s anti-British and pro-Independence agitation spread like a fire, gaining in intensity. India turned into a raging elephant. The court-martial, originally intended to consolidate British control over India, turned into a trial to pass judgments on the criminal act of British control over India for 200 years and to give it the coup de grace. Transcending differences in religion, race, class, language, political affiliation, and military-civilian rivalry, 400 million Indians, with their wisdom, talents and energy, were united together in rebellion. It was an unprecedented spectacle in India’s history. It was truly a great national war of the Indian people in which their destiny was at stake.
Violent mass protest movement erupted in Delhi, Calcutta, Lahore, Madras and other principal cities on 5th November when the trial re-open. On the same day, in Calcutta where Netaji Bose was born, 100000 people staged a huge demonstration, carrying with them placards bearing slogans such as ‘Save INA. National Heroes’, “Suspend the INA trial and release the defendants Immediately” ‘ British Go Home from India at Once’. They clashed with police everywhere and bloody tragedies spread in the city. Also there were riots in Madras resulting in countless number of casualties.
With the progress of the first INA court martial, the Indian people’s anti-British and pro-Independence agitation spread like a fire, gaining in intensity. India turned into a raging elephant. The court-martial, originally intended to consolidate British control over India, turned into a trial to pass judgments on the criminal act of British control over India for 200 years and to give it the coup de grace. Transcending differences in religion, race, class, language, political affiliation, and military-civilian rivalry, 400 million Indians, with their wisdom, talents and energy, were united together in rebellion. It was an unprecedented spectacle in India’s history. It was truly a great national war of the Indian people in which their destiny was at stake.
Violent mass protest movement erupted in Delhi, Calcutta, Lahore, Madras and other principal cities on 5th November when the trial re-open. On the same day, in Calcutta where Netaji Bose was born, 100000 people staged a huge demonstration, carrying with them placards bearing slogans such as ‘Save INA. National Heroes’, “Suspend the INA trial and release the defendants Immediately” ‘ British Go Home from India at Once’. They clashed with police everywhere and bloody tragedies spread in the city. Also there were riots in Madras resulting in countless number of casualties.
The Royal Indian Navy
encompasses a total strike and subsequent revolt by Indian sailors of the Royal
Indian navy on board ship and shore establishments at Bombay harbor on 18th
February 1946. The revolt spread and found support throughout British India,
from Karachi to Calcutta, and ultimately came to involve over 20,000 sailors in
78 ships and shore establishments.
The weekly
intelligence summary issued on 25th March 1946 admitted that the
Indian Army, Navy and Air Force units were no longer trustworthy, and, for the
Army, “only day to day estimates of steadiness could be made”. The situation
has thus been deemed the “point of No return”
The INA trial:-
Every newspaper including The Hindustan Times (supporting Congress), the Dawn (supporting the Muslim Leaque) and the Statesman (supporting the government) gave extensive news coverage to the INA trial and carried editorials about it.
The first court martial entered its final stage in late December. The prosecution tried desperately to establish the case of treason against the British Crown by the three defendants and of Murder and tortures by INA officers and men. The defense and the defendants counter- argued, ‘The INA war of liberation is similar to the American War of Independence which fought against British control and exploitation’ It was a justifiable act, acceptable amongst the military establishment of an independent nation, for the defendants to have executed men who violated wartime military discipline in the battlefield, according to the principle of the INA’s military criminal codes’ . the INA as an army of the independent government, took part in a joint operation with the Japanese Army. It was not a puppet army. It was unjustifiable and illegal to try in a British military court the regular officers of an independent government which has the right to fight.
At the conclusion of the trial, Chief counsel Dr Desai delivered an eight-hour speech over two days declaring that ‘ a subjugated people have the right to fight’.
Every newspaper including The Hindustan Times (supporting Congress), the Dawn (supporting the Muslim Leaque) and the Statesman (supporting the government) gave extensive news coverage to the INA trial and carried editorials about it.
The first court martial entered its final stage in late December. The prosecution tried desperately to establish the case of treason against the British Crown by the three defendants and of Murder and tortures by INA officers and men. The defense and the defendants counter- argued, ‘The INA war of liberation is similar to the American War of Independence which fought against British control and exploitation’ It was a justifiable act, acceptable amongst the military establishment of an independent nation, for the defendants to have executed men who violated wartime military discipline in the battlefield, according to the principle of the INA’s military criminal codes’ . the INA as an army of the independent government, took part in a joint operation with the Japanese Army. It was not a puppet army. It was unjustifiable and illegal to try in a British military court the regular officers of an independent government which has the right to fight.
At the conclusion of the trial, Chief counsel Dr Desai delivered an eight-hour speech over two days declaring that ‘ a subjugated people have the right to fight’.
Result of the
INA trial:-
On 3rd January, 1946 General Auchinleck suspended the life imprisonment sentence of the three of INA officers, General Shah Nawaz Khan, Lt Colonel P.K. Sahgal and Colonel G.S Dhillon. General Auchinleck was very conscious of the fact that even officers and men of the British Indian Army who were responsible for maintaining India’s peace and security were becoming awakened to national Independence, and that they could not be relied upon any more. He was afraid of the British Indian Army turning from a watchdog of the British Empire to an arm of the Indian National Congress.
The British government had succumbed to the demands of the Indian masses and had chosen the path of giving up the power of administration. The British government realized the irreversible course of the situation and began secretly to formulate the second best alternative- an honorable withdrawal while maintaining and protecting British interest in India as far as possible. The military trial in the red fort, contrary to their original expectation and calculation, created the decisive factor for the British withdrawal from India.
On 3rd January, 1946 General Auchinleck suspended the life imprisonment sentence of the three of INA officers, General Shah Nawaz Khan, Lt Colonel P.K. Sahgal and Colonel G.S Dhillon. General Auchinleck was very conscious of the fact that even officers and men of the British Indian Army who were responsible for maintaining India’s peace and security were becoming awakened to national Independence, and that they could not be relied upon any more. He was afraid of the British Indian Army turning from a watchdog of the British Empire to an arm of the Indian National Congress.
The British government had succumbed to the demands of the Indian masses and had chosen the path of giving up the power of administration. The British government realized the irreversible course of the situation and began secretly to formulate the second best alternative- an honorable withdrawal while maintaining and protecting British interest in India as far as possible. The military trial in the red fort, contrary to their original expectation and calculation, created the decisive factor for the British withdrawal from India.
On
January 3, 1946 a Press Communique announced :—'
“Captain Shah Nawaz Khan, Captain Sahgal and
Lieut. Dhillon have stood their trial by
Court Martial on charges against all three of waging war against, the
King-Emperor. .. The fining* of the ooOrt are that all three are guilty of thb charge of waging way, white Captain
Shah Nawaz Khan is also convicted of the
charge of abetment of murder. Lieut. Dhillon is acquitted of the charge of
murder and Captain Sahgal of the charge
of abetment of murder”.
“Having found the
accused guilty of the charge of waging war, the Court was bound to
sentence the
accused either to death or to transportation for life, no lesser sentence was
permissible
under the law... The confirming officer
is, however, competent to mitigate,
commute or
remit the sentences. ..”
On the
same evening the three officers of the I.N.A. were set free from the Red Fort.
Conclusion:-
Japan's
interest in the Indian independence movement began as a small-scale
intelligence mission in Thailand and Malaya, developed into a complex propaganda and espionage network
designed to foster anti- British sentiment, and finally burgeoned into limited
support of and cooperation with a
government in exile and revolutionary army. Despite the military defeat of
Japan, and with it the INA, popular support for
the INA finally precipitated British withdrawal from India. The
historical significance of the trial was clearly expressed in the article
contributed by Nehru and published on 17th January, 1945 as quoted in its
preface, . ‘… The issue of the trial is neither the legality of the court nor
eloquence. It is a power contest between the administrator who controls India
and the will of the Indian people. Its outcome is a victory for the Indians…
Will the trial, held in the last week of the year 1945, terminate the chapter
of British control following that of the Mughal dynasty? Yes, the trial
presages the end of that chapter’.
Manipur suffered some 300 civilian casualty
during the war in the valley and many more expected in the hills. More than 50
percent of the civilian population were effected as a result of displacement.
There was scarcity of food and high rate of inflation during the war. Many villages were burned down. The unexploded ordnances
killed many civilians’ years after the war. And many will be killed in the
future.
Historian
Christopher Johnson once said, “The white man fought the yellow man in the
brown man’s land”. I added, “India won Independence , and Manipur Paid for it”.
Bibliography :-
1. Subuhey S,
The Story of INA, Atma Ram & Sons, Lahore, 1946
2. Palta K.R., My Adventures with the I.N.A.,
Lion Press, Lahore,1946,
3. Ghosh Kalyan Kumar, History of the Indian
National Army, Ph.D. dissertation, Indian
School of International Studies, New Delhi, 1966
4. Lt General Fujiwara Iwaichi, F Kikan,
translated by Akashi Yoji, Heinemann Asia, Hong Kong, 1983
5. Keane Fergal, Road of Bones, Harper press,
London, 2011.
6. Evans Geoffrey and Anthony Brett James,
Imphal- A flower on Lofty Heights,Macmillan & Co ltd, London , 1962.
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