October 21

Home / Today in History / October 21

flag_of_azad_hind-svg

1943 The Provisional Government of Free India is formed

Though most people associate the non-violent methods of M.K. Gandhi as the means by which India achieved its independence, there were many in the movement who were prepared to use force against their British rulers. Among those was Subhas Chandra Bose, who had been the charismatic president of the Indian National Congress in the pre-war years. When war broke out in 1939, Bose was put under house arrest by the British but he escaped and made his way to Nazi Germany. His view was that he would cooperate with anyone who could bring about an end to the British Raj.

Attempts by Bose and the Germans to set up an army drawn from the ranks of Indian soldiers in the British army who had been taken prisoner proved to be a failure, so Bose and his Nazi hosts decided he could be better employed in Asia. He journeyed by submarine to Japanese-occupied territory and set about to form an Indian puppet government and construct an army from prisoners held by the Japanese. On this day in 1943 the Provisional Government of Free India was formed, with its own currency, postage stamps, courts and laws but its only territory being a couple of islands in the Indian Ocean.

Troops of Bose’s new Indian National Army (INA) accompanied the Imperial Japanese army in its invasion of Burma and India but they met little success. British and Indian troops loyal to the British blunted the Japanese attack and pushed them back through the jungles of Burma, killing over half the INA in the process. Bose could see that the Japanese attempt to form a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and its plans for a free India were doomed. He planned to defect to the Soviet Union but died in 1945 in a plane crash on Taiwan.

Free India failed in its war-time efforts but within a few years the British agreed to withdraw from the Indian subcontinent where Bose is now regarded as a national hero.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *