The Ina Trials Of 1945

The fate of members of Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army (INA), who were captured by the British in the eastern theatre of the war, piqued the public's interest the most. By the end of August 1945, the government was expected to make an announcement limiting INA personnel trials to those who were guilty of brutality or active complicity. However, before this statement could be made, there was a delay. 

 

•    At a meeting in Srinagar on August 16, 1945, Nehru demanded leniency, making the proposed statement appear to be a response to his request rather than an act of generosity on the part of the government. 

 

•    Nehru praised them as patriots, albeit misguided, and urged the authorities to treat them with care in light of the British promise of "big changes" in India. Other Congress leaders quickly took up the issue, and the AICC adopted a strong resolution declaring its support for the cause at its first post-War session, held in Bombay from September 21 to 23, 1945. 

 

•    The Congress, led by Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, K.N. Katju, Nehru, and Asaf Jahangir, took up the defence of the INA detainees. At the historic Red Fort trials, they all appeared in court. 

 

•    The Congress formed the INA Relief and Enquiry Committee, which provided small sums of money and food to the men upon their release and attempted, though unsuccessfully, to find them work. 

 

•    The Central INA Fund Committee, the Mayor's Fund in Bombay, the AICC and PCC offices, and Sarat Bose were all given authority to collect funds by Congress. The INA issue was the main focus of the Congress platform in meetings across the country; in fact, it was often difficult to tell the difference between an INA and an election meeting.

 

•    Nehru given early support for the INA cause and the Congress's later involvement, the oft-repeated charge that the Congress jumped on the INA bandwagon and merely used the issue as an election stunt appears to be without merit. 

 

•    On many levels, the INA agitation was a watershed moment. To begin with, the volume or intensity with which the campaign for the release of INA detainees was carried out was unprecedented. This was evident from the amount of press coverage and other publicity it received, as well as the public threats of retaliation and the large number of meetings held.

 

•    Initially, press appeals were for clemency for "misguided" men, but by November 1945, when the first Red Fort trials began, daily editorials were hailing the INA men as the most heroic patriots and criticising the Government's position.

 

•    The INA trials and campaign received priority coverage, overshadowing international news. ‘Patriots Not Traitors' pamphlets were widely distributed, and ‘Jai Hind' and ‘Quit India' were scrawled on the walls of Ajmer buildings. Posters were pasted all over Delhi threatening to kill "20 English dogs" for every INA man sentenced. 

 

•    ‘If INA men are not saved, revenge will be taken on European children,' was declared at a public gathering in Banaras. 

 

•    In the first fortnight of October 1945, one hundred and sixty political meetings were held in the Central Provinces and Berar alone, with the demand for clemency for INA prisoners rose.

 

•    On the 12th of November, 1945, INA Day was observed, as was INA Week, which ran from the 5th to the 11th of November. While the larger meetings drew crowds of up to 50,000 people, the largest meeting was held in Deshapriya Park in Calcutta. Sarat Bose, Nehru, and Patel spoke at the event, which was organised by the INA Relief Committee. Attendance estimates ranged from two to three lakhs to five to seven lakhs for Nehru.

 

•    The INA campaign's second distinguishing feature was its broad geographic reach and participation of a diverse range of social groups and political parties. 

 

•    There were two aspects to this. One was the agitation's broad scope, and the other was the spread of pro-INA sentiment to social groups previously outside the nationalist fold. 

 

•    All men, regardless of caste, colour, or creed, made "anxious inquiries" and "profuse sympathies" from the "remotest villages."

 

•    ‘Never in Indian history had such unified sentiments and feelings been manifested by various divergent sections of the Indian population as it had been done with regard to the question of the Azad Hind Fauj,' Nehru confirmed. 

 

•    While the nerve centres of the agitation were the cities of Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, as well as the towns of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, what was more notable was the agitation's spread to places as far away as Coorg, Baluchistan, and Assam. 

 

•    Participants came in a variety of forms: some donated money, others attended or organised meetings, shopkeepers closed their doors, and political parties and organisations raised the demand for the prisoners' release. 

 

•    Municipal committees, Indians in other countries, and Gurdwara committees all contributed generously to the INA funds. Amritsar's Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee donated 7000 rupees and set aside another 10,000 rupees for relief. 

 

•    Poona City Municipality, Kanpur City Fund, and a Madras Presidency local district board each contributed Rs 1,000. 

 

•    The contributions of Bombay and Calcutta film stars, the Cambridge Majlis, and the Amraoti tongawallas were more newsworthy. 

 

•    From Salem in the south to Rawalpindi in the north, students held meetings and rallies and boycotted classes as part of the campaign. Commercial establishments, shops, and markets closed their doors on the first day of the trial, November 5, 1945, as well as on INA Day and during INA Week. 

 

•    On November 16, 1945, at kisan conferences in Dhamangaon and Sholapur, and on December 29, 1945, at the tenth session of the All India Women's Conference in Hyderabad, demands for release were made.

 

•    In solidarity with the NA men, Diwali was not observed in some areas. Gurdwaras in Calcutta became a focal point for the NA cause. 

 

•    In varying degrees, the Muslim League, the Communist Party of India, the Unionist Party, the Akalis, the Justice Party, the Rawalpindi Abrars, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu Mahasabha, and the Sikh League supported the NA cause. 

 

•    The impact of the INA agitation on the Raj's traditional bulwarks was its most notable feature. The tide of pro-INA sentiment swept over a large number of government employees, loyalists, and even men in the armed forces. Many officials saw this as a very concerning trend. 

 

•    ‘Every day that passes now brings over more and more well-disposed Indians to the anti-British camp,' warned the Governor of Northwest Frontier Province.

 

•    The Director of the Intelligence Bureau noted that "sympathy for the INA is not confined to those who are normally opposed to government," and that "usually, INA men belonged to families with loyal traditions." 

 

•    Local interest was piqued even more by the fact that many of the INA officials came from well-connected families in the area. P.K. Sehgal was the son of Dewan Achhru Ram, an ex-Judge of the Punjab High Court, and was one of the trios tried in the first Red Fort trial. 

 

•    The gentlemen with titles who defended men accused of treason during the war did not glorify the actions of INA men; instead, they urged the government to drop the trials in the interests of good relations between India and Britain. 

 

•    Government officials generally sympathised privately, but there were some instances where railway officials collected finds, such as in the Central Provinces and Berar.

 

•    The military's reaction was unexpectedly sympathetic, contradicting the official perception that loyal soldiers were bitterly opposed to the INA trials.

 

•    Men from the Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) in Kohat and army men from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab attended INA meetings, often in uniform. 

 

•    RIAF men in Calcutta, Kohat, Allahabad, Bamrauli, and Kanpur, as well as other service personnel in Uttar Pradesh, contributed money to the INA defence. 

 

•    Apart from these public displays of support, the Indian army was filled with a "growing feeling of sympathy for the INA," according to the Commander-in-Chief. He came to the conclusion that the ‘general opinion in the Army is in favour of leniency,' and he recommended to Whitehall that the Government show leniency. 

 

•    The right of Britain to decide a matter involving Indians was in question. If the British were sincere in their declaration that Indo-British relations would be transformed, as Nehru often emphasised, they should demonstrate their good faith by allowing Indians to decide on the INA issue. 

 

•    Even liberal Indians' appeals were made in the interest of good future relations between India and the United Kingdom. The British were well aware of the INA's political significance. 

 

•    The Governor of the North-West Frontier Province argued that the trials should be dropped because the issue was becoming "more and more purely Indian versus British" with each passing day.

 

•    In the winter of 1945-46, growing nationalist sentiment, which peaked around the INA trials, erupted into violent confrontations with authorities.

 

1.    One on November 21, 1945, in Calcutta, over the INA trials; 

 

2.    A second on February 11, 1946, in Calcutta, to protest the seven-year sentence given to an INA officer, Rashid Ali; and

 

3.     A third on February 18, 1946, in Bombay, when the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) ratings went on strike. 

 

•    The uprisings followed a similar pattern: an initial stage in which a group (such as students or ratings) defied authority and was repressed, a second stage in which people in the city joined in, and a third stage in which people from other parts of the country expressed sympathy and solidarity. 

 

•    The first stage began with a challenge to authority from students and ratings and ended with repression. A procession of students led by Forward Bloc sympathisers and joined by Students Federation activists and Islamia College students marched to Dalhousie Square, the seat of the Government in Calcutta, on November 21, 1945, and refused to disperse. 

 

•    The processionists retaliated with stones and brickbats in response to a lathi-charge, which the police met with firing, killing two people and injuring fifty-two others. 

 

•    On February 11, 1946, Muslim League students led the procession, which was joined by Congress and Communist student organisations, and some arrests were made on Dharamatola Street for the first time. This prompted a large group of students to defy Section 144, which had been imposed in the Dalhousie Square area, resulting in more arrests and a lathi-charge.