Subhas Chandra Bose and the Tiger Legion

I'm doing a paper on Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian Tiger Legion, any information added to this thread will be appreciated.

 

Did you check the "search" function yet? It might take you to what you are looking for here. Good luck on your paper, and let us know how you did with it.

 

thanks, i couldn't find anything when I typed in Indian National army but I found some stuff after I searched Subhas Chandra Bose,

 

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Thanks for the assist, My thesis is roughly; The Netaji shouldn't be celebrated by contemporary Indians, sure he adopted fascism mainly to gain India's freedom, but he was still a puppet, like Quisling, of a greater evil.

 

Hi,

I have been researching Burma/Chindit history and read a good book on the subject: " The War of Springing Tigers" by Gerard H. Corr.

I have been lucky to meet a couple of Gurkha officers from the 3/2 Gurkha Rifles in 1943. They both have told stories of how both Gurkha and Muslim soldiers of the British Army totally refused to join the INA when captured by the Japanese. Some paid the ultimate price.

Apparently the Japanese were willing to give Subhas Chandra Bose a seat of government for political reasons in the Andaman Islands, which are situated just off the southern most point of Burma.

Hope this is of use?

Bamboo.

 

Wouldn't matter much since Bose is hardly celebrated now, at the time the two big figures were Gandhi and Bose when it came to the independence movement, today people mostly only recognize Gandhi and not so much Bose.

Out of curiosity, what makes you come to the "puppet" conclusion? Quisling was appointed by the Germans to look over Norway, Bose was working on his own accord, a "free agent" if you will. Bose on the military side of things also had a policy to not engage in battle with other Indian forces, to my knowledge his orders remained until the end of the war. From his works it is clear his main goal was simply to achieve freedom and not so much in line with the policies of the Axis like Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo were.

 

I would say he was a puppet because he was willing to do anything for India's freedom which inlcuded letting himself and the INA/Tiger Legion be used to achieve goals for the Axis if that meant Indian freedom. I wouldn't say he is widely celebrated now, but there was a movie made recently that makes him look like a hero.

 

The INA were achieving their own goals, weakening the strength of the British army in the region, it just so happened the goals of the Axis would have been aided if the INA achieved their goals. The INA were also acting on their own accord, they had their own units, generals, etc and would only fight with the IJA and Wehrmacht in collaboration while remaining independent. For instance, American forces were fighting along side Canadian and British forces, does that mean those two nations were American puppets? No.

The INA were only stationed in areas where they could achieve their own goals, the Middle East, the Pacific, etc. For instance, Indian units were not stationed in the Soviet Union or Europe but in relative territories. The Legion Freies Indien were a unique case though given how they felt abandoned and basically had no where left to go.

I've heard of the movie but I haven't seen it and apparently not many people did which doesn't surprise me. On heroes, one thing to consider is one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.

One route to explore (I'm doing so myself if I can find the time), look at how Bose changed Indian and Japanese relations. Some reports claim India wasn't very fond of Japan and that the Japanese knew little of India while others claim the two nations thought highly of each other. Despite this Bose became and apparently still is a celebrated figure in Japan, the Japanese have also had a pretty good history with India post war with the only notable "bump" probably being the Air India bombing.

I bring this up because of the Wiki,

First Indian National Army - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Both the "Japan and Indian Nationalism" as well as "Japan's India Policy" section are well sourced and claim two opposite things. It could make a good point in your paper if done right.

 

The Tiger Legion ended up being stationed in Normandy, INA strategy was based on Japanese operations at large. The Free India units were far from independent, partially because they did not constitute large enough force and their aims were of less importance to the larger Axis powers. Yeah that movie is really bad, they have T-72s in it, and the graphics are very poor. You make a good point but I say they were still puppets because they were willing to fight for ideologies they did not wholly believe in to achieve their personal aims (I know you could make a point about US and Russia fighting together) but add in the fact that their existence depended entirely on the larger axis forces, makes them puppets.

 

I mentioned the Tiger Legion in my post.

I have also answered the Japanese/INA relation thing in my previous post as well, they were more of a collaboration force than a puppet regiment like you claimed in your original post.

It wasn't about the aims but what they meant for the war as a whole, India was seen as a "crown nation" by the British and if they lost their foothold in the country it would have an impact on the war overall. Would all of the nearly 3 million Indian soldiers have remained with the British? Would some have helped the INA? The shockwave would have been very far reaching.

 

No doubt it is always interesting to speculate on the what-if scenarios. No major effort was undertaken by the Japanese to go for India until 1944. At Kohima and Imphal, the Japanese made their last great gamble for a big victory and the INA were used under Japanese control in those battles. You are right the INA had some of their own singular achievements and had their own operations, but Japanese strategical goals set precedent for INA actions. Thanks for your input, I enjoy a good discussion

 

The INA was only formed in mid 1943 at a capacity that made them trained and ready to fight. Becasue of the number of INA troops they did indeed use Japanese Commanders, Generals, etc however the INA also had their own, Nawaz Khan is probably one of the more famous ones.

When looking at the puppet regime thing you should also look beyond just the army, Bose had a government system setup and ready to go, his plan was to firmly establish his party in India if the IJA/INA was succesful.