January 3, 1946: INA defendants walk free after trial that gripped India

On January 3,1946, a drama unfolded in the Red Fort in Delhi. It meant freedom for the three men involved and deeply influenced the freedom struggle for hundreds of millions more in British India.

That morning, Major-General Shah Nawaz Khan and Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Prem Kumar Sahgal of the Indian National Army were asked to go down to an office in the Red Fort.

They were the defendants in the first INA trial held by the British after World War II ended, accused of waging war against the king.

They had been imprisoned in Salimgarh Fort, which adjoined the Red Fort. They were probably expecting the worst. Instead, they were told that they had been sentenced to life – but that the sentence had been commuted. They were released immediately.

The announcement was so unexpected, there was no one to greet them outside the Red Fort. They made their own way to a friend’s home Once they got there, they had to identify themselves to be let in.

When the news made its way to the world, India rejoiced. In newspapers across the country, their release was hailed as a victory for India’s freedom movement.

Khan, Dhillon and Sahgal were senior officers of the Indian National Army – a Muslim, Sikh and Hindu.

As World War II raged, the INA had been formed in December 1941by Captain Mohan Singh of the 14 Punjab Regiment, assisted by Japanese intelligence officials. He recruited men, many from the British Indian Army, to fight against Britain to win freedom from the colonisers.

But when Singh realised that the Japanese promises to arm Indian volunteers to attack India to free her of British rule were hollow, he refused to cooperate. He was arrested in December 1942.

It was then that the Japanese asked for former Congress leader Subhas Chandra Bose to be sent to Singapore. Bose was in Berlin, having failed to get the help of German leader Adolf Hitler’s help to attack India. He arrived on July 2, 1943, to fulfil his tryst with destiny.

In India, there had been a news blackout on the INA in India. The British did not want the people to know that thousands of Indian soldiers had signed up to fight against them. Even though the INA was small, poorly equipped and little used by the Japanese who were in control, the very fact that it existed was, the British feared, something that would enthuse and unite the people of India.

The INA had been part of the Japanese forces invading India in early 1944 and had been pushed back into Burma. Though the INA lost the battle, it won the war.

Soon after Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, the commander-in-chief of the Indian Army, General Claude Auchinleck lifted the media blackout on the INA.

Immediately, news of these Indian soldiers willing to fight the mighty British Empire to free India hit the headlines and won the sympathy of the people of India – even of soldiers in the Indian Army.

Though the INA had mainly been kept in the rear by Japan, when they got to fight, they fought bravely. Even if these were minor skirmishes with no strategic impact, their willingness to do so was what mattered.

To add to this, in perhaps one of the biggest political own-goals in history, the Britain decided to court martial some of the Indian soldiers who had joined the INA. Technically, all the 22,000 were guilty of treason, but Auchinleck decided to hold trials for 600, to demonstrate to the Indian Army that loyalty and oaths could not be just thrown aside.

Had this been done out of the public eye. it may have mattered less. But The Auk, as he was known, decided to hold these in Delhi. Not only that, he did so in the historic Red Fort, which held great significance in the minds of Indians as the base of the Mughal Empire and where Bahadur Shah Zafar’s trial had been conducted in 1858.

Another bad decision was to choose a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh as the accused in the first trial. The charge of treason – waging war against the King – had no sympathy with a people ripe for independence.

The Congress party organised the defence, led by Bhulabhai Desai. The team included legal luminaries such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Asaf Ali.

The newspapers followed the progress of the trial. There were demonstrations against it across India. The families of the accused pleaded with the defendants to apologise and save their lives, but Khan, Dhillon and Sahgal refused.

Letters flew between Viceregal Lodge, the residence of the commander-in-chief, and London. How was the trial verdict to be managed, given the public support for the INA? What would happen if they were sentenced to death or life in prison?

In the end, they were found guilty of treason and sentenced to life in prison, but The Auk decided to commute the sentences.

This meant the verdict stood, but the men were freed.

The British realised that they had lost India, and more importantly the Indian Army, without which they could not hold India. This was the true victory for the INA.

Gautam Hazarika is the author of The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II. He can be contacted at ghazarika70@yahoo.com.sg.