World War II and India 1939–1945: INA, Azad Hind, Wartime Economy and the Road to Independence

The period of World War II India INA Azad Hind (1939–1945) represents one of the most transformative chapters in the Indian freedom struggle — a time when global conflict forced the British to overextend their empire, when Subhas Chandra Bose built an army to fight from outside India's borders, and when wartime suffering accelerated the inevitable end of colonial rule.

How Did India Enter World War II and How Did Congress Respond?

On 3 September 1939, Viceroy Lord Linlithgow unilaterally declared India at war with Germany — without consulting a single elected Indian representative. This act of imperial high-handedness immediately poisoned the political atmosphere. The Indian National Congress, which governed eight provinces after the 1937 elections, demanded two things before agreeing to cooperate with the British war effort: a clear declaration of Britain's war aims regarding colonial territories, and a concrete assurance that India would receive independence after the war.

Linlithgow refused. His response — vague promises of consultation with minority communities and a possible review of the 1935 Act after the war — was wholly inadequate. Congress rejected it. Between October and November 1939, all eight Congress provincial governments resigned, vacating office in protest. This was a massive political gamble, one that would have enormous consequences for the constitutional landscape of India.

The Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, took the opposite position. Seeing an opportunity to build leverage against Congress, the League supported the British war effort. Jinnah observed Congress's exit from the provincial governments with undisguised satisfaction. He declared 22 December 1939 as Deliverance Day, celebrating what he called India's liberation from "Congress tyranny." This growing Congress-League divide, deepened by wartime politics, would prove fateful for the subcontinent's future.

In 1940, the British made another offer — the "August Offer" — promising dominion status after the war and an expanded executive council. Congress again rejected it. Gandhi launched Individual Satyagraha in late 1940. By 1942, with Japan sweeping through Southeast Asia and threatening India's eastern borders, the British sent Sir Stafford Cripps with another set of proposals. The Cripps Mission too failed, largely because it offered dominion status only after the war and retained the Viceroy's control over defence. Congress famously described it as "a post-dated cheque on a crashing bank."

The rejection of the Cripps Mission led directly to the Quit India Movement of August 1942 — Gandhi's most radical mass mobilisation, calling for an immediate British withdrawal. The British responded with sweeping arrests of the entire Congress leadership. The movement was suppressed within weeks, but it permanently damaged British moral authority in India.

What Was the Indian National Army and How Did Azad Hind Challenge the British Empire?

The most dramatic challenge to British power during the war years came not from within India but from outside its borders — from the Indian National Army (INA) and the Provisional Government of Azad Hind, both shaped by Subhas Chandra Bose.

The First INA: Mohan Singh and Singapore's Fall

When Singapore fell to Japanese forces on 15 February 1942 in one of the most stunning military defeats in British imperial history, approximately 85,000 Allied troops surrendered — of whom roughly 40,000 were Indian soldiers. Captain Mohan Singh, a British Indian Army officer captured in the Malayan campaign, saw in this disaster an opportunity. Working with Rash Behari Bose (an Indian revolutionary long settled in Japan) and the Indian Independence League, Mohan Singh organised the first INA from these Indian prisoners of war.

However, the first INA was short-lived. Suspicion about Japanese intentions, internal disputes over command, and Mohan Singh's own misgivings about Japanese sincerity led to its collapse by late 1942. Mohan Singh was arrested by the Japanese, and the first INA effectively disbanded.

Subhas Chandra Bose and the Second INA

Enter Subhas Chandra Bose — twice elected Congress president, twice placed under house arrest by the British, and a man who believed that armed struggle was the only path to Indian independence. After escaping house arrest in Calcutta in 1941, Bose made his way to Germany via Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. He worked with the Axis powers in Europe, forming a small Indian Legion from Indian POWs in Europe.

In 1943, recognising that Southeast Asia offered a more viable base of operations, Bose undertook a daring voyage — first by German submarine, then transferred mid-ocean to a Japanese submarine — arriving in Southeast Asia in May 1943. On 4 July 1943, he took over the leadership of the Indian Independence League and, shortly after, the Indian National Army. He reorganised and re-energised the force, infusing it with nationalist fervour and new recruits from the Indian diaspora in Southeast Asia.

Bose gave the INA its iconic slogans: "Chalo Delhi!" (March to Delhi!) and "Jai Hind!" (Long live India!). He also created the Rani of Jhansi Regiment — a women's combat and support unit commanded by Captain Lakshmi Sahgal — the first armed women's regiment in Indian history.

Azad Hind: India's Government-in-Exile

On 21 October 1943, Bose declared the establishment of the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind) in Singapore. It was recognised by Germany, Japan, Italy, and several Axis-aligned governments. Azad Hind had a functioning cabinet structure with Bose as Head of State and Supreme Commander, issued its own currency, had its own court system, and formally declared war on Britain and the United States. Japan ceded the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Azad Hind — giving it nominal sovereign territory.

The Imphal-Kohima Campaign (1944): India's Bloodiest Battlefield

In early 1944, the INA and Japanese forces launched the U-Go offensive — an audacious military campaign aimed at capturing Manipur and Assam. The goal was to cross into India, spark a popular uprising, and march to Delhi. The INA participated alongside Japanese forces in the sieges of Imphal and Kohima.

The battles of Imphal and Kohima (March–July 1944) were titanic struggles. British and Indian forces, now well-supplied and under aggressive new commanders, held firm. Kohima — where a small British-Indian garrison withstood a Japanese siege on what became known as the "tennis court" battleground — was later called "the Stalingrad of the East." The Japanese-INA advance was broken. Starving, diseased, and cut off from supplies, Japanese and INA forces retreated in catastrophic conditions. Thousands died on the retreat through the jungles of Burma.

With the failure of Imphal-Kohima, the INA's military campaign effectively ended. Japan surrendered to the Allies on 15 August 1945. Bose attempted to fly to Manchuria, reportedly to seek Soviet assistance, but died in a plane crash at Taipei, Taiwan, on 18 August 1945 — though the exact circumstances of his death have remained a subject of controversy and public fascination in India for decades.

Key Events: India During World War II (1939–1947)

Year	Event	Significance
1939	India declared at war with Germany (3 Sep); Congress provincial governments resign (Oct–Nov)	Linlithgow's unilateral act alienated Congress; Muslim League gained political leverage
1939	Jinnah declares 22 Dec as "Deliverance Day"	Deepened Congress-League divide; sharpened communal polarisation
1940	August Offer by Linlithgow; Individual Satyagraha launched by Gandhi	British offer rejected as inadequate; Gandhi maintained pressure without mass civil disobedience
1941	Pearl Harbour (Dec) — USA enters the war; Bose escapes house arrest	Global war expands; Bose begins his journey via Germany to challenge British power abroad
1942	Singapore falls (Feb); first INA formed by Mohan Singh; Cripps Mission fails; Quit India Movement (Aug)	Most consequential year of the war for India — INA born; Congress's last great mass movement launched and suppressed
1943	Bose arrives in Southeast Asia (May); takes over INA (Jul); Azad Hind declared (21 Oct); Bengal Famine peaks	INA reborn under Bose; Azad Hind recognised internationally; famine kills 2–3 million in Bengal
1944	Imphal-Kohima battles (Mar–Jul); INA-Japanese advance defeated	INA's military failure; turning point of war in Southeast Asia; Japanese retreat begins
1945	Japan surrenders (Aug); Bose dies (18 Aug); INA Trials (Red Fort) begin (Nov)	INA trials transformed soldiers from "traitors" to national heroes; British moral authority collapsed
1946	Indian Naval Mutiny (Feb); all INA prisoners released	Mutiny — inspired partly by INA — showed British could no longer rely on Indian armed forces
1947	Indian Independence and Partition (15 Aug)	British exit accelerated by post-war exhaustion, INA legacy, and Naval Mutiny's signal

The Bengal Famine of 1943: A Man-Made Catastrophe

While soldiers fought in distant jungles, the people of Bengal faced a horror at home. The Bengal Famine of 1943 killed an estimated 2 to 3 million people — one of the worst famines of the twentieth century, and one directly shaped by colonial policy decisions.

The causes were multiple and interlocking. A partial failure of the rice crop reduced supply. Wartime inflation and disruption of trade networks drove up prices. Merchants hoarded rice in anticipation of further price rises. The British military, preparing for a possible Japanese invasion, pursued a "denial policy" — deliberately destroying boats and rice stocks in coastal Bengal to deny them to an advancing enemy — which further devastated local food supply and transport.

Critically, Winston Churchill's War Cabinet refused to divert ships carrying food supplies to India, even as reports of mass starvation poured in. Requests from the Indian government and from figures like Leo Amery (Secretary of State for India) were rebuffed. Churchill reportedly asked why Gandhi had not yet died if the famine was so severe. The famine remains deeply controversial — a scar on the record of British imperial rule, and a reminder that the costs of colonial war were borne disproportionately by the colonised.

The INA Trials: How a British Prosecution Became an Independence Catalyst?

When the war ended, the British made a fateful decision: to prosecute senior INA officers for treason and waging war against the King. The Red Fort Trials (November 1945 onwards) were intended to make an example of those who had "betrayed" the empire. The first three defendants — Shah Nawaz Khan (Muslim), P.K. Sahgal (Hindu), and G.S. Dhillon (Sikh) — were deliberately chosen to represent India's three largest communities, in hopes of portraying the INA as divisive. The strategy could not have backfired more completely.

Indians across the country united behind the INA officers. The defence team included some of the most distinguished legal and political figures of the age: Jawaharlal Nehru (who had even donned his barrister's gown again), Bhulabhai Desai (who made one of the most celebrated courtroom arguments in Indian legal history), and Tej Bahadur Sapru. The INA officers were seen not as traitors but as heroes who had sacrificed everything for India's freedom.

The British were compelled to release all convicted INA prisoners under public pressure. More significantly, the trials had a profound effect on the Indian Armed Forces. In February 1946, ratings of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied at Bombay — inspired in part by the INA's example and by anger at the treatment of INA soldiers. The mutiny spread to other naval establishments and was ultimately suppressed, but it sent an unmistakable message: the British could no longer rely on Indian soldiers to uphold the empire. This realisation, more than any single factor, convinced British policymakers that Indian independence could not be long delayed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who formed the Indian National Army (INA) and when?

The first INA was formed in 1942 by Captain Mohan Singh from approximately 40,000 Indian prisoners of war captured when Singapore fell to Japan in February 1942. It was supported by Rash Behari Bose and the Indian Independence League. The second, more famous INA was reorganised and energised by Subhas Chandra Bose after he arrived in Southeast Asia in July 1943.

What was the Azad Hind Provisional Government and when was it declared?

The Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind) was declared on 21 October 1943 by Subhas Chandra Bose in Singapore. It was recognised by Axis powers including Germany, Japan, and Italy, issued its own currency, and formally declared war on Britain and the United States. It represented the first Indian government-in-exile with a functioning structure and a women's military regiment — the Rani of Jhansi Regiment.

What were the INA Trials and why did they backfire on the British?

The INA Trials (Red Fort Trials, 1945–46) were prosecutions of INA officers — Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K. Sahgal, and G.S. Dhillon — for treason and war crimes. The trials spectacularly backfired: Indians viewed the accused as freedom fighters, not traitors. Massive public protests erupted across the country. The defence team included Jawaharlal Nehru and Bhulabhai Desai. The British were forced to release all convicted prisoners, and the trials made the INA into national heroes.

What caused the Bengal Famine of 1943 and how many people died?

The Bengal Famine of 1943 killed approximately 2–3 million people. It was caused by a combination of rice crop failures, wartime export of rice from Bengal, denial of rice imports, merchant hoarding, and critically, the British government's failure to respond adequately. Churchill's War Cabinet refused to divert food ships to India despite clear evidence of mass starvation. The famine remains one of the most controversial episodes of British rule in India.

How did India's entry into World War II affect the Congress and Muslim League?

Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declared India at war with Germany on 3 September 1939 without consulting Indian elected representatives. Congress demanded a declaration of war aims and a guarantee of independence before cooperation; the Viceroy refused. All Congress provincial governments resigned between October and November 1939. The Muslim League, by contrast, supported the British and Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared 22 December 1939 as 'Deliverance Day' celebrating the exit of Congress from office.

Sources and Further Reading

According to IGNOU's BHIC-134 (History of India: 1707–1950), the wartime period is treated as a critical juncture in which global conflict intersected with India's internal political dynamics to produce conditions that made British withdrawal inevitable. Recommended readings include Srinath Raghavan's India's War: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1939–1945 (2016), which provides a comprehensive military and political history of India during the war years; Peter Fay's The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence (1993) for a detailed account of the INA; Madhusree Mukerjee's Churchill's Secret War (2010) for the Bengal Famine; and Sugata Bose's His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle Against Empire (2011) for Bose's biography. The National Archives of India (New Delhi) hold primary documents related to the INA trials and wartime administration.