Subash Chandra Bose had dramatically escaped from detention in his home in January 1941 and had spent some time in Germany and Italy. While the freedom fighters in India had been locked up in jail Subash Bose kept the torch of struggle aflame outside India. In Germany he had formed the Free India League. This was rechristened as Azad Hind Fauj (INA) when he came to the far East in 1943. It was composed of a large number of soldiers who had become prisoners of Japan after the conquest of the Malaya Peninsula.
Its object was to fight the British army in India. The INA was organised to serve the purpose of a Second Front in India’s war of independence on 21 October, 1943 the Indian Independence League proclaimed the formation of the provisional Government of Free India at Singapore with Bose as its political -cum -military Head. The INA was its military wing. From February, 1944 onwards it fought in Burma along with the Japanese, but when in late April 1945 the Japanese surrendered to the British, it also had to lay down its arms. On 19 August 1945 Subash Bose was killed in a flying accident in Formosa.
Subash Chandra Bose has been revered as a national hero despite the failure of the Indian Nationaly Army. The trial of the INA officers at Red Fort in Delhi stirred a mass movement in India which contributed fairly towards India’s independence. The INA officers were court martialled and punished, but the government finally left them free because of mass agitation.