Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

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Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose,

being written

Sardul Singh Caveeshar joined the Forward Bloc formed by Subhas Chandra Bose in April-May 1939, initially as a radical and progressive group within the Congress. After Subhas Chandra's dramatic disappearance from India in early 1941, Sardul Singh Caveeshar was elected president of the Forward Bloc. He was detained for four years under the Defence of India rules. After Independence he retired from active politics, resigning the presidentship of the party in 1948. He died in Delhi on 26th March 1963.

A large number of men, mostly Sikhs, came forward to join what came to be termed as the Azad Hind Fauj (National Army of independent India). The new set-up came into being on 1 September 1942 by which time the strength of volunteers had reached 40,000. Mohan Singh, now designated a general, was to command it. Already in a conference held at Bangkok during 15-23 June 1942, the Indian Independence League under the leadership of Rash Behari Bose, Indian revolutionary who had escaped to Japan in June 1915 and who had been living there ever since, had been inaugurated. Through one of the 35 resolutions passed by the conference, Mohan Singh was appointed commander-in-chief of the "Army of Liberation for India," i.e. the Indian National Army. General Mohan Singh was soon disenchanted regarding the intentions of the Japanese who, it appeared, wanted to use Indian National Army only as a pawn and who were deliberately withholding recognition and public proclamation about its entity as an independent liberation army. On 29 December 1942, General Mohan Singh was removed from his command and taken into custody by the Japanese military police. It was only after the arrival of another Indian leader of great political standing, Subhas Chandra Bose, from Germany to the Far-Eastern front in June 1943 that the Indian National Army was revived and Mohan Singh reinstated to his former command with Subhas as the supreme commander in his capacity as president of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind.

The Indian National Army participated in the Japanese offensive on the Indo-Burma front in 1944 and gave a good account of itself. But the British forces withstood the offensive and in fact launched a counter-attack during the winter of 1944-45. The Japanese as well as the Indian National Army, retreated fast, and the war ended with Japan's surrender on 14 August 1945. Even before that during May-June 1945, most officers and men of the Azad Hind Fauj (I.N.A.), numbering about 20,000, including General Mohan Singh, had been made prisoners by the British and brought back to India. They were all set free during 1945. General Mohan Singh and his comrades of the Indian National Army were everywhere acclaimed for their patriotism. Mohan Singh's dream of liberation was realized with lndia's Independence on 15 August 1947, but this was accompanied by the partition of the country into India and Pakistan. Mohan Singh had to leave his hearth and home in what then became Pakistan and came to India a homeless refugee. He was allotted some land in the village of Jugiana, near Ludhiana, where he settled permanently. He entered politics and joined the Indian National Congress. After a stint as a legislator in the Punjab, he was elected to Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian Parliament, for two terms. In and out of Parliament he strove for the recognition of the members of his Azad Hind Fauj as freedomfighters in the cause of the nation's liberation .

General Mohan Singh died at Jugiana on 26 December 1989.



1940 Master Tara Singh Sikhs Akali movement. Punjab Congress's solid support of Subash Chandra Bose for the Presidentship of the Congress in oposition to Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Ghandhi's nominee.