CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 31 of 120

Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Statement 1 describes where the Indian National Army's manpower came from. After Singapore fell in February 1942 the Japanese held tens of thousands of Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army as prisoners of war, and it was from those camps that the first Indian National Army was raised under Mohan Singh. When Subhas Chandra Bose reached South-East Asia and took charge at Singapore in July 1943, that pool of prisoners remained the army's core, and he added to it by recruiting from the Indian civilian population settled across Malaya, Burma and Singapore. Statement 2 is equally sound. A women's unit was announced on 12 July 1943 and began training on 23 October 1943 as the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, named for Lakshmibai of Jhansi and commanded by Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan, later known as Lakshmi Sahgal. Its recruits were largely young women of Indian descent from the expatriate communities of South-East Asia, many of them from the rubber estates of Malaya. Both statements stand, so the code accepting both is the answer.

• (a)1 only — Drops the women's regiment, which is one of the most documented features of the Azad Hind years. The Rani of Jhansi Regiment had a named commander, a training camp and a date.
• (b)2 only — Drops the prisoner-of-war recruitment, which is how the army came to exist at all. The men tried at the Red Fort in 1945 were Indian Army officers taken prisoner in Malaya.
• (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both, which leaves the Indian National Army with neither soldiers nor its best-known unit. Both claims are ordinary textbook history.

The Indian National Army was raised in South-East Asia during the Second World War from Indian prisoners of war and from the Indian civilian population there, to fight the British in India alongside Japan. A first version formed under Mohan Singh in 1942 and collapsed by the end of that year. Subhas Chandra Bose, who had escaped from Calcutta in 1941 and reached Asia by submarine, revived it at Singapore in July 1943, proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind that October, and led the army into the Imphal and Kohima campaign of 1944.

Both statements here are safe, and the reason to slow down is that examiners often plant a false detail in a true-sounding sentence — a wrong commander, a wrong city, a wrong regiment name. Nothing of that kind is planted here. What is worth carrying beyond the answer is the afterlife of the army. It failed militarily; its political effect came later, when the British put three of its officers — Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sehgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh tried together — on public trial at the Red Fort in the winter of 1945-46. The trials produced a wave of sympathy across communities and unrest in the armed forces, and that reaction weighed on British calculations in 1946 far more than anything the army achieved at Imphal.

• The first Indian National Army was formed in 1942 under Mohan Singh from Indian prisoners of war taken after the fall of Singapore in February 1942.
• Subhas Chandra Bose took command at Singapore in July 1943 and proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind there in October 1943.
• The Rani of Jhansi Regiment was announced on 12 July 1943, began training on 23 October 1943, and was commanded by Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan, later Lakshmi Sahgal.
• Its recruits came largely from the Indian expatriate population of South-East Asia, including young women from the rubber estates of Malaya.
• Three Indian National Army officers — Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sehgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon — were tried at the Red Fort in 1945-46, and the trials caused nationwide protest.

• Crediting Bose with founding the Indian National Army; the first version was raised under Mohan Singh in 1942 and Bose revived it in 1943.
• Confusing Rash Behari Bose, who handed over the leadership, with Subhas Chandra Bose, who took it.
• Placing the Rani of Jhansi Regiment's recruitment in the prisoner-of-war camps; its volunteers came mainly from the Indian diaspora in South-East Asia.

As a statements item on the Indian National Army's composition and units, or as a place-and-date item on where Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army was commanded by which one of the following?

  • (a)Aruna Asaf Ali
  • (b)Lakshmi Swaminathan
  • (c)Usha Mehta
  • (d)Sucheta Kripalani

  Answer(b) Lakshmi Swaminathan — later known as Lakshmi Sahgal, she led the regiment that began training at Singapore in October 1943.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under whose leadership was the first Indian National Army raised in 1942, before Subhas Chandra Bose took charge?

  • (a)Mohan Singh
  • (b)Shah Nawaz Khan
  • (c)Rash Behari Bose
  • (d)Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon

  Answer(a) Mohan Singh — a captured officer of the British Indian Army who raised the first force from prisoners of war in 1942; it broke up by the end of that year.