By PTI
KOLKATA: Some 81 years ago, Subhas Chandra Bose who made good his escape from Kolkata and British surveillance, wound his way to Berlin to set up the Indian Legion, precursor to the INA.
Also known as the ‘Tiger Legion’ or ‘Free India Legion’, it was a force of 3000 soldiers raised from among Indian prisoners of war and expatriates. Its emblem was a springing tiger, the same the INA had.
‘Netaji’, the epithet by which Bose is known, the ‘Jai Hind’ slogan uttered across India, and even ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the national anthem have their origin in the Indian Legion, said veteran journalist Kingshuk Nag in the updated version of his book ‘Netaji: Living Dangerously’.
Bose left Kolkata in mid-January of 1941 and reached Kabul on 31st. He left the Afghan capital in March and, using an Italian passport given by that country’s Legation there, reached Berlin via Moscow on April 2 with the hope of securing German military help in overthrowing their common enemy – the British – from India.
Though that dream of his was dashed after meeting Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and later Adolf Hitler, he set up the Indian Legion there in 1941, while the Indian National Army (INA), formed by another Bose, Rashbehari, in April next year, came under his leadership on July 4 next year.
Some 27 selected Indian prisoners of war of officer rank from North Africa war zone were flown into Berlin in May 1941, to help Bose set up the `Tiger Legion’.
Indian soldiers taken prisoners by the Italians were transferred to Annaberg camp, where Bose met them for the first time, according to military historians.
“Bose wanted to create a volunteer base of 10,000, which would go ahead of the German forces to invade India through Russia, Persia and Afghanistan,” the book said.
Military Historian Col (Dr) Guru Saday Batabyal told PTI that the plan was to ‘send them through Persia towards India’ as a vanguard of a larger Axis army.
However, events precluded such plans from fructifying and Bose eventually turned Sout East Asia as his centre of operations.
After visiting different camps that housed Indian prisoners of war (PoWs) of the British Indian Army and exhorting them to join the force he was raising to liberate their motherland, Bose managed to form a group of 3,000 people. “It was members of the Legion who began addressing Bose with the honorific Netaji, the epithet by which he has been immortalised,” Nag said.
“Jai Hind”, commonly used in India now including its Armed forces, was also a contribution of the India Legion. It is the shortened version of “Jai Hindustan Ki” which was formed by Netaji’s secretary Abid Hasan Safrani as the legion’s battle cry. It was Bose who shortened it.
“There is an interesting anecdote about the slogan – apparently Safrani heard two Rajput soldiers wishing each other Jai Ramji Ki and conjured the slogan Jai Hindustan ki,” said Nag.
The Indian Legion, on the approval of Netaji, made the Hindustani translation of ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as its anthem to be adopted as the national anthem after independence.
“It was sung by the Legion for the first time on 11 September 1942, on the occasion of the foundation of Indo-German society,” the book said.
Bose also chose this song as the anthem for the Provincial Government of Free India he set up in Singapore in July 1943.
In the British Indian Army, the regiments were raised on the basis of caste and community, while Netaji insisted that the Indian Legion, must be a national force where men from different regions, castes and communities, would be mixed into one single Indian fighting force.
“A radical move, there were Rajputs (rubbing shoulders) with Marathas, Hindus with Muslims and Sikhs serving side-by-side,” Nag pointed out,.
Probably the most daring action of the Indian Legion was ‘Operation Bajadere’. A contingent of trained soldiers were para-dropped into parts of Balochistan held by Persia.
Nag said, “Their mission was to infiltrate into British India and foment trouble against the rulers. History does not record whether they were successful in their efforts.”
But what happened to the Indian Legion after Bose left Berlin for Japan in a U-180 submarine in February 1943? Military Historian Col Batabyal said that the legion, also named 950th Indian Infantry Regiment (IR 950), initially served with the German Army and later from August 1944 with Waffen-SS.
Waffen-SS was the military branch of the Schutzstaffel (SS), German for ‘protective echelon’, the self-described ‘political soldiers’ of Hitler’s Nazi Party.
“During WWII, the legion was engaged in the Atlantic Wall, Italian Front, Battle of Berlin etc. After the defeat of Germany, the legion unsuccessfully tried to escape to a neutral country but allied forces captured them and they were brought to India for trial,’ Batabyal told PTI.
“But the trial process was incomplete by the time India gained independence. It must be mentioned that there are gaps in detailed information about this legion,” he said.
Besides PoWs, the legion which was also called Azad Hind Fauz had expatriates from Europe and Indian students in Germany, Batabyal said.
