Indian National Army

The Indian National Army was an armed force of Indian nationalists raised in Southeast Asia during World War II, allied with and supported by Japan, with the aim of freeing India from British rule. It drew mainly on Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army taken prisoner by Japan, along with Indian civilians living in Malaya and Singapore. A first version formed in 1942 under Captain Mohan Singh was dissolved that December after a dispute with the Japanese. Subhas Chandra Bose arrived from Germany in 1943 and refounded it as the Second INA, the army of his Provisional Government of Free India, which declared war on Britain. The INA took part in the Japanese offensive toward Manipur, which Allied forces halted at Imphal, and its remaining troops surrendered in August 1945. The later trials of its officers by the British became a rallying point for the Indian independence movement.