◾Who were these soldiers?
In the beginning, these Indian soldiers were in the British army. They had been captured by the Japanese when the British were defeated in Burma and Malaya. They were POWs (prisoners of war). Bose recruited them in his army which he called the Indian National Army (INA). Later, other Indians also joined the army including many women. However, Gandhi did not agree with the plans of Bose. He felt that the Japanese cannot be the liberators of India. But Subhash continued in his chosen path and led an army of Indian soldiers to fight along with the Imperial Army of Japan against the British for almost three years.

This time was very dramatic and difficult for the entire world. At one point, it had seemed that the Allied powers were losing the war. But Russia stopped the Nazi forces with the victory in Stalingrad. The Allied powers regained control and eventually won the Second World War. Subhash Bose’s INA was defeated by the British army. After this, it is not certain whether Bose disappeared or died. In June 1944, when the war was about to end, the British government released Gandhi from prison. They set the time for another round of negotiations and talks for Indian independence

The soldiers of INA were imprisoned and the British decided to punish them. A trial of INA soldiers was begun. The British decided to court martial them for being traitors to the army and hanging them to death in punishment. There was unrest, unhappiness and discontent in different parts of India when the INA trials started. The issue of Hindu- Muslim identity and separatist politics