My Memories of I.N.A & Its Netaji
Major General Shahnawaz Khan
During the Second World War, he was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942. Khan was deeply influenced by Subhas Chandra Bose and decided to join the I.N.A. in 1943. He rose to the rank of Major General and played a crucial role in leading the army into North-Eastern India, seizing Kohima and Imphal, briefly held by the I.N.A. under Japanese authority.
It was after the Declaration of War by Bose in 1945 and its aftermath, that Khan along Captain Prem Kumar Sahgal and Lieutenant Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, was tried for treason in the famous Red Fort trials. The widespread public support and nationalist sympathies led to the commutation of their sentences. This trial significantly contributed to the growing discontent against British rule in India.
My Memories of I.N.A. & Its Netaji, first published in 1946 was written as a tribute and celebration of the life and courage of Subhas Chandra Bose.
‘It will not be wrong to say that I was hypnotized by his [Netaji’s] personality and his speeches. He placed the true picture of India before us and for the first time in my life I saw India, through the eyes of an Indian.’