Indian National Army and the Sikh Soldiers - Forgotten Heroes or Traitors
Keywords:
Indian National Army, Sikh soldiers, forgotten heroes, traitors, Indian Independence League, British Indian Army, INA, whitewash of history, complicated historical issue, Sikh community, Shiromani Akali Dal, colonial authorities, eve of British departure, All-India Muslim League, Indian National Congress, Pakistan, India, Indian subcontinent, distinct Sikh state, Akali leadership, massive majorityAbstract
The Indian Independence League and the Indian National Army (INA) nationalist myth (IIL).Few historians explore the motivations behind the British Indian Army troops' decision to join the INA aswell as how confinement and the strains of war affected their choices. It is a whitewash of history and adisregard for the complexities of a complicated historical issue to dismiss the many reasons why peoplejoined the INA and the IIL. Despite the Sikh community's extensive cooperation with the colonialauthorities, the Shiromani Akali Dal received nothing on the eve of the British departure in 1947 whereasthe All-India Muslim League and the Indian National Congress both obtained Pakistan and India. As aresult of the division of the Indian subcontinent, the Sikh community's demands for a distinct Sikh stateand the addition of further regions to this state were unsuccessful. The Akali leadership's choice to joinIndia enslaved their group to a massive majority in which they made up barely 1.References
Joyce Lebra, Jungle Alliance: Japan and the Indian National Army (Singapore: Asia Pacific Press, 1971), p.65.
K.K. Ghosh, The Indian National Army: Second front of the Indian independence movement (Meerut: Meenakashi Prakashan, 1969), p.177.
Aldrich, Richard J. (2000), Intelligence and the War Against Japan: Britain, America and the Politics of Secret Service, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-64186-1.
Belle, Carl Vadivelle (2014), Tragic Orphans: Indians in Malaysia, Institute of South-East Asian Studies, ISBN 978-981-4519-03-8
Ghosh, The Indian National Army, pp.58-59.
Joyce Lebra, Jungle alliance, pp.25-26.
Ibid.
Lebra, Jungle alliance, pp.60-67.
Khalsa National Party emerged in the late 1930s under Sir Sunder Singh Majithia, a Sikh landlord, which served the Sikh community by joining coalition ministry of the pro-British Unionist Party in the Punjab.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and Shiromani Akali Dal were the popular religious and political platforms which were founded in 1923
Punjab Unionist Party was a pro-British party which was founded in 1923 by Mian Fazl-i-Husain and Ch. Chhotu Ram
Deputy Commissioner of district Amritsar was said to be the ambassador of the British who had been in touch with the top Sikh leaders.
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