Indian Independence League
The Indian Independence League was a political organisation set up in South-East Asia by Indian expatriates and Indian nationalists in-exile under Japanese occupation following Japan's successful Malayan Campign during the first part of the Second World War. Established primarily to foster Indian Nationalism and to obain Japanese support for the Indian Independence Movement, the League came to interact and command the first Indian National Army under Mohan Singh before it was dissolved. Later, after the arrival of Subhas Chandra Bose in Suth East Asia and the revival of the INA, the League came under his leadership, before giving way to Azad Hind.
Background
With the occupation of South-East Asia, a large population of expatriate Indian population had come under the Japanese occupation. A framework of local Indian associations had existed even before the war reached Malaya. The Largest of these included the likes of pre-war Central Indian Association, the Singapore Indian Independence league and other organisations, and had amongst their members eminet Indian expatriates, eg K.P.K Menon, Nedyam Raghavan, Pritam Singh, S.C Goho and others. With the occupation authority's encouragement, these groups began amalgamating into the local Indian Independence leagues and became the predominant liasing organisation with the local Indian population and the Japanese occupation force.
Rash Behari Bose
Rash Behari Bose was an Indian revolutionary noted for his planning of the Delhi-Lahore conspiracy of 1912 to assasinate the then Viceroy Lord Hardinge, and his involvement in the Ghadr Conspiracy of 1915. Sought by the Raj, Rash Behari fled to Japan where he sought sanctuary among Japanese patriotic societies. Rash Behari subsequently learned the Japanese Language, married a Japanese woman, and became a naturalised Japanese citizen.[1]
Before and during the Malayan Campaign, Rash Behari had tried to interest Japanese efforts to aims of the Indian Independence movement. With encouraging reports from Fujiwara and the establishment of the local Independence leagues, the IGHQ sought Rash Behari's help to expand and amalgamate the Indian movement taking shape.
Rash Behari advised the IGHQ to attach the evolving INA to a political organisation that would also speak for the civillian Indian population in South-east Asia.[2]
The Tokyo Conference
In March of 1942, he invited the local leaders of the Indian Independence leagues to a conference in Tokyo. This invitation was taken up and the delegation met at a Tokyo hotel in late March 1942.
The Tokyo conference, however, failed to reach any definitive decisions. A number of the Indian delegation held differences with Rash Behari, especially given his long connection with Japan and the current position of Japan as the occupying power in South-east Asia, and was wary of vested Japanese interests.[3] The conference agreed to meet again in Bangkok at a future date.[4]The Indian delegation returned to Singapore in April with Rash Behari.
All Malayan Indian Independence League
In Singapore, Rash Behari was invited to chair a public meeting that saw the proclamation of the All-Malayan Indian Independence League.[5] The League was headed by Nedyam Raghavan, a Penang Barrister and a prominent Malayan Indian. The governing board had amongst it's members K.PK. Menon and S.C Goho, the latter the chairman of the Singapore Indian Independence League. The league made a number of proposals including to form a Coucil of Action as the executive arm, formation of a body which the regional leagues would report to, as well as the relations between the INA and the council as well as those between the council and the Japanese authority.[6] The decision was made to vote on these proposals by a representation larger than that had met at Tokyo, and meeting elsewhere than in Japanese soil.[7] There also remains suggestions that members of the League, including Niranjan Singh Gill who directed the PoW camps, were apprehensive about Japanese intentions with regards to the league, the Independence movement.[8]
The league found widespread among the Indian population, with membership estimated to be close to a hundred-thousand at the end of August. Membership of the league was of advantage for the population in the middle of war-time emergency and when dealing with the occupation authorities. The leagues membership card identified the holder as Indian (and thus an ally), it was used to issue rations.[9] Futher, the league took efforts to improve the conditions of the local Indian populace, including the issues of the now job-less plantation labourers.[10]
Bangkok Resolution
In June 1942, the Bangkok resolution was held. This saw the constitution of the Indian Independence League. The league consisted of a Council for Action and a Committee of representatives below it. Below the committee was to be the territorial and local branches.[11]Rash Behari Bose was to chair the council, while K.P.K Menon, Nedyam Raghavan were among the civillian members of the counil. Mohan Singh and an officer by the name of Gilani were to be the INA's members.[12] The committee of representatives took members from the 12 territories with Indian population, with representation proportional to the representative Indian population.[13] The Bangkok resolution further decided that the Indian National Army was to be subordinate to it.[14]