India is marking the 83rd anniversary of the Azad Hind Fauj today, honouring the army that dared to challenge the British Empire on the battlefield. On October 21, 1943, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind in Singapore, giving political form to the Indian National Army and its audacious goal of marching on Delhi.
Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri led the tributes, posting in Hindi: "On the founding day of the Azad Hind Fauj, a million salutes to the brave sons of Mother India." Puri credited the INA with giving the independence movement "new courage, new energy, and a new direction for struggle," Nation Press reports.
Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh also saluted the "brave fighters" who wrote history through valour and sacrifice, while chief ministers joined in: Odisha's Mohan Charan Majhi offered a devout salute to Netaji and the INA's soldiers, Chhattisgarh's Vishnu Deo Sai praised their "indomitable courage," and Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said their sacrifice would "remain immortal in the nation's history."
The Azad Hind Fauj drew its ranks from Indian prisoners of war captured after the fall of Malaya and Singapore, alongside civilian volunteers from the Indian diaspora across Southeast Asia. According to Britannica, Bose reorganised the force in 1943 and led it into battle on India's northeastern frontier, reaching Imphal and Kohima in 1944 — the closest the freedom army ever came to home soil.
Eighty-three years on, the army's battle cry of Jai Hind — adopted by independent India itself — still echoes through the day's commemorations.
The INA's legacy outlived its military defeat. The 1945-46 Red Fort trials of INA officers sparked nationwide protests and hastened the end of British rule, historians widely agree. Today the INA Memorial at Moirang in Manipur marks the spot where the Azad Hind flag was first raised on Indian soil in April 1944.