When Indian National Army heroes surrendered in 1945
INA commander Gurbakhsh Singh Dhillon was disappointed when he saw Burmese communities that had once welcomed his men changing sides, but he was phlegmatic about it, too. ‘It is natural for the people who have the misfortune of getting themselves, their hearths and homes and their fields overrun by warring foreign armies that they side with the winner.’ Then one day, when close to Rangoon, he came across a Burmese militia that had fought alongside the Japanese but was now campaigning with the British. A standoff was resolved without bloodshed after an exchange of prisoners and recognition that both groups were pursuing different routes to the same goal — a friendly future as independent neighbours. As this was happening, Prem Kumar Sahgal led what was left of his own unit through central Burma in search of allies, food and safety.
We moved from village to village, hiding in them during the day. I would send a man ahead with instructions to pretend that they were looking for the Indian Army and if they were told ‘Yes the Indian Army is here’, we would avoid that place. Then [one day] we opened fire on an approaching Gurkha battalion and soon aircraft began flying low and so the villagers came to me and said ‘If you stay here and fight, they will bomb our village and set fire to it… Don’t fight!’ I had to make a decision. The bulk of my men were going to surrender in any case. For the sake of the few of us who wanted to break out, was I to risk burning a village? So I said ‘all right we will surrender.’
Dhillon gave himself up, too, alongside Shah Nawaz Khan, the third future Red Fort defendant. As a sign of how deeply connected men like Dhillon, Khan and Sahgal were to the Indian Army officers they had fought against, the man who received Khan’s surrender turned out to be a former cadet of his in the academy at Dehra Dun. A mysterious British intelligence officer called Major C. Ore then arrived to interrogate Dhillon over several days. After the war Dhillon wrote down what had taken place in detail.
‘Mr Dhillon, from what I know of you, I am afraid you may be put on trial for waging war against the King and the trying court may have no choice than awarding you capital punishment, that is death. And when the time comes do ask for clemency and I am sure it shall be granted.’
‘Ask for clemency, to whom?’
‘To his Majesty the King Emperor.’
‘Ask for clemency from my enemy? Oh no I shall never do it. I cannot.’
‘The King is not your enemy. He has nothing personal against you. He does not even know you… [in the past] Field Marshal Smuts [of Boer War fame] also acted as you have and he was awarded the death penalty. He asked for mercy and the King pardoned him. It was later that he rose to be a General and then a Field Marshal… and is now a world figure.’
‘I am not Smuts. I am not a white man. You have different scales of justice while dealing with the coloured people. Don’t you think so?’
[crying] ‘You do not understand yourself. There are very few Indians like you. And India needs sons like you. India needs you, my son.’
‘Thank you sir [it was the first time I had called him that].’
‘Do you believe in democracy or dictatorship?’
‘Democracy.’
‘Do you respect Mahatma Gandhi?’
‘Yes his very name is synonymous with the Indian freedom struggle.’
‘Do you think he will appreciate your violent actions?’
‘Well our methods may differ but our aim is the same — the independence of India.’
’What do you think will be the effect on the Indian people if some of you were tried by an open public trial? Even Gandhi won’t favour you.’
‘But the people will. They will immediately go in our favour and against the government.’
Ore asked me again to seek clemency. He looked moved. His eyes were wet and so were mine. Kindness had removed the sting in me.
— Excerpted with permission from Hodder & Stoughton and Hachette India
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