Indian independence movement
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India's entry into the world war was strongly opposed by Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose had been elected President of the Congress in 1938 and 1939 but later resigned owing to differences of opinion with the Congress, however he remained emotionally attached to Congress for the remainder of his life. After his resignation he formed his own wing separated from the mainstream Congress leadership known as Forward bloc which was a loci focus for ex-congress leaders holding socialist views. Bose then founded the All India Forward Bloc. In 1940 the British authorities in Calcutta placed Bose under house arrest. However, he escaped and made his way through Afghanistan to Nazi Germany to seek Hitler and Mussolini's help for raising an army to fight the British. The Free India Legion comprising Erwin Rommel 's Indian POWs was formed. After a dramatic decline in Germany's military fortunes, a German land invasion of India became untenable. Hitler advised Bose to go to Japan where a submarine was arranged to transport Bose, who was ferried to Japanese Southeast Asia, where he formed the Azad Hind Government. The Provisional Free Indian Government in exile reorganised the Japanese collaborationit unit Indian National Army composed of Indian POWs and volunteer Indian expatriates in South-East Asia, with the help of the Japanese. Its aim was to reach India as a fighting force that would build on public resentment to inspire revolt among Indian soldiers of the Raj.

The INA was to see action against the Allies, including the British Indian Army, in the forests of Arakan, Burma, and in Assam, laying siege to Imphal and Kohima with the Japanese 15th Army. During the war, the Andaman and Nicobar islands were captured by the Japanese and handed over by them to the INA.

While a number of Japanese officers, even those like Fujiwara, who were devoted to the Indian cause, observed Bose as a military incompetent as well as an unrealistic and stubborn man who sees only his own needs and problems and could not observe the larger picture of the war as the Japanese had to.

The INA failed owing to disrupted logistics, poor supplies from the Japanese, and lack of training. The Azad Hind Fauj surrendered unconditionally to the British in Singapore in 1945. Subhas Chandra Bose's death occurred from third-degree burns on 18 August 1945 after his overloaded Japanese plane crashed in Japanese-ruled Formosa (now Taiwan).

Trials against members of the INA began in late 1945, and included the infamous joint court-martial of key figures Shah Nawaz Khan and Prem Sahgal. A number of Congress members including Tej Bahadur Sapru, Aruna Asaf Ali and Jawaharlal Nehru played a significant role in getting INA members released.

The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny was a failed insurrection which encompassed a total strike and subsequent mutiny by Indian sailors of the Royal Indian Navy on board ship and shore establishments at Bombay (Mumbai) harbour on 18 February 1946. From the initial flashpoint in Bombay, the mutiny spread and found support throughout British India, from Karachi to Calcutta and ultimately came to involve 78 ships, 20 shore establishments and 10,000 sailors.

The agitations, mass strikes, demonstrations and consequently support for the mutineers, therefore continued several days even after the mutiny had been called off. Along with this, the assessment may be made that it described in crystal clear terms to the government that the British Indian Armed forces could no longer be universally relied upon for support in crisis, and even more it was more likely itself to be the source of the sparks that would ignite trouble in a country fast slipping out of the scenario of political settlement.

The mutiny ended with the surrender of revolting the sailors to British officials. Congress and the Muslim League had convinced Indian sailors to surrender. They condemned the mutiny due to the political and military risks of unrest.
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