<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: "JIFs" or Freedom Fighters?
Review: The Indian National Army, and its operations with the Japanese in the Burma theatre of operations during World War II, was long a controversial subject between Indians and British, and generally regarded with curmudgeonly disapproval by the British. The fact is that the issue of collaboration was probably more complicated in the Asia-Pacific theatre than it was in the European theatre. Experiencing the colonial rule of the British, French, and Dutch, many Burmese, Malays, Vietnamese, Sumatrans and Javanese saw the Japanese as colonial liberators. Even in the Philippines, under an allegedly benign American rule, much of the legislature stayed on to work under the Japanese. The Germans, of course, used peoples like the Lithuanians and Ukrainians in order to carry out the "Final Solution", but the situation was somewhat different. Asian nationalists struggling for independence, largely along lines laid for them by Western educations, found themselves betrayed by Western colonial empires who were committed to holding on at all cost (or so they thought until 1942). Fay's book provides a case study of one of the most famous (or notorious) instances of collaboration in the Asia-Pacific theatre. He examines the history of the Indian National Army (derogatorily referred to by the British as "JIFs"--Japanese Indian Forces) through an INA perspective, specifically in interviews with Prem and Lakshmi Sahgal, a husband and wife who found themselves in Singapore in 1942 when the British surrendered to the Japanese--Prem as a captured officer, and Lakshmi as a doctor. Both, disillusioned and fed up with years of British promises of independence that grew consciously or unconsciously caught up in red tape and official footdragging, decided to join the Japanese-affiliated force of Indian soldiers that would reclaim India for the Indians. The rest of the story should be read through their words, providing a much needed other side to the story of the Indian struggle for independence.
Rating: 
Summary: memories of midnight
Review: There are several other books on Netaji and the view from hindsight after more than 50 years. One wonders why it took so long to do this, was it because the man would now be close to 100 years? Strangely, there are reports that he survives as a sadhu or holy man in N India, near Lucknow or Allahabad.
The New Yorker carried a good article by A. Ghosh who draws on interviews with other INA personnel. The British Empire was a 'white man's club' (see Robert Huttenback). In this context, an Indian officer could not rise very high in the army (there were a few exceptions). The INA gave ex POW's in Japanese controlled territories a chance. Why deny this to someone you would not wish to invite into your own drinking circle at the Club after work?
This dog in the manger attitude of the colonials still has its hangover today, even among the brown sahibs who rule India and have grudgingly given an award to Netaji Bose.
My father knew Netaji in Calcutta when he was Mayor in the 1920's, and who helped him to finish college. Later he met him in Germany prior to WW 2. There are some photos somewhere.
Records of Netaji's association with the Japanese and German army are available, including the materials carried along with him in the submarine to Japan.The Germans had a batallion of British volunteers who were known as Hitlers Englishmen. God only knows what happened to them.
Rating:
Summary: memories of midnight
Review: There are several other books on Netaji and the view from hindsight after more than 50 years. One wonders why it took so long to do this, was it because the man would now be close to 100 years? Strangely, there are reports that he survives as a sadhu or holy man in N India, near Lucknow or Allahabad.
The New Yorker carried a good article by A. Ghosh who draws on interviews with other INA personnel. The British Empire was a 'white man's club' (see Robert Huttenback). In this context, an Indian officer could not rise very high in the army (there were a few exceptions). The INA gave ex POW's in Japanese controlled territories a chance. Why deny this to someone you would not wish to invite into your own drinking circle at the Club after work?
This dog in the manger attitude of the colonials still has its hangover today, even among the brown sahibs who rule India and have grudgingly given an award to Netaji Bose.
My father knew Netaji in Calcutta when he was Mayor in the 1920's, and who helped him to finish college. Later he met him in Germany prior to WW 2. There are some photos somewhere.
Records of Netaji's association with the Japanese and German army are available, including the materials carried along with him in the submarine to Japan. The Germans had a batallion of British volunteers who were known as Hitlers Englishmen. God only knows what happened to them.
<< 1 >>
|
