Post-War Upsurge and the INA Trials

At a Glance

• Release of leaders June 1945
• New British government Labour under Attlee, July 1945
• First INA trial Red Fort, Delhi, November 1945
• INA Day 12 November 1945; INA Week 5-11 November
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Post-War Scenario, Cabinet Mission and Communalism

Where Does It Fit?

This is the first topic of the category on the post-war scenario, the Cabinet Mission and communalism. The previous topic covered the INA and Subhash Bose. This topic covers the change in the post-war situation and the INA trials. The next topic covers the three upsurges of the winter of 1945-46. Previous topic: Indian National Army and Subhash Bose.

What Were the Two Strands of the National Upsurge?

Two strands can be seen in the last two years of British rule. The first was tortuous negotiations involving the government, the Congress and the Muslim League, increasingly accompanied by communal violence and culminating in freedom and partition. The second was sporadic, localised and often extremely militant mass action by workers, peasants and the people of the states, which took the form of a countrywide strike wave. It was occasioned by the INA Release Movement, the Royal Indian Navy revolt, the Tebhaga movement, the Worli revolt, the Punjab Kisan Morchas, the Travancore people’s struggle, especially the Punnapra-Vayalar episode, and the Telangana peasant revolt.

How Did the Government’s Attitude Change?

When the government lifted the ban on the Congress and released its leaders in June 1945, it expected a demoralised people, but found tumultuous crowds impatient to act. Popular energy resurfaced after three years of repression. The Wavell Plan backed by the Conservative government failed to break the deadlock, as described in Wavell Plan and the Simla Conference. In July 1945 the Labour Party formed the government in Britain, with Clement Attlee as Prime Minister and Pethick Lawrence as Secretary of State for India. In August 1945 elections to the central and provincial assemblies were announced, and in September it was announced that a constituent assembly would be convened after the elections and that the government was working in the spirit of the Cripps Offer.

The conclusion drawn is that the British would have had to retreat in any case; the Labour government only quickened the process somewhat. The Cripps Offer is in Cripps Mission, 1942.

What Was the Congress Election Campaign?

The elections were held in the winter of 1945-46. Their most significant feature was that the campaign mobilised Indians against the British and did not merely appeal for votes. It expressed nationalist feeling against the State repression of the 1942 Quit India upsurge by glorifying martyrs and condemning officials: the brave resistance of leaderless people was praised, memorials were set up, relief funds were collected for sufferers, officials responsible for the pain were condemned, and enquiries and punishment of guilty officials were promised. The government failed to check such speeches, which had a devastating effect on the morale of the services, particularly with the prospect of Congress ministries returning in provinces where repression had been brutal. A gentleman’s agreement with the Congress seemed necessary. The 1942 movement is in Spread of the Quit India Movement and Government Repression.

Why Did the INA Trials Matter?

Mass pressure against the trial of INA prisoners, sometimes described as an edge of a volcano, brought a decisive shift in government policy. The British had initially decided to hold public trials of several hundred INA prisoners, to dismiss them from service and to detain without trial about 7,000. They compounded the folly by holding the first trial at the Red Fort in Delhi in November 1945 and putting in the dock together a Hindu, Prem Kumar Sehgal, a Muslim, Shah Nawaz Khan, and a Sikh, Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon. Another issue was the use of Indian Army units to try to restore French and Dutch colonial rule in Vietnam and Indonesia, which increased anti-imperialist feeling among a section of the urban population and the Army.

How Did the Congress Support the Prisoners?

• At the first post-war Congress session in Bombay in September 1945, a strong resolution supported the INA cause.
• The defence of INA prisoners in court was organised by Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Kailash Nath Katju, Jawaharlal Nehru and Asaf Ali.
• An INA Relief and Enquiry Committee distributed small sums of money and food and helped arrange employment.
• Funds were collected.

Why Was the INA Agitation a Landmark?

The intensity of the campaign for the release of INA prisoners was unprecedented. It had wide publicity through press coverage with daily editorials, pamphlets sometimes with threats of revenge, graffiti, public meetings and the observance of INA Day on 12 November 1945 and INA Week from 5 to 11 November. It spread widely and drew diverse social groups and parties. Its nerve centres were Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, towns of the United Provinces and Punjab, but it reached distant places such as Coorg, Baluchistan and Assam. People took part by giving money, from film stars, municipal committees, Indians abroad and gurdwaras to tongawallas, by attending meetings, closing shops, student boycotts of classes, kisan conferences and a demand by the All India Women’s Conference for release.

Those who supported the INA cause in varying degrees, apart from the Congress, included the Muslim League, the Communist Party, the Unionists, Akalis, the Justice Party, Ahrars in Rawalpindi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Sikh League. Pro-INA feeling appeared in traditional strongholds of the Raj: government employees collected funds, loyalists with titles asked the government to drop the trials for the sake of Indo-British relations, and men of the armed forces, unexpectedly sympathetic, attended meetings, received released men often in uniform and gave funds. The central theme became the questioning of Britain’s right to decide a matter concerning Indians, and the issue took on more and more of an Indian versus British colour. As an analytical point, the broad support shows that the INA had become a symbol on which groups that disagreed on other questions could agree. The INA itself is described in Indian National Army and Subhash Bose, and the street upsurges that followed in The Three Upsurges of Winter 1945-46.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Change in the British attitude The seven factors are a stock Mains point
• INA trials Names of the first accused and dates are Prelims facts
• Broad support Shows unity of groups on the INA issue

What Came Next?

The next topic describes the three upsurges of the winter of 1945-46. Next topic: The Three Upsurges of Winter 1945-46.

Key People and Terms

• INA Day 12 November 1945
• Red Fort trial The first INA trial, November 1945
• INA Relief and Enquiry Committee Body that helped INA men and families
• Lend-Lease The US wartime agreement draining Britain
• Tebhaga movement A peasant movement of the period
• Gentleman’s agreement The informal understanding the government wanted with the Congress

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about the INA trials and the change in British attitude. These points add depth.

• British position Weakened by war and global shifts
• INA agitation Wide and cross-community
• Officials and forces Eroded morale