Telling the forgotten story of Indian POWs

Former banker uncovers buried tales to paint a fuller picture of Indian soldiers during World War II

- Shawn Hoo

Most histories of Indian soldiers during World War II start and end with the vexed anti-colonial nationalist hero Subhas Chandra Bose.

But a new book by Singapore-based banker-turned-author Gautam Hazarika turns to the fate of forgotten leaders and prisoners of war (POWs) in Singapore to paint a fuller picture.

In The Forgotten Indian Prisoners Of World War II: Surrender, Loyalty, Betrayal And Hell (2025), Hazarika makes the case for unearthing this buried history. Despite there being 67,000 Indian troops who defended Singapore and Malaya at the start of WWII amounting to about half of the Allied army little is known about their agency and fate under the Japanese Occupation.

Some 20,000 Indian troops who were taken as POWs switched sides to join the Japanese-sponsored and anti-British Indian National Army (INA), which was assembled in Farrer Park two days after the fall of Singapore to hear rousing speeches advocating for Indian independence.

The others who refused to join the INA suffered brutal circumstances detailed in the book.

Hazarika spent over 20 years in the banking sector and has worked at Citi, Deutsche Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The 55-year-old British citizen, who has been based in Singapore for two decades and interviewed descendants of former Indian POWs, says: “Whether they joined the INA or not, they were all patriots of India. They did what they thought was right. They were patriots under those circumstances the cards that they were dealt, they played their best hand.”