A vivid account of INA brigades that fought in Taiping, Malaya

Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, despite having distinct ideology and approach, had held Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in such high esteem that he had named three regiments or brigades of the first division of the Indian National Army after them.

- RASHEED KIDWAI

Another INA guerrilla regiment was formed drawing on some of the finest soldiers of the three brigades and it was called Subhas Brigade despite being forbidden by Netaji to do so.

Gandhi-Nehru-Azad were strong votaries of non-violent resistance and moral persuasion, while Subash Bose believed in armed struggle and revolutionary action.

This divergence in their strategies and philosophies was a significant point of difference between them, but the INA chief thought it fit to name his brigades after them.

In "My Memories of INA and its Netaji [Roli Books 2025], the new edition of Major General Shahnawaz Khan's account of Subash Bose and INA gives a vivid account of these brigades in the battles that were fought in Taiping, Malaya, from September 1943 onwards and its advance to Burma (present-day Myanmar) in late November 1943.

The original work of Major General Shahnawaz Khan, who served as a Member of Parliament and minister in the Indira Gandhi cabinet, was first published in 1946.

A foreword by Professor Sugata Bose Gardiner, Professor of History, Harvard University, USA, in the new edition is packed with loads of information and anecdotes.

Prof Bose quotes General Shahnawaz Khan on how he was hypnotized by Subash Bose's personality and his speeches.

In 1943, when Shahnawaz had met Bose, the INA leader had placed a map of India. "...and for the first time in my life I saw India through the eyes of an Indian." General Shahnawaz recalls that transformative moment, as all along he had been interested only in soldiering and sport.

Many in Khan's clan of Janjua Rajputs from Rawalpindi in Punjab had served in the British Indian Army.