Book Review | The Trial That Shook Britain: How a Court Martial Hastened Acceptance of Indian Independence

The trial that shook Britain: How a court martial hastened the acceptance of Indian Independence, published by Routledge, is packed with solid information and deft reconstruction which easily establish that while the foundation for independence was laid by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru-led Indian National Congress’ non-violence, non-cooperation civil disobedience, at a crucial juncture in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Congress’ endorsement of the use of force by the INA helped to liberate the motherland from imperial powers and colonisers.

The significance of Ray’s deep dive into a largely neglected aspect of our modern history is borne out by the conclusive statement of Clement Attlee – the British Prime Minister when we won freedom – in the British House of Commons in 1956 that the INA, and not Gandhi-Nehru’s various civil disobedience movements, was the principal reason for Britain’s hurried withdrawal in 1947.

To cut a long story, Bose formed the rebel INA in Southeast Asia from officers and men in the British Indian Army deployed in Malaysia and Singapore to stop the Japanese invasion during the Second World War. The British forces lost badly in late1941-early-1942 and the Japanese took thousands as prisoners of war. And they cleverly handed the POWs on a platter to the charismatic and fiercely anti-British Bose – twice elected president of Indian National Congress who escaped from Calcutta and arrived in Southeast Asia in 1943 via Berlin – to set up the INA to wage a war against the British along with the Japanese Army to free India.

But fortunately or unfortunately, the Allied forces regrouped dramatically and the Japanese were beaten hollow. Their proxy -- the resource-starved and handicapped INA – fought but were ultimately not a match on the battlefield and its dreams of liberating India with Tokyo’s help came to naught. The Japanese in any case were reluctant to deploy the INA as frontline troops. Bose himself fled the war theater after Japan’s surrender and perished in an air crash in August 1945 in present-day Taiwan, bringing the INA saga to an end – or so everyone thought!

Although the whole INA exercise was a big flop, the very idea of taking on the British militarily aroused the masses no sooner the Indian press started recounting the INA’s heroism and valour once war-time censorship was lifted. The British took note of the sudden surge in nationalistic fervor because of the hyped up coverage and decided to make an example of the INA fighters who were captured and brought back to India by loyal soldiers of the Raj. Initially, there were plans to put 800 soldiers on trial for waging war against the British King and to execute them or imprison them for life to assert the white man’s invincibility --and deter future mutineers.

The British however developed cold feet after putting three officers – Captain Shahnawaz Khan, a Muslim; Captain Prem Sahgal, a Hindu; and Lieutenant Gurbaksh Dhillon, a Sikh on trial, since the court martial badly backfired on them.

The selection of officers for the court martial itself ended up galvanizing and unifying followers of India’s three largest religions, which proved detrimental to British interests. The venue of the court martial – Delhi’s Red Fort – too fired up Indians almost to a frenzy and a wave of anti-British sentiments swept the whole country.

Earlier, the British had tried Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar inside the Red Fort -- once the palace of the Mughals -- for leading India’s first war of independence in 1857. In that sense, the INA’s endeavour to storm British India from the northeast was lapped up by ordinary people as round two of India’s bid for independence by military means.

The unprecedented public mood stirred up by the high profile court martial forced even a personality like Nehru – who was a friend of Bose, but had expressed reservations about his alliance with Japan and who was promoted and championed by Mahatma Gandhi as independent India’s first prime minister – to endear himself and his Congress Party to the masses by eulogising the dare devilry of the INA in speech after speech across India.

Nehru also donned his lawyer’s black robe and wig, which had fallen into disuse because of his preoccupation with day-to-day politics, to join the battery of defence lawyers. But the lead counsel for the trio in the military trial was Bhulabhai Desai, who argued brilliantly that the aim of the INA was no different from George Washington’s Continental Army – putting an end to British rule. Anyway all three were found guilty and sentenced to transportation for life under the Army Act. The country seethed with anger and there would have been unimaginable and uncontrollable consequences.

The British were on the back foot because of a spate of protests and observance of INA Day in city after city during the trial. The police opened fire on pro-INA demonstrators in Madurai killing five, while in Calcutta – the epicenter of protests, it being Bose’s home town – the police shot dead as many as 97 protestors between November 21 and 24. There was so much anger that even the lesser sentence was eventually suspended and the trio were set free, although they were cashiered, or permanently expelled from the army. Their release triggered countrywide jubilation and celebration and pictures of the garlanded heroes adorned public spaces mirroring the national mood.

According to Ray, the British retreat in the INA case set off the process in London of granting complete independence to India which materialized in record time, so to say. In a sense, the countdown to freedom started with the trio’s release from captivity.

Ray is an internationally acclaimed journalist, living in London since 1977, and The Trial that Shook Britain is his fourth book, based on a thesis length paper written by him at Oxford. His scholarship is painstakingly meticulous and he has risen above blood and family ties to pen an objective and authoritative account. He happens to be Bose’s great-nephew. Netaji was the younger brother of Ray’s maternal grandfather, Sarat Bose. Committed to India like his illustrious forefathers, Ray hasn’t given up his Indian nationality -- despite spending nearly half a century in Britain. More power to his pen!

* SNM Abdi is an independent journalist specializing in India’s foreign policy and domestic politics.