75th Anniversary of Indian National Army And Provisional Government

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Indian National Army is not a forgotten chapter, it is the obliterated pages of history remained untouched for last seventy-five years. The I.N.A. was national revolutionary army, tightly armed and had been organised and trained as a guerilla force. A true soldier needs military and spiritual training. It is only on the basis of undiluted nationalism and perfect justice and impartiality the India's Army of Liberation can be built up.

It is the struggle for freedom which Indians urged in South-East Asia and it was Netaji who welded all Indians in East Asia into one unit, and it was he, who created a feeling of friendship and harmony among the nations of the East and his people, and finally how this massive army comprising captured soldiers and nationalists in South-East Asia was organised, structured and assimilated.

Now it is great revelation to bring out the aspects of the formation, constitution and contribution of I.N.A. towards Indian independence. Along with this the concept and significance of a Provisional Government of Free India, which was Bose's master move in the game of international politics.

Today it is a great challenge before the scholars from the armed forces as well as from the civilians to unearth the untold chapters of history.

I feel extremely privileged in being able to place this important publication of the Asiatic Society before the academia and other members concerned with the most exciting phase of our struggle for freedom of the nation. It was a historic moment for all of us to have observed the seventy-five years of Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fouj) and the Provisional Government in exile (Hukumat-e-Arzi Azad Hind) under the bold leadership of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Incidentally we have stepped into 125 years of birth anniversary of our great revolutionary icon. The heartbeat of any Indian even now gets enthralled listening to the army march song 'Kadam Kadam Badaye Ja' with a military portend. We also had a feel of it when the two-day International Seminar was held at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata on 11th & 12th December, 2018 with this invocation. The panel of participants included a group of very senior Army Officers (retired), former bureaucrats and some scholars. They presented their thought provoking lectures as well as written down papers which together made this volume ready for release.

It will perhaps not be redundant to reiterate for those specially familiarising with the academic activities of the Asiatic Society for the first time. This oldest institution of learning of our country, nay the whole of the continent of Asia, committed itself from the inception in 1784 to the task mandated by the Founder, an illustrious visionary of Indological Studies in British India, Sir William Jones. He was a man of jurisprudence with acclaimed academic eminence in diverse interest.