RAS question
The INA trial (Red Fort Trial) of 1945 involved which three officers?
Correct answer: (B) Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal, Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.
The INA Red Fort Trial of November 1945 involved Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.
Explanation
The famous INA trial at the Red Fort in November 1945 tried Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon. The cited Museums of India page on the Swatantrata Senani Museum states that the barracks at Salimgarh, on the northeast of the Red Fort, were used to imprison these three officers along with many other INA soldiers, and notes that prisoners were detained there during the historical INA trial. The case mattered politically because the accused represented a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh, turning the trial into a symbol of national unity. Bhulabhai Desai and Jawaharlal Nehru defended them, and public sympathy forced commutation of the sentences.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) It wrongly includes Bose and Nehru; Nehru was part of the defence, while the tried officers were Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.
- (C) It wrongly brings in Mohan Singh and Lakshmi Sahgal; Mohan Singh was not an accused in this specific Red Fort trial named in the explanation and source.
- (D) It wrongly substitutes Bose and Mohan Singh for Shah Nawaz Khan and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, even though the trial involved Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.
Concept
This tests the modern Indian history theme of the INA trials and their role in late-colonial nationalist mobilisation. RAS repeatedly asks such facts because they connect personalities, sites such as the Red Fort, and the politics of mass sympathy before independence.