RAS question
The Indian National Army (INA) was first organized in 1942 by:
Correct answer: (B) Captain Mohan Singh.
The Indian National Army was first organised in February 1942 by Captain Mohan Singh from Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in Malaya and Singapore.
Explanation
Captain Mohan Singh is the precise answer because the first INA was not the later, better-known force under Subhas Chandra Bose. The official Ministry of Culture account says the first Indian national army was formed under Mohan Singh, a British Indian Army officer captured in the Malayan campaign, from prisoners of war after Singapore fell. Mohan Singh organised the first INA in February 1942 from Indian prisoners of war in Malaya and Singapore. It dissolved in December 1942 after differences with the Japanese. Rash Behari Bose then revived the effort and handed it to Subhas Chandra Bose in July 1943, after which Bose reorganised it into a force of about 40,000 soldiers.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Subhas Chandra Bose reorganised the revived INA in 1943, but the first INA of 1942 had already been organised by Captain Mohan Singh.
- (C) Rash Behari Bose helped revive the INA and later handed it over to Subhas Chandra Bose, but the initial 1942 organisation was under Captain Mohan Singh.
- (D) Shah Nawaz Khan was a prominent INA officer, not the person who first organised the INA in 1942.
Concept
The chronology of revolutionary nationalism during the Second World War depends on the distinction between the INA's first formation and its later Bose-led phase. RAS often asks such founder-versus-reorganiser distinctions in modern Indian history.