<div>Journal of the Australian War Memorial
"Great in adversity": Indian prisoners of war in New Guinea
Peter Stanley
{1} Hitherto little attention has been directed to the experience of Indian prisoners of war in South-East Asia, and much of that had concerned the formation of the pro-Japanese Indian National Army (INA). While several scholarly works explore the creation and outcome of the INA, much of the historiography of the INA is influenced by nationalist mystique, and especially by the legend of Subhas Chandra Bose.1 Of the approximately 40,000 Indians captured by the Japanese, mainly in the fall of Singapore in February 1942, up to 30,000 appear to have joined the INA, whether willingly or under duress.2 Many Indians still hail members of the INA as fighters for India's freedom. Those who rejected Japanese blandishments and remained loyal to their oath of service were regarded as dupes of the imperial power and have been disregarded by an independent India, which does not provide pensions to former members of Britain's Indian army.
{2} Indian prisoners of war have also been largely overlooked in the war literature of both India and of the western Allies. Official histories provide scant coverage. The Indian official history devotes almost no space to the experience of captivity, only to a brief summary of the work of the Recovery of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees organisation (RAPWI). An appendix to Volume V of S. Woodburn Kirby's British official history The war against Japan provides a short summary of the numbers captured and the locations at which prisoners were held. It makes clear that Indians were held in Hong Kong, Burma, Singapore, Malaya, Sumatra and British and Dutch Borneo. Although at war's end nearly 6,000 Indians were recovered in Australian New Guinea the British official history omits any mention of them. The only reference is in relation to Singapore, stating that "many of the Indians eventually left the island, mainly in forced labour battalions for islands in the south-west Pacific".3 The Australian official history, which deals extensively with the war in the South-West Pacific Area, accords them half-a-dozen references in Gavin Long's volume The final campaigns. In spite of the importance of loyalty as a central idea in Indian Army history, Philip Mason's history of the Indian Army barely mentions loyal prisoners
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"Great in adversity": Indian prisoners of war in New Guinea
Peter Stanley
{1} Hitherto little attention has been directed to the experience of Indian prisoners of war in South-East Asia, and much of that had concerned the formation of the pro-Japanese Indian National Army (INA). While several scholarly works explore the creation and outcome of the INA, much of the historiography of the INA is influenced by nationalist mystique, and especially by the legend of Subhas Chandra Bose.1 Of the approximately 40,000 Indians captured by the Japanese, mainly in the fall of Singapore in February 1942, up to 30,000 appear to have joined the INA, whether willingly or under duress.2 Many Indians still hail members of the INA as fighters for India's freedom. Those who rejected Japanese blandishments and remained loyal to their oath of service were regarded as dupes of the imperial power and have been disregarded by an independent India, which does not provide pensions to former members of Britain's Indian army.
{2} Indian prisoners of war have also been largely overlooked in the war literature of both India and of the western Allies. Official histories provide scant coverage. The Indian official history devotes almost no space to the experience of captivity, only to a brief summary of the work of the Recovery of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees organisation (RAPWI). An appendix to Volume V of S. Woodburn Kirby's British official history The war against Japan provides a short summary of the numbers captured and the locations at which prisoners were held. It makes clear that Indians were held in Hong Kong, Burma, Singapore, Malaya, Sumatra and British and Dutch Borneo. Although at war's end nearly 6,000 Indians were recovered in Australian New Guinea the British official history omits any mention of them. The only reference is in relation to Singapore, stating that "many of the Indians eventually left the island, mainly in forced labour battalions for islands in the south-west Pacific".3 The Australian official history, which deals extensively with the war in the South-West Pacific Area, accords them half-a-dozen references in Gavin Long's volume The final campaigns. In spite of the importance of loyalty as a central idea in Indian Army history, Philip Mason's history of the Indian Army barely mentions loyal prisoners
More...