Important Personalities: Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Bose, Bhagat Singh

All three are correct. On 21 October 1943 Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind at Singapore, with himself as head of state, prime minister and minister of war. It soon declared war on Britain and the United States and was recognised by Japan and its allies. Japan nominally handed over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; Bose visited Port Blair at the end of December 1943, hoisted the national flag and renamed the islands Shaheed and Swaraj.

To mark the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji (born 23 January 1897 at Cuttack), the Ministry of Culture notified in January 2021 that 23 January would be celebrated every year as Parakram Diwas (Day of Valour), to inspire the people, especially the youth, with his fortitude. Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (31 October) honours Sardar Patel, Vijay Diwas (16 December) marks the 1971 victory, and Janjatiya Gaurav Divas (15 November) honours Birsa Munda.

Released from jail but kept under watch at his Elgin Road house, Bose grew a beard and left at night dressed as Muhammad Ziauddin, an inspector of an insurance company; his nephew Sisir Kumar Bose drove him to Gomoh, where he took a train to Peshawar. From Peshawar he went to Kabul with Bhagat Ram Talwar, who posed as Rahmat Khan while Bose played his deaf-mute relative. In Kabul the Italian legation gave him a passport in the name of Orlando Mazzotta, on which he travelled through Moscow to Berlin.

In Berlin Bose set up the Free India Centre and began broadcasts over Azad Hind Radio. With German help an Indian Legion was recruited from Indian soldiers taken prisoner in North Africa; it used the springing-tiger emblem and the greeting 'Jai Hind'. Hitler gave no firm commitment on India, and no government in exile was set up in Germany; Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind only in Singapore, on 21 October 1943, after reaching East Asia by submarine.

Statements 1, 2 and 3 are correct. The Congress formed an INA Defence Committee, and Bhulabhai Desai led the defence with Tej Bahadur Sapru, Asaf Ali, K.N. Katju and Nehru, who put on a barrister's gown again after many years. The first trial opened at the Red Fort in November 1945. Bipan Chandra notes that the Muslim League, the Communist Party, the Akali Dal, the Hindu Mahasabha and others also backed the INA cause. The court martial found the three officers guilty and sentenced them to transportation for life, but the Commander-in-Chief, Auchinleck, remitted the sentences in January 1946 under public pressure.

In March-April 1944 the Japanese and INA units advanced into Manipur in the Imphal-Kohima campaign. On 14 April 1944 Colonel Shaukat Ali Malik, commanding the Bahadur (intelligence) Group, hoisted the tricolour at Moirang, south of Imphal; this is remembered as the first hoisting of the INA flag on the Indian mainland. The siege of Imphal failed, and the INA retreated with the Japanese into Burma.

During the Japanese advance in Malaya, Mohan Singh, an officer of the British Indian Army, agreed with the Japanese officer Major Fujiwara to raise an Indian force; after the fall of Singapore in February 1942 thousands of Indian prisoners of war were handed over to him. The Indian Independence League under Rash Behari Bose met at Bangkok in June 1942 and placed the army under its authority. The first INA collapsed in December 1942 when Mohan Singh fell out with the Japanese and was arrested. Subhas Bose reached Singapore only in July 1943 and revived it.

After the Tripuri crisis Bose resigned as Congress President in April 1939 and soon announced the Forward Bloc, meant at first to work inside the Congress and bring the left together. On 9 July 1939 he called for protests against two resolutions of the AICC. For this breach of discipline the Working Committee, in August 1939, removed him from the presidentship of the Bengal PCC and debarred him from elective office for three years. The Bloc was an Indian party, formed in 1939; the Indian Legion was raised in Germany only in 1942.