The heroic battle of Azad Hind Fauj (also known as the Indian National Army - INA) and its legendary leader, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, has been sung many times in history. But, the genocide of nearly 2,300 INA 'prisoners of war' at Nilganj near Barrackpore, West Bengal on the intervening night of September 25/26, 1945 is yet to get due recognition despite the scale of atrocities by the British Indian army.
Recently, researcher Tamal Sanyal, after a painstaking work of three years, has revealed all about those unknown and unsung soldiers of INA, who were camped in Bengal, in British captivity and killed in a genocide.
Many stories have been written about INA and even some movies have also been made about its revolutionary leaders. But there is a latent chapter in the whole episode, which was hidden from public gaze, until now.
Sanyal's research has revealed that the British Army operated three Prisoner of War (PoW) camps in undivided Bengal, immediately after the Second World War. The INA soldiers who were captured from the Indo-Burma border and North Eastern India were kept there.
These PoW camps had 'cages' in them, inside which the INA prisoners were kept under 24X7 watch of armed sentries. These three camps were located at Barasat (in North 24 Paraganas of West Bengal), Nilganj (near Barrackpore, West Bengal) and Jhikorgachha (in district Jessore, now in Bangladesh).
Remnants of the Nilganj camp are still found and subsequently a prestigious institute of the Central government CRIJAF (Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres) has come up at that place since 1953, which allegedly could be a cover up of the genocide that took place inside that camp on a night of 1945.
Sanyal told The Pioneer, "The PoWs brought here in these camps were subjected to intense interrogation first, to segregate them on the basis of their loyalty to the cause of Indian independence. 'Colour coding' of the PoWs was done to mark them from the most to the least loyal.
“The INA soldiers most loyal to Netaji and the cause of Indian independence were marked as 'Black and had to bear most of the tortures at the hands of the British Army, while the lesser ones were coded "Grey" (somewhat loyal) and "White" (faintly loyal).
A planned massacre took place on the intervening night of September 25 and 26, 1945, at the Nilganj camp. The PoWs were taken to a pond called 'Moslem Pukur' (Muslim Pond), situated outside the boundary of the campus. While walking, they sang songs in praise of Mother India and Netaji. At night, the villagers heard gunshots which rang through the air, for the whole night. On daybreak, they rushed to the camp to find the reasons behind the gunshots. They discovered piles of dead bodies of INA soldiers were being transported in military trucks. The bodies were reportedly thrown into the 'Lavanyavati River' (now called Nowai canal, just adjacent to the camp) and river Ganges.
Some bodies were reportedly buried inside the campus. All the bodies were disposed of in a single day.
Searching for the records of that incident, which was just a hearsay till now, Sanyal stumbled upon one Court of Inquiry Report by a British Army Major General Stuart. He confirmed that such an incident took place on the same night, as claimed by the locals. He said in his report that 26/5 Madras Regiment was stationed to guard the Nilganj camp and was commanded by Lt. Col. Vaughan, who was away at the Regimental Centre. The camp was commanded by Major Nambiar and the company responsible for the shootout was commanded by Capt ERR Menon. At about 10 PM at night, he ordered the inhabitants of cages to fall in for a sudden roll call, which they refused to oblige.
According to the Court of Inquiry report, he was abused in Tamil. Then he came out of the cage and sounded the alarm at Quarter Guard to alert his company, which came out of the barracks. Then Capt Menon entered the cage again, this time with a loaded Tommy Gun. Behind him, entered his company. It is recorded that as per the statement of Capt Menon, he saw a bamboo being whirled in air and a brick was thrown at him, after exchange of some abuses inside the cage. Then someone from his company, which was behind him, shouted "our company commander is finished". Then the firing started. While Capt Menon said he had not ordered any firing, the company personnel said that they fired upon orders of Menon.
The British Army claimed that only five persons were killed in the incident and nine injured. But according to Sanyal, the Major General said in the report that it cannot be surely said how many rounds were fired, but empty cases of 103 rounds of .303 rifle were fired and the Kote commander was still short of empty cases of 116 rounds. 8 rounds of Tommy gun were also fired. It is obvious that only five people will not be killed if 219 rounds of bullets are fired inside a closed cage/camp. No mention about the disposal of bodies was mentioned in the report.
The legendary Col. GS Dhillon of Azad Hind Fauj, who was tried at the Red Fort, wrote in his diary that 2,300 personnel of Azad Hind Fauj were slaughtered in cold blood on that night, by Capt Menon of the British Army. Strangely, he named Captain Menon correctly in his diary, although he was not incarcerated in that camp or could not have known his name.
This incident was long buried in history . Sanyal claims he is the first person to access most of the old official British Army documents on this incident.
Sanyal said he is also writing a book detailing the gruesome incident and has also been writing letters to the top Constitutional functionaries, including the Prime Minister, Home Minister as also CRIJAF to erect a memorial in memory of the fallen soldiers at Nilganj.
