Bangkok Conference
The Bangkok Conference was a conference held on 23 June 1942 by Indian Nationalist groups and local Indian Independence leagues at Bangkok to proclaim the formation of the All-India Independence league. The conference further saw the adoption by the league of a thirty-four set resolution known as the Bangkok resolutions that attempted to define the role of the league in the Independence movement, relations with the nascent Indian National Army, and clarify the grounds and conditions for obtaining Japanese support for it. The resolution further attempted to clarify the relations of Japan and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere with a free India.
Indians in South-East Asia
Indian Independence League
The Indian Independence League was a
Indian National Council
The
First INA
The Indian National Army was initially formed under
Tokyo Conference
Following the end of the Malayan Campaign, and after Thailand's support to the Japanese campaign, these organisations were encouraged by Japan to unify the overseas Indian movement. Although differences existed between the organisations, they met at the
The Bangkok conference opened on 22 June 1942 at the Silpakon theatre in Bangkok with an opening address by the Thai deputy foreign minister Wichit. Amongst the guests to this conference were the Japanese Ambassador Tsubokami Teiji, German minister Ernst Wendler, and the Italian minister Guido Crolla.[11]
Outcomes
The conference defined the structure of the league as consisting of a Council for Action and a Committee of representatives below it. Below the committee was to be the territorial and local branches.[12] Rash Behari Bose was to chair the council, while K.P.K Menon, Nedyam Raghavan were among the civilian members of the council. Mohan Singh and an officer by the name of Gilani were to be the INA's members.[12] The committee of representatives took members from the 12 territories with Indian population, with representation proportional to the representative Indian population.[12][13] The Bangkok resolution further decided that the Indian National Army was to be subordinate to it.[12]
Bangkok Resolutions
The introduction to the resolution states:[13]
That Indian be considered as ONE and indivisible. That all activities of this movement be on a national basis and not on sectional, communal or religious bases. That in view of the fact that the Indian National Congress is the only political organisation which could claim to represent the real interests of the people of India and as such acknowledged as the only body representing India, this conference is of the opinion that the program and plan of action of this Movement must be so guided, controlled and directed as to bring them in line with the aims and intentions of the Indian National Congress.
The resolution itself adopted a thirty-four point resolution, to each of which it expected the Japanese government to respond to. These included the demand that the Japanese government clearly, explicitly and publicly recognize India as an independent nation and the league as the nation's representatives and guardians.
The resolution was duly passed on to what was then the Japanese liaison office, the Iwakuro Kikan.
Notes
- ^ The Times (January 23, 2007) Anniversaries;The Register. Page 56. See also Times Online search
- ^ Hassell, John. (August 5, 1997) The Star-Ledger Women's equality isn't doled out evenly in India. Section: News; page 1.
- ^ Bhargava 1982, p. 210
- ^ a b Corr 1975, p. 105,106
- ^ a b Kratoska 2002, p. 173
- ^ Ghosh 1969, p. 41,42
- ^ Bose 1975, p. 289
- ^ Kratoska 2002, p. 174
- ^ Kratoska 2002, p. 175,176
- ^ a b Fay 1993, p. 91
- ^ Kratoska 2002, p. 175
- ^ a b c d e f Fay 1993, p. 108
- ^ a b Green 1948, p. 61
- ^ Fay 1993, p. 144
References
- Bhargava, M.L. (1982). Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in South-East Asia and India's Liberation War.
- Green, L.C. (1948), The Indian National Army Trials. The Modern Law Review, Vol. 11, No. 1. (Jan., 1948), pp. 47-69., London, Blackwell..
- Fay, Peter W. (1993), The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence, 1942-1945., Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press., ISBN 0-472-08342-2.
- Bose, Sisir (1975), Netaji and India's Freedom: Proceedings of the International Netaji Seminar., Netaji Research Bureau.
- Corr, Gerald H (1975), The War of the Springing Tiger, Osprey, ISBN 0-85045-069-1.
- Ghosh, K.K (1969), The Indian National Army: Second Front of the Indian Independence Movement., Meerut, Meenakshi Prakashan.
- Kratoska, Paul H (2002), Southeast Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire., Routledge., ISBN 0-7007-1488-X.