Former Indian National Army Monument

The former Indian National Army Monument site at Esplanade Park in Singapore is now marked by a plaque erected by the National Heritage Board.

The Former Indian National Army Monument (Chinese: 印度国民军纪念碑) is a historical site and a demolished war memorial at the Esplanade Park located at Connaught Drive within the downtown of Singapore.

History

The monument was constructed to commemorate the "Unknown Warrior" of the Indian National Army (INA). The words inscribed on the war memorial were its motto, which is Unity (Ittefaq), Faith (Etmad) and Sacrifice (Kurbani). It was built during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore as the Japanese and the INA had one enemy in common, i.e., the British.

Subhas Chandra Bose ("Netaji") laid the foundation stone on July 8, 1945. The monument was then erected within a month by the Japanese on August 1945, a few months before Singapore was recaptured by the British. The construction of the monument was proposed by Bose, the co-founder of the INA and Head of State of the Provisional Government of Free India. The INA was backed by the Japanese forces for its goal of gaining India's independence from Britain.

Soon after the Japanese retreat from Singapore in 15 August 1945 and the subsequent surrender of the remaining divisions of the Indian National Army to the advancing British, the British commander Lord Louis Mountbatten ordered the memorial to be destroyed. Mountbatten's intention was to remove all traces of rebellion against British imperial authority. By attempting to completely erase all records of the INA's existence, he sought to prevent the seeds of the idea of a revolutionary socialist independence force from spreading into the vestiges of British colonies, amidst the spectre of Cold War politics already taking shape at the time, which had haunted the colonial powers before the war.

In 1995, the National Heritage Board marked the place as a historical site and subsequently with financial donations from the Indian community in Singapore, a new monument commemorating the previous one was erected on that spot.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi paid homage to INA martyrs at the Indian National Army Memorial Marker, in Singapore on November 24, 2015.

See also

• History of Singapore
• Japanese Occupation of Singapore
• Indian National Army
• Civilian War Memorial
• Kranji War Memorial
• The Cenotaph, Singapore

References

• "INA War Memorial in Singapore". National Archives of Singapore (S1942.org.sg). Retrieved 7 November 2006.