The Courage to Fight for a Dream
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Singapore Diary-3: A small, solitary marker in memory of the sacrifices of Azad Hind Fauj at Esplanade Park. A tribute to Subhas Chandra Bose and his visionary army of brave women and men, chasing the dream of India’s liberation.
By Suresh Nautiyal 'Greenananda'
In the heart of Singapore’s Civic District, amid the rustle of tropical trees and the measured rhythm of a global city, stands a small, solitary marker at Esplanade Park. It is modest, almost easy to miss. Yet, this small plaque marks the site of the former Indian National Army (INA – Azad Hind Fauj) ) War Memorial, associated with the legendary freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose—Netaji—whose dream of India’s freedom once found organised expression on this very ground.
To understand the stillness of this marker, one must return to the turbulence of the 1940s.
During the Second World War, Singapore became a crucial theatre of conflict in Southeast Asia. After the Japanese occupation in 1942, thousands of Indian soldiers captured in Malaya were reorganised into what would become the Indian National Army (INA). The force existed, but it lacked unity, morale, resources, and clear direction.
Into this uncertainty arrived Subhas Chandra Bose, after an extraordinary journey across continents. He came to Singapore not merely as a political leader, but as a visionary determined to internationalise India’s freedom struggle. For him, Singapore was not foreign soil; it was a strategic and symbolic frontier from which India’s liberation could be advanced.
Under his leadership, the INA was reorganised with discipline and ideological clarity. Bose moved among the soldiers not as a distant general but as a compatriot. He infused them with a singular purpose: that their fight was not for any foreign power, but for India’s dignity and self-determination.
In October 1943, in Singapore, Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India—Azad Hind. Though in exile, it had ministers, administrative departments, currency, and diplomatic recognition from several Axis-aligned states. More than its institutional form, however, it carried immense symbolic weight. It asserted that sovereignty begins in conviction, long before it is secured in territory.
Singapore thus became the nerve centre of this audacious political experiment. From here, Bose broadcast radio messages to India, urging unity, courage and sacrifice. His voice travelled across borders and censorship barriers, reaching homes and military barracks alike.
For many Indians, it was the sound of defiance against the British, carried on foreign airwaves.
By 1945, as the war neared its end, Bose sought to honour the sacrifices of INA soldiers. In July that year, he walked the grounds of Esplanade Park and laid the foundation stone of the INA War Memorial. The location was deliberate—a public space where memory would remain visible and collective.
The memorial bore three words in Urdu: Ittefaq (Unity), Itmad (Faith), and Qurbani (Sacrifice). These were not decorative inscriptions; they were the ethical pillars upon which the INA stood. The monument was intended to commemorate unnamed soldiers, often hungry and thirsty, without proper uniforms, equipment and resources, who had marched through difficult jungles and battlefields with the hope of entering India as liberators.
But history turned swiftly.
With Japan’s surrender in August 1945, British forces reoccupied Singapore. The memorial, charged with anti-colonial symbolism, was dismantled on the orders of Lord Mountbatten, then Supreme Allied Commander of Southeast Asia. The structure was removed, its stones cleared away, as though the idea it embodied should also be erased.
Yet, memory is not so easily dismantled.
For decades, the site remained unmarked. The war receded into archives; empires shifted; India achieved independence in 1947. The INA’s military campaign had ultimately faltered, but its psychological impact within India had been profound.
The trials of INA officers in Delhi strongly stirred nationalist sentiments across communities all over the country, and contributed to the growing momentum against colonial rule.
In 1995, Singapore formally recognised the historical importance of the site and installed a marker at Esplanade Park where the original memorial once stood. It was not grand in scale, but it restored acknowledgment. The spot where Bose had envisioned permanence was given quiet recognition once again.
Today, the park stands serene. Nearby, monuments such as the Lim Bo Seng Memorial and the memorial dedicated to the heroes of the World War I and II, commemorate Singapore’s own wartime sacrifices.
Amid these memorials, the INA marker occupies a distinct space. It represents not only Singapore’s national struggle, but a transnational chapter—the intersection of Indian anti-colonial aspiration and Southeast Asian history.
Walking through the shaded paths of Esplanade Park, today, one can imagine the INA assembling beneath tropical skies, banners stirring in humid air, dedicated and determined to the cause of liberation of the country, and Bose, dressed as a soldier and commander, moving among his soldiers with urgency and resolve.
The original monument no longer stands, yet the spirit of that moment lingers.
Singapore’s skyline has transformed into one of steel and glass. The war survives mainly in textbooks. But this quiet marker reminds us that freedom movements are rarely confined by geography.
They travel across oceans and borders, gather strength in exile, and find expression wherever courage converges with conviction.
The marker even today asks enduring questions:
What sustains the courage to dream in exile?
What gives memory its resilience against erasure?
And how do small markers preserve ideas and ideals?
The INA War Memorial may no longer rise in stone, but in Esplanade Park, its presence endures—in silence, in memory, and in a quiet dignity that refuses to let history disappear. Singing a robust song dedicated to freedom and democracy, and a truly secular and egalitarian republic!
Suresh Nautiyal is Contributing Editor, independentink.in. Based in Delhi and Pauri (Uttarakhand), he is a seasoned journalist and environmentalist.
Photo credit: Except photos 1, 5, and the last picture, all photos by Suresh Nautiyal.