Harsh realities of soldiers were emotional, but most touching was the story of ‘waiting wife’, says author Gautam Hazarika

Rajkumari Sharma Tankha

When we think of World War II, the stories that come to mind are often European or American — Dunkirk, Normandy, Hiroshima. Yet, buried in the vast archives of history lie the forgotten voices of thousands of Indian soldiers who were captured, imprisoned, and pushed to the very edge of survival in the war’s Asian theatre.
In his powerful new book, The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II, Gautam Hazarika resurrects these lost lives — men who endured the unimaginable, torn between loyalty to the British Empire, sympathy for the Indian National Army, and the simple human instinct to survive.
A former banker turned meticulous historian, Hazarika takes readers through archival records, personal letters, and war-crimes trial documents to tell a story that is as riveting as it is heartbreaking. “History is not just about dates and battles, but about people who lived, suffered, and dreamed of home,” he says. And, through this book, those voices finally speak again.
In conversation with Life & More, Hazarika speaks about uncovering neglected histories, the emotional toll of writing about war, and why remembering these forgotten Indians matters more than ever before. In giving voice to lost hereeos, the author restores a vital piece of India’s wartime past to the public conscience. Execrpts from an interview:

What first drew you to this untold story of Indian prisoners of war in World War II?

I’ve lived roughly half my life in India and now in Singapore, both places are home to me, so, I was looking for a story that linked my two homes. It was then that a local historian gave me a snippet of information about Indians POWs in Singapore that I was unaware of. I thought I was quite well-read but did not know about this. I googled and found some great articles. They were very interesting, but it was only when I started archive research that I got hooked. The story of the 67,000 Indian soldiers, half of the total of British Empire troops who defended Singapore, was incredible. I knew that most in India, Singapore and around the world did not know this, the story needed to be told and I wanted to write it. Fortunately, my publishers agreed and here we are.

Why do you think their stories were forgotten for so long?

Along the way I discovered that when the few survivors returned, most never spoke about it. It would mean reliving the moment when a fellow solider next to you in a trench had his brains blown out by a bullet, splattered all over your face, while you survived. How can anyone describe or explain this? It would mean describing what it was like to be starving every day for years as a POW with just a bowl of rice often with only maggots as seasoning – how does one explain this to children around a dining table set with dal, roti and subzi? The telling would be too traumatic, as they would have to relive those moments of horror and years of deprivation.
Besides this, official memory also forgot them. India did not focus on what its soldiers did in the colonial era, and though Britain has done more than India to commemorate Indians who fought in the world wars, they too naturally wrote more of what its own men did, so their stories were forgotten. In Singapore where all this happened, WW2 is mainly remembered through a British lens and the POWs hardly figure though they comprised half the army defending the island.
Another factor is that Indian families did not know where to go if they wanted to know, or did not try hard enough, or if they knew something, did not think it was worthy enough to record, write about. In the months since the publishing of the book, I’ve been in contact with a new family every 2-3 days about their story – I hope I this grows.

How much time did you take to complete the book, cover to cover. How much research went into the making of this book?

I started googling this in Feb 2023, While I was working on an earlier project, and got some initial leads. My real work began on May 1, 2023. Within a month, sitting in my pyjamas in my TV room in Singapore I found vast archives online and found not three-four random stories but an entire narrative of the life of the men during WW2. I had been a banker all my life and done sales every day but had never sold a book proposal before, so with some great advice from friends, wrote one. With fortuitous introductions to two publishers, I wrote to them in June 2023 and in early July 2023 got in-principal approval – they liked the topic, my title, back cover summary, chapter outline, my writing style through the Introduction. I was to send them Chapter 1 and if they liked that, would give a contract.
I was thrilled. A potential book contract from Penguin and Pen & Sword based just on a proposal? I thought I was a king and expected to finish writing the book in 6 months.
This is when the real work began. I realized I had only scratched the surface. My initial research has been so scanty, it was laughable (only in retrospect after having done the real thing). I discovered vast archives that no one seemed to have used, except the person who pointed them out to me, who himself had just seen a small sub-set of them. These were Indian Army records left behind by the British before independence. The core are over 20,000 interrogations, vivid, lifelike and taking one back to 1942. In addition, there were dozens of reports on different topics made after assessing these interrogations – so a lot of the research had already been done.
It took me five more months to go through these and write my 1^st chapter. This was November 2023, and with feedback from friends and historians, I had to go back to the drawing board, adding more material, correcting the focus. This eventually became my 1^st two chapters, sent to publishers in Feb 2024. Fortunately approved.
The nine other chapters came faster. For my initial chapters I had trawled through the archives and knew what was where for the rest of the book. I submitted the manuscript in early Dec 2024, 19 months after I began research. Since then I focussed on the maps, the cover, the photographs and sketches inside the book. I designed all these myself (except the cover suggested to me by a friend), though of course they all made by an artist.

What was the most challenging and also the surprising thing that you discovered during your research?

The toughest part was contacting families of the soldiers in the story, then gaining their trust and being overwhelmed by the emotion of their gratitude when I divulged what their father or grandfathers war was really like. There were some specific families I was looking for and through a long chain of coincidences, luck and people just willing to help, I met many of them such as the four heroes on my cover, General Mohan Singh, Lt Pillai, Subedar Chint Singh and Warrant Officer Crasta. The other key ones were Major Lakshmi Swaminathan/ Col PK Sahgal, and Lt Col. LV Fitzpatrick.
Once I met them, I had to win their trust – one of them asked “what are your intentions?” it sounded like I was being interviewed as a potential son-in-law, which in a way I was, as by sharing their memories they were including me in their family. Many said they did not know anything as their father did not speak or it was so long ago, but everyone has some vital snipped that may appear inconsequential but is not, in the of telling the story. Even the fact that their father never spoke about it is an important piece of information, adds to the evidence that most were reluctant.
Then there was the emotion of the gratitude – I asked one man whose grandfather had been beheaded by the Japanese –  “Sir, jo aapke Dadaji ke saath hua, unke ek saathi sipahi ne iska bayaan diya baadme aur iss tarah woh aapke Dadaji ke liye insaaf laaye”. He replied “Insaaf to aap dila rahe hai unke baare me likh-ke”. Such an answer. I can’t help getting emotional each time I relive this moment.

Which was the most touching POW story to you, something that stayed with you long after you finished writing?

The most touching story was of the Waiting Wife. One day while speaking to a grandson, he told me you’ve asked so much about my grandfather, what about my grandmother? What about her was my silly reply. He then explained what it was like for her with no news of her soldier husband for five years, bringing up young children on her own. And her reaction when he suddenly came home – she had been washing dishes with rakh and turned around to see him standing behind her – letting out her frustration of five years she beat his chest with her rakh covered hands shouting out – where have you been? How could you leave me like this? Do you know what it was like for me looking after the children alone not knowing what had happened to you?
This is the story of each of the 67,000 soldiers’ wife. I now realise that there is a 5^th hero missing on my cover, the Waiting Wife of each of the four heroes and if I’m fortunate to have a 2^nd printing, am having the cover redone with a Waiting Wife in the background.

You mention “Surrender, Loyalty, Betrayal and Hell.” As a subtitle of your book. Could you explain what those words mean in the context of these prisoners’ experiences?

Firstly, this is a fantastic sub-title suggested by a publisher friend to whom I’m very grateful. Surrender refers to the fact the story begins for these 67,000 men when Britain surrendered Singapore to Japan on Feb 15,1942. Loyalty is about the tussle each man faced about joining the INA – for some it was A Great Attraction, for others An Impossible Dilemma. Betrayal refers to how the men felt let down by the British during the short Malaya/ Singapore campaign and after the surrender. Plus, betrayal by Japan when they did not live up to their INA promises. Hell is about the experience of 17,000 of them who were sent to Papua New Guinea, where in just 2 years 10,000 died.

Many Indian POWs later joined the Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose. How did their time as prisoners shape that decision?

The real history of INA is one of the eye-openers about the book. It was not formed by Netaji, but 18 months before his arrival by then Capt. Mohan Singh 1/14 Punjab Regt. General Mohan Singh is the historical hero of my book. He was a slightly built, 32-year man from a humble background, quite unknown outside his unit. He rose from being a commander of 100 men, to one of 60,000 and he wore the mantle effectively and did not hesitate to be brutal if he felt the cause needed it. There were dozens of other officers, but the Japanese chose him. Some of the upper-class officers he supplanted said, after the war, that they did not have faith in him and joined as a last resort. The evidence shows that all these officers were Singh’s enthusiastic supporters from the beginning. Even if they did have doubts, no one dared to say anything, and Singh’s First INA was a “one-man show”.
It was when Singh realized Japan was not serious in arming the INA fully & properly, that he broke with them and was arrested in December 1942. After that Japan called Netaji, who was then languishing in Berlin after his failed attempt to get Hitler’s help to invade India. Netaji arrived in Singapore in July 1943, and the took the movement to another level. Without Singh’s 1^st INA, Netaji would not have been called to fulfil his destiny.
Before I did my research, I thought men who joined the INA were foolish traitors. Foolish for cooperating in a Japanese invasion of India, traitors for breaking an oath, even if it was to a foreign king. However, I realised it was far more complex than that. They had seen the collapse of the British Empire before their eyes. It was over. They had also witnessed the brutal treatment meted out by the Japanese to POWs. The choice they were given was to join the INA supported by Japan to invade India and free it of British rule. Though this would involve fighting their brothers in the Indian Army, to many this was A Great Attraction as it was drilled into them that the Indian Army would join them as soon as they set foot in India. To others it was An Impossible Dilemma as they did not trust the Japanese. Eventually, half the men in Singapore volunteered readily and later 40 per cent were coerced. The entire INA recruitment happened because the men were prisoners.

The book deals with harsh realities — starvation, brutality, survival – it must be emotionally draining to write it. What was your coping mechanism? How did you balance emotional storytelling with historical accuracy?

Indeed, the harsh realities were emotional. I found the detailed description of brutalities somehow less awful to read than I would have expected. Even the graphic description of the beheading of Capt Nirpal Chand that took two strokes of the sword. It was emotion of the family recalling the plight of the Waiting Wife that I found very emotional, every time. But I do not get drained by it – it adds to me determination to make their voice heard.
Emotional storytelling can also be historically accurate – it does not matter if the time was morning instead of afternoon & what clothes the wife was wearing when she heard her husband was alive and returning, or that he had died. What matters is that the emotion is described in a way that tries to convey what the wife was feeling. I say tries as no one else really can describe it.

Did researching this book change your own understanding of India’s role in World War II?

It did. I was aware of the key role the Indian Army played in defeating Hitler and Japan, but not of their impact on our Independence movement. The INA had recruited them, and it was the impact of the INA’s willingness to fight (they never really got a chance to fight as a proper Army but were willing to even what little weapons and food they had) – it was this that won the sympathy of India and the rest of the Army. The British realised they had lost the loyalty of the army and decided to leave India much earlier than would have happened otherwise.

Were there any popular myths or assumptions about the Indian National Army or POWs that your research challenged?

Yes, there were many myths. Firstly, about who began INA, that I have written above. Secondly, the INA did not, in fact, fight pitched battles with the British in Burma. The Japanese did not trust them to fight and used them mainly as labourers during the Imphal campaign. Indeed, some INA men unfurled the Tricolour over the hills of Imphal/ Kohima, but those were a handful used by Japan for reconnaissance for their own troops as they knew the area/ language. With little food, medicines hundreds died of sickness and starvation and an equal number deserted back to the Indian Army in desperation. This ended the 1^st phase of Battle of Burma in 1944, and when the final phase began in 1945, the Japanese did ask the INA to fight, but not for India’s independence, to prevent the Allied army (2/3^rd were Indian) capturing the rest of Burma. Their main engagement was at the crossing of the Irrawaddy river in Feb 1945, when 800 INA men were protecting a section of the river – again poorly armed, they had no chance. There was a last stand at Popa in March-April 1945, after which Netaji asked INA to surrender.
General Mohan Singh has also been written out of the history books. Perhaps that was because mentioning him would require stating that he did not trust the Japanese and was eventually arrested by them. This would highlight the undoubted risk Netaji took in asking 1^st Hitler, then Tojo and finally Stalin for help to invade & free India.

You were in banking before turning to history writing. How did that transition happen — and does your analytical background help in historical work?

After over 20 years in banking when the last bank I was in shut down in Asia, I decided to do my own thing. I had the luxury of a cushion and a very supportive wife! I attempted then what we call start-ups today, but none of them started. I had been collecting first editions and old manuscripts for years and in July 2022, bought one made in Changi Jail in wartime Singapore. It piqued my interest in the history of the island that had been my home almost half my life – this is how the switch happened.

What do you hope modern readers, especially younger Indians, take away from The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II?

I hope the young take pride in our heritage and become curious about their own family history. And acknowledge the Waiting Wife.

Do you plan to continue exploring other forgotten Indian stories from the world wars — or perhaps move to a completely different theme next?

My head is full of projects arising from the book. To make a documentary, including the family interviews. To make a movie/ series, if a filmmaker is taken by one of the stories/ themes in the book. To make it easier for Indian Army families to find out about their relatives who fought in the world wars. And finally, to add a tribute to the Waiting Wife at the National War Memorial near India Gate.
I have also begun work on my next book – it is about Indian civilians in wartime Southeast Asia  – ordinary schoolteachers, doormen, printing press operators who trained as spies in Penang/ Burma during the war to infiltrate India. Many just went home when they reached, others were caught, tried and hanged. They did not achieve much but their spirit is admirable. They were a similar set who did not trust the Japanese and were part of an anti-Japanese resistance who risked their lives daily ferreting documents and passing on information about Japan’s military plans and real news of the war. Both sets were patriotic Indians, following their goal in different ways.