Brig Pawan Bhardwaj

This paper reconstructs, in rare organisational and visual detail, the Order of Battle, insignia and decorations of the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) and its related formations in Germany and Italy. It first examines the Freies Indien Legion in the Wehrmacht and the Battaglione Azad Hindoustan in Italy—their recruitment from POWs, training, ORBAT, uniforms, badges and short operational lives. The core of the study is a meticulous mapping of the INA/Azad Hind Fauj raised under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia: its war council and military bureau, divisional and brigade structures, guerrilla regiments, special “Bahadur” and intelligence groups, the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, and a rich system of ranks, formation signs, car flags and decorations such as Sher-e-Hind, Sardar-e-Jung and Tamgha-e-Shatru Nash. The paper argues that the INA functioned as a fully structured volunteer army with joint, special and information-warfare elements well ahead of its time, and that its organisational culture anticipated later concepts of joint operations and civil–military fusion.