Shah Nawaz Khan

Shah Nawaz Khan began as an officer in the British Indian Army. He ended as a general of the Indian National Army.

After the war the British tried him at the Red Fort. Public anger saved his life, and he went on to a long career in Parliament.

1Who was Shah Nawaz Khan?

He came from a family of soldiers.

• He was born on 24 January 1914 in Matore, a village near Rawalpindi.
• That area is now in Pakistan.
• His father, Tikka Khan, served about thirty years in the British Indian Army.
• Other relatives also served in the armed forces.
• Shah Nawaz studied at the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College.
• He was commissioned into the 14th Punjab Regiment.
• He rose to the rank of captain.
• Japan captured him after the fall of Singapore in 1942.

2How did he join the INA?

Bose’s speeches changed his mind.

• In Singapore he was a prisoner of war.
• Subhas Chandra Bose spoke to the Indian prisoners.
• Khan later said Bose’s speeches deeply moved him.
• He said he saw India “through the eyes of an Indian” for the first time.
• He joined the Indian National Army in 1943.
• He was included in the cabinet of the Provisional Government of Free India.
• Bose picked a force of the best INA troops to lead an advance into India.
• Khan led INA forces in the Imphal campaign of 1944.
• In December 1944 he became commander of the INA’s 1st Division at Mandalay.
• For more, see The Indian National Army and Netaji.

3What happened at the Red Fort?

The British tried him with other INA officers.

• After the war, the British put several INA officers on trial.
• The first trial began at the Red Fort on 5 November 1945.
• Khan was tried with Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.
• The charge was “waging war against the King Emperor”.
• The three men were a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh.
• The defence team included Bhulabhai Desai, Jawaharlal Nehru and Tej Bahadur Sapru.
• They argued the men were soldiers of a lawful government, not traitors.
• Khan also spoke about unequal treatment of Indian officers.
• His point was that Indians were kept out of top commands.
• He said no Indian officer had led a division, and only one had led a brigade.
• The court gave him a death sentence.
• The Commander-in-Chief reduced it to cashiering.
• Protests across India had forced a change.
• See The Red Fort.

4What did he do after the trial?

He turned to Gandhi’s path and joined the Congress.

• He said he would now follow the path of non-violence.
• He joined the Indian National Congress.
• In 1946 he went to Noakhali with Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.
• They went to calm the region after communal riots.
• He won the Lok Sabha seat of Meerut four times.
• Those wins came in 1951, 1957, 1962 and 1971.
• He lost the Meerut seat in 1967 and in 1977.
• He served as Deputy Minister for Railways in the 1950s.
• He held several posts, including Minister of Food and Agriculture.
• He also served at Steel and Mines, and Labour and Rehabilitation.
• He later led the Food Corporation of India and the National Seeds Corporation.
• His family stayed in Pakistan, but he chose to live in India.
• Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri defended him during the 1965 war.
• He died on 9 December 1983.

5What was the Shah Nawaz Committee?

It looked into the death of Subhas Chandra Bose.

• The government set it up in 1956.
• Khan was its chairman.
• It included Bose’s elder brother, Suresh Chandra Bose.
• It worked for about four months.
• Two of three members concluded Bose died in a plane crash at Taihoku, now Taipei.
• The date they gave was 18 August 1945.
• Suresh Chandra Bose did not agree with this finding.
• The report still stirs debate today.

6What are the exam traps?

The three Red Fort defendants are tested as a set.

• Learn all three names: Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.
• Prem Sahgal was the husband of Captain Lakshmi Sahgal.
• Captain Lakshmi was not one of the three defendants.
• The death sentence was commuted. It was not carried out.
• The commuted punishment was cashiering, not life imprisonment.
• The Shah Nawaz Committee is not the Khosla Commission or the Mukherjee Commission.
• Khan joined the Congress after the trial.
• He was a captain in the British Indian Army and a major general in the INA.
• See Captain Lakshmi Sahgal for the contrast.