[5] It was established in Japanese occupied Singapore during World War II in October 1943 and has been considered a puppet state of the Empire of Japan.

It was established by Indian nationalists in exile during the latter part of the World War II in Singapore with monetary, military and political assistance from Imperial Japan.

The government of Azad Hind had its own currency, court and civil code, and in the eyes of some Indians, its existence gave a greater importance to the independence struggle against the British.

The INA had its first major engagement at the Battle of Imphal where, under the command of the Japanese Fifteenth Army, it breached the British defences in Kohima, reaching the salient of Moirang before suffering a catastrophic defeat as the Allied forces held, and Allied air dominance and compromised supply lines forced both the Japanese and the INA to retreat.

[16][17][18][19] The direct origins of Azad Hind can be linked to two conferences of Indian expatriates from across Southeast Asia, the first of which was held in Tokyo in March 1942.

[22] Bose arrived in Tokyo on 13 June 1943 and declared his intent to make an assault against the eastern provinces of India in an attempt to oust the British from control of the subcontinent.

Bose arrived in Singapore on 2 July, and in October 1943 formally announced the establishment of the Provisional Government of Free India at the Cathay Cinema Hall.

She held this position over and above her command of the Rani Jhansi Regiment, a brigade of women soldiers fighting for the Indian National Army.

Azad Hind was recognised as a legitimate state by only a small number of countries limited solely to Axis powers and their allies.

With regards to the government's first issuances of war declarations, Hugh Toye writes:[8]: 91  The Cabinet had not been unanimous about the inclusion of the U.S.A. Bose had shown impatience and displeasure – there was never any question then or later of his absolute authority: the Cabinet had no responsibility and could only tender advice ...At the end of October 1943, Bose flew to Tokyo to participate in the Greater East Asia Conference as an observer to Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere; it could not function as a delegate because India had technically fallen outside the jurisdiction of Japan's definition of "Greater East Asia", but Bose gave speeches in opposition to Western colonialism and imperialism at the conference.

By the end of the conference, Azad Hind had been given a limited form of governmental jurisdiction over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which had been captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy early on in the war.

Many of them were members of the Indian Independence League, whose leader in Port Blair, Diwan Singh, had already been tortured to death in the Cellular Jail after doing his best to protect the islanders from Japanese atrocities during the first two years of the occupation.

[30][31] Azad Hind's military forces in the form of the INA saw some successes against the British and moved with the Japanese army to lay siege to the town of Imphal in eastern India.

Plans to march towards Delhi, gaining support and fresh recruits along the way, stalled both with the onset of monsoon season and the failure to capture Imphal.

With the INA garrison about 6,000 strong, he manned the Burmese capital in the absence of any other police force or troops during the period between the departure of the Japanese and the arrival of the British.

[34] Britain accused Bose of fascism, citing his role in the Provisional Government of Azad Hind as evidence of this; and pointed to him wanting to establish a totalitarian state in India with the blessings of the Axis powers.

[35] It has been argued that the fact that Azad Hind was aligned politically with Japan and the Axis Powers may have had more to do with what Bose saw as a pragmatic approach to Indian independence.

Disillusioned with Congress's non-violent movement, Bose was clearly of the camp that supported exploiting British weakness to gain Indian independence.