Vice-President Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan visited the INA Museum at Moirang, Manipur, on 8 September 2026, paid floral tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and toured the site where the Indian National Army first hoisted the Tricolour on the Indian mainland. Later in the day he addressed the cadets of Sainik School Imphal, laid flowers at its War Memorial and took a Guard of Honour, with Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla and Chief Minister Y. Khemchand Singh in attendance.
Moirang is one of those places whose date every candidate should be able to produce without thinking. This piece lays out the INA's story around it, and then the institution the Vice-President spoke to.
From Mohan Singh to Netaji
The Indian National Army was born of the Japanese victories in Malaya and Singapore. In September 1942, with Japanese support and under the political umbrella of Rash Behari Bose's Indian Independence League, Captain Mohan Singh raised the first INA from Indian prisoners of war taken at Singapore. That first army broke up by December 1942 over distrust of Japanese intentions, and Mohan Singh was arrested.
The revival came with Subhas Chandra Bose, who reached Singapore by submarine and air in July 1943 and took charge of the League and the army on 4 July 1943. He gave the INA its slogan — "Chalo Delhi" — and its most quoted demand, "Give me blood and I shall give you freedom". He raised the all-women Rani of Jhansi Regiment under Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan (later Sahgal). On 21 October 1943, at Singapore, he proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind — the Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind — with himself as head of state, prime minister and war minister. It was recognised by nine Axis and Axis-aligned governments, declared war on Britain and the United States, and was given nominal charge of the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which Bose renamed Shaheed and Swaraj. On 30 December 1943 he hoisted the flag at Port Blair — the first Indian territory under the Azad Hind government. The spoke on the revolutionary struggle and the INA carries the fuller chronology.
Imphal and Moirang
The INA's war came in 1944, when Japan's Fifteenth Army under Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi launched Operation U-Go across the Chindwin into Manipur and the Naga Hills, with INA formations attached. The Battle of Imphal (March–July 1944) and the Battle of Kohima (April–June 1944) were the largest battles ever fought on Indian soil, and the turning point of the war in Southeast Asia.
INA units reached Manipur. The Bahadur Group, the INA's intelligence and special-operations arm, under Colonel Shaukat Ali Malik, entered Moirang, a town on the shore of Loktak Lake south of Imphal, and on 14 April 1944 hoisted the Tricolour with the springing tiger at Moirang Kangla — the first time the flag of free India flew on the Indian mainland. Moirang became the INA's headquarters in Manipur for the weeks that followed.
The campaign then failed for reasons that had little to do with courage. The Japanese plan depended on capturing British supplies; the monsoon broke; Allied air supply held Imphal and Kohima; disease and hunger did the rest. By July 1944 the Japanese and the INA were retreating into Burma, and the INA's later fighting was a rearguard through 1945. Bose died in an air crash at Taipei on 18 August 1945. The INA Memorial Complex at Moirang, with its museum and statue of Netaji, marks the spot of the flag-hoisting, and 14 April is observed there each year as Flag Hoisting Day.
The trials that moved a nation
What the INA could not win in the field it won in the courtroom. In November 1945 the British tried three INA officers together at the Red Fort — Colonel Prem Kumar Sahgal, Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Major General Shah Nawaz Khan: a Hindu, a Sikh and a Muslim, which was precisely the point the defence made. The INA Defence Committee of the Congress put Bhulabhai Desai in the lead, with Jawaharlal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Asaf Ali and Kailash Nath Katju on the team. The three were sentenced to transportation for life; the Commander-in-Chief, Auchinleck, remitted the sentences under the weight of public anger. The agitation flowed straight into the Royal Indian Navy revolt of February 1946, and into the British reading that the army could no longer be relied on to hold India. The Gandhian-era notes place the trials next to the 1945–46 elections and the Cabinet Mission.
The school on the same road
Sainik Schools were the idea of Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon in 1961, meant to widen the catchment of the National Defence Academy beyond the cities. The first opened at Satara on 23 June 1961; today 33 schools run under the Sainik Schools Society of the Ministry of Defence, and the Union Cabinet approved 100 more in partnership mode in October 2021. Girls have been admitted since 2021-22, after a pilot at Chhingchhip in Mizoram. Entry is in Classes VI and IX through the All India Sainik Schools Entrance Examination, conducted by the National Testing Agency.
Sainik School Imphal, at Pangei, was established on 7 October 1971. The Vice-President's message to its cadets was built on three words — discipline ("even if you are less talented, with discipline you will shine"), courage (standing up for others) and leadership (accepting responsibility and taking the right decision). He called Sainik Schools an engine of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat, urged the cadets to add artificial intelligence, space, biotechnology, cybersecurity and robotics to their timeless values, recalled his own visit to the Cellular Jail at Port Blair, and noted that many INA volunteers — including many from Tamil Nadu — had made the supreme sacrifice.
🔑 Revision block
The visit. Vice-President C.P. Radhakrishnan at the INA Museum, Moirang, and Sainik School Imphal, 8 September 2026; Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla and CM Y. Khemchand Singh present. INA chronology. First INA — Mohan Singh, September 1942 (Indian Independence League, Rash Behari Bose); Bose takes charge 4 July 1943, Singapore; Rani of Jhansi Regiment — Lakshmi Swaminathan; Azad Hind government 21 October 1943, Singapore, recognised by 9 states; Port Blair flag 30 December 1943; Andamans renamed Shaheed and Swaraj. Moirang. 14 April 1944; Colonel Shaukat Ali Malik, Bahadur Group; Moirang Kangla, Loktak Lake; first Tricolour on the mainland; INA Memorial Complex; Flag Hoisting Day every 14 April. The campaign. Operation U-Go, Lt Gen Mutaguchi; Imphal March–July 1944, Kohima April–June 1944; retreat by July 1944; Bose died 18 August 1945. Trials. Red Fort, November 1945 — Sahgal, Dhillon, Shah Nawaz Khan; defence led by Bhulabhai Desai with Nehru, Sapru, Asaf Ali, Katju; sentences remitted by Auchinleck; RIN revolt February 1946. Sainik Schools. Krishna Menon, 1961; first Satara, 23 June 1961; 33 schools + 100 partnership-mode (October 2021); girls from 2021-22; AISSEE by NTA; Sainik School Imphal 7 October 1971.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. The INA hoisted the Tricolour for the first time on the Indian mainland at: (a) Kohima (b) Imphal (c) Moirang (d) Tamu → (c) — 14 April 1944.
Q2. The INA officer who raised the flag at Moirang was: (a) Shah Nawaz Khan (b) Shaukat Ali Malik (c) Mohan Singh (d) Prem Sahgal → (b) — commander of the Bahadur Group.
Q3. The Provisional Government of Azad Hind was proclaimed on 21 October 1943 at: (a) Rangoon (b) Tokyo (c) Singapore (d) Bangkok → (c).
Q4. The first INA, in 1942, was raised by: (a) Subhas Chandra Bose (b) Rash Behari Bose (c) Captain Mohan Singh (d) Shah Nawaz Khan → (c).
Q5. The Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the INA was commanded by: (a) Sarojini Naidu (b) Lakshmi Swaminathan (c) Aruna Asaf Ali (d) Sucheta Kripalani → (b).
Q6. Bose renamed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as: (a) Azad and Hind (b) Shaheed and Swaraj (c) Netaji and Jhansi (d) Swatantra and Shakti → (b).
Q7. The Battle of Kohima was fought in: (a) 1942 (b) 1943 (c) 1944 (d) 1945 → (c) — April to June.
Q8. The INA trials of November 1945 were held at: (a) Fort William, Calcutta (b) Red Fort, Delhi (c) Singapore (d) Rangoon → (b).
Q9. The lead defence counsel at the INA trials was: (a) Jawaharlal Nehru (b) Bhulabhai Desai (c) Tej Bahadur Sapru (d) C. Rajagopalachari → (b).
Q10. The first Sainik School was established in 1961 at: (a) Kunjpura (b) Chittorgarh (c) Satara (d) Kapurthala → (c) — 23 June 1961.
Q11. Sainik School Imphal was established in: (a) 1961 (b) 1965 (c) 1971 (d) 1987 → (c) — 7 October 1971.
Q12. Consider the following: 1. The INA's Moirang headquarters lay on the shore of Loktak Lake. 2. Sainik Schools admit students through an entrance examination conducted by the UPSC. (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both (d) Neither → (a) — the AISSEE is conducted by the National Testing Agency.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
INA questions come in four shapes. The date-place item — Singapore 1943, Port Blair December 1943, Moirang April 1944, with the places shuffled. The person item — Mohan Singh versus Bose, Shaukat Malik, Lakshmi Sahgal, the three Red Fort accused. The consequence item — the INA trials and the RIN revolt as the last push before the Cabinet Mission. The institution item — Sainik Schools, their founder, first school and admission route.
The fresh 2026 hook is the Vice-President's Moirang visit, likeliest to appear as a statement pair on where the first mainland flag was hoisted and by whom. We describe the recurring pattern, not any exact past question.
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✍️ Written by Hitendra Deswal — History & current affairs faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier, founded by ex-Army officers, has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: PIB / Vice-President's Secretariat, 8 September 2026. INA chronology, the Moirang flag-hoisting and Sainik School history cross-verified with the INA Museum Moirang, Ministry of Defence records and independent sources.