LONDON: Britain's struggle to repel a combined force of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose-led Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National

Army) and Japan during World War II, around Imphal and Kohima in 1944 has been adjudged as the 'greatest ever battle involving British forces', a report said. The clashes that took place in north eastern corner of India were voted the winner of a contest run by the National Army Museum here, to identify 'Britain's greatest battle'. The battles of Imphal and Kohima saw the British and Indian forces, under the overall command of lieutenant-general William Slim, repel the Japanese invasion of India and helped turned the tide of the war.in the Far East. The Japanese, along with soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj, eventually lost (dead and missing) 53,000 in the battles. The British sustained 12,500 casualties at Imphal while the fighting at Kohima cost them another 4,000. The campaign of Imphal-Kohima was on a shortlist of five battles which topped a public poll. Finally, it was selected as the winner by an audience of more than 100 guests at a special event at the museum in Chelsea on Saturday. Imphal-Kohima received almost half of all votes. It was far ahead of DDay and Normandy, in 1944 which received 25% of the vote and came second, followed by the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815 (22%). At the event, each contender had their case made by a historian giving a 40minute presentation. The case for Imphal and Kohima was made by Dr Robert Lyman, an author and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. "I had thought that one of the bigger names like D-Day or Waterloo would win so I am delighted that Imphal-Kohima has won. You have got to judge the greatness of a battle by its political, cultural and social impact, as much as its military impact," he was quoted by the Telegraph as saying. "Imphal and Kohima were really significant for a number of reasons, not least that they showed that the Japanese were not invincible and that that they could be beaten, and beaten well. The victories demonstrate this more than the US in the Pacific, where they were taking them on garrison by garrison," Lyman added. The fight for Imphal went on longer than that for Kohima, lasting from March until July. Kohima was smaller in scale, and shorter, from April to June - but the fighting was so intense it has been described as the 'Stalingrad of the East'. In one sector, only the width of the town's tennis court separated the two sides. When the relief forces of the British 2nd Division arrived, the defensive perimetre was reduced to a shell-shattered area only 350 metres square. The work of these various movements led ultimately to the Indian Independence Act 1947, which created the independent dominions of India and Pakistan. India remained a Dominion of the Crown until 26 January 1950, when the Constitution of India came into force, establishing the Republic of India; Pakistan was a dominion until 1956. The Indian independence movement was a mass-based movement that encompassed various sections [1] of society. It also underwent a process of constant ideological evolution. Although the basic ideology of the movement was anti-colonial, it was supported by a vision of independent capitalist economic [2] development coupled with a secular, democratic, republican, and civil-libertarianpolitical structure. After the 1930s, the movement took on a strong socialist orientation, due to the increasing influence of left-wing [1] elements in the INC as well as the rise and growth of theCommunist Party of India. On the other hand, [citation needed] due to the INC's policies , the All-India Muslim League was formed in 1906 to protect the rights of Muslims in the Indian Sub-continent against the INC and to present a Muslim voice to the British government.