When, in 1943, the INA was revitalized under Subhas Chandra Bose, who took the Indian nationalist campaign into the plantations as well, it evoked a strong response from the Indian workers the war years thus effected some radical changes in the attitudes the Indian workers in Malaya Under the the economy was ruthlessly pillaged to assist the Japanese war effort, Trade unions were prohibited and labour was organized into Labour Service Corps and wherever it was needed-as far as Burma, Thailand, and Java, For ordinary people, it was a time of great hardship, with soaring inflation and food scarcity. Chinese refugees who had fled ahead the advancing Japanese army into Singapore were sent back to the countryside in the mainland to grow food, Unwittingly, this was to work in favour of the guerrillas in the resistance for these Chinese became vital courier links as well as providers of food, The numbers of Chinese'squatters' (as these refugee farmers were called) grew during the Occupation. They concentrated mainly on market gardening and have since been the main source of food for the urban population, supplying rice, vegetables, pigs and poultry, The shortage of food and consumer goods during the war served as an impetus for growing food locally and for the handicraft industry.