Subhas Chandra Bose In Nazi Germany

Documents pertaining to the alliance of Subhas Chandra Bose, 1897-1945, with foreign countries, for independence of India during World War, 1939-1945.

On the morning of April 3, 1941, 'Orlando Mazzotta', a man posing as an Italian diplomat, walked up the steps of the German Foreign Office on the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, having arrived from Moscow the previous afternoon. The Under-Secretary of State, Dr Ernst Woermann, immediately received him and listened carefully as he spoke of establishing a government-in-exile and launching a military offensive. The government he had in mind was Indian and the target of his offensive was British India. Although Woermann was taken aback by the nature of these proposals, he should not have been. 'Orlando Mazzotta' was in fact Subhas Chandra Bose, an Indian leftist radical nationalist and former President of the Indian National Congress who had escaped a few months earlier from Calcutta and reached Kabul. From there, the German and Italian legations assisted him in reaching Berlin, via Moscow, under Italian diplomatic cover. Bose is one of India's national icons, practically on a par with Gandhi, a hero of anti-colonial resistance against the British, who established the Indian National Army in order to recruit Indian soldiers to fight the imperial power. His activities in Nazi Germany - particularly taking into account their inevitably highly controversial implications - merit scrupulous, scholarly and detailed study, yet till today almost everything published on the subject has been suffused with hagiography. This book is the first to focus exclusively on Bose's interactions with Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Hayes's narrative makes extensive use of German, Indian and British documents, including memoranda, notes, minutes, reports, telegrams, letters and broadcasts, and he also presents the reader with fresh scholarly sources from the German historical archives. His book takes not only the political dimension into consideration but the intelligence and propaganda angles too, including the recruitment and training of Indian POWs captured in North Africa. Emphasis is also placed on the specific roles of key actors including Hitler, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Gandhi, Nehru, Mussolini, Churchill, Sir Stafford Cripps, Chiang Kai-shek, General Hideki Tojo and, to a lesser extent Dr Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Count Galeazzo Ciano. Hayes's objective is to reveal a lesser-known aspect of Nazi foreign policy and to challenge and provide an alternative to Gandhi-centric portrayals of the Indian independence movement. His book, augmented by a fascinating selection of hitherto largely unpublished photographs, will appeal to those interested in the Third Reich, Indian nationalism and anti-colonialism and the Second World War.

By the late 1930s, Subhas Chandra Bose had become disillusioned with Gandhi’s leadership of the Indian National Congress and the nationalist struggle. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he resolved that India could only achieve freedom through a violent uprising. Two years later, in 1941, Bose went on to make a daring escape, via Afghanistan and Russia, to Berlin in search of an anti-British alliance. The Nazis seized Bose’s offer and the possibilities of an anti-British revolt in India, even envisaging German troops marching into the country as ‘liberators’. Meanwhile, thousands of British Indian troops captured in North Africa enlisted in the Wehrmacht hoping to join the Nazi march into India as they swore oaths to Hitler and Bose ‘in the fight for the freedom of India’. Yet for all their accord, the Bose-Nazi relationship remained complicated, full of ambivalences on both sides. This book for the first time, tells the story of Bose’s war years in Germany and examines his relationship with the Nazis. This period remains a deeply controversial moment in Indian history and has thus far been suffused with hagiography. Using rare German and Indian war records, Romain Hayes has written a nuanced, thoughtful, and vital account of these years, shedding light on an aspect of Bose that has till now remained in shadow.

On April 3, 1941, a man claiming to be an Italian diplomat arrived in Berlin, demanding to meet with Ernst Woermann, Germany's undersecretary of state. Woermann listened carefully to the man's plans, which sought to create a government in exile and launch a military strike against a shared enemy. The government the diplomat planned would be Indian, and the target would be British India. "Orlando Mazzotta" was in fact Subhas Chandra Bose, an Indian leftist radical nationalist and former president of the Indian National Congress. Just a few months earlier Bose had escaped from Calcutta with the help of German and Italian officials. One of India's national icons, practically on par with Gandhi, Bose eventually became a hero of the anticolonial resistance, establishing the Indian National Army and recruiting thousands to fight imperial power. Despite the strategic benefits of partnering with Bose, the Nazis did not know what to do with him, and the rebel's irrepressible radicalism only further complicated their overlapping aims. Very little has been published on Bose's activities in Nazi Germany and his overtures to fascist regimes. Romain Hayes is the first to focus exclusively on Bose's interactions with Nazi Germany during the Second World War, making extensive use of German, Indian, and British sources, including memoranda, notes, minutes, reports, telegrams, letters, and broadcasts. He also draws on rare materials from recently released German archives. Hayes ultimately reveals lesser known aspects of Nazi foreign policy and challenges Ghandi-centric portrayals of the Indian independence movement.

Jai Hind provides a new perspective on the amazing life and momentous times of Subhas Chandra Bose, the Indian nationalist who fought against the British in the struggle for independence.