INA

• 'Jai Hind': 'ritz'
• BOSE could be quite confident of a warm welcome from the

  Germans. In the First World War their intrigues had ranged

  across the world to promote revolution in India and so to hold

  back British soldiers from the Western Front.
• Hitler's per-

  secution of Communism had removed the last of the old Indian

  influences from Berlin in 1933, so that when the Second World

  War began there was no Indian Revolutionary Society such as

  that which had aided German plans in 1914.
• By the time

  Bose reached Germany in March 1941, Hitler, too, had cause

  for thought about India. He had already decided on the in-

  vasion of Russia which was to start in June and his Army was

  now committed to rescuing the Italians in Libya. India was

  relevant to both these undertakings, for her divisions were fight-

  ing all over the Middle East and her importance as an Imperial

  base was growing every month.
• Ribbentrop received Bose

  thoughtfully and was glad to hear from him of the rising tide of

  revolution in India.
• Bose's first proposals

  1. Broadcast anti-

  British propaganda, based on news from a secret radio link he

  had with India

  2. Raise 'Free Indian' units

  from Indian prisoners of war
• As a basis for the propaganda,

  and as a guarantee for the future, he asked for an Axis declara-

  tion on Indian Independence.
• Neither Ribbentrop nor Ciano,

  to whom Bose began to speak, were ready for that.
• Ciano already had ex-King

  Amanullah of Afghanistan and the Grand Mufti of Jerusale

  on his hands. 'Past experience,' he wrote, 'has given rather

  modest results.'
• German view


  While being of the opinion that Bose must be helped in

  propaganda work by putting the necessary means at his

  posal, Ribbentrop considers premature any public declaration

  on the part of the Axis on the subject of the future settlement in

  India. The Führer did not receive Bose, precisely to avoid a

  definite commitment on the subject. On the other hand Bo

  has had contact with Ribbentrop and will maintain conta

  with the various departments in connection with his ant

  British activity.
• Among the reasons for this attitude was the fact that, in the

  secret German negotiations with Russia at the end of

  September 1940, India had been regarded as part of the Russian sphere of aspiration until June 22nd, 1941, and could therefore not

  undertake any contrary public commitment.
• Without an Axis declaration, Bose would not broadcast. But

  he proceeded to try the temper of the prisoners of war at once.
• Bose's first idea


  Form small parachute parties to spread

  propaganda in, and transmit intelligence from, the North-West

  Frontier of India
• In May selected prisoners were

  brought to Berlin from the camp at Lamsdorf in Germany and from the

  large cages in Cyrenaica. Their reaction was so encouraging

  that Bose asked for all Indian prisoners in North Africa to be

  brought to Germany at once. This was done.
• The existing

  prisoners began to be concentrated at Annaburg Camp,

  Dresden, and it was agreed that any future Indian prisoners

  would be sent there also.
• The invasion of Russia set the parachute plot in a different

  light, The scale was suddenly greater. India seemed at once

  near the possibilities and chances of war. To the Germans all was al-

  ready won.
• Bose began to plan

  1. Raise an Indian Legion of three infantry battalions, and

  a company of irregulars which would form part of the German

  Fifth Column organisation

  2. When the Germans launched out

  beyond Stalingrad into Central Asia, the Tajik and Uzbek

  units they had trained would accompany their forward troops

  3. As Uzbekistan and Afghanistan were reached, the Indian Com-

  pany would leap ahead of the German advance, and disrupt

  the British-Indian defences in North-West India

  4. The effect

  of the Indian Legion, following with the Germans, would be

  such that Indian Army morale, and with it the whole defence

  system, might collapse
• Then Bose would lead his Legion into India and found on it,

  as the Indian Army turned on its old masters, the ever-growing

  officials and administrators, as he took possession in the name

  of India and founded the Congress Raj.
• Although the British officers and other loyalist influences among

  the prisoners had been removed, success only came slowly.
• When Bose visited the camp himself in December there was

  still marked hostility. His speech was interrupted, and much

  of what he had to say went unheard.
• But private interviews

  were more encouraging; the men's questions showed interest-

  what ranks would they receive? What credit would be given for

  Indian Army seniority? How would the Legionary stand in

  relation to the German soldier?
• Bose refused to bargain, and

  Some who might have been influential recruits were turned

  away. On the other hand, many of the men paid him homage

  as a distinguished Indian leader, several professed themselves

  ready to join the Legion unconditionally.
• Some were evidently

  prevented by camp opinion and the influence of N.C.O.'s from

  declaring themselves. Bose told his lieutenants to have the

  N.C.O.'s removed, and then to renew the approach through

  those who had already volunteered. By this means enough

  recruits were enrolled to found the two units in January 1942.
• To begin with Bose had worked with only a secretary-his

  'Jai Hind', revered leader, a title he was to make peculiarly his

  own.
• Meanwhile the Japanese hour had struck. For Bose the swift

  advances of Japan in the East rendered German victories in

  Russia and North Africa irrelevant. Singapore, Rangoon, Cal-

  cutta-these were the keys to British dominion over India, and

  they were being seized one by one.
• The fall of Singapore was

  irresistible to his eloquence. He made his first broadcast from

  a 'secret' station soon afterwards: 'I have waited silently and

  patiently on the course of events; now that the hour has struck

  I can come forward and speak.' Here was certain proof of the

  collapse of the British Empire: India must rejoice.
• Britain was

  the eternal enemy; some Indians would support her but the

  vast majority would continue the fight against British Imperial-

  ism. In this struggle, and in the subsequent period of reconstruc-

  tion we will co-operate whole-heartedly with all those who help

  us to destroy the common enemy.
• Goebbels was enthusiastic, though things aren't yet far enough

  (for us to incite the people of India to open rebellion', and

  the Japanese, when they heard of it, were the Japanese.
• In his second 'Proclamation to the Indian People' on March

  15th, Bose referred to the Mission to India of Sir Stafford

  Cripps. A more detailed attack followed. The Mission was

  meaningless, how could a man of Sir Stafford's liberalism and

  well-known hatred of imperialism undertake so cynical a task?

  It was an insult to India; let the British rather adopt General

  Tojo's policy, now twice proclaimed, of India for the Indians,

  and quit.
• A similar campaign against the Cripps Mission was

  being conducted by Rash Behari Basu from Tokyo Radio. Both

  men attributed the Mission's failure on April 9th to the in-

  fluence of their broadcasts, and so did their patrons. In fact it

  is improbable that their words had much effect on nationalist

  opinion in India; but in Tokyo and Berlin there could be no

  doubt.
• In November 1942, when the Italian officers were

  captured on the retreat from El Alamein, the Centro Militare India

  was particularly successful in persuading over a hundred volunteers to

  join them again. In November the unit was disbanded.
• The

  men refused to participate in the Allied landings in North Africa

  on November 15th and the unit was never revived.
• The

  Azad Hind was very much the result of Bose's personal efforts.

  He could hardly have thought it would survive without him for, although

  German interest in the Indian Legion was growing, it was not

  becoming a recognised regular force.
• Bose tried continually but in vain to assert control
• Iqbal Shedai


  An Indian Muslim who had conferred several times with Bose in 1941 but who had seen no advantage in co-operation with him
• Shedai had begun broadcasting from Rome with the aid of a few Indian prisoners
• Shedai formed a military unit called the Centro Militare India, despite the Italo-German agreement that all Indian prisoners should go to Germany
• The Centro Militare India existed

  April to November 1942
• The Centro Militare India was disbanded after a mutiny
• Shedai raised the Centro Militare India from prisoner-of-war transit camps in Italy and from the large compounds in North Africa newly filled with Indians captured on the retreat to El Alamein