Indian Nationalism and the Axis

[Mortimer]

The following link is to a lecture by Ranjan Borra who documents the activities of Subhas Chandra Bose and his supporters who fought for an India free of British rule and who worked with the Axis in World War 2 - http://codoh.com/library/document/2032/ He also argues that it was this armed rebellion against British imperialism that led to India being given its independence rather than Gandhi's policy of non violence.

[Kingfisher]

Bose is almost totally unheard of in Britain where everyone is convinced that Indian independence was the work of Gandhi who is almost worshipped as a saint. This interpretation is much more flattering to our national ego. Clement Attlee however assessed Gandhi's role as "minimal". It is not the case in India where " Netaji" has his portrait in parliament and both a main thoroughfare in Calcutta and Calcutta airport bear his name.

Bose's army contributed little to the Axis military effort but when it's members were put on trial after the war the reactions, including a mutiny of the Navy, convinced the British that they could no longer count on the loyalty of the Indian armed forces. Of course, this was not the only reason for the departure from India. The parlous state of the economy, American pressure and increasing opposition to imperialism at home were all factors.

The Violent Side of Indian Independence http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w78jt

The link above is to a programme on BBC Radio 4 in the series Things we Forgot to Remember with the former Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo. The series as a whole will be of interest to revisionists. It includes episodes on the Morgenthau Plan, (of course it does not mention the ethnic loyalty of Morgenthau or Harry Dexter White) the Bengal famine and Jesse Owens.

[Mortimer]

An article on the Atlantic Charter - http://codoh.com/library/document/2095/
Indian nationalists wanted to know why the principles of this document didn't relate to their country. This was also asked by politicians and other prominent members of the public in the USA and UK who were sceptical of the stated aims of Roosevelt and Churchill.

[Mortimer]

Bose is almost totally unheard of in Britain where everyone is convinced that Indian independence was the work of Gandhi who is almost worshipped as a saint. This interpretation is much more flattering to our national ego. Clement Attlee however assessed Gandhi's role as "minimal". It is not the case in India where " Netaji" has his portrait in parliament and both a main thoroughfare in Calcutta and Calcutta airport bear his name.

This snubbing of Bose is deliberate because it doesn't fit in with the British media's politically correct version of World War 2. Here is an article with a quote from Clement Attlee where he admits that the armed struggle of Bose influenced the decision of the British to quit India -
http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/58598.html

[Mortimer]

An article about Subhas Bose which originally appeared in the Journal of Historical Review back in 1994. It is by Andrew Montgomery and goes into detail about the political background, ideology and aims of Bose -
https://codoh.com/library/document/2502/

[jesusisking]

Yeah I get the basic concept here.