There are many themes that could be discussed regarding India’s contribution to the Second World War. For this blog, I decided to focus on the Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose and the wider role of the Quit India movement. This movement encouraged civil disobedience and aimed to end British rule over India. While many associate the Quit India Movement with Mahatma Gandhi who launched it in 1942, Bose's impact was substantial.
Subhas Chandra Bose, leader of the Indian Independence League and National Army, around 1930.
Alamy Ltd
Who was Subhas Chandra Bose?
Bose was a controversial yet charismatic figure in Indian politics. He was born into wealth, unlike most people living in India at the time, and educated at the prestigious Cambridge University.
While this background could have helped him gain a career in the British-controlled Indian Civil Service, his passion for India’s freedom led him to join the Indian National Congress. This was India's oldest political party.
In the party, he quickly rose through the ranks and became known for his radical views. This included his advocacy for complete independence from British rule, as opposed to the more moderate approach of his colleagues.
Due to his views, Bose eventually found himself in serious disagreement with Congress leaders, including Gandhi. This led to him resigning from the Congress presidency in 1939.
Ambitious to spread his radical politics, he went on to form the All India Forward Bloc, a left-wing faction within the Indian National Congress. Through this group, Bose aimed to consolidate the political left and gain support in his home state, Bengal. During his time in the Bloc, he successfully recruited university students to his cause.
However, by 1943, Bose had largely fallen out with the Congress movement. This is because, unlike most political figures in the Congress, he strongly believed in the philosophy that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. This led him to seek help from the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan (who were at war with Britain) to remove the British from India.
As part of my research into Subhas Chandra Bose and India during the Second World War, I interviewed Dr Phyllis D’Netto. She was a child in Calcutta during this period and witnessed Bose’s rise to power. Her first hand account can be heard below.
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Personal testimony of Dr Phyllis D’Netto
Audio transcript for "Personal testimony of Dr Phyllis D’Netto"
Interviewer: What can you tell me about Subhas Chandra Bose?
Dr D’Netto: Subhas Chandra Bose was a Bengali, who lived in Bengal, he was an educated man, and he was conscious of the Quit India programme. We were aware of all the meetings on what they called the Maidan, the open space where different factions tried to provide us with information which they said we should take action on. But my family did not wish to join any of these Quit India programmes. My mother used to talk a lot about Subhas Chandra Bose, that he had enormous following, and my brother and sister knew that because they were students going around that he tried to conscript. So it was a very big programme and he wanted it to help to get the British out and also get people who might be more understanding of other Asians.
Interviewer: Did he organise meetings in Calcutta then?
Dr D’Netto: Yes, he used to organise meetings and people would come round canvassing so we could give money. But we were told by my parents not to do that.
Interviewer: Was that a minority view would you say?
Dr D’Netto: Yes, probably, yes.
Interviewer: So he was popular?
Dr D’Netto: Yes, very popular. We knew he travelled a lot within Bengal and in India and of course he worked abroad with the Japanese.
Interviewer: Did he get funding from the Japanese?
Dr D’Netto: I would say so, yes.
Interviewer: And did he publish articles in the newspapers?
Dr D’Netto: Oh yeah.
Interivewer: He was quite politically at work?
Dr D’Netto: He was, yeah.
The Maidan, a public park in Calcutta, in 2009. Bose and other nationalists from the Quit India movement would gather here frequently during the Second World War.
Used with permission from Vyacheslav Argenberg, Wikimedia Commons.
Travel into Axis nations
Within The National Archives War Office records (catalogue reference: WO 208/818) there are fascinating intelligence reports into the activities of Bose and his Indian Independence League (IIL). This was a group of nationalists living in exile.
In 1941, Bose had travelled to Nazi Germany establishing the Indian Legion (a small force of Indian prisoners of war) who fought with the Wehrmacht (German Army). He also contributed to the Special Bureau for India, which broadcast propaganda on Azad Hind Radio (Free India Radio) encouraging Indians to fight against the British.
By February 1943 he travelled via a German and Japanese submarine to Japan-occupied southeast Asia. In Singapore, now held by the Japanese Government, Bose worked with other nationalists to promote the idea of a ‘Free Indian Army’ or Indian National Army (INA). At this time, his audience consisted mainly of British Indian Army Prisoners of War taken by Japan.
As the intelligence report below outlines, Bose also advocated for an Axis victory and the liberation of India with Axis help. He also demanded that an armed revolt in India should begin while an invasion from the East took place.
2. On his arrival in Tokio, Bose granted a number of interviews to Axis journalists at his headquarters at the Imperial Hotel. The gist of these interviews was reiteration of his belief in an Axis victory, in the imminent liberation of India with Axis help, and in the need for an armed revolt in India to coincide with invasion from the East. He also answered questions on such subjects as the character of Chiang-kai-Shek and the appointment of the new Viceroy.
3. Bose has also spoken on the wireless ---to India in English, Hindi and Bengali, and to Germany and Indians in Germany in German. In these broadcasts he again paid tribute to Axis benevolence, and urged all Indians outside India to get into touch with him and help him to organise a “gigantic force to sweep the British from India”. This first veiled reference to the “India National Army” was later amplified by an official announcement from I.I.L. Headquarters in Singapore declaring that this “new Indian Army” is now under training. On July 8 a formation of the I.N.A. paraded before Bose and the Japanese Prime Minister, Tojo, during the latter’s visit to Singapore.
An intelligence report on activities of Subhas Chandra Bose (14 July 1943). Catalogue reference: WO 208/818
The Mehtarj
Bose was a talented propagandist able to speak English, German, Hindi and Bengali on the radio. He urged all Indians living outside of India to get in touch with him and form an INA ‘to sweep the British from India’. An announcement about the formation of such an army was made in Singapore by IIL. By July 1943 Bose was declared as the Mehtarj (meaning leader) of the group.
Also in the summer of 1943, British intelligence believed that Bose’s political future rested on the continued military success of the Japanese military and the defeat of British rule in India by internal revolt. However, neither seemed likely by this time. Instead, the intelligence report argued that Bose had misjudged his alliance with the Axis powers as well as his arrival in Singapore. Timing was everything.
[...]Fortunately public morale and internal security in India are now fairly steady and the Japanese widely feared. Bose will undoubtedly be able to make some capital out of the economic distress and the political deadlock but unless he can win over Congress en bloc his chances of stirring up a major revolt would appear to be small. Had he arrived in East Asia last August or even during Gandhi’s fast his prospects would have been much better.
8. A biographical note on Bose is attached.
M.I 2(a)
Ex. 173
14 July 43
Distribution:-
D.D.M.I (I)
M.I.2 (b), 2 (c)
M.O.12
India Office (Brig Thompson)
I.P.I. (Col Vickery)
Air Ministry
Admiralty (Commander Leggett).
An extract from the WO 208/818 intelligence report on activities of Subhas Chandra Bose.
Bose’s legacy
By 1943, the Indian population were more fearful of the Japanese Government than the British, weakening Bose’s cause. Therefore, while Bose’s work was impactful, it did not have immediate impact. It would not be until 1947, two years after Bose's’ death, that India would gain its independence from Britian.
Analysing the work and impact of Anti-British Indian nationalists, like Bose, would require more attention than any single blog could cover. Regardless, I hope this blog has provided you with a good starting point on his role during the Second World War.
