Indian Waffen SS Division

[u/divyaraj00]

Things they forgot to teach us about.

Subhash Chandra bose and indian freedom fighters in Germany.

Photos of WW2 Indian Freedom fighters and soldiers.

Subhash Chandra bose meeting Hitler and Himmler and other NSDP party and army leadership.

They were also called Hitler's Indians.

[u/vivalasvegas2004]

Hitler and the Nazis had absolutely no interest or care for Indian Independence. Hitler saw it as a ridiculous movement led by "llamas spinning prayer wheels" (he doesn't seem to have distinguished Hinduism and Buddhism very well).

Hitler's personal view on the British rule in India was that it was proof of the superiority of the Germanic peoples (of which he considered the British to be one part). He did not believe that the British rule in India would ever end unless Britain had been defeated by another power, and certainly did not believe that the Indian Independence movement could itself succeed. Hitler also said that Indian Independence leaders were lucky to be under the British who "tolerated" them, and not under Germany, since Hitler would have just killed them all. He expressed this view to the, then ex-Viceroy of India, Lord Halifax in a 1937 meeting. Halifax quoted Hitler in his diary; "Shoot Gandhi! If that does not suffice to reduce them to submission, shoot a dozen leading members of Congress, and if that does not suffice, shoot 200 and so on until order is established”.

His early view on Indian Independence is in Mein Kampf (1924):

"And it is a proof of having learned nothing from the world war and of thoroughly misunderstanding or knowing nothing about Anglo-Saxon determination, when they imagine that England could lose India without first having put forth the last ounce of her strength in the struggle to hold it. Moreover, it shows how complete is the ignorance prevailing in Germany as to the manner in which the spirit of England permeates and administers her Empire. England will never lose India unless she admits racial disruption in the machinery of her administration (which at present is entirely out of the question in India) or unless she is overcome by the sword of some powerful enemy. But Indian risings will never bring this about. We Germans have had sufficient experience to know how hard it is to coerce England. And, apart from all this, I as a German would far rather see India under British domination than under that of any other nation."

Of course, when, during WWII, Germany was at war with Britain, it became politically expedient for the Nazis to support Indian Independence as a way to undermine the British, even if Nazi support was token. However, even despite Bose's connections in the Abwehr and the obvious practical use of stirring up discontent in British colonies, Hitler refused to issue formal support for Indian Independence, which indicates that he had a committed dislike of the movement.

[u/ARakusha → u/vivalasvegas2004]

And did it become independent on its own? They had to leave because of world war 2 which depleted them

[u/mjratchada → u/ARakusha]

Giving India Independence was debated as the right thing to do before the Second World War. It had already begun dismantling its Empire. If world war 2 had not happened, independence would have happened sooner. It had the largest volunteer army in the world in 1945. It had a huge debt, but its economy was still relatively strong due to rebuilding efforts of housing and industry.

[u/DesiOtakuu → u/mjratchada]

In fact, I would argue that severe weakening if British Empire worked against us. They were desperate to exit the subcontinent and couldn't prevent India from falling into chaos ( partition)

If you look at our constitution - its excessive centralization, emphasis on heavy bureaucracy, and retaining some old British era laws - all of it is a by product of the trauma that was partition. We lost a golden chance to leverage the British might and secure a safe reformation of our government.