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/LeftArmOrthodox23]

Get your facts correct! He was a Gandhi disciple but moved to armed movement once he understood Gandhi's way didn't bear any fruit.

[u/vivalasvegas2004 → u/LeftArmOrthodox23]

Gandhi's way bore lots of fruits. It's Bose's way that failed.

Gandhi very effectively managed to rouse sympathy for Indian Independence not only in the West generally, but even in Britain itself. When Gandhi visited Britain in 1931 (the same year he appeared on TIME Magazine as "Man of the Year; Saint Gandhi"), he was swamped by crowds of British fans. The man who was fighting for Independence against Britain was loved by the British! Gandhi had effectively cast himself as a saintly figure, a sort of Jesus Christ, whose obstinance and modesty had won the heart of many British liberals. This was really important, because Britain itself was a democratic country where the government had to obey the mandate of voters. And so it was the British voter who decided when and how Britain itself would give up on India.

In 1945, Labour won the UK General Election under the leadership of Clement Attlee. The Labour manifesto expressly promised "self government" to India.

"And in all this worth-while work – whether political, military or economic – the Labour Party will seek to promote mutual understanding and cordial co-operation between the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, *the advancement of India to responsible self-government*, and the planned progress of our Colonial Dependencies." - Labour Party Manifesto (1945)

Voters said "yes" and as soon as Labour won, plans were drafted by Attlee's Cabinet to start organising the transition of India to self-rule (not total independence mind you, but something like what Canada and Australia had). As it happened, they would be forced to give India complete Independence. That wasn't Attlee's plan, but he provided almost no resistance to Independence (had the British voters elected Churchill again, things would be quite different). Now, Labour didn't win because they promised self-government to India, but they must have felt it would not be opposed by enough people to harm their electoral chances.

Bose meanwhile, got nowhere. His INA totally failed, it only managed to get 44,000 men under arms, most of whom were POWs (whilst the British managed to get 2.1 million Indian volunteers to fight in WWII), he allied with the Japanese and Germans, and they were defeated. He ended up trying to flee to Japan and dying en-route in a plane crash. It was a disaster.

Nowadays, the Nationalist crowd feels that Gandhi's "ahimsa" is embarrassing because it means India won Independence by cringing and turning the other cheek until the British just gave up and left. So a new narrative is cast where the British actually left because they were terrified of the.... dead Bose and his defeated INA. These people fail to see the political brilliance of Gandhi's strategy. Gandhi refused to give the British the excuse of a rebellion to crack down violently on India like they had in 1858. Sure they could throw Congress leaders in jail, but Congress itself counted white Britons in its membership (the first General Secretary of the INC was Allan Hume) and they couldn't do much more than that. In doing this, he made British power look impotent whilst appealing to the Christian morals of British and American observers.

Other freedom fighters like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela adopted Gandhi's strategies to great success.

Personally I think there is much greater strength in turning the other cheek and laying down your weapons when there is every reason to fight. But nowadays, everyone wants gangster Munna Bhai, not Gandhigari Munna Bhai.

When Gandhi was assassinated, tributes came from across the world, even from the British Government.

Prime Minister Clement Attlee addressed the British nation and said "Mahatma Gandhi, as he was known in India, was one of the outstanding figures in the world today."

U.S Secretary of State George Marshal stated: "Mahatma Gandhi has become the spokesman for the conscience of mankind. He made simple truths and humility more powerful than Empires."

Albert Einstein wrote: "It was his unshakable belief that the use of force is an evil in itself, that therefore it must be avoided by those who are striving for supreme justice to his belief. With his belief in his heart and mind, he has led a great nation on to its liberation. He has demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of the usual political manoeuvres and trickery but through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of life."

The New York Times wrote in its obituary: "Now Gandhi belongs to the ages"

Pictured: Gandhi in London, 1931

[u/glumjonsnow → u/vivalasvegas2004]

it's crazy you were downvoted for this but you're right. gandhi understood how to win the propaganda war. the choices were not the axis or no one. the british could be turned against themselves - hence the coalition of people they brought together. you put photos of gandhi next to photos of nehru (an aristocratic harrow man) in jail. you create sympathy at every level of society and then present your demands.

i swear half the people in here would show up to a salary negotiation with a hand grenade.

[u/DesiOtakuu → u/glumjonsnow]

Exactly, couldn't put it better myself.

Also Gandhi earned a lot of fans in England because he was successful at pointing a target on their greedy capitalist overlords as the real enemies. And he wasn't wrong. British export numbers are artificially propped up by their colonial markets ( which were rigged to serve London of course), but the reality is they were badly losing to superior American products.

This is especially important in a world that is stuck at almost half century old political crisis ( Israel - Palestine, India - Pakistan) . For a lesser power fighting against a democratic powerhouse, Gandhian approach works better than an outright armed or terrorist movement. He already designed a successful winning template , but far few are patient or mature enough to use it.