India's Subhas Bose Played into Hands of Fascists like Hitler and Tojo

Bose is an enigmatic figure in Indian history and many give him a lot of credit as a nationalist. Yes ! he was a nationalist, there can be no doubt about that, but he was also naive as he put his trust in men who  were known Fascists  and were known to never keep their promises.

Bose in one of his statements is reported to have said that he would 'shake hands with the devil' to free India from British rule. That is all very well , but the two men he chose to fight with the British were outright racists and their track record is not at all inspiring.

Bose first met Hitler in 1942 and threw his lot with him. He formed the Indian legion  from captured Indian POWs in North Africa and it fought alongside the Germans. Unfortunately Hitler has gone on record to say that British rule over India was a 'good thing'.  He also had  theories of racial superiority of the German race over all others. How Bose could find anything good in him beats imagination. One cannot forget that Hitler carried out mass scale genocide and 6 million Jews were killed, by gas chambers or simply shot.

He joined Tojo the Japanese leader and I wonder he was aware of the condition of occupied China under Japanese rule. The Japanese also carried out the 'Rape of Nanking', where in over 200,000 Chinese women were raped and murdered and another million Chinese executed.. These are facts of history. Even the area freed from British rule like the Andaman Islands was not free from Japanese atrocities. Right under the nose of Bose hundreds of Indian were executed for being  British agents. They carried out a barbaric  program in Car Nicobar island,and executed most men and took the women as wives. There was a nominal governor of the Andaman islands appointed by Bose, but he was powerless as Bose himself even after visiting Port Blair turned a blind eye to Japanese atrocities.

Thus it is hard to reconcile with the policy of Bose. Perhaps he was naive or simply foolish or worse a Japanese stooge. One cannot imagine if ever the japanese had conquered India they would have given freedom. More likely they would have exploited the country like they did China. The Japanes talked of 'Co-prosperity ' sphere of influence, but in practice it was a ruthless occupation. Can one forget that 30% of the population of the Philippines were executed by the Japanese . What about the famous 'death march' and 'the bridge over River Kwai?'

Did Bose ever think on these matters? I have no doubt that Japanese occupation would have been 20 times worse than British rule. Thank god, Bose failed