Hitler treated Subhas Bose as a Small fry. * 62

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is a romantic hero for the Indian masses. Sometimes such romantic heroes turn out with fleet of clay. In hindsight we can now see that Bose made a fatal mistake in allying himself with Fascist forces to gain independence from the British Raj. Bose fled India and via Kabul and Moscow reached Berlin sometime in March/April 1941. 

On arrival in Berlin he met Von Ribbentrop the German foreign minister and requested for an audience with Hitler. The German foreign minister made no committment and asked Bose to organize the India league. The importance of Bose can be gleaned from the fact that Hitler was in no hurry to meet Bose.

 Bose just whiled away the time and months passed without Hitler showing any inclination to meet Bose. This was the period that Bose fell in love with an Austrian girl and married her. Bose repeatedly requested for a meeting with Hitler, but Hitler now busy with the Russian campaign had no time for small fry like Bose. 

This is one of the tragedies of history as we in India feel that Bose was given great importance in Berlin. Unfortunately this was not the case. He spent time meeting junior Nazi party funcionaries. After almost a year Hitler finally met Bose on 29 May 1942. It was more than a year after he landed in Berlin. The meeting with Hitler took place in his office and Bose met him wearing a suit.

 Bose pressed Hitler for an invasion of India, but Hitler promised nothing. No minutes of this meeting are available. Probably the meeting achieved nothing. Bose himself has indicated that the meeting was unsatisfactory. Bose continued in Berlin till Feb 1943 when he was transferred by U boat from Humburg to Japan that is another story.

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