A state of forgetfulness

In 1939, Jawaharlal Nehru expressed concern that the German Consuls, the German firms, the Indian representatives of German firms and some Indian students in Berlin were engaged in promoting the Nazi agenda in India. There was much scope for their activities, according to him, because the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha spoke the same totalitarian language8217;.

Nehru was right. The otherwiseirreconcilable Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists were attracted by totalitarian doctrines, though their approach was from two opposite directions. The Nazis8217; glorification of the so-called Aryan race was interpreted by militant Hindus like V.D. Savarkar as a vindication of their own doctrine of race and caste. The Muslim communalists, on the other hand, were misled by the Palestine issue, a trump card the Nazis used to sedulously foster anti-Jewish sentiments.

Nehru also hinted at the pro-Nazi proclivities of some professors at Aligarh Muslim University. One of them was Dr M.B. Mirza, who studied in Germany and had attended the Nazi Congress in 1938. Addressing a Muslim League meeting, the zoology professor endorsed Hitler8217;s political creed. 8220;You are being taught the creed of passive resistance. I ask you not to believe in this creed. It is meant for the cowards only. As the necklace decorates the neck of women, guns should decorate the shoulders of men.8221;

Indeed, there was a time when the names of Hitlerand Mussolini were honoured by some youthful Indian patriots in colleges, along with those of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Dan Breen and other such Italian, French and Irish revolutionaries. To them, then, they represented a dynamic force in world politics, knight-errands sallying forth to strike at the demon of British imperialism. But all this changed when the Nazi-Fascist combination stood exposed in all its hideousness, shorn of its ideological trappings.

Last week I came across a poster at the Statsbibliothek in Berlin. It was issued by the Anti-Nazi League in 1939 and printed by the Times of India Press. The first lime 8212; Post this in all Public Places8217; 8212; is printed in bold letters. The second states: Wanted Dead or Alive! Wanted! Reward Rs. 50,000. ADOLF HITLER FOR MURDER8217;.

Hitler8217;s habits, according to the poster, were: loves parades, goose-stepping, brawls like a donkey while giving lectures, plotting, murder, arson, loot and kidnapping. And his antecedents: claims to be German, which he speaksbadly, but is really Austrian. Formerly a wall-painter and bricklayer. The final warning in the poster was to avoid any mention of democracy, pacifism and truth in his presence.

This poster caused some consternation in official circles. Though not much should be read into the Bombay government8217;s response, it offers interesting clues into the working of the colonial mind. Without dwelling on this point any further, I would simply mention that the poster was carefully analysed at various bureaucratic levels. And the conclusion was that, besides violating Section 2 10 of the Indian Press Emer-gency Powers Act, its contents were 8220;a gross insult to the German nation and its leader8221; and 8220;in bad taste8221;. This was conveyed by Bombay8217;s Police Commissioner to T.K. Menon, Secretary of the Anti-Nazi League. The Times of India management apologised for the mistake in printing the poster.

I do not know much about the Anti-Nazi League, except that it was run by T.K. Menon who called for the boycott ofGerman goods, for which he was lambasted in the columns of Princely India Bombay, edited by P. Gopal Pillai, and Karnatak Bandhu district: Dharwar. Menon8217;s own version was that he had received the matter used in the poster or news-sheet from the Empire Unity League in High Holborn, London and that similar posters were printed in, for example, the Daily Mirror, and distributed in England.

As a nation striving against foreign rule, it was natural that the Congress, along with the socialists and communists, expressed solidarity with other oppressed people 8212; be they Italian socialists, Jews, Ethiopians, Chinese or the Spanish loyalists. Gandhi, for one, did so consistently and with his usual sensitivity.

However, much of the credit for the anti-Nazi propaganda must go to Nehru, for he did a great deal to give the nationalist movement its perspective as a part of the world movement against colonialism and fascism. He repeatedly dwelt on the danger of fascism and showed why the Indiannationalists should beware of letting their movement take a turn for totalitarianism. He called for countrywide demonstrations to sympathise with the people of China. He himself went to Spain to convey to the loyalists the country8217;s sympathy and solidarity for them.

Sadly, India has repudiated the Gandhian and Nehruvian legacy in recent years. We kept mum when the Muslims were massacred by the Serbs and the Croats in the former state of Yugoslavia. We did not protest against the US belligerence towards Iran and the unjustified sanctions imposed on Iraq. Above all, we have ceased to espouse the Palestine cause, which was so dear to the Mahatma and Nehru, with the same degree of enthusiasm.

Our international credibility has suffered in recent years for a variety of reasons. The nuclear explosion was the last straw. But all is still not lost. Admittedly, there are no immediate rewards for taking a principled position on various international issues, especially those relating to human rights and nationalsovereignty. But, in the long-run, our country would be able to regain the moral ground we occupied during the Nehruvian era.