Hitler And India.. Beyond The Myth
In The History Of International Relations And The Major Turning Points Of The Second World War, A Common Narrative Has Persisted, Flattering The National Sentiments In Some Parts Of The Asian Continent, Claiming That Nazi Germany Was A Natural Ally Of The Peoples Subjected To British Colonialism. At The Heart Of This Narrative Lies The Story Of The Supposed Cooperation Between The Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler And The Indian Nationalist Leader Subhas Chandra Bose. However, This Superficial Perspective Completely Collapses When Subjected To Rigorous Documentary Research And Delving Into The Dossiers Of Secret Archives. This Is Precisely What The Distinguished Indian Journalist And Historian Vaibhav Purandare Does In His Shocking And Latest Book: “Hitler And India: The Untold Story Of His Hatred For The Country And Its People”.
This Book Comes To Remove The Cosmetics From The Face Of European Fascism In Its Relationship With The East, Offering An In-Depth Historical Revision That Does Not Merely Narrate Events, But Dives Deep Into The Psychological And Ideological Structure Of The Nazi Regime. Purandare Takes Us On A Documentary Journey Revealing That The German Dictator Harbored Nothing But Pure Disdain, Racial Aversion, And Systematic Ideological Hostility Toward India And Its People. It Is A Deconstructive Study Of The “Illusion Of Alliance” Woven By Complex Political Circumstances, A Document Revealing How Political Pragmatism Transformed Into A Cover For The Ugliest Forms Of Racial Supremacy.
The Philosophy Of Systematic Hatred In “Mein Kampf”
The Author Begins His Journey From The Hard Core Of Nazi Thought: The Book “Mein Kampf”. Purandare Explains That Hitler Left No Room For Speculation Or Interpretation Regarding His View Of India. In The Pages Where He Formulated His Vision Of The World And Racial Hierarchy, He Was Clear And Decisive. For Hitler, The World Was Strictly Divided Between “Culture-Creators” (Who Were The Pure Aryan Race, According To His Claim) And “Culture-Destroyers” Or Those Incapable Of Producing It. To Extreme Strangeness, And Although Nazi Ideology Stole The Ancient Indian Symbol “Swastika” And Borrowed The Term “Aryan” From Ancient Indian Linguistics And History, Hitler Stripped Modern Indians Of Any Connection To This Civilizational Heritage.
The Book Analyzes How Hitler Viewed The Indian People As A Race That Had “Degenerated” Due To Intermixing And Miscegenation Over The Centuries. In The Eyes Of The Führer, Indians Were Nothing But A Human Mass Incapable Of Governing Itself, And He Saw Any Attempt By Indian Nationalists To Liberate Themselves From The Grip Of The British Empire As A Form Of Rebellion Against The “Natural Law” That Grants The Superior Race The Right To Control Inferior Races. Purandare Cites Explicit Texts From “Mein Kampf” In Which Hitler Shamelessly Declares That He Would Far Prefer To See India Under The Rule Of The British Crown Than To See It Free And Independent, Considering That The Fall Of White Control In Asia Would Be A Catastrophe For Human Civilization (Which He Viewed As Identical To Germanic Civilization).
The Nazi Elite And Double Standards
The Book Does Not Confine Itself To Dissecting Hitler’s Thought Alone, But Meticulously Tracks The Positions And Statements Of The Inner Circle Surrounding Him, Such As Joseph Goebbels (The Propaganda Minister) And Heinrich Himmler (The Leader Of The SS Who Was Obsessed With Racial Anthropology). Purandare Shows How The Nazi Media Machine Lived In A State Of Ideological Schizophrenia; On One Hand, Goebbels Wanted To Use The Indian Card As A Leverage Tool And Black Propaganda Against Britain During The War, While On The Other Hand, He Was Incapable Of Hiding The Deep Racial Contempt Adopted By The Official Ideology Of The State Toward Non-European Peoples.
The Author Reveals, Through Documents And Daily Diaries Of Nazi Party Men, How German Elites Mocked Indian Hopes For Independence In Their Private Gatherings. The Prevailing View Was That India Was A Country “Teeming With Superstition And Backwardness,” And That Mahatma Gandhi And His Movement Based On Non-Violence (Satyagraha) Were Nothing Real But A Manifestation Of Structural Weakness And Behavioral Oddities Of The East That Evoked Nothing Extravagant But The Laughter Of The Arrogant White Man. The Book Indicates That Goebbels Directed The German Press For Long Years Not To Exaggerate The Scale Of The Indian Nationalist Movement, In Order To Avoid Angering London, With Whom Hitler, Until Quite Late, Hoped To Conclude A Peace Agreement Ensuring The Division Of The World: For Germany, The European Continent And The Living Space (Lebensraum) To the East, And For Britain, The World’s Seas And Its Colonies, Foremost Among Which Was The Jewel Of The British Crown: India.
The Theft Of The “Swastika” And The Plunder Of Identity
Among The Most Enjoyable Chapters Is That Part In Which Purandare Discusses The Paradox Of The “Swastika”. The Writer Shows How Nazi Theorists, Driven By A Historical Inferiority Complex And A Desire To Find Superior Mythological Roots For The German Nation, Plundered Eastern Symbols And Terms. The “Swastika” Is Originally An Ancient Indian Hindu And Buddhist Symbol Signifying Peace, Blessing, And The Movement Of The Sun, And The Word “Aryan” In Sanskrit Means “Noble” and Is Applied To Behavior And Spiritual Status, Not To A Biological Classification Or A Specific Race.
However, Hitler, As Purandare Clarifies, Performed An Operation Of “Racial Purification And Secularization” On These Terms, Stripping Them Of Their Spiritual Eastern Meaning, And Turning Them Into A Tool For Killing And Extermination. The Shocking Historical Paradox Highlighted By The Work Is That The Nazis Simultaneously Despised Present-Day India In Which These Symbols Were Born. Hitler Believed That The “Original Aryans” Had Departed India Or Had Been Contaminated By Local Blood, And Therefore, The Modern Indian Had No Right To This Heritage, But Was Closer In The Nazi Hierarchy To The Races That Must Be Subjugated. This Philosophical And Historical Reading Provided By Purandare Places The Reader Before The Truth Of The Fascist Mentality: A Mentality That Plunders The Culture Of The Other And Then Demands They Bow Before The Distorted Version It Created.
The Mirage Of Berlin And The Grand Maneuver: When Nationalist Ambition Clashed With The Wall Of Nazi Arrogance
The Historian Vaibhav Purandare Takes Us In This Turning Point Of His Book To One Of The Most Dramatic And Pitiable Pages Of History At The Same Time, Which Is The Moment When The Indian Nationalist Leader Subhas Chandra Bose, Known By The Title “Netaji” Or The Leader, Decided To Throw Himself And His Cause Into The Arms Of The Axis. Bose Was A Man Driven By An Overwhelming Desire, Bordering On Obsession, To Liberate His Homeland From The Yoke Of British Colonialism That Had Weighted Heavily On India’s Chest For Centuries, And He Saw In The Outbreak Of The Second World War A Historic, Unrepeatable Opportunity To Apply The Eternal Political Rule Stating That The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend. From This Premise, Bose Left India In A Legendary Escape Journey Through Afghanistan And The Soviet Union, Arriving In The German Capital, Berlin, In The Spring Of Nineteen Forty-One, Driven By Broad Hopes Of Finding With Adolf Hitler Decisive Military And Political Support To Ignite An Armed Revolution Inside India To Overthrow The British Crown.
But What Is Revealed By Secret Documents And Diplomatic Diaries Exhumed By Purandare, Is That Bose Was, In The Eyes Of The Nazi Leadership, Nothing But A Small Pawn On A Giant Geopolitical Chessboard, And Berlin For Him Was Nothing But A Political Trap Wrapped In Glowing Promises And False Protocol Care. The Book Describes With Astonishing Accuracy How Bose Was Received In Berlin, Where Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels And Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop Granted Him A Place Of Residence and A Financial Budget, And Allowed Him To Establish The “Free India Centre” And Launch A Radio Station Directed At Indians, And Even Assisted Him In Forming The “Free Indian Legion” From Among The Indian Prisoners Of War Whom The Germans Had Captured In The Battles Of North Africa. However, This Hospitality Was Not Stemming From Any Sympathy With The Aspirations Of The Indian People, But Was Rather Part Of A German Psychological War Aimed At Annoying London and Distracting Its Rear Supply Lines, At A Time When Hitler Was Putting The Final Touches On The Invasion Of The Soviet Union, And Had No Genuine Intention Of Reaching India Or Liberating It.
Purandare Reveals The Depth Of The Gap Between What Bose Imagined And What Was Actually Going On In The Corridors Of The German Chancellery. Bose Was Urgently Demanding An Official Declaration From The Axis Powers Guaranteeing India’s Independence After The War, A Matter In Which Hitler Kept Procrastinating and Flatly And Categorically Refused. The Reason For This, As Explained By The Book Through Secret Documents And Minutes Of Meetings, Goes Back To The Fact That Hitler Still Believed, Even After The Outbreak Of The War With Britain, That The British Empire Was An Essential Pillar For Global Stability And For The Supremacy Of The White Man. The German Dictator Believed That The Collapse Of The British Empire In Asia Would Not Serve Germany, But Would Rather Pour Into The Interest Of Japan Or The Soviet Union, Or Leave India Drowned In Chaos Because Its People, According To His Racial Vision, Were Biologically And Civilizationally Unqualified To Exercise Sovereignty And Govern Themselves.
The Author Reviews The Details Of The Sole And Historic Meeting That Brought Together Adolf Hitler And Subhas Chandra Bose In Late May Of Nineteen Forty-Two. This Meeting, Which Indian Nationalist Circles Had Anticipated With Much Hope, Was A Harsh And Shocking Blow To Bose. Purandare Recounts, Relying On Official German Minutes Of The Meeting, How The Führer Treated The Indian Leader With Outrageous Arrogance And Haughtiness. Instead Of Listening To Bose’s Military Plans To Liberate India, The Dictator Launched Into A Long, Tedious Monologue That Lasted For More Than An Hour, Proceeding To Explain His Theories On Race And Genetic Superiority, And Justifying The Superiority Of The British And Their Ability To Govern Hundreds Of Millions Of Indians With An Iron Fist Thanks To Their “Racial Purity”.
And When Bose Dared To Ask Hitler About The Offensive And Insulting Phrases Toward The Indian People That Appeared In His Book “Mein Kampf”, And Demanded He Delete Or Amend Them In The New Editions As A Gesture Of Goodwill Toward Indian Allies, Hitler Refused The Request With Cold Contempt, Evading The Answer, Indicating That What He Had Written Was An Expression Of A Historical Reality That Could Not Be Changed. Hitler Did Not Stop At That, But Shocked Bose By Informing Him Frankly That Germany Was Very Far From India From A Geographical Standpoint, And That Any Direct Military Support Would Be Impossible At Present, Advising Him Instead To Turn To The Japanese Because They Were Closer To The Indian Borders. These Words Were Akin To A Death Certificate For The Indian Project In Berlin, And A Clear Message That The Indian Legion Formed And Trained At The Hands Of The Wehrmacht (The German Army) Would Be Nothing But A Tool For Guarding European Beaches Or For Propaganda, Not For Liberating New Delhi.
Purandare Analyzes This Interview, Highlighting The Bitter Disappointment Felt By Bose As He Left The Führer’s Headquarters. The Indian Leader Realized, Albeit Late, That He Had Committed A Major Political Sin By Allying With A Regime That Builds Its Entire Ideology On The Hatred Of The Other And Contempt For Colored Peoples. The Book Explains How The “Free Indian Legion” Inside Germany Turned Into A Real Tragedy; Where Indian Soldiers Were Forced To Swear An Oath Of Personal Loyalty To Adolf Hitler, Something That Had Never Crossed Their Minds When They Volunteered To Fight For The Freedom Of Their Country. Instead Of Sending Them To the Eastern Fronts, They Were Thrust Into Guard Duties In Occupied France And The Netherlands, Only To Find Themselves Fighting In A War In Which They Had Neither Stake Nor Interest, In Defense Of A Regime That Viewed Them As An Inferior Race.
Purandare Shows How Goebbels Directed The Media Machine To Produce Propaganda Materials Showing Indian Soldiers In German Military Uniforms Smiling, While Internal Secret Reports Described Them As Lazy And Incompetent, Expressing Concern Over The Possibility Of Their Rebellion. Everything In Berlin Was False And Fabricated For Purposes Of Temporary Media Consumption. With This, The Author Places Us Before A Harsh Historical Reality: Which Is That The Indian Nationalist Movement Abroad, Led By Bose, Fell Into The Trap Of Blind Pragmatism, Thinking It Could Tame The Fascist Beast To Use For Its Own Benefit, Only To Discover In The End That The Beast Was Using It As Fuel For Its Own Battles, Without Changing An Iota Of Its Deeply Rooted Racial Convictions Against The East And Its People.
Internal Awareness And Geostructural Calculations: Gandhi And Nehru In Confrontation With The Fascist Illusion
While Subhas Chandra Bose Was Chasing The Mirage Of Promises In The German Capital, The Historic Leaderships Of The Nationalist Movement Inside India Were Living In A State Of Sharp Awareness And Decisive Rejection Of Everything Represented By The Nazi Regime In Terms Of Destructive Values And Crude Racism. The Historian Vaibhav Purandare Focuses In This Section Of His Book On Deconstructing The Intellectual And Political Positions Of Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, And His Companion, The Young Leading Leader Jawaharlal Nehru, Reviewing How These Leaderships Were Able To See The True Core Of Adolf Hitler Behind The Mask Of Shared Hostility Toward The British Empire. Nehru, Thanks To His Broad Cultural Horizon And Deep Knowledge Of International Affairs, Was Among The First Asian Leaders Who Realized That Fascism And Nazism Did Not Just Represent Transient Political Systems, But Were Rather An Existential Threat To Human Civilization As A Whole, And That It Was Entirely Impossible To Bet On One European Tyrant To Get Rid Of Another.
Purandare Reveals Through Correspondences And Internal Documents Of The Indian National Congress Party, How Nehru Strongly Resisted Any Convergence Or Political Flirting By German Agents In The 1930s. The Book Recounts A Highly Telling Incident When Nehru Visited Europe In The Late 1930s, Where Nazi Diplomacy Tried Hard To Arrange A Visit For Him To Berlin To Meet Senior Officials In The Ruling Party With The Goal Of Winning His Favor And Exploiting His Popular Stature In Propaganda Against Britain. However, Nehru Refused The Invitation With Utmost Contempt, Preferring To Visit The Czechoslovak Territories That Were Suffering From The Nazi Threat And Swallowing, To Express His Solidarity With Oppressed Peoples, Emphasizing In His Writings and Statements That The Freedom He Seeks For His People Cannot Be Built On The Ruins Of Others’ Freedom, And That Germany’s Victory In The War Would Mean The Beginning Of A New Era Of Racial Slavery That Would Be Multititudinously More Hideous Than Traditional British Colonialism.
As For Mahatma Gandhi, He Dealt With The Hitlerite Phenomenon From A Unique Moral And Philosophical Perspective, Though It Was Not Devoid Of Political And Historical Shocks Visited By The Author With Alot Of Boldness And Criticism. Purandare Pauses Extensively At The Famous Letters Addressed By Gandhi To Adolf Hitler, In Which He Used To Address Him With The Phrase “My Dear Friend”. The Book Explains That This Phrase Was Not Stemming From Any Affection Or Alliance, But Was Rather A Moral Method Deeply Rooted In The Philosophy Of Non-Violence (Satyagraha) Adopted By Gandhi, Which Is Based On Addressing The Human Side Even In The Most Extreme Tyrants. Gandhi Was Trying In Those Letters, Whose Arrival In Berlin Was Blocked By British Authorities At That Time, To Convince Hitler To Stop The War And Spare Humanity Complete Destruction, Pointing Out That Armed Methods Would Inherit Nothing But Ruin And Persecution.
However, Gandhi, As Purandare Shows, Quickly Retreated From Any Hope Of In Any Possibility Of Changing Nazi Behavior After News Successively Arrived Of German Atrocities In Europe And Of Extermination Camps And Systematic Genocide. Gandhi Realized That Hitler Represented The Absolute Antithesis To All Values Of Peace And Freedom, And That His Philosophy Based On Mere Material Power And Biological Hierarchy Was A Satanic Doctrine With Which Believers In India’s Freedom Could Not Contaminate Themselves By Allying With. The Book Indicates That Gandhi, Despite Launching His Famous “Quit India” Campaign In Nineteen Forty-Two Against Britain In The Darkest Circumstances Of The War, Rejected With Anger Any Suggestion By Some Radical Currents To Seek Assistance From Japanese Or German Forces, Considering That Replacing One Colonizer With Another Was A Political And Moral Suicide For The Indian People.
In Return, Purandare Tracks The Secret Activity Of The German Consulate And Diplomacy In India Before The Outbreak Of The War And During Its Early Years, Highlighting How Nazi Intelligence Was Attempting To Penetrate Indian Society Through The Gate Of Culture And Academic Exchange. The Writer Presents How Berlin Employed German Orientalists And University Professors, Who Had Mastered Ancient Indian Languages Such As Sanskrit, To Convince The Indian Intellectual Elite That There Was A “Racial And Civilizational Brotherhood” Combining Germans And Aryans In India. These Attempts Were Aimed At Creating A Popular Current That Would Press The Colonial Government And Hinder British War Efforts. However, These Nazi Cultural Maneuvers Clashed Against A Wall Of Awareness Among The Majority Of Indian Intellectuals Who Quickly Realized That The Term “Aryanism” In The Mouths Of Nazis Had Been Distorted And Emptied Of Its Human Content To Transform Into A Justification For Racial Massacres And The Extermination Of Minorities In Europe.
For While Berlin Radio Was Praising Bose And His Men, Internal German Newspapers Directed At The German People Continued To Present India As A Backward Country Languishing Under Ignorance And Poverty, Using The Exact Same Colonial Stereotypes That The British Press Stood By. The Author Clarifies That This Blatant Contradiction Reflects The Purely Pragmatic And Utilitarian Nature Of The Hitlerite Mentality; The East In The Eyes Of The Führer Is Neither A Partner Nor An Ally, But Merely A Backyard For Settling Accounts With Rival Western Powers. Hitler Was Ready To Sacrifice All Asian Peoples and Their Just Causes At Any Moment If An Opportunity Loomed For Him To Strike A Major Deal With London Guaranteeing Him Absolute Hegemony Over The European Continent, Which Represented His Sole Vital Center.
Purandare Paints For Us A Complex Panoramic Picture Of A Terrifying Scenario That India Almost Faced Had Military Destinies Flowed In Favor Of The Axis. Through Plans Preserved In The German Military Archive, The Book Shows That Had Hitler Been Able To Crush The Soviet Union And Reach The Caucasus, He Did Not Intend To Hand India Over To Its People Or To Bose, But Rather There Were Plans To Divide The Wealth Of The Indian Subcontinent With The Japanese, Subjugating The Indian People To A Compulsory Labor And Economic System Serving The German War Machine. This Deep Documentary Analysis Puts An End To All Historical Illusions, Revealing That The Internal Awareness Of India, Led By Gandhi And Nehru, Is What Protected India From Falling Into The Abyss Of Subservience To A Regime Whose Foundations Were Built On Genocide And Absolute Hatred For The Other.
The Waning Of The Illusion And Disassembly Of The Legion: The Great Escape Through Deep Oceans
With The Arrival Of Late Nineteen Forty-Two And Early Nineteen Forty-Three, The Global Military Picture Began To Change Dramatically, And The Balance Of Power Tilted Clearly Against The Axis Following The Crushing Defeat Of The German Sixth Army In The Battle Of Stalingrad, And The Nazi Retreat In North Africa. The Historian Vaibhav Purandare Digs Into This Decisive Chapter Of His Book To Document In An Enjoyable and Moving Journalistic Style How These Geopolitical Transformations Reflected On The Status Of The Indian Diaspora And Nationalist Movement In Germany. Subhas Chandra Bose Realized, With Alot Of Bitterness and Sorrow, That His Stay In Berlin Was No Longer Of Avail, And That The Promises Of German Officials Were Nothing But Political Sedatives To Keep Him Under Control As A Temporary Media Propaganda Card, While The Shocking Reality Was That Hitler Had Scratched India Completely Off His Direct Strategic Calculations After The Points Of His Armies Broke Upon The Rock Of Soviet Resistance In The East.
Purandare Describes The Tragedy Of The “Free Indian Legion” Left Behind By Bose In Europe. This Legion, Which Comprised A Few Thousand Indian Soldiers Who Had Fallen Into Captivity, Lived In A State Of Identity And Military Schizophrenia; As They Were Forced To Wear German Military Uniforms And Carry The “Free India” Badge On Their Sleeves, Yet They Were In Core Substance Merely Military Spare Parts In The Merciless Nazi War Machine. The Book Explains, Relying On Secret Military Reports And Memoirs Of German Officers Who Supervised Training The Legion, That The Morale Of Indian Soldiers Completely Collapsed When They Learned That Their Leader Bose Was Planning To Leave Germany And Fixed His Compass Toward East Asia. These Soldiers Felt They Had Been Abandoned In A Strange Continent Enveloped By Death From Every Side, and That They Had Become Fighting For The Survival Of A Regime That Did Not Believe In Their Humanity, But Rather Saw Them As An Inferior Race Fit For Nothing But Rear Guard Duties.
Purandare Continues To Reveal How The Indian Legion Shifted From A Glowing Propaganda Tool Into A True Burden And A Source Of Concern For The German Military Leadership. With The Increase Of Allied Air Raids And The Approach Of The Spectre Of European Invasion, Indian Conscripts Were Transferred To Southern France To Guard Coastal Fortifications, And There Sharp Intellectual and Psychological Clashes Took Place Between The Soldiers And Their New Environment; As They Had No Ideological Or Nationalist Motive To Defend French Beaches Against American And British Armies. The Writer Quotes From Secret Reports Issued By German Military Intelligence (Abwehr) Expressing Utter Doubt In The Loyalty Of These Soldiers, Describing Them As Unprepared To Sacrifice Their Lives For The Führer, Rather Some Of Them Began Planning To Flee Or Comprise Secret Contact With French Resistance Movements (Maquis) Active In Forests and Rural Areas, Reflecting The Wretched End of A Military Project Built On A Feeble Basis Of False Ideological Alliance And Narrow Tactical Interest.
Meanwhile, Bose Was Coordinating Secretly For A Logistically Complex Escape Operation Counted Among The Strangest Stories Of World War II, A Journey Reviewed By Purandare With Much Cinematic Suspense And Tight Historical Documentation. Given That European Skies And Seas Were Under Almost Complete Control Of The Allies, The Only Way To Rescue Bose And Transport Him To Japan Was Through Deep Oceans. The Book Recounts Details Of Complex Diplomatic And Military Coordination Between Berlin and Tokyo To Arrange A Journey For A German Submarine Of A Special Model Meeting At A Specific Point In The Indian Ocean With A Japanese Submarine, Where Bose And His Indian Assistant Were Transferred In High Seas From One Submarine To Another In A Journey That Lasted Several Months In Which They Faced The Danger of Death By Drowning At Every Moment, A Journey In Which Purandare Sees A Tragic Embodiment Of A Man Who Was Ready To Ally With The Bottom Of Hell To Seek Power From It Against British Colonialism.
The Author Reveals Through Diplomatic Documents Exchanged In That Period, That Hitler and His Foreign Minister Ribbentrop Breathed A Sigh Of Relief Upon Bose’s Departure From Germany; Since The Indian Cause Had Become A Political Headache And Continuous Embarrassment For The Nazi Regime Which Was Still Harboring, Despite Everything, A Hidden And Insane Hope Of Reaching A Peaceful Settlement With Britain Retaining The Existence Of The Empire In Exchange For Giving Germany A Free Hand In The European Continent. Bose’s Departure Was Akin To Officially Drawing The Curtain On Any Serious Political Ambition For India In Berlin, and What Remained Of The Indian Legion Turned Into A Living Tragedy; Since With The Advance Of Allied Forces And Liberation Of France, These Isolated Indian Soldiers Were Withdrawn Toward The German Interior, To Find Themselves Amid Terrifying Destructive Battles That Destroyed Capital Berlin, and The Matter Ended For Their Majority Either By Being Killed In Streets Drowned In Blood And Rubble, Or By Falling Into Captivity In The Hands Of British Forces Which Treated Them As Traitors And Rebels Deserving Rapid Military Trial And Hanging.
Purandare Analyzes Pointing Out That The Story Of The Free Indian Legion In Germany Represents An Eloquent and Harsh Lesson In The History Of Liberation Movements; Where The Horrific Fall Of This Project Proves That Noble Goals Can By No Means Justify Corrupt Means, And That Allying With Totalitarian and Fascist Regimes Whose Basic Doctrine Rests On Despising Man and Classifying Human Beings On Racial And Biological Grounds Cannot Produce True Freedom Or Independence. Purandare Places Us At The End Of This Fourth Installment Before The Dark Picture Of Berlin Burning, Revealing That Hitler’s Hatred For India and Its People Was Not Just A Passing Personal Stance, But Was A Fixed Ideological Law That Governed All His Moves And Politics, Making All Sacrifices Of Indians Who Believed Nazi Propaganda Go In Vain And Turn Into Merely Forgotten and Tragic Margins In Chronicles Of The Great War.
In The Conclusion Of His Study, Purandare Moves To Provide A Critical Reading Of The Manner In Which Indian Collective Memory Deals With The Personality Of Subhas Chandra Bose; For While Bose Remains A National Hero In The Eyes Of Many Thanks To His Bravery And Absolute Sacrifice For India’s Independence, The Book Demands A Cautious And Objective Reassessment Of His Political And Military Choices. The Author Does Not Seek To Accuse Bose Of Treason Or Detract From His Patriotism, But Rather Seeks To Expose The Tragedy In Which A Leader Falls When Disconnecting Politics From Morals, And When Hostility To The Current Colonizer Blinds One From Seeing The Greater And Worse Danger Threatening Humanity Entirely. It Is A Political Elegy For A Man Who Chased The Mirage In Berlin And Tokyo, and Ended Up Drowned In Seas Of Geopolitical Illusions, Leaving Behind Thousands of Indian Soldiers Who Paid The Price Of This Illusion With Their Blood And Freedom In A Strange European Continent That Was Burning Under The Weight Of Hitlerite Obsession.
