SWASTIKA OYER INDIA

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22795, 22 August 1939, Page 8

SWASTIKA OYER INDIA

Significance of Dr. Schacht’s Visit

TRADE AND PROPAGANDA [By NARAIN JOG] An account by a Bombay journ alist of the extent and the nature r of German propaganda in India. ;

After peregrinating over the hot. .dusty plains .of India for nearly eight weeks. Dr. Schacht, the former President of the Reichsbank, lately . returned home to report to his Fuehrer. It was not, of course, a > touch of midsummer madness which brought the Nazi economic wizard to this country, while the" thermometer was hovering round 110 degrees in the shade. The Nazis are acutely worried over the sudden and sensational drop in German exports to India last year. And this, too, in spite of the vigorous drive to capture Indian markets and the intensive propaganda to gain Indian sympathy for the swastika. The Nazi Party in India was officially founded in 1933, and during the last six years it has made more headway here than is realised either in India or Britain. It has its branches in all the principal cities, has its own organ, “Der Deutsche in Indien,” and a Central Information Bureau in' Bombay.

. Germans have been tightening their ; belts for some years now, they have ' • yet sufficient funds to offer scholarships to young Indians. A German Society has been formed at the Ali- ; garh Muslim University, whose organ . ; seeks to impress on its readers the similarity between the tenets of Nazism . and the teachings of'lslam! It is also - understood that an. India House will soon be established in Vienna to - serve as the fountain head of ail ■ those, activities. Broadcasts in fluent Hindustani .■ (obviously delivered by an Indian) have long been one of the foremost ■. features of Nazi propaganda; The talks . naturally try to represent the Nazi case; but they do more. They also ; misrepresent Indian leaders " • like Gandhi and Nehru. The former’s philosophy of non-violence is poohpoohed, while the latter is condemned as being onesided and irresponsible. : Again, arrangements are said to be afoot to publish “Mein Kampf,” th*‘ Nazi Bible, in 18 principal Indian, languages, which will be sold atannas v six (about 7d). Scrupulous carewiU be -- taken, of course, to expurgate the porticns in which Hitler has damned hidians as "cripples,” "clearly racially to-. fericr” andi as being fit only to be .. slaves and helots. . Exploiting Minorities . The love of the Nazis for minorities all the world over—racial, reUgipusJ political and cultural—is ' There is no wonder then that the Indian Muslims are receiving their .. special attention. tion has long been functioning to; Berlin and its secretary, Habibuy Rahaman, holds a prominent. position '■*. in the Nazi Foreign Propaganda J Bureau. The sensational news was - •. published some weeks ago that 25,000 Germans were being • converted to Mohammedanism and that they - would be sent to due .time to various. Islamic countries. ' • • ■ ; • - Perhaps the most dangerous of all. . those activities is ; that which seeks, to create ah indigenous Nazi movement . in India. An organisation called the Khaksar has made considerable head■way among the Muslims to the/ north, and it claims to have at pre- ; sent a membership of 100,000. ' It is v freely hinted that it is regularly and . lavishly financed from foreign sources. Though the aims and objects of the ; Khaksar. movranent . are. un^xceptipnr,-.. able as -stated :oni ;papey, ,it>4s . viewed with the greatest suspicion-hymational- ; ist opinion to the country.' And it may. be stated here that it is based on the , leader principle and/f holds regular.-^ drills and parades witii' spades. . j

The German residents in India are closely organised in their clubs and cells. In each city they have their local fuehrer, and the party has organised a network of non-German publicists tp conduct pro-Nazi propaganda under the guise of giving impartial, first-hand news about Germany. Gcrmanv and Indian Nationalism It is worthwhile to recall here that the Nazis have not to sow virgin fields in India. For the connexion between the anti-British elements in India and Germany can be traced to the beginning of this century. Indian revolutionaries were always warmly welcomed in Berlin and given all possible help to conduct their subversive activities.

The revolutionary movement naturally came to a head when war was declared in 1914. An - “Indian National Party” was established in Berlin and formally attached to the German General Staff. Simultaneous revolts were planned in the various Indian provinces and bases were set up for that purpose in Batavia, Bangkok, , and Kabul. Arrangements had so far advanced as to charter steamers to land arms and. ammunition near Calcutta, and it was only providentially that the whole conspiracy was detected and nipped in the nick of time. It is necessary to bear this background in mind to realise the significance and to gauge the> strength of this present Nazi activities in India. After all it was only a couple of decades ago that the revolutionary Indo-German' entente was active and the generation that ; sponsored that move is still alive.^ Propaganda Methods Every means of propaganda-—the. press, the radio, commerce, even cultural associations—are 'pressed 'into service td foment anti-British telling among nationalist Indians. "There are grounds to believe that all those —and the more secret and subterranean — activities are directed . and-v controlled from headquarters.

Rumours are rife that even the lertwing of the Indian National Congress is subsidised from abroad, which is generally understood' to ■ mean Germany. In fact, the .<£ India itself admitted Chat it was aware of the report that foreign money was in a large measure responsible for the defeat of Gandhi’s nominee ,in the f last presidential election of the Con* ; gress by the radical Subhas Bose; - j.,. ■ It was lately hinted' in the Reich L press that a piowerful trade., drive , if about to be launched, in India. It goes., .. ; without saying that in . keeping With r, ; the usual Nazi technique; anti-BritishV propaganda too, will be siinultan*',, eously intensified. Viewed _in >this- - context, the surprise visits, first < Herr von Berk, formerly editor of pr.-. V Goebbels’ “Angriff,* and then- of Dr. - Schacht, are indeed of ominous m-; terest not only to people in India but; also in the rest of the British Sin* . pire. ■ .

Indian newspapers get by every mail shoals; of typescript dealing with the various political, cultural, and economic activities of the Reich. Occasionally subtler methods are tried. The editor may receive a. personal letter from a seemingly innocuous source, inquiring "whether you are interested in receiving reports' on questions concerning Central Europe and Germany. Those reports will be sent regularly and gratis, and; if you take interest in them also pictures and eventually advertisements.” V • The bait is thus adroitly laid and the impecunious paper (as the Indian press mostly is) soon becomes an unconscious carrier of Fascist infection.' Then there is the attempt to form cultural contacts between the two peoples. In spite of the fact that, the