Among other things, it called for the setting up of a "Free India Government" in Europe, preferably in Berlin establishment of a Free India broadcasting station calling upon the Indian people to assert their independence and rise up in revolt against the British authorities underground work in Afghanistan (Kabul) involving independent tribal territories lying between Afghanistan and India and within India itself for fostering and aiding the revolution provision of finances by Germany in the form of a loan to the Free India government-in-exile and deployment of German military contingents to smash the British army in India. Bose himself, naturally somewhat impatient for getting into action soon after his arrival in Berlin, submitted a memorandum to the German government on 9 April 1941 which outlined a plan for co-operation between the Axis powers and India. The German Foreign Office, which was assigned the primary responsibility of dealing with Bose and taking care of him, had been well informed of the background and political status of the Indian leader through its pre-war Consulate-General at Calcutta and also by its representative in Kabul. After an arduous trek through the rugged terrains of several countries, with an Italian passport under the assumed name of Orlando Mazzota (in which he was aided by underground revolutionaries and foreign diplomatic agents), Bose appeared in Berlin, via Moscow, on 28 March 1941.īose was welcome in Germany, although the news of his arrival there was kept a secret for some time for political reasons. In January 1941, while under both house arrest, and strict British surveillance, he escaped. While Bose's compatriots in India remained totally wedded to an ideological creed (non-violence), which at that time could only serve the British and postpone the advent of independence, and while their ideological interpretations of the new revolutionary regimes in Europe – again largely influenced by British propaganda – prevented them from even harboring any thought of seeking their alliance and co-operation in the struggle against a common enemy, Subhas Chandra Bose alone had the courage to take the great plunge, thus risking his own life and reputation, solely in the interest and cause of his country. While other leaders of the Indian National Congress fell short of realizing this fact and thus betrayed a lack of pragmatic approach to the turn of world events that provided India with a golden opportunity to strike at the British by a force of arms, Bose rose to the needs of the hour and was quick to seize that opportunity. An armed assault on the citadel of the British Empire in India was the only alternative left to deliver the country from bondage. This event not only can be regarded as a historical link-up with what Bose himself chose to describe as "The Great Revolution of 1857," and which (in his words) "has been incorrectly called by English historians 'the Sepoy Mutiny,' but which is regarded by the Indian people as the First War of Independence." It also represents the historical fact that, by that time persuasive methods conducted through a non-violent struggle under the leadership of Gandhi, had failed. This marks perhaps the most significant event in the annals of India's fight for independence. The arrival of Subhas Chandra Bose in Germany in 1941 (during the turbulent period of World War II) and his anti-British activities in that country in co-operation with the German government, culminated in the formation of an Indian legion. By Ranjan Borra India's Army of Liberation in the West
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