The Nazi Study of India and Indian Anti-Colonialism: Knowledge Providers and Propagandists in the 'Third Reich'

The Nazi Study of India and Indian Anti-Colonialism is the first detailed and critical study of the intellectual and political connections that existed between some German scholars specializing on India, non-academic 'India experts,' Indian anti-colonialists and various organs of the Nazi state. It explores the ways in which different knowledge discourses pertaining to India, particularly its colonization and the anti-colonial movement, were used by these individuals for a number of German organisations to fulfil the demands of Nazi politics. This monograph also inspects the links between the knowledge providers and embodiments of National Socialist politics like the Nazi party and its affiliates. In this study, Baijayanti Roy aims to ascertain whether such political engagements were actually more rewarding for the scholars than their 'practical services' to the state in the form of strategic deployment of their knowledge of India. The Nazi Study of India and Indian Anti-Colonialism offers case studies of four organisations which incorporated such complicated entanglements of knowledge and power: the India Institute of the Deutsche Akademie in Munich, the Special Department India of the German Foreign Ministry, the Seminar for Oriental languages and its successor institutions at the University of Berlin, and the Indian Legion of the German Army. The knowledge networks underlying these organisations were dominated by German Indologists, but non-specialist knowledge providers, both German and Indian were also included. The Nazi regime expected all scholars and intellectuals to engage in Kulturpolitik (cultural politics), which entailed propagating the glories of the 'Reich' and its supreme leader as well as collecting 'politically valuable' knowledge within and outside Germany. For the four organizations concerned, this meant conducting pro-German and from around 1938, anti-British propaganda aimed at Indians. Loosely following an analogy provided by Herbert Mehrtens in the context of natural sciences, this monograph posits that there were 'patterns of collaboration' between the knowledge providers and the representatives of the Nazi regime. At the core of these 'patterns' was, to borrow Mitchell Ash`s theory, an exchange of resources and capital in which scholars and experts offered their knowledge of Indian languages, history and culture to authorities like the Foreign Ministry, the SS and the Army. In return, they received increased professional opportunities, financial remuneration or in some cases, increased power and influence. Cover The Nazi Study of India and Indian Anti-­Colonialism : Knowledge Providers and Propagandists in the ‘Third Reich’ Copyright Acknowledgements Contents List of Abbreviations Introduction Strand of Research Sheldon Pollock and the Politics of Indology’s Past Post-Pollock Interventions The Scope and Theoretical Underpinnings of This Book The Four Case Studies as Chapters Notes 1: India Institute of the Deutsche Akademie Background: Foundation of the DA Indian Anti-Colonialism, German Nationalism, and Hindu Revivalism: 1928–1933 Nazi Politics and the Institute: 1933–1937 The India Institute and the Nazi Network in India Aryanism and Hindu Revivalism: Jakob Wilhelm Hauer and Walther Wüst India Institute and the Muslims Aryanism and ‘Race Science’ Walther Wüst and Nazification ‘Pandit’ Bhatta: From Scholarship Holder to Nazi Publicist Return of Indian Anti-Colonialism: 1939–1945 Cultural Political Reports The End and Resurrection of the Institute Notes 2: Special Department India ( Sonderreferat Indien) of the German Foreign Ministry Background: Indian Anti-Colonialism and Nazi Politics in Berlin The SRI: Aims and Objectives Enter Ludwig Alsdorf Indien Fortnightly Reports on India Franz Joseph Furtwängler Jogendra Kumar Banerji Abdul Rauf Malik Book Series on India Portrayals of India End and New Beginnings Notes 3: ‘Political Knowledge’ of India in Berlin Background: From Eudaimonia to Auslandswissenschaft Study of India at the Seminar for Oriental Languages until 1933 The Seminar for Oriental Studies: 1933–1936 The Ausland Hochschule and Nazi Politics: 1937–1939 Study of India at the AF ( Auslandswissenschaftliches Institut) and the DAWI ( Deutsche Auslandswissenschaftliches Institut): 1940–1944 Separate Section on India: Ludwig Alsdorf AF in 1944–1945 DAWI: Political Research of Foreign Countries End of the AF and the DAWI Notes 4: ‘India Experts’ and the Indian Legion Background: An Indian Legion in Germany Indian Legion: Political Context Interpreters and Cultural Mediators Linguistic Devices as Propaganda Tools: Ernst Bannerth and Otto Spies Bhaiband : Axis Propaganda, Anti-Colonialism, and ‘Expert Knowledge’ of India ‘Long live Hitler! Long live Netaji’: Legitimizing German Authority Führer Cult and Anti-Bolshevism (Fake) News of War Specialized Knowledge of India and Orientalist Stereotypes The Guru, the Prophet, and the Gods Mother India and her Children Epilogue Notes Conclusion Continuity and Discontinuity Self-Mobilization and Knowledge Discourses Rewards Navigating Knowledge and Power Interventions of the SS Coping with the Nazi Past Three Questions Utility Issues Impact The Way Ahead Notes Bibliography Primary Source Archives Secondary Sources Index This monograph is the first detailed and critical study of the intellectual and political connections between German scholars specializing on India, non-academic ‘India experts’, Indian anti-colonialist intellectuals, and various organs of the Nazi state. It explores the ways in which different kinds of knowledge pertaining to India’s history and contemporary politics were used by this diverse group of men to fulfil certain political goals of Nazi Germany. The book presents four organizations as case studies to demonstrate the ways in which discourses on India were employed to pursue Nazi Germany’s primary objective, which was to engage in pro-German and, as the war approached, anti-British propaganda in India. The four organizations under review, presented as four chapters, are the India Institute of the Deutsche Akademie; the Special Department India of the German Foreign Ministry; the Seminar for Oriental languages and its successor organizations affiliated to the University of Berlin; and the Indian Legion of the German Armed Forces or Wehrmacht. The chapters illuminate the complex entanglements between individuals, specialized academic and non-academic knowledge, demands of Germany’s cultural politics, and Indian anti-colonialist aspirations. This study often desists from using the term Indology in the context of the four organizations, preferring the more generic ‘knowledge of India’ instead. This is because Indology is generally associated with the academic study of India’s ancient past, while the Nazi authorities concerned found insights into contemporary India to be more ‘usable’.