Nehru and Bose: Parallel Lives

by Rudrangshu Mukherjee

Apart from the differences in their temperament, Jawaharlal had also written to Subhas about their divergent understanding of the international situation, especially what was happening in Italy and Germany under fascism and Nazism respectively. Subhas’s views on these totalitarian regimes was obvious in his willingness to meet the Nazi official Dr O. Urchs in Bombay on 22 December 1938. He was also of the view that Germany was the only power with the strength to challenge Britain.85 When and if it did so, he thought, there would be a real opportunity for Indian nationalism to strike against British rule in India. Jawaharlal’s condemnation of fascism and Nazism was not tempered by any considerations of realpolitik. It was forthright and ideological. His views on India’s position in the event of a war between Germany and Britain was more considered, calibrated and different from Subhas’s. He wrote, ‘The fascist powers would very much like India to be a thorn in the side of England when war comes, so that they might profit by the situation we create. There is nothing that we would dislike so much as to play into the hands of the fascist powers, just as we dislike being exploited by imperialist Britain. Our anti-war policy must therefore be based on freedom and democracy and opposition to fascism and imperialism. And yet with a little twist it might well be turned into a pro-fascist policy.

nehru and subash views on germany and other facist powers