Home Research CIA files: US feared danger posed by Subhas Chandra Bose and his legacy

CIA files: US feared danger posed by Subhas Chandra Bose and his legacy

The legacy left behind by Bose in independent India was a source of constant worry to an American government stuck in cold war with communist USSR .

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

The association between Subhas Chandra Bose and the Axis powers was closely chronicled by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which kept a hawk eye on political trends in India in the last century. Records reveal an agreement between the Axis powers that Japan would play a leading role in India and Subhas Chandra Bose would be their representative.

“The Nazis are well aware that Indian people have no national patriotism, but they hope, just the same, that Chandra Bose will be able to embarrass the British,” says a report documented by the CIA and released recently as part of a tranche of close to 12 million pages of declassified documents. The set on India highlight the US emphasis on studying the internal political climate in the subcontinent for the sake of determining a favourable foreign policy.

The influence of German intelligence agency during World War II and subversive political activities in India, leaning towards Communist ideologies were of particular importance to the American intelligence service. Records reveal an in depth examination of movements in India that might pose a challenge to American foreign policy.

Other reports speak about the alliance formed between Bose and Japanese authorities in June 1943, wherein he referred to Japan as India’s best friend. Reports also detail the successes made by the German Intelligence Agency in India through Bose’s help.

The set on India highlight the US emphasis on studying the internal political climate in the subcontinent for the sake of determining a favourable foreign policy. (Central Intelligence Agency)

The legacy left behind by Bose in independent India was a source of constant worry to an American government stuck in cold war with communist USSR and taking all measures to make sure that South Asian countries do not fall prey to the ideologies of the latter. A 24-page report titled “Psychological background survey of India” gives a detailed review of the political scene in independent India and lists the probable factors that could lean in favour of communism. “An analysis of forces at present working within and from without to influence of determine India’s domestic developments and foreign relations will be set forth below to estimate the degree to which India is capable of resisting Communist subversion,” says the report.

Describing the subversive elements present in Indian society post independence, the CIA report claims that several of them are residues of movements carried out during the British rule in the name of nationalism. Foremost among these was the political movement organised by Bose and his followers who carried out student demonstrations, illegal strikes and boycotts.

The Communist Party of India (CPI), however, posed the biggest fear for America. The report calls it “the strongest and most dangerous subversive organisation in the country today” and a serious problem confronting the newly formed government. Talking about the CPI, the report says the following:

The Party has tried to bring about internal revolution in India since independence first by attempting to foment a general strike of industrial workers as a preparatory step for country-wide insurrection and, when this approach failed, by trying to stir the peasantry to revolt in the more remote areas of Assam, where government control was not well established and loyalties to a central or provincial government were either negligible or nonexistent.

The document goes on to give details of the Constitutional arrangements made by the newly formed Indian government to deal with these subversive elements that are prone towards communism. The report further blamed the ruling Congress government of complacency and inability to efficiently deal with forces at work within the country that had the potential of causing a communist uprising.

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