Monthly Archives: October 2011

Vol. 4, No. 3, June 1943

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“Louis Fischer’s Open Letter to Winston Churchill”

India Today, Vol. 4, No. 3, June 1943

“As We See It”

  • “First Colonel Louis Johnson, now William Phillips–but no change in Britain’s policy. We hope that Americans will soon find out the truth about India through their own representatives.” (It is interesting to note that India Today highlights the lack of change in British policy, not American.)

Vol. 4, No. 2, May 1943

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“News Direct from India: India’s War Losses”

  • 2,096 killed, 8,521 injured and 84,833 prisoners (reported on Sept. 23, 1942)

“Roosevelt’s Envoy Not Allowed to See Gandhi”

  • Cites Phillips’ request to visit with Gandhi and Nehru and includes excerpts from American editorials on the subject including:
  • Selwyn James: “to deny him the opportunity to get the other side of the sotry tends to reduce his visit to little less than an escorted tour.”
  • Ernest Lindley: “the attitude of the British authorities in India will not make a favorable impression in the United States. Our interest in India is direct and vital.”
  • Samuel Grafton (New York Post): “Mr. William Phillips, the President’s special envoy in India, had asked permission to interview Gandhi, and had been turned down by the ‘Indian Government’; India suddenly developing a government when one is require for such purposes as this.”

Vol. 3, No. 7, October 1942

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“Gandhi’s Latest Message to America”

  • “I have in America perhaps the largest number of friends in the West….In America I suffer from the well-known malady called hero worship.” Later on, Gandhi points to British propaganda and describes being “painted as a hypocrite and enemy of Britain under disguise.”
  • Attempts provide Americans with his theoretical background to the “Quit India” movement without describing the movement itself (assuming that his audience knows what it is?)
  • Acknowledges American alliance with Britain and the argument that Indian independence should not be a priority while fighting a world war, but argues: “this is the psychological moment for that recognition [Indian independence]. For then and then only can there be irresistible opposition to Japanese aggression. It is of immense value to the Allied cause if it is also of equal value to India. I want you to look upon the immediate recognition of India’s independence as a war measure of first class magnitude.”

“Nehru’s Reply to Cripps”

  • Nehru responds to Sir Stafford Cripps’ radio broadcast to America, categorizing it as “full of misrepresentations of the Congress attitude.”
  • Labels the defense of India as the most pressing issue, one that can only be addressed by a free India.
  • “The situation between England and India is bad enough in all conscience. And yet Sir Stafford must needs go out of his way to make it far worse and must constitute himself as the champion of the Muslims and the depressed classes.”

“Wendell Willkie–American Citizen”

  • Though Willkie gave a radio address on his trip to India after the publication of this issue, India Today comments: “his [Willkie] honesty, sincerity and courage have broken through the entangling mass of complexities…and have gone straight to the heart of the whole issue:–namely, India is to the entire Orient a symbol–a symbol of Eastern subjection to Western domination, and the establishing of her freedom is the acid test of the professions of the Western Democratic Powers.”

Vol. 2, No. 12, March 1942

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“Cripps– Early Reactions in India”

  • “The Indian press unanimously endorse the choice of Sir Stafford Cripps as mediator between Britain and India. Some Nationalists papers criticized Britain for not publishing the text of Cripps’ proposals.”
  • Includes selections from: Times of India, Amrita Bazar Patrika, Bombay Chronicle, Nehru, the All India Students’ Federation, the Chamber of Indian Princes and the Indian National Congress

“American Supply Mission to India”

  • Notes that the creation of the mission (the Johnson mission) received “general approval in India.” The Eastern Group Supply Council stated: “a fresh survey of India’s potentialities by those who can rapidly assess the assistance which the United States could give to developing production in India should prove of inestimable value.”

Vol. 2, No. 9, December Holiday Number, 1941

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“India League Telegram to President Roosevelt” (first article)

India Today, Vol. 2, No. 9, December 1941

“Atlantic Charter and India”

  • Excerpts the reactions of the India Council of State, the Premier of Punjab Sir Sikander Hyat Khan, Supreme Court Justic Dr. M.R. Jayakar and President of the Hindu Mahasabha V.D. Savarkar–“moderates outside of the Indian National Congress”–to Churchill’s interpretation of Article 3 of the Atlantic Charter
  • All emphasize its negative effect on Indian support of Britain in the war

“India League’s Activities in 1941”

  • Held 22 meetings which included: “3 general meetings; 12 executive committee meetings; 4 banquets; 2 memorial meetings and one special emergency meeting”
  • On December 21, elected officers: J.J. Singh (President), Abraham Choudry (Vice-President), Dr. Anup Singh (Secetary and Director of Research Bureau), Hemendra K. Rakhit (Treasurer), U.S. Bannerje, N.R. Checker, Nirza Jaffer (members of Exec. Committee)

Vol. 2, No. 2, May 1941

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“Horace I. Poleman on India and America”

  • Poleman was the head of the Southern Asian Section of the Library of Congress and a former student of W. Norman Brown at the University of Pennsylvania and a “driving force in the establishment of South Asian studies in the United States” (Gould 372)
  • Describes his impressions after traveling to India in 1939
  • Emphasizes the historical legacy of Indian civilization
  • “most Americans thought of India still as a land of grotesque mysticism, snake-charmers, the rope trick, horrible practices in the name of religion, and a funny little man in a loin cloth….I found a land of grim realism, enterprise, accomplishment, and purpose.”
  • Writes that the most important step to take in the future is furthering Indian education in America
  • “In the world of the future we shall need to know much more about each other if we are to have intelligent and peaceful relations.”

Vol. 1, No. 12, March 1941

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“The Trial of Jawaharlal Nehru”

  • First release of Nehru’s statement, after being sentenced to “four years of rigorous imprisonment” for violations of the Defense of India Rules on Nov. 3, 1940, in the United States
  • “I stand before you, Sir, as an individual being tried for certain offenses against the State.  You are a symbol of that State.  But I am also something more than an individual. I too, am a symbol at the present moment, a symbol of Indian nationalism, resolved to break away from the British Empire and achieve the independence of India.”
  • “The future recorder of this history might well say that in the hour of supreme trial, the Government of Britain and the British failed because they could not adjust themselves to a changing world.”

“India’s Message to America” by Nehru (sent through Mr. Bagai)

  • Links India’s freedom to freedom of the world, making a direct connection to China’s freedom
  • Emphasizing India’s peaceful attempts act securing independence
  • “In the destruction and desolation that grips the world, the great free Republic of the United States of America has a special responsibility to bear, for countless eyes from all over the world look up to it for leadership in the paths of peace and freedom. That peace and freedom will come only when Fascism and imperialism have ended and no nation or other group dominates over another. To the people of America we send our greetings and our assurance that we shall stand by them in everything that leads to this peace and freedom.”
  • Uses of words: world-7, peace-8, freedom-10

America’s Contributions to India’s Freedom

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Muzumdar, Haridas. America’s Contributions to India’s Freedom. Allahabad, India: Vanguard Press, 1962.

  • The recollections of Dr. Haridas T. Muzumdar, a close associate of Gandhi and an Indian-American who worked to gain American support for India’s freedom.
  • “Hossain, Anup and I looked upon ourselves as crusaders for India’s freedom first and as professional lecturers or writers second” (28).

India League of America

  • “While Syud Hossain, Anup Singh, Shridharani and I had been doing significant work on behalf of India in our individual capacities, it seemed to me in the mid-thirties that an organized effort to promote India’s cause might be in order” (42)= founding of the India League of America with Mr. N. R. Checker as president and Muzumdar as secretary.
  • “The team of J.J. and Anup Singh, with Mr. Hemendra K. Rakhit, made the India League a beehive of activities” (43)
  • “Through his business contacts and with businesslike methods, Mr. J.J. Singh brought new blood into the organization. American citizens were invited to become members and were elected to serve on the Executive Board.  This lent prestige to the organization and made it more effective” (43).
  • After Anup Singh left the League to help found the National Committee for India’s Independence in Washington, DC, William D. Allen replaced him as editor of India Today: “I [Muzumdar] know of no American who has made greater sacrifices…for India’s cause that William D. Allen” (44).

The National Committee for India’s Independence

  • Members of India Lobby felt a need to have an organization based in Washington, DC and so founded the National Committee at the end of 1943 with Dr. Syud Hossain as president, Muzumdar as V.P., K. Shridharani as the second V.P., and Anup Singh as secretary (44).
  • *Membership restricted to Indians (Hess, 122)
  • “The Voice of India, the monthly published by the National Committee under Dr. Anup Singh’s competent editorship, immediately made India’s freedom on the the issues of the war” (45)

U.N. San Francisco Conference

  • “The most significant job of public relations on behalf of India was performed by the charming Madam Vijayalakshmi Pandit….She pretty nearly played the role of the unofficial representative of India to the U.N.” (46)