Vol. 3, No. 7, October 1942

“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.”

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