Part 1 - Azad Hind – Free India Radio
The group of ragged looking youngsters, some called them revolutionaries, huddled around the radio looking furtively around, before they tuned the set to the German shortwave frequency. Today was going to be a big day, the 19th of February 1942. The Far East was in turmoil, the Japanese were advancing. And then, more than a year after his dramatic escape from India, they heard Subash Bose’s voice: “This is Subhas Chandra Bose speaking to you over the Azad Hind Radio. For about a year I have waited in silence and patience for the march of events and now that the hour has struck, I come forward to speak. The fall of Singapore means the collapse of British Empire, the end of the iniquitous regime which it has symbolized and the dawn of a new era in Indian History”.….
After the Japanese started their Asian advances bombing the
Victoria point airport at the southern tip of Burma, a fervor set in throughout
the region, allowing Bose to create a virtual nation across the borders. ‘Dilli Chalo’ was to be the culmination of it
all, and together with the Japanese army, his forces were to march through the border
gates and liberate Hindustan from the British. Only a few know that the INA and
the Azad Hind bureaucracy in SE Asia were largely financed by the Tamil
Chettiars and the Sindhi’s living in Burma, Malaya and Vietnam. Tragically, their
contributions and losses have also been largely ignored, so also the terrible
events resulting in the deaths of many tens of thousands of Tamil laborers
drafted to work at the Japanese death railway project. I will tell you about
all of them soon, but for today it is the story of the Azad Hind Radio, the
INA’s propaganda machine.
If you recall, we had talked about the Desi Congress radio
which operated illegally for a very short period before the people behind it
were rounded up and jailed in Bombay. Transmissions and transmitters were
banned in India and that was the reason why rebel radio stations were created
and manned at Anti-British locales of the world. Let’s follow the story of the
creation of the Azad Hind radio, check out its reach and in a follow up article,
focus on the British response from India with the famous George Orwell countering
Axis and Azad Hind propaganda, manning the mic himself, from Delhi.
As the airs got filled with all kind of transmissions by the
start of World War II, European powers established official monitoring posts, in
order to assess the threat of incoming transmissions.
Himalaya Radio
A few Punjabi Ghadar activists had found their way to Rome
in the 30’s, and it was Mohammad Iqbal Shedai and Sardar Ajith Singh, mainly
the former, who started the Friends of India society. The Italians, with Mussolini’s blessings
helped them set up a station named Radio Himalaya, to broadcast their ideology towards
Asia. With Ajit Singh and Labh Singh manning the mics, they broadcast regular
programs in Hindi and Urdu. Some
historians cast them as amateurs, that the Italians were content with letting
these three disgruntled old men rave and rant on radio, not only against the
British but also the new nationalist leaders in India, and contemptuous of the
passive Congress. As people started to take notice, the British were caught on
the wrong foot and believed that the broadcasts were from within India or the
NWF, while the announcers deliberately led listeners to believe that they were
in cold caves close to the mountains. People listening felt it a pirate station
on the run, lending mystery and creating its own aura.
After directional analysis (Where is the Himalayan radio
station – Indian information vol 8-9, 1941) the Brits finally discovered that
it was indeed part of the larger Axis propaganda setup. At this point, German
radio did have a formal Hindustani service and the Himalaya Radio came in
mostly after German broadcasts ended, but clashed with the BBC’s Hindi service.
A blunder mentioning Himalaya’s frequency problems with the Italian service
gave the game away to the British and its potential location in Rome.
Those radio transmissions were indeed stuff for propaganda,
offering prayers for Hitler’s long life, fancy schemes such as pensions for everyone
in India aged 50 and above should the Axis powers and their attacks (which
would result in massive bloodshed), succeed. It was somewhat tilted in favor of
Jinnah and separatism, and caused many problems for British intelligence owing
to its popularity among the tribes of the NWFP. Shedai later went on to create
a small force of some 350 soldiers recruited from POW’s, the Centro
Militaire India (eventually disbanded in 1942 after a mutiny). While
British parliament debates show that the radio existed as early as 1936, other
accounts mention that transmissions came on and off towards 1940/41.
However, the experiment was short-lived and Shedai did not
see eye to eye with Bose after the latter’s arrival, accusing Bose of herding a
bunch of communists and improperly handling POWs transferred to Germany, while
Bose accused Shedai of being a Muslim separatist. The Himalayan Radio sputtered
on for a while, grinding to a stop after Bose’s Azad Hind radio became the main
revolutionary channel. Interestingly the British pursued this phantom station in
the Himalayas for many months before locating it in Italy, they even sent teams
to Lhasa and Sikkim to check for a chain of radio stations, even thinking it
was the brainchild of British MP and Nazi collaborator Timothy T Lincoln.
Azad Hind Radio – Huizen, Berlin
Bose entered the scene as HE Orlando Mazotta, (I had detailed his flight in a previous article) an Italian diplomat. There are some indications
that his Italian passport was arranged in the NWF with the assistance of the
same Iqbal Shedai (Schedai in German files). But when they met, their strong
Before we get to the Azad Hind radio, we should also touch
on the so-called Radio Bhai Band broadcasting from Lacanau-ville (they
published a newsletter too) in Germany for the prisoners at Annaburg, a station
which was set up after Bose’s arrival. A low powered transmitter transmitted
cultural programs, music and training instructions for the Legion, and its
leaflet stated - You can listen daily in the evening. Between 5:30 PM to
6:00 PM: MW 449.1 and SW 47.6, Between 8:30 PM to 9:00 PM: SW 47.6, The Voice
of Bhai [Brother] Band Radio. Broadcasts correct news from all over the world,
plays Indian music and news for the betterment of Indian soldiers.
Getting back to Bose, who we now know was still in the guise
of O Mazotta, reached Berlin. After cooling his heels and seeing that the
German high command had little interest in India at that time, Bose tried to
elicit support from Italy, but after a lack of response there and issues with
Shedai, was undecided for a while. Disenchanted with Germany’s plans concerning
Russia, Bose left for Bad Gastein in Austria with his partner Emilie, but returned
to Berlin in the summer of 1941. The Germans agreed to support Bose with a propaganda
unit, printing newspapers and manning a radio channel. He did not go on the
microphone initially (remember that he was incognito as Mazotta and had still
not divulged to the world that Mazotta was Bose) and wanted to divulge the news
only after the Axis leaders had declared support for Free India.
However, Bose’s voice, when it eventually came through was
electric and galvanized patriotic feelings. He addressed Indians for the first
time telling them about the fall of Singapore and about his escape, in his
first broadcast on 19th Feb 1942. Discarding his Mazotta cloak, Bose
continued with regular personal speeches boosting not only the morale of his
supporters but also his personal standing as the leader of a tougher front
against the British. The Azad Hind radio thus stated its regular broadcasts early
in 1942, in many Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu,
Gujarati, Pashto and also English. Naidu handled Tamil while Moorthy did the
Telugu broadcasts. The team had to move frequently to escape allied
bombardment, but continued their teamwork preparing for each day’s broadcasts. It
also broadcast Indian classical music (re-recorded from BBC) together with the
two daily news bulletins. While the quality of the broadcasts according to some
listeners ranged from mediocre to slightly better than the British and ‘not a
sheer waste of money’, most agreed that the announcers were professional, sounded
like trained propagandists, and not just persons reading from a dull script.
The Berlin group also toyed with two other radio stations
later, namely "National Congress Radio" and ‘Azad Muslim - Free Muslim
Radio’ for Muslims manned by H Rahman and Sultan. The National Congress Radio of
Berlin ("National Congress Radio," was another illegal transmitter of
1942 located in Bombay which I detailed sometime earlier)
was more specialized and was reported to be highly popular. The Azad Muslim
radio late merged with the 3-hour Waziristan transmissions.
As the war at the western front ground on, events moved with
greater rapidly, in the Asian front and the Japanese victories convinced Bose
that it would be better to focus his efforts from a location near the Indian
border, if he were to plan an armed assault on the British together with the
Japanese. As he left, ACN Nambiar was handed control of the radio, and all Azad
Hind activities in Berlin.
Free India Radio – Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok and
Rangoon
When Bose realized that the war in Europe would not lend any
support for Indian freedom, and that the Germans would not go up in arms
against the British in India, he moved to the South East Asian operations, expecting
Japanese support. Japan was already into the business of propaganda and had
Rash Behari Bose and AM Nair at Japan guiding them along. After the Japanese
had taken Singapore, Malaya and Burma, they were in control of the broadcast transmitters
and allowed ‘Free India Radio’ programs manned by Indians. With the arrival of
Bose these were marshalled into a mostly cohesive unit preparing the propaganda
material in unison under the auspices of the Azad Hind Radio (though better
known by the anglicized term Free India Radio). Broadcast teams with Indians were
set up at Singapore, Bangkok, Rangoon, Shanghai and of course Japan. Not only
was the radio used for propaganda and INA speeches, but also to send messages
from SE Asian Indians to their families back in India. Many of these
transmissions were carefully transcripted and filed away, and in some we can
read that Bose, in his broadcasts termed the AIR as the Anti India Radio and
the BBC as the Bluff and Bluster Corp!
The NHK international service in English from Japan
commenced on two shortwave channels with seven programs, one of them, a three-hour
daily session with India-based content, as early as in summer 1941. Once the
war started, with the Japanese victories, strong anti-British & American propaganda
was waged in all its broadcasts. After Rangoon had fallen and the Japanese were
in control of the whole SE Asia, Japan's radio war on India was launched with an
increase in broadcast time to the subcontinent, coinciding with the unrest in
India and the Quit India movement. Around March 1942, Radio Tokyo inserted a
news and features program spanning over three hours with announcers in Urdu and
Tamil to start with, later adding Bengali and Punjabi.
In March 1942, the Singapore radio station was restarted and
it became the center of all Indian independence related broadcasts, including
variety programs in Tamil and Hindi, besides English. The Hsinking station in
Manchuria and some of the repaired stations in Burma also beamed broadcasts
aimed at India by this time. Shanghai already had Japanese manned stations, so
also German and Italian services and started an Indian channel in Shanghai (Mar
1942) purported to be located "somewhere in India". Announcers stated
that it was "The Voice of Free India" and "The Voice of Indian
Independence", on two frequencies. BY the end of 42, programming was
revamped and the station identified itself as "The Voice of the Indian
Independence League".
Stations at Saigon, Bangkok and Bandung joined in and soon
all of them were strengthened with powerful transmitters to form a coordinated
onslaught at the British and to impress on the Indians of Japanese peaceful
intentions and instill a perception as liberators of India from the British
Yoke. Operated by the army and staffed partially by N.H.K. employees, these
stations transmitted regular programs totaling to over 30 hours every day. But
the response and Japan’s credibility in India changed when Gandhi in July, accused
Japan of mercilessly attacking China without provocation, making it clear that
it was unwise for India to be reliant on Japan.
After Bose's escape to the Far East (he arrived at Tokyo in
June 1943), the Azad Hind was provided air-time in the Japanese schedule. The
Provincial government of Free India and the INA were quickly established, and
Rash Behari Bose broadcast from Tokyo that “You have, today, not only a
National Army of your own outside the borders of India ready to come to your
aid, but also the powerful co-operation and support of mighty Japanese Empire
and the inexhaustible resources of entire East Asia”. By Dec the Singapore
transmitter strength was increased to 50KW and two hours were sanctioned for
the Free India Radio.
At Tokyo, Rash Behari Bose continued coordinating the Free
India Hour" began at 9.15pm with the Indian National Anthem and proceeding
with a commentary in English and recorded commentaries in various languages
(Commentaries in Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati were broadcast on Mondays,
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and in Tamil on Sundays and
Wednesdays). During a visit to China Subhas Chandra Bose also broadcast over
Radio Nanking to unoccupied China, presenting Japan as the defender of the New
Order in East Asia and exhorting Chiang Kai Shek to place his trust in Japan.
As the Imphal battle continued to seesaw, Ba Maw at Burma
declared its independence, and the upgraded Rangoon radio started Free India
transmissions. Burma radio broadcast in Burmese, Hindi and Bengali to Burma and
India, and after the Burmese independence declaration in 1943, the radio
focused on Indian issues, broadcasting in 13 Indian languages. Like Radio
Shonan in Japan, Indians assisted at Radio Rangoon controlled by the Indian
Independence League and Bose. The Saigon station broadcast to Australia and
India and Radio Bangkok also broadcast to India. In Indonesia, Radio Batavia broadcast
on short-wave to India, North America and Australia. Radio Taipei too
retransmitted Japanese broadcasts to India.
We do know some more about the Saigon station from Gerald De
Cruz’s interviews and biography. He joined the Saigon Free India radio primarily
to communicate with his sister Hazel who had been sent away from Singapore to
India, for safety. De Cruz who joined Radio Saigon, admired Bose, whom he had met
several times but quickly discovered in Saigon that messages to India were
being sent from another radio station operating from the Radio Saigon premises,
which was the Free India Radio Saigon run by INA officers. The
second-in-command there was Lieutenant-Colonel Inayet Hassan, with whom he became
friendly. De Cruz thus started to broadcast talks on Free India Radio Saigon.
He sent a message to his sister telling her that the family was well and asking
her to reply urgently because their father was very ill, getting a reply
sometime later that all was well.
Recalling the times in his oral History Interview, he
recounted how the Japanese radio station sent out fabricated news about the war
in the Pacific. But Free India Radio Saigon had an entirely different purpose:
to send news about Indian prisoners of war and those who had joined the INA and
get messages back for them. Also, it worked to increase anti-British feeling in
India. Free India Radio Saigon supported Gandhi, Nehru and other Congress
leaders who were in jail.
To summarize, the themes of the broadcasts did not vary much
throughout the war. There was Abdul Wahid at Radio Batavia who frequently urged
Indian Moslems to accept the leadership of Gandhi, and asked the Moslem League
to unite with Congress in order to achieve independence. Speeches made by Bose
from both Singapore and Tokyo promoted independence. Even after Japan's
surrender Bose's tone remained defiant. His final message read over the
Singapore station was, "The roads to Delhi are many, and Delhi still
remains our goal”.
Indians who could be near radios did listen to these
broadcasts and the common man was divided between Gandhi and Bose. Jagjivan Ram
gives a vivid description – "One evening Subhas was to speak from
Berlin. I tuned the radio set and was thrilled on listening the voice of Subhas
Bose, I was advised to keep the volume of the receiver low as listening to
broadcasts from Axis countries was banned. With thrill, we listened. Many of the
things he said were highly appreciated by the listeners. The people gathered
round radio sets in thousands of homes in the country to listen the message of
Subhas Bose”. For many, listening to the programs of Radio Azad Hind became
a daily ritual, although the British authorities tried in vain to forbid people
to do so. Sugatha Bose mentions that some 120,000 sets in India tuned into
these broadcasts after 1942 and we come across many mentions of people gathered
around radio sets to listen to Azad Hind radio broadcasts, with rapt attention.
But then again, one must note that the Azad Hind radio and
Axis radio broadcasts were different in nature and should not be confused to be
one and the same. The common man on the street it appears trusted the Axis
radio more than the British controlled BBC or the AIR, at that juncture. Isabel
Huacuja Alonso explains the reasoning in the linked Scroll India article - In
an environment where cynicism and mistrust ran high, manipulative and fake
radio news, and outrageous rumours, gained currency. This helps explain why
Axis radio was a lot more popular in India than, for example, in France.
Whatever one may conclude were the reactions within India to
German, Japanese, and Indian nationalist broadcasts, its effect on the British administration
was considerable. They created considerable concern in Britain, and resulted in
the British debating and establishing a concerted counterattack. Part 2 will
cover those British attempts to counter Axis and Free India broadcasts.
References
The sign of the Tiger – Rudolf Hartog
India in Axis Strategy – Milan Hauner
Directed Jihad (Made in the West) – Jyothirmony Banerjee
Tokyo Calling – Jane MJ Robbins
The Life and Times of Gerald de Cruz – Asad Latif
His Majesty’s opponent – Sugatha Bose
Pics – Wikimedia, swling.com, www.ontheshortwaves.com
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