The Nazi study of India and Indian anti-colonialism : knowledge providers and propagandists in the 'third Reich' / Baijayanti Roy.

"This monograph is the first detailed and critical study of the intellectual and political connections between German scholars specializing on India, non-academic 'India experts,' Indian anti-colonialist intellectuals and various organs of the Nazi state. It explores the ways in which different kinds of knowledge pertaining to India`s history and contemporary politics were used by this diverse group of men to fulfil certain political goals of Nazi Germany. The book presents four organisations as case studies to demonstrate the ways in which discourses on India were employed to pursue Nazi Germany`s primary objective, which was to engage in pro-German, and as the war approached, anti-British propaganda in India. The four organizations under review, presented as four chapters, are: the India Institute of the Deutsche Akademie, the Special Department India of the German Foreign Ministry, the Seminar for Oriental languages and its successor organisations affiliated to the University of Berlin and the Indian Legion of the German Army or Wehrmacht. The chapters illuminate the complex entanglements between individuals, specialized academic and non-academic knowledge, demands of Germany`s cultural politics and Indian anti-colonialist aspirations. This study desists from using the term Indology in the context of the four organisations, preferring the more generic 'knowledge of India' instead. This is because Indology is generally associated with the academic study of India`s ancient past, while the Nazi authorities concerned found insights into contemporary India to be more 'usable.'"-- Provided by publisher.

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