The Indian News and Information Bureau and Anti-Colonial Student Politics

In the spring of 1921, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (1880–1937), also known as "Chatto", founded the Indian News Service and Information Bureau (INSIB) in Berlin. For the next five years, the office served as an intelligence service, providing German readers with news about India in its publications and Indian readers with news about Germany; but it was also an agency for the promotion of trade between Germany and India; it was also an advisory body for Indian students who wanted to study in Germany. This gave the office a special position at the intersection of European colonial policy, anti-colonial activism, and the migration of Indian students to Germany – at a time when Berlin was the "center of the anti-imperialist movement" and the headquarters of international communism. ^[1] At Berlin's INSIB, actions for the anti-colonial Indian independence movement overlapped and its actors sought a link to international communism.

While more and more scholarly literature is being published on the history of Indian and anti-colonial organizations in Berlin during the Weimar period, no critical historical attention has been paid to the INSIB so far. ^[2]

This essay examines the history of the INSIB on the basis of a wealth of reports from the British and German intelligence services, memoirs and newspaper reports, and takes a look at the intersections and connections between Indian migration and anti-colonialism in Weimar-era Berlin. In particular, this text examines Chatto's anti-colonial activities, which were closely related to the Indian independence movement of people living in exile and engaged in politics.

The Indian Revolutionary Movement in Exile

Chatto had been living in exile since 1902; in August 1914 he came to Berlin for the first time. Shortly thereafter, he established the Indian Independence Committee (IIC) – an anti-colonial organization that sought to overthrow British domination in India during World War I with the help of the Intelligence Office for the Orient, a department of the German Foreign Office (AA). German support for the Indian anti-colonial movement was part of the strategy to destabilize the British Empire through warfare through anti-colonial revolution. ^[3] In the spring of 1917, as the war turned around with the entry of the United States into the war and the Russian Revolution in February 1917, Chatto and Mandayam Prativadi Tirumal Acharya – another Indian revolutionary veteran whom Chatto had known from London since 1908 – ventured to Stockholm in May 1917 and set up the Indian National Committee there: they aimed to win European socialists for India's independence at the Stockholm Peace Congress. By the end of World War I in November 1918, the IIC and the Indian National Committee had been able to achieve little for India's independence. While Chatto remained in Stockholm, Acharya returned to Berlin and then went to Moscow to meet Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in July 1919 and win his support for the Indian freedom struggles. He spent the next three years networking with Indian revolutionaries of different persuasions in Soviet Russia, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, including pan-Islamists, Bolsheviks, and anarchists. After attending the Second Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) in July and August 1920, Acharya founded the Indian Communist Party ( ICP) in Tashkent in October 1920 with Manabendra Nath Roy and others, but shortly thereafter fell out with Roy over the direction of the Indian freedom struggle and was expelled from the ICP. ^[4]

In March 1921, Chatto traveled briefly from Stockholm to Berlin without a return visa and was not allowed to re-enter Sweden, ostensibly due to the continuation of revolutionary activities for Indian independence, contrary to his promise to remain politically neutral. ^[5] Chatto, who was now stuck in the German metropolis, reactivated his connections with many of his comrades-in-arms from the IIC, including Bhupendranath Datta and Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje. He also began a romantic relationship with Agnes Smedley, the radical communist American author who had recently arrived in Berlin.

In May 1921, a group of Indians living in Berlin, including Chatto, Datta, Khankhoje, and Smedley, traveled to Moscow to resolve the differences between Acharya and Roy over the direction of India's struggle for independence and to ask the Bolsheviks for their support in overthrowing British domination of India. In the meantime, however, at the Second Congress of the Communist International in July 1920, Roy had already attracted the attention of Lenin and the Bolsheviks and had become the most prominent Indian communist; consequently, Chatto's pleas to Lenin for Bolshevik support for the Indian national liberation struggle were rejected. After attending the Third Congress of the Comintern in Moscow in June and July 1921, Chatto, Smedley, Datta, and Khankhoje returned to Berlin without a commitment to support their cause, opting for a different anti-colonial strategy. ^[6]

The Indian News and Information Bureau in Weimar Berlin

Shortly before travelling to Moscow in 1921, Chatto, Datta and Khankhoje tried to unite various Indian revolutionary groups that were still in Berlin after World War I under a new Indian Revolutionary Society. But in order to get approval (and potential funding) from the German government, which was worried that the British government might feel offended by such an openly anti-British revolutionary organisation in Berlin, the initiators agreed on a compromise to run the new organisation under the name of the Indian News and Information Bureau (INSIB). But the INSIB was not funded by the German government. ^[7]

After returning from the disappointing trip to Moscow, the INSIB initially moved into offices at Burgstraße 27 in the center of Berlin, but shortly afterwards moved to Georg-Wilhelm-Straße 11 in Halensee in the district of Charlottenburg, from where Chatto also ran a so-called Indian club . Smedley and another Indian who had recently come to Berlin, Narahari Govind Ganpuley, soon joined the INSIB, and Ganpuley even financed part of the activities. ^[8] Ganpuley later recalled:

"The Information Office was the only safe island for me in this vast city of Berlin, and so I did not lose my heart. Around the same time, Chattopadhyaya began to play with the idea of founding a magazine for India. He was really a man of many ideas and also had an amazing capacity. But he made his decisions without weighing the pros and cons of the related issues." ^[9]

A central strategy of the bureau was to promote Indian independence with its own magazine. The first issue of their publication Indo-German Commercial Review appeared in July 1923, now with the support of Arathil Candeth Narayanan Nambiar, Chatto's brother-in-law, who was married to his sister Suhasini Chattopadhyaya, who in turn had recently come to Berlin. ^[10] In the editorial preface, they noted that in India "apart from the steadily growing desire for national freedom and political and economic emancipation from foreign paternalism, and stimulated by the war and its aftermath, there have also been some significant dimensions of industrial development that must be carefully observed." ^[11] They felt that the time was ripe "for India to establish its own information centres abroad, rather than to obtain information on economics, science, industry, trade and politics from people whose interests in most matters are diametrically opposed to those of the Indian people." ^[12] Here it becomes clear that they tied India's freedom to trade relations between Germany and India, arguing that British colonial rule was in complete contradiction with Indian interests. Historian Nirode Barooah argues that Chatto's "aim was to contribute to the promotion of Indian nationalism by seeking to rid the Indian mind of British customs-oriented preferences in education, trade, industry and culture." ^[13]

However, as early as the second issue of the Indo-German Commercial Review , it was announced that the title of the journal would be Industrial Review for India from the third issue onwards, so as not to signal German influence or be exposed to accusations of being German agents; in addition, they handed over editorial responsibility, which had previously been based at INSIB, to Nambiar and Ganpuley.

Chatto remained in the background and became more concerned with networking and political addressing of Indian students who came to Berlin. In the Industrial Review for India , Chatto had actively encouraged Indian students to come to Germany. In the early 1920s, there were nearly two hundred Indian students in Berlin, most of whom came from wealthy families and had the means to finance the trip, and who chose Germany as their destination country rather than imperial Britain. As soon as they arrived in Berlin, many Indian students turned to Chatto, but some were not prepared for life in Germany. Smedley recalls: "The students came straight from their ships, with bed and cooking utensils. Some wore strange clothes. One student bought a woman's straw hat with a bunch of grapes hanging from its side; it looked more or less like a turban, and we could only with difficulty convince him to stop wearing it." ^[14]

In the first issue of the magazine, Chatto wrote detailed information with offers of help for students, but also warned with the following words: "Indian students must be prepared to do hard physical work and live like workers. Student workers are usually not paid wages, and in Germany there are no opportunities for students to support themselves on their own. Nor are there any donations or scholarships for foreign students. In-company training is not possible alongside studying at a university." ^[15] Detailed information about life in Germany was also published here – language, clothing, accommodation, food – and furthermore, possibly in contrast to the racism of the British colonial power, it said: "In Germany, there is no prejudice on the basis of skin color and no racial prejudice, and Indian students are welcome in German educational institutions, provided they are adequately qualified and there are free places." At the same time, it was also pointed out: "[T]he Indian News and Information Bureau, Ltd. is an all-Indian institution funded only by Indian funds, therefore all students or travelers who avail themselves of the office's services are expected to contribute to its maintenance costs." ^[16]

The first issue of the magazine caused an uproar from several quarters. Newspapers close to Britain raised concerns about the establishment of independent Indian agencies in Germany, bypassing and potentially undermining British channels, as well as what was perceived as German-backed propaganda. Subsequently, even after its rebranding, the magazine was no longer allowed to be imported into India.

While Nambiar and Ganpuley mainly took care of the magazine, Chatto focused on supporting Indian students with his Indian Club , which was located in the same building as the INSIB. According to reports from the British Secret Service, Chatto successfully attracted numerous students and soon became Berlin's best-known veteran Indian anti-colonialist. The clubhouse, which seats four hundred, housed a library and recreational facilities such as billiards and table tennis. At the other end of the city, on Baumschulenweg in Treptow, students could play football or cricket. ^[17]

The British authorities in Berlin were concerned about Chatto's influence on these students because they assumed that he was receiving funds from Moscow. They asked the AA to intervene. However, the accusations of the British authorities that there were links to Moscow were false. The AA made it clear that it had nothing to do with the activities of the INSIB and refused to intervene on its part. Nevertheless, the AA admitted that Chatto and the INSIB exerted great influence on German universities and administrative circles and supported Indian students with hints and information. ^[18] For example, the British persuaded the German authorities to ensure that references from the INSIB for Indian visa applications to Germany led to rejections.

However, British authorities continued to see a communist threat among Indian students in Berlin, especially since Roy had re-established himself in Berlin in 1922 and sent communist agents and material to India from there. Abani Mukherji, who had fallen out with Roy, was also in Berlin at the time. Nevertheless, the British authorities primarily regarded Chatto as a major communist threat and were anxious to completely stop Chatto's activities in Berlin. In the fall of 1924, British authorities discussed with German authorities the possibility of deporting Chatto, Roy, Mukherji, Acharya, and other prominent Indians from Germany. Extensive correspondence between British and German authorities followed over the course of almost the following year. However, because Germany felt obliged to provide a certain degree of protection to the Indians because of their collaboration in the First World War, and because Great Britain did not want to see these people act freely in India, the deportation procedure was discontinued in 1925. ^[19]

By this time, Chatto and Nambiar had initiated another magazine, the Industrial and Trade Review for India, based at Reichsstraße 104 in Berlin. This journal followed the tone of the Industrial Review for India and dealt with a combination of corporate news and anti-colonial politics; but even this was not allowed to be imported into India and was discontinued in August 1926. By this time, the Indian Club on Georg-Wilhelm-Strasse had also been dissolved and most of the Indians living in Berlin had become members of the Hindusthan Association of Central Europe (HACE)[20]. Ganpuley recalled the decision to shut down INSIB with the following words: "It was located in a remote suburb of Berlin and was too big to run as a small association with limited resources. So we gradually gave up [the office]. The work of the journal had also come to an end." ^[21] In contrast, in the 1920s, HACE was a central student organization by and for Indians, attracting Indian students of various religious and political persuasions and gradually replacing INSIB until the mid-1920s. HACE was less overtly political – despite Chatto's attempts to take over the association – and organized regular social events such as receptions for prominent Indians visiting Berlin, and established links with other organizations of foreign students in Berlin. ^[22]

Despite everything, Chatto did not give up his anti-colonial activities, but he needed financial support. At the end of 1926, Chatto, having previously established links with Berlin anarchist circles, became a member of the German Communist Party and renewed his ties with the Comintern in Moscow. ^[23] He was now active in the League Against Colonial Oppression , which held its first congress in Brussels in February 1927 and then operated under the name League Against Imperialism (LAI), was financially supported by the Comintern and, according to contemporaries, was soon to become the greatest threat to imperialism the world had seen up to that point. The LAI and the Brussels Congress were founded by the German communist Willi Münzenberg in response to the Comintern's efforts to forge closer ties with the colonial world. Chatto managed to invite Jawaharlal Nehru to the Congress in Brussels as a representative of the Indian National Congress (INC) and maintained close ties with the famous Indian politician, who was living in Europe at the time. Under the auspices of HACE, the Indian Berlin-based students of Jaya Surya Naidu (Chatto's nephew), Khwaja Abdul Hamied and Monindra Kumar Sen – all three more moderate Indian nationalists in Berlin – were represented at the LAI Congress in Brussels.

The Indian Information Office, Student Politics and the End of the Weimar Era

The INSIB was reactivated in February 1929 as the Indian Information Bureau (IIB), this time with financial support from Nehru and the Indian National Congress (INC); responsibility for the office was in the hands of Nambiar. Less overtly political than the INSIB, the IIB also had encouragement for the activities of the AA and supported students who came to Berlin. According to Nambiar, Chatto tried to bring the IIB under the control of the LAI, but Nambiar resisted the takeover. ^[24] Nehru and the INC withdrew their support for the IIB in 1930, presumably due to Nehru's disagreement with Chatto over his LAI policy; Nambiar was forced to cease the IIB's work in January 1931. ^[25] Seven months later, Chatto was summoned to the Soviet Union by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) to answer questions about his wartime activities and his association with the now disgraced Roy. Chatto earned his living as a teacher in the Soviet Union during this period until he died in Stalinist persecution in September 1937. ^[26]

For Indians living in Berlin, the end of the Weimar period meant a drastic change in their position in Germany. On the eve of the Reichstag fire in February 1933, German stormtroopers arrested Nambiar and Naidu on suspicion of being communists. However, they were released a week (Naidu) and a month later (Nambiar). They were probably in contact with communist circles in Berlin, but were not radical Indian communists. Within a year, six more Indians were arrested and expelled from Germany on charges of being communists. By early 1934, Chatto's former comrade-in-arms, Acharya, had left Germany. ^[27] The end of the Weimar era also marked the end of the lives and actions of an older generation of people from India living in Berlin, who fought for an independent Indian nation and created structures for anti-colonial policies in the German metropolis.

In the course of the 1920s, organizations such as INSIB and IIB and their associated publications developed student anti-colonial policies for Indians living in exile, which they linked to trade and economic concepts for the emancipation of imperial structures. Key figures such as Chatto and Nambiar worked tirelessly to promote Indian emancipatory interests in Germany. However, their activities were observed and tried to be stopped by the British and German authorities, and in the early 1930s they were finally forced to cease their activities. At the same time, their policies left their mark on international communism by bringing their anti-colonial commitment to the LAI. But it was precisely this commitment to anti-colonialism and communism that became their undoing when the Nazis came to power in 1933.