Germany
Deutsches Reich
1943
These propaganda stamps were issued in an attempt to curry favour with Indian nationalists and incline them to favour the Axis and possibly cause trouble for the British in British-occupied India.
The Azad Hind movement ("Free India", "Freies Indien") was headed by Subhash Chandra Bose (1897 - 1945).
In the late 1920s and 1930s, Bose was the leader of the younger, more radical wing of the Indian National Congress, rising to become Congress President in 1938 and 1939. However, he was ousted from Congress leadership positions in 1939 following differences with Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress high command. He was subsequently placed under house arrest by the British occupiers before escaping from India in 1940.
Bose arrived in Germany in April 1941, where the leadership offered support for the cause of India's independence. In November 1941, with German funds, a Free India Centre was set up in Berlin, and soon a Free India Radio, on which Bose broadcast nightly. A 3,000-strong Free India Legion, comprising Indians captured by Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, was also formed to aid in a possible future German land invasion of India. By spring 1942, in light of Japanese victories in southeast Asia and changing German priorities, a German invasion of India became untenable, and Bose became keen to move to southeast Asia. Adolf Hitler, during his only meeting with Bose in late May 1942, suggested the same, and offered to arrange for a submarine. Bose boarded a German submarine in February 1943. In Madagascar, he was transferred to a Japanese submarine from which he disembarked in Japanese-held Sumatra in May 1943, and travelled thence to India.
He died in a Japanese plane crash in August 1945. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)
Michel (Spezial) catalogue numbers: I - VI
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