EUGENE J. D'SOUZA* Nazi Propaganda in India Nazim was a fascist political movement that emerged in Germany during the post-First World War period under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Nazism severely restricted personal freedom and advocated aggressive nationalism, militarism, and expansionism. Nazis considered the Germans as the descendants of the Aryans. They claimed that Jews, Slavs, and other minority groups were genetically inferior and as such had no place in Germany. Nazis were opposed to democracy, communism, socialism, and other political systems that favoured or claimed to favour equality. They were in theory and practice opposed to all forms of individualism, and liberalism. Nazis promised to build a harmonious, orderly, and prosperous society for Germans. De facto, they brought terrorism, war and mass murder. After acquiring political power by dubious manner in 1933, Hitler prepared Germany for war. He rearmed the nation, first secretly, then in open defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. He entered into an alliance with Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy. Japan joined this alliance later to form the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. As the war clouds were gathering over the European continent, the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany undertook clandestine Nazi propaganda in India. METHODOLOGY OF NAZI PROPAGANDA IN INDIA India was still groaning under the grip of British colonial rule. The national movement under the leadership of Gandhi was losing its vigour following the enactment of the Government of India Act, 1935 and the provincial elections of 1937. It was during this period that the Nazis through the German business interests and Nazi agents in India attempted to spread their ideology among certain sections of the Indian population. * Reader in History, Joshi-Bedekar College, Thane (Maharashtra). Social Scientist, Vol. 28, Nos. 5 - 6, May - June 2000