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ABSTRACT
During the Second World War, Indian nationalists and the British government engaged in a fierce propaganda war to win over American public opinion concerning Indian political demands. In spite of its comparatively limited resources, the India League of America – which began as a small group of nationalist-minded Indians in New York in 1937 – achieved remarkable success in cultivating American support. It did so by harnessing sophisticated public relations strategies, building strong ties with prominent Americans, and engaging in intensive lobbying in Washington, DC. The India League’s success, which has been largely overlooked by scholars, provides a new dimension for understanding Indian wartime political developments, highlighting the roles played by Indians in the American diaspora. Moreover, the India League’s story demonstrates the fundamentally transnational orientation of Indian nationalism. Indians in the diaspora played a critical role in sustaining international networks of support for India’s freedom and, simultaneously, the diaspora remained firmly embedded in Indian nationalist consciousness. The India League’s activities, furthermore, had vital post-war consequences: its leaders, especially J.J. Singh, helped consolidate a pro-Indian constituency in the United States that sustained bilateral relations after 1947 and helped put the Indian diaspora in America on a firmer political and legal footing.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Isabel Huacuja Alonso and Hardeep Dhillon for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. Ramachandra Guha, Srinath Raghavan, Koko Singh, and Man Jit Singh kindly provided their assistance to me during my research. Lastly, I would like to thank the staff of the Manuscript Division in the Library of Congress, the Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room for Rare Books and Manuscripts in the New York Public Library, and the Manuscripts Room in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. This article was researched and written with generous support from three organisations: the United States-India Education Foundation, which awarded me a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship in 2019-2020; the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awarded me a Fellowship in 2019-2020; and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University, where I have been a Research Affiliate since 2020.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Robert Shaplen. “One-Man Lobby.” New Yorker, 24 March 1951, 40.
2 J.J. Singh to Jawaharlal Nehru, 2 November 1945, in Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (hereafter NMML), J.J. Singh Papers (hereafter Singh Papers), Nehru correspondence.
3 See, especially, Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies; and Shaffer, “J.J. Singh and the India League of America.”
4 J.J. Singh to Nehru, 2 November 1945, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence.
5 Sugata Bose notes this phenomenon with regard to Indian diasporic communities in the Indian Ocean littoral. A Hundred Horizons, 151.
6 For work on Indian revolutionary activity in America, especially the Ghadr Party, see Hoover, “The Hindu Conspiracy in California”; Puri, Ghadar Movement; Ramnath, Haj to Utopia; chapters 3 and 8 in Sareen, Indian Revolutionary Movement Abroad; chapter 3 in Slate, Lord Cornwallis Is Dead; and Sohi, Echoes of Mutiny. For a recent article on non-revolutionary nationalist networks in the diaspora, see Frost, “Imperial Citizenship or Else”. For work on the India League of America, see chapters 2 and 3 in Bhagavan, India and the Quest for One World; sections throughout Clymer, Quest for Freedom; chapters 8 through 10 in Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies; Narayanan, “Indian Immigration and the India League of America”; Shaffer, “J.J. Singh and the India League of America”; Sinha, “The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the Question of Food Aid during the Bengal Famine of 1943”; chapters 5 and 7 in Varma, “The Asian Indian Community’s Struggle for Legal Equality in the United States, 1900–1946”; chapter 3 in Venkataramani, Bengal Famine of 1943; and chapters 5 and 6 in Venkataramani and Shrivastava, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Churchill. Also see an excellent undergraduate honours thesis, Solnit, “The Forgotten Lobby”.
7 For work on these organisations, see, especially, Ahmed, “Networks of Resistance”; Owen, The British Left and India; Ramesh, A Chequered Brilliance; and Visram, Asians in Britain.
8 Much of the extant work tends to downplay the effectiveness of the League against the British and, similarly, argues that the British had little need to counter its activities. See Clymer, Quest for Freedom, 218; and Weigold, Churchill, Roosevelt and India, 2. M.S. Venkataramani and B.K. Shrivastava come the closest to acknowledging the full scope and influence of the India League’s work. See chapter 6 in Venkataramani and Shrivastava, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Churchill.
9 For work on British wartime propaganda in America, see, for example, Brewer, To Win the Peace; Calder, Beware the British Serpent; and Cull, Selling War. For work on propaganda in India, mostly in the interwar years, see Israel, Communications and Power.
10 Chatfield, “The Imperial Collusion”.
11 “Indians Demand End to British Lies.” India To-Day, February 1945.
12 Chakravorty et al., The Other One Percent.
13 For more on Rai’s time in the United States, see chapter 7 in Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies.
14 For population figures on the Indian-American community, see Chandrasekhar, “Indian Immigration in America”.
15 Chatfield, “The Imperial Collusion”.
16 Jha, Civil Disobedience and After, 98.
17 The League was founded at the very end of 1937 but only publicly announced its creation in early January 1938. Communique between British Embassy, Washington, DC, and American Department, Foreign Office, 2 February 1938, in British Library (hereafter BL), IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
18 Anup Singh featured on British intelligence’s so-called ‘Ghadr List’ of 1934, but, by 1936, he ‘denied emphatically that he had any longer any connection with the Ghadr Party’. Note on “Anup Singh Dhillon,” 30 December 1936, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
19 “The India League of America,” 2 July 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
20 Some sources erroneously place J.J. Singh’s birth in Peshawar. J.J. Singh’s son notes that his father considered Abbottabad as his hometown. Interview with Koko Singh, 2 November 2019, Delhi.
21 Mary Braggiotti. “A Voice for the 400 Million.” New York Post. 9 August 1943, 27.
22 Jawaharlal Nehru to J.J. Singh, 13 January 1938, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence; G.D. Birla to J.J. Singh, 17 December 1937, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 18; Purshotamdas Thakurdas to J.J. Singh, 14 December 1937, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 18.
23 For more on this organisation, see “India Chamber of Commerce of America Incorporated: Inaugural Luncheon Proceedings,” 16 June 1938, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 111.
24 J.J. Singh to Nehru, 18 May 1938, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence.
25 Sic. J.J. Singh to Nehru, 19 September 1939, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence.
26 For more on the Watumull family of Honolulu, see Asha Sharma. “A Century in Hawaii.” Hindu. 10 May 2014.
27 British intelligence reported that J.J. Singh even suggested that the India League of America should become an ‘auxiliary’ of Menon’s India League. “The India League of America,” 2 July 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486; J.J. Singh to Nehru, 18 May 1938, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence.
28 Anup Singh to Sidney Hertzberg, 30 March 1944, in New York Public Library (hereafter NYPL), Sidney Hertzberg Papers (hereafter Hertzberg Papers), box 25; J.J. Singh to Nehru, 2 November 1945, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence.
29 For more on Chattopadhyaya’s visit, see Slate, ‘“I Am a Colored Woman.”’
30 “The India League of America,” 2 July 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
31 Ibid.; flier for protest meeting for Jawaharlal Nehru’s imprisonment, December 1940, in NYPL, Georgia Lloyd Papers (hereafter Lloyd Papers), box 69.
32 “Indian Activities in U.S.A.,” 2 October 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
33 Memo to ‘Mr. Silver’, 17 November 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
34 The League scrambled to defend itself in January 1943 after an American journalist, Drew Pearson, alleged its continuing associations with some of the America First Committee’s less savoury members. ‘Statement by the India League of America on False Charges made by Drew Pearson’, January 1943, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
35 “The India League of America,” n.d., in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
36 J.J. Singh to Nehru, 2 November 1945, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence; Shaplen, 41.
37 A British intelligence memorandum noted ‘very close cooperation’ between the League and the East and West Association. “The India League of America,” 7 October 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
38 Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies, 286. For a biography of Celler, see Dawkins, Emmanuel Celler.
39 “The India League of America,” 7 October 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
40 Memorandum, 4 July 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
41 For a list of some of the League’s international contacts, see “The India League of America,” n.d., in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
42 As early as November 1942, a Washington representative of the India League identified the need to reach out to Filipino representatives in the city. Mary-Alice White to J.J. Singh, 17 November 1942, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
43 “League’s National Advisory Board.” India To-Day, July 1944.
44 J.J. Singh to Aldous Huxley, 6 October 1944, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
45 “India League of America,” 13 September 1944, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
46 “The India League of America,” n.d., in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
47 “The Indian Problem and American Politics,” 28 December 1944, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
48 See, for example, the programme for the 1945 dinner in NYPL, Lloyd Papers, box 69.
49 “India’s Independence Day to be Marked Here Today at Dinner,” press release, 26 January 1943, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
50 In October 1942, Singh declared on a radio broadcast, “Indians believe in the teachings of Lincoln and Washington. Indians want to be given the chance to fight and to die for freedom and democracy.’ ‘What Should Be Done About India?,” radio programme transcript, 15 October 1942, in NYPL, Lloyd Papers, box 69.
51 “Order of Speakers at Town Hall Meeting,” 6 August 1942, in NYPL, Lloyd Papers, box 69.
52 “India League of America: Tentative Draft for National Campaign,” 24 August 1942, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
53 In speeches and writings, League members made repeated reference to Winston Churchill’s November 1942 remark that he would not preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. See, for example, Louis Fischer’s remarks in “Messages Received on India Independence Day.” India To-Day, February 1943.
54 ‘What Should Be Done About India?’, radio programme transcript, 15 October 1942, in NYPL, Lloyd Papers, box 69.
55 J.J. Singh, “India: Fighting Ally Against Fascism.” Labor for Victory Press Service, 1 December 1942, 4, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 114.
56 ‘“India Independence Day” in Washington’, n.d., in NYPL, Lloyd Papers, box 69.
57 Press release, 28 September 1942, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
58 Washington Post, 15 August 1942, 29, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
59 Washington Post, 19 May 1943, 18, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
60 Sic. ‘India League of America: Bulletin “India Today”’, 1 November 1944, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
61 British intelligence identified Hertzberg’s role in promoting radio propaganda by early 1943. “India League of America—Financial Position,” 7 January 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
62 “What Should Be Done About India?,” radio programme transcript, 15 October 1942, in NYPL, Lloyd Papers, box 69.
63 ‘India League of America: Bulletin “India Today”’, 1 November 1944, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
64 Hans Stefan Santesson to J.J. Singh, 30 September 1942, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 114.
65 These California-based benefactors backed out by early 1944. “India League of America: Sources of Finance,” 22 March 1945, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
66 “Presenting the India League of America,” n.d., in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
67 “College Students Celebrate India’s Independence Day.”India To-Day, April 1943.
68 “Sympathy Fast.” India To-Day, April 1943.
69 Clymer, Quest for Freedom, 97.
70 Memo, 4 July 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
71 “The India League of America,” n.d., in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
72 “India League of America,” n.d., in BL, IOR/L/I/1/891; memorandum on India League of America meeting, August 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
73 “India League of America,” 14 June 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
74 “India League of America,” n.d., in BL, IOR/L/I/1/891.
75 “India League of America,” 13 August 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
76 “India League Activities,” 6 January 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
77 Sic. “The India League,” 30 March 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
78 Memorandum, 9 December 1942; Millicent Mackinnon to Louis Stuart, 15 October 1942; in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
79 “The India League,” 30 March 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
80 “D.I.B. Letter No. 4/I.A./42,” 22 July 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
81 “The India League of America,” 7 October 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
82 This was first suggested in December 1941. See memo, 4 July 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
83 “The India League of America,” n.d., in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
84 “India League of America,” 13 October 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
85 J.J. Singh, report to annual meeting, 1943, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 115; J.J. Singh to Roger Baldwin, 21 October 1942, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 194.
86 “India League of America,” 13 October 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
87 “The India Chamber of Commerce of America,” 1941, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/486.
88 Memo, 16 October 1943, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487. J.J. Singh might also have had ties with Mahindra’s deputy at the Supply Mission, K.A.D. Naoroji. Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies, 369.
89 “The India League of America,” n.d., in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
90 This status was bestowed upon the committee—the India Famine Relief Committee, Inc.—by the President’s War Relief Control Board. Memo by Richard Walsh, 28 January 1944, in Library of Congress, John Haynes Holmes Papers, box 47.
91 For a recent work on how progressive Britons and Indian nationalists helped wear down this opposition in London, see Simonow, “The Great Bengal Famine in Britain”.
92 Richard Walsh, report to board of directors of Indian Famine Relief Committee, Inc., 21 April 1944, in Library of Congress, John Haynes Holmes Papers, box 47.
93 Venkataramani, Bengal Famine of 1943, 42–46.
94 Congressional Record, 90:503, 507, 506.
95 Congressional Record, 90:507–8.
96 Venkataramani, Bengal Famine of 1943, 53–56. For more on the later history of India and UNRRA, see Bhagavan, “Toward Universal Relief and Rehabilitation”.
97 “Copy of New York Consulate-General’s Report for the Month of September,” September 1944, in BL, IOR/L/I/1/891.
98 Drew Pearson. “The Washington Merry-Go-Round.” Washington Post, 25 July 1944, 6.
99 Pearson. “The Washington Merry-Go-Round.” Washington Post, 28 August 1944, 2.
100 Venkataramani and Shrivastava, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Churchill, 199.
101 Crane, “U.S.-India Relations,” 189, 190.
102 There are two conflicting accounts of the leak. According to Harold Gould, Rahman handed a copy of the report directly to Pearson. M.S. Venkataramani interviewed Anup Singh, who claimed that Rahman handed the copy to him, and that he then transmitted it to Pearson. Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies, 373–74; Venkataramani and Shrivastava, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Churchill, 212–13.
103 Venkataramani and Shrivastava, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Churchill, 382.
104 Anup Singh resigned from the executive committee of the India League by the end of 1943 to help take charge of its Washington branch, the National Committee for India’s Freedom; the National Committee seems to have cut its ties with the India League sometime in the summer of 1944. Anup Singh resigned as editor of India To-Day in June 1944. In spite of the official rupture, the India League and the National Committee, as well as J.J. Singh and Anup Singh, continued to work together and coordinate their activities, consciously trying to avoid a public show of divisions within nationalist ranks.
105 “Copy of New York Consulate-General’s Report for the Month of September,” September 1944, in BL, IOR/L/I/1/891.
106 J.J. Singh to Nehru, 2 November 1945, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence.
107 J.J. Singh to Ammu Swaminathan, 14 February 1946, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 116.
108 Bhattacharya, Propaganda and Information in Eastern India, 1939-45; Weigold, Churchill, Roosevelt and India.
109 See, for example, Huacuja Alonso, “Radio for the Millions.”
110 J.J. Singh to Nehru, 2 November 1945, in NMML, Singh Papers, Nehru correspondence.
111 Clymer, Quest for Freedom, 299.
112 J.J. Singh to V.K. Krishna Menon, 29 January 1946 and 5 March 1946, in NMML, V.K. Krishna Menon Papers, s. no. 209.
113 Taraknath Das to India Chamber of Commerce of America, 4 July 1938, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 118.
114 “India and American Citizenship.” India To-Day, July 1944; J.J. Singh to ‘Editor’, 21 April 1944, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
115 J.J. Singh to Bugga S. Sunga, 12 July 1945, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 116.
116 “The India League of America,” n.d., in BL, IOR/L/PJ/12/487.
117 J.J. Singh, “Memorandum on Proposed Legislation to Authorize the Naturalization and Admission into the United States under a Quota of Eastern Hemisphere Indians of India,” 1944, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
118 The pen that Truman used to sign the Luce-Celler Act into law was given to J.J. Singh. It is now in the possession of J.J. Singh’s granddaughter, Sabrina Singh, currently the White House Deputy Press Secretary. Interview with Koko Singh, 2 November 2019, Delhi.
119 J.J. Singh, “Memorandum on Proposed Legislation to Authorize the Naturalization and Admission into the United States under a Quota of Eastern Hemisphere Indians of India,” 1944, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box 25.
120 Emmanuel Celler, press release, 2 July 1946, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 213. For more on Indian mobilisation for the Luce-Celler Act, see Hong, Opening the Gates to Asia, chap. 2.
121 Gandhi to J.J. Singh, 6 August 1946, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 210.
122 The League, for example, strongly protested the post-war use of Indian troops to quell nationalist activity in Indochina and Indonesia. J.J. Singh to Clement Attlee, 22 October 1945, in BL, IOR/L/PJ/7/8440; India League of America, press release, 11 January 1949, in NMML, Singh Papers., s. no. 232; “Proposed Remarks of Sirdar J.J. Singh,” March 1950, in NYPL, Hertzberg Papers, box no. 25; “Viet Nam Independence Celebrated.” India To-Day, September 1947.
123 The India League of America worked particularly closely with two delegates who visited New York from South Africa, Ashwin Choudree and Sorabjee Rustomjee. India League (London) to J.J. Singh, 17 July 1946, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 222; J.J. Singh, public statement, 14 September 1946, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 222; Ashwin Choudree, 2 October 1946, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 226; Hemendra K. Rakhit to A.I. Meer, 29 May 1947, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 222.
124 “A New Statement of Purposes for the India League of America,” 1 March 1948, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 116.
125 For work on ethnic lobbies in the United States, see DeConde, Ethnicity, Race, and American Foreign Policy; and Smith, Foreign Attachments.
126 For a sampling of such literature, see Chakravorty et al., The Other One Percent; Sharma, Indian Lobbying and Its Influence in US Decision Making; and Mira Kamdar. “Forget the Israel Lobby. The Hill’s Next Big Player Is Made in India.” Washington Post, 30 September 2007.
127 J.J. Singh to Edwin J. James, 26 September 1947, in NMML, Singh Papers, s. no. 194.
128 “August 15 Celebration.” India To-Day, August 1947.