196-674: The Indian Legion ( German : Indische Legion ), officially the Free India Legion ( German : Legion Freies Indien ) or 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment ( German : Infanterie-Regiment 950 (indisches) ), was a military unit raised during the Second World War initially as part of the German Army and later the Waffen-SS from August 1944. Intended to serve as a liberation force for British-ruled India , it
392-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
588-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
784-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
980-699: A "wild and loathsome" reputation amongst the locals. The legion was stationed in the Lacanau (near Bordeaux ) at the time of the Normandy landings , and remained there for up to two months after D-Day . In July 1944, the legion was tasked with suppressing the French Resistance and capturing civilians for forced labour . Whilst suppressing the French resistance in August 1944, 25 legionaries deserted to
1176-792: A British intelligence officer in South-east Asia during the war, noted in his 1959 history of the army that although Mohan Singh may not have personally approved forcible recruiting, the Bidadary "Concentration Camp" became notorious for beatings by "sweeper Nimbu". Mohan Singh himself, however, admitted to severity when it came to recruiting, warning non-volunteer officers to not influence their men. Persistent offenders were separated from their men. Over one hundred officers were separated from their men for such reasons. Some 40,000 men proceeded to pledge their allegiance to Mohan Singh for Indian independence. The British-Indian army sub-unit structure
1372-588: A Col Hunt of the Malaya Command, who handed over the troops to Japanese command under Fujiwara. Fujiwara spoke to the troops in Japanese which was translated into English and then Hindustani . In his speech, Fujiwara is said to have told the troops of the Asian co-prosperity sphere under the leadership of Japan, of Japanese vision of an independent India and its importance to the co-prosperity sphere, and of
1568-520: A condition of independence readily agreed to by the INC, members of the Free India Legion and INA were not allowed to serve in the post-independence Indian military, but they were all released before independence. [REDACTED] Media related to Legion "Freies Indien" at Wikimedia Commons German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
1764-497: A desperate 2.6-kilometre (1.6 mi) march along the shores of Lake Constance , attempting to enter Switzerland via the alpine passes. This was unsuccessful, and the legion was captured by US and French forces and delivered to British and Indian forces in Europe. There is some evidence that some of these Indian troops were shot by French Moroccan troops in the town of Immenstadt after their capture, before they could be delivered to
1960-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
2156-505: A large number of Indian officers decided not to, which also kept those under their command disinclined. The Japanese forces, eager to engage the co-operation of the troops and further lacking the man-power, did not have the men impounded. The supreme command of the INA was set up at Mount Pleasant suburbs in the Northern part of Singapore. The PoW headquarters, along with the largest PoW camp
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#17327810329052352-604: A large numbers of the remnants of the Indian III Corps . Even before Singapore fell, the Japanese troops had started the process of identifying Indian troops among the captured and separating them from the Australian and British troops. On a number of occasions, it was noted, British and Australian officers were killed, while the Indians spared. Singh began recruiting from amongst these captured Indian soldiers. Thus
2548-538: A large proportion of the British-Indian troops were very young recruits (as a result of the open recruitment policy of the British) who had very little or no combat training and experience, leading to anxiety amongst the British-Indian forces. Feelings of discrimination amongst British Indian soldiers, compared to the pay and service conditions for European soldiers created acrimony. Indiscriminate recruitment by
2744-705: A major policy concern. By the end of the war however, the pan-Asiatic vision gradually shifted away from prominence as the independence movement in India became engrossed in the issues facing post-war India. Agitations against the Rowlatt act , the Khilafat Movement protesting the removal of the Ottoman Caliph (an inflammatory issue among India's huge Muslim population), as well as Gandhi 's Non-cooperation movement in 1922 demanding home rule took
2940-630: A mystery because scarcely any Germans had heard of the Indians who volunteered for the German Army. In considering the history of the Free India Legion, the most controversial aspect is its integral link to Nazi Germany, with a widespread perception that they were collaborators with Nazi Germany by virtue of their uniform, oath and field of operation. The views of the founder and leader of the Azad Hind movement, Subhas Chandra Bose, were, however, somewhat more nuanced than straightforward support for
3136-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
3332-688: A number of Sikhs. The success of Bose's idea of developing a unified national identity was evident when Heinrich Himmler proposed in late 1943, after Bose's departure, that the Muslim soldiers of the I.R. 950 be recruited into the new Handschar Division . The commander of the SS Head Office , Gottlob Berger , was obliged to point out that while the Bosnians of the "Handschar" perceived themselves as European, Indian Muslims perceived themselves as Indians. Hitler, however, showed little enthusiasm for
3528-706: A part in this conflict of loyalties. Between December 1942 and February 1943, Rash Behari Bose struggled to hold together the INA. On 15 February 1943, the Army itself was put under the command of Lt. Col. M.Z. Kiani . A policy forming body was formed with Lt. Col J.R. Bhonsle , Director of the Military Bureau, in charge and clearly placed under the authority of the IIL. Under Bhonsle served Lt. Col. Shah Nawaz Khan as Chief of General Staff, Major P.K. Sahgal as Military Secretary, Major Habib ur Rahman as commandant of
3724-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
3920-502: A reinforcement group to promote defection amongst the British Indian Army and recruit new members from PoWs. 50 officers and nearly 24,000 men were "surplus volunteers". Armament consisted of 5000 rifles, 250 light machine-guns, 500 sub machine-guns, 30 cars and 50 lorries. Toye points out in his 1959 history of the army that all of these were British armaments captured by Japanese, which were not subsequently replaced. It
4116-406: A repeated attempt by the council for action to obtain Japanese reassurance and commitment was rebuffed by Iwakuro. By November, Mohan Singh and K.P.K. Menon refused to send a previously planned batch of INA soldiers to Burma, with the council for action rallying behind them. Despite Rash Behari Bose 's attempts to smooth over differences between the INA and Japanese, a second demand for 900 INA men by
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#17327810329054312-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
4508-429: A shield with three horizontal stripes of saffron, white, and green and with a leaping tiger on the white middle band. The legend Freies Indien was inscribed in black on a white background above the tricolor. A saffron, white, and green transfer was also worn on the left side of their steel helmets , similar to the black, white, and red decal German soldiers wore on their helmets. Sikhs in the legion were permitted to wear
4704-515: A turban as dictated by their religion instead of the usual peaked field cap, of a colour appropriate to their uniform. The standard of the Indian Legion, presented as the unit's colours in late 1942 or early 1943, used the same design as the arm badge previously issued to the men of the Legion. It consisted of saffron, white and green horizontal bands, from top to bottom; the white middle band
4900-717: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
5096-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
5292-559: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
5488-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
5684-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
5880-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
6076-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
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6272-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
6468-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
6664-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
6860-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
7056-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
7252-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
7448-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
7644-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
7840-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
8036-635: The 1/14th Punjab Regiment against Japanese forces at the Battle of Jitra , where his troops were outgunned and shattered by Japanese tanks. Captured by Japanese troops after several days in the Jungle, Singh was taken to Alor Star to Fujiwara and Pritam Singh at a joint office of the F-Kikan and the IIL . Along with Pritam Singh, Fujiwara with his sincerity of purpose and belief, convinced Mohan Singh to unite with
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8232-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
8428-782: The Allies in case of an impending German invasion. The German ambassador in Moscow, Count von der Schulenberg , soon arranged for Bose to go to Berlin . He arrived at the beginning of April 1941, and he met with foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and later Adolf Hitler . In Berlin, Bose set up the Free India Centre and Azad Hind Radio , which commenced broadcasting to Indians on shortwave radio frequencies, reaching tens of thousands of Indians who had shortwave receivers. Soon Bose's aim became to raise an army, which he imagined would march into India with German forces and trigger
8624-557: The British Commonwealth forces . Italy in 1942 created Battaglione Azad Hindoustan , formed of ex-Indian Army personnel and Italians previously resident in India and Persia, led by Iqbal Shedai . This unit ultimately served under Raggruppamento Centri Militari, but the effort proved unsuccessful. It was overtly propagandist nature that ultimately found little acceptance among the Indian soldiers, while Shedai's leadership
8820-749: The British Raj goes back to the First World War , when the Ghadar Party and the then nascent Indian Independence League formulated plans to initiate rebellion in the British Indian Army from Punjab to Hong Kong with German support. This plan failed after information leaked to British intelligence, but only after many attempts at mutiny, and a 1915 mutiny of Indian troops in Singapore . During World War II, all three of
9016-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
9212-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
9408-458: The Free India Legion . The successful Malayan campaign , and the subsequent Burma campaign brought under Japanese administration a large number of Indian expatriates. Although not essentially sympathetic to the Japanese (some were even hostile), they held substantial nationalist motives, and sought to exploit the window offered by the reversal faced by the British forces to drive them out from
9604-704: The Georgian Legion in August. In September 1943, the battalion was deployed on the Atlantic coast of Bordeaux on the Bay of Biscay . The 2nd Battalion moved from Beverloo to the island of Texel in May 1943 and stayed there until relieved that September. From here, it was deployed to Les Sables-d'Olonne in France. The 3rd Battalion remained at Oldebroek as Corps Reserve until the end of September 1943, where they gained
9800-455: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
9996-554: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
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#173278103290510192-404: The Japanese Empire in April 1942. Fascist Italy also created the Azad Hindustan Battalion ( Italian : Battaglione Azad Hindoustan ) in February 1942. This unit was formed from Indian POWs from their Centro I POW camp, and Italians previously resident in India and Persia, and ultimately served under the Ragruppamento Centri Militari alongside units of Arabs and colonial Italians. However,
10388-471: The Konoe Imperial Guards . This token force played a marginal but significant role in the Battle of Singapore , helping the Konoe guards feint the attack on Ubin island on 7 and 8 February. In the subsequent fighting in Burma, the INA continued to operate espionage to draw Indian soldiers out of the commonwealth forces. The activities of these agents were addressed at the Sepoys and these found enough support to successfully encourage defection without attracting
10584-407: The Major Fujiwara Iwaichi , chief of intelligence of the 15th army . Tasked with intelligence gathering and contacting the Indian independence movement, the overseas Chinese and the Malayan Sultan with the aim of encouraging friendship and cooperation with Japan, Fujiwara's staff included five commissioned officers and two Hindi -speaking interpreters. Fujiwara, later self-described as "Lawrence of
10780-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
10976-469: The Quit India Movement was launched in India on 8 August 1942 that called for the British Raj to leave India or face a massive Civil Disobedience . Forewarned, the Raj quickly arrested the Congress leadership. However, foreplanning on the part of the Congress meant the movement continued at the local level, and quickly deteriorated into a leaderless act of defiance and descended into violence and general anarchy and mayhem. The movement created alarm amongst
11172-516: The Sepoy in order to consolidate and prepare for defence of Manipur. These measures included imposing a complete news ban on the INA, that was not lifted till four days after the fall of Rangoon two years later. Notably however, a number of the units first deployed forward by the INA (most of which were intelligence and espionage units) either defected back to British or were captured on intelligence given away by defectors. The allegiance and loyalty of Indian officers trained in Sandhurst may have played
11368-416: The Soviet Union , with some help from Germany's military intelligence service, the Abwehr . Bose, ideologically a Communist was inclined to the Soviet Union for aid. Once he reached Moscow , he did not receive the expected Soviet support for his plans for a popular uprising in India. The Soviets were navigating a complex geopolitical and strategic web and did not want to break any potential alliance with
11564-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
11760-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
11956-578: The Swaraj flag of the INC instead). In 1942, Bose instituted several medals and orders for service to Azad Hind. As was typical for German decorations, crossed swords were added when they were issued for action in combat. Nearly half of the soldiers of the legion received one of these decorations. The Indian Legion was organised as a standard German army infantry regiment of three battalions of four companies each, at least initially with exclusively German commissioned officers. It has been later referred to as Panzergrenadier Regiment 950 (indische) , indicating
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#173278103290512152-445: The Thai-Bharat Cultural Lodge , which together with the IIL formed what was called the Indian National Council. Swami Satyananda Puri , a prominent member of the Lodge reportedly mentioned before the Tokyo conference that Nehru had forbidden Indians residing outside India from interfering in her internal politics. It was in this context that in a meeting in Singapore in March 1942, a unanimous decisions were taken to seek approval of
12348-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
12544-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
12740-491: The 40,000 Indian prisoners of war who were captured either during the Malayan campaign or surrendered at Singapore. It was formally proclaimed in April 1942 and declared the subordinate military wing of the Indian Independence League in June that year. The unit was formed by Mohan Singh . The unit was dissolved in December 1942 after apprehensions of Japanese motives with regards to the INA led to disagreements and distrust between Mohan Singh and INA leadership on one hand, and
12936-413: The Axis. During the 1930s Bose had organised and led protest marches against Japanese imperialism, and wrote an article attacking Japanese imperialism, although expressing admiration for other aspects of the Japanese regime. Bose's correspondence prior to 1939 also showed his deep disapproval of the racist practices and annulment of democratic institutions by the Nazis. He nonetheless expressed admiration for
13132-502: The British forces. The captured troops were later shipped back to India, where a number were tried for treason. After the uproar the trials of Indians who served with the Axis caused among civilians and the military of British India, the legion members' sentences were commuted. The integral association of the Free India Legion with Nazi Germany and the other Axis powers means its legacy is seen from two viewpoints, similarly to other nationalist movements that were aligned with Germany during
13328-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
13524-432: The French Resistance. Despite being promised that they would be handed over to Allied Forces, the group of legionaries were executed by anarchist elements of the French Resistance. On 8 August 1944 Himmler authorised the legion's control to be transferred to the Waffen-SS , as was that of every other foreign volunteer unit of the German Army. The unit was renamed the Indische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen-SS . Command of
13720-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
13916-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
14112-504: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
14308-681: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
14504-407: The I.R. 950, at one stage insisting that their weapons be handed over to the newly created 18th SS Horst Wessel Division , exclaiming that "…the Indian Legion is a joke!" The uniform issued to the Indian Legion were the standard German Army uniform of feldgrau in winter and khaki in summer. Additionally, the troops wore on their right upper arm a specially designed arm badge in the shape of
14700-428: The IIL and the INA, as well as encouragement of the independence movement within India. A liaison conference declared among other aims the "stimulation of the Indian independence movement". With Fujiwara's encouraging feedbacks in early 1942, the Japanese government and high-command sought to expand the scope and support for the evolving INA as well as the Japanese support for the independence movement. For this it sought
14896-489: The IIL leaders resigned. The first INA, especially at the time of its inception with F Kikan, was involved in espionage and sabotage. From the time of initial Japanese landings in Malaya, INA volunteers infiltrated British-Indian battle lines inducing Indian soldiers to defect to the INA. This it did with the considerable success of hundred men each, under the command of Capt Allah Ditta, to the Singapore operations, accompanying
15092-562: The INA as would keep Mohan Singh happy. Within the league, members of the original Indian delegation to the Tokyo conference held reservations about serving Rash Behari Bose , and of ultimate Japanese intentions with regards to independent India. Rash Behari Bose had lived in Japan for a considerable length of time, married a Japanese woman, and his son had enlisted in the Imperial army. Among
15288-568: The INA itself by the agents who concealed their purpose and professed to pass on intelligence from local knowledge. More troubling for the military command were the activities of the INA agents in the battlefields of India's eastern frontier in Burma . The army's co-existence with Imperial Japan was an uneasy one. Misgivings about Japanese intentions existed from early in the history of the army. Col N.S. Gill, in overall charge of Pow Camps, regarded Japanese overtures and intentions with caution Further,
15484-561: The INA. Their stories were seen as so inflammatory that, fearing mass revolts and uprisings across the empire, the British government forbade the BBC from broadcasting about them after the war. Not much is known of any charges made against Free India Legion soldiers, but sentences issued following the Indian National Army trials that were initiated were commuted, or charges dropped, after widespread protest and several mutinies. As
15680-471: The INAs Special services group ) who had infiltrated into India for the purpose of collecting intelligence, subversion of the army and the subversion of civilian loyalty. This information was derived to a large extent from some of the agents themselves who gave themselves up to the authorities after reaching India. However, the intelligence was also aware at this point of misinformation being spread about
15876-629: The IR 950 was to become a pathfinder, preceding a larger Indo-German force in a Caucasian campaign into the western frontiers of British India, that would encourage public resentment of the Raj and incite the British Indian Army into revolt. Following German defeat in Europe at Stalingrad and in North Africa at El Alamein , it became clear that an Axis assault through Persia or even the Soviet Union
16072-537: The Indian Legion were given only non-combat duties in the Netherlands and in France until the Allied invasion . They saw action in the retreat from the Allied advance across France , fighting mostly against the French Resistance . One company was sent to Italy in 1944, where it saw action against British and Polish troops and undertook anti- partisan operations. At the time of the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945,
16268-747: The Indian National Army was announced by the German Propaganda Ministry in January 1942. It did not, however, take oath until 26 August 1942, as the Legion Freies Indien of the German Army. By May 1943, the numbers had swelled, aided by the enlistment as volunteers of Indian expatriates. Overall, there were about 15,000 Indian POWs in Europe, primarily held in Germany by 1943. While some remained loyal to
16464-606: The Indian National Army was much larger and fought the British directly, Bose faced similar obstacles at first. All of this goes to show that many of the men never possessed loyalty to the Nazi cause or ideology; the motivation of the Legion's men was to fight for India's independence. The unit did allegedly participate in atrocities, especially in the Médoc region in July 1944, and in the region of Ruffec, including rapes and child murder, and in
16660-488: The Indian National Army" (after Lawrence of Arabia ) is said to have been a man committed to the values which his office was supposed to convey to the expatriate nationalist leaders, and found acceptance among them. His initial contact was with Giani Pritam Singh and after the outbreak of the war and the Malayan invasion, with Capt. Mohan Singh . Mohan Singh had, as a captain in the British Indian Army , seen action with
16856-443: The Indian National Army. Most troops of the Indian Legion, however, remained in Europe through the war and were never utilised in their originally planned role. Adrian Weale has written that about 100 members of the Indian Legion were parachuted into eastern Persia in January 1942 tasked with infiltrating Baluchistan Province as Operation Bajadere . However, Adrian O'Sullivan has described such an operation as being "mythical", as it
17052-483: The Indian National Congress for taking Japanese assistance, and to press for Subhash Chandra Bose to assume leadership of the movement. British intelligence was unaware of the formation of the army until around July 1942. The existence of "fifth columnists" influencing Indian troops had been noted even during the Malayan campaign. In some units, British officers were shot by their own troops during
17248-701: The Indian forces in sabotage, espionage and special operations. The I-Kikan and the League trained a number of INA recruits —and civilian volunteers from Malaya— in intelligence and subversion activities. Some of these training schools were opened in Burma and Singapore, the latter under the direction of N. Raghavan were called Swaraj (Independence in Hindi ) schools. Graduates from these schools were sent by submarine or parachuted into India for starting intelligence work, subversion, and sabotage activities. Some historians suggest
17444-430: The Indian government in order to maintain the numbers for its army, meant that it was no longer carefully curating its selection for the armed forces. By 1941, both verbal and physical abuse directed by European soldiers towards their Indian counterparts was rampant. India and Japan, especially from the last decade of the 19th century, had enjoyed a growing exchange of cultural, religious and philosophical ideas. India, as
17640-723: The Indian soldiers at Christmas Island mutinied, allowing the Japanese forces to land unopposed at the Battle of Christmas Island . This was followed by a mutiny in the Ceylon Garrison Artillery in the Cocos Islands . However, the Cocos Islands Mutiny failed after it was quickly put down by the Ceylon Light Infantry . Sri Lankans in Singapore and Malaya formed the 'Lanka Regiment' of the Indian National Army. An abortive plan
17836-553: The Indian sub-continent. In these circumstances, the Japanese military administration encouraged the various disparate Indian nationalist groups in East Asia to form an anti-British alliance. These came together to form the Indian Independence League (IIL), with its headquarters in Singapore. The IIL was also responsible for the welfare of Indian communities in East Asia. From the Japanese point of view, this
18032-537: The Indians felt no fear at all. In fact, the attitudes of the Japanese forces towards the Chinese population did instill some fear in the general Indian civilian population as well as leaders such as Pritam Singh. This was significant or the Indian leaders, during the Farrer Park meeting who had expressed reservations about collaborating with the Japanese as these incidents further cemented their initial beliefs about
18228-655: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
18424-865: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
18620-470: The Japanese 'pacification' of Singapore . The Japanese treated the Indians and Chinese differently during this period. During these early months, it was reported that roughly 50 000 Chinese in Singapore and the Malayan Peninsula were brutally killed in what is now known as the ‘ Sook Ching Massacre ’ . In contrast, the Indians received far more lenient treatment. However, this is not to say that
18816-537: The Japanese campaign, but neither the government nor the Imperial Japanese army were able to commit to these earlier. Militarily, India was important as the origin (from Assam ) of the Ledo road which supplied Nationalist Chinese and American forces , as well as the supplies airlifted over the hump . Also, the idea that the western boundary of Japan's empire would be controlled by a more friendly government
19012-416: The Japanese commanding general, Rash Behari Bose was convinced of the feasibility of raising an armed Indian unit. Between himself,Rash behari Bose, Pritam Singh and Fujiwara, formulated plans of contacting Indians in the British Indian Army in South-east Asia. The fall of Malaya further brought under Japanese control approximately 45,000 regular Indian troops from Gen. Percival 's command in Malaya, including
19208-469: The Japanese intentions to help raise a "liberation army" for the independence of India. He invited the troops seated at the park to join this army. Further, he told the troops, they were going to be treated not as PoWs, but as friends and allies. Fujiwara ended his speech stating he is passing on their responsibilities and command to Mohan Singh. Mohan Singh's speech, in Hindustani , was short. He told
19404-499: The Japanese mission for the greater motive of Indian independence. This included the promise that he would be treated as an ally and a friend, and not a PoW. Singh initially helped Fujiwara to take control of the situation of looting and arson that had developed in Alor Star . By January 1942, Fujiwara was able to give positive reports on the success of Japan's India policy and suggested an eight-point policy that included aid for both
19600-499: The Japanese onslaught in Malaya. Even then British intelligence was unclear of the scale, purpose and organisation of the INA till much later. The propaganda threat of the INA, coupled with the lack of concrete intelligence on the unit early after the fall of Singapore, led to considerable consternation among the political and military leadership of the Government of India when first reports started reaching it. In operational terms,
19796-490: The Japanese strategists and INA command envisaged a role for the Indian troops. Initially, this was to begin with intelligence gathering missions. Niranjan Singh Gill was in charge of intelligence and long-range penetration groups being deployed in the Burma-India border. Amongst operatives, Gill sent to Burma was a close associate who subsequently defected back to Commonwealth forces, followed by nearly eight other men. This
19992-406: The Japanese was refused. This was followed by a Japanese attempt to take command of Indian troops who had not enlisted in the INA, who had so far been under the custody of INA. In December N.S. Gill was arrested from Mohan Singh's home in Singapore, precipitating resignations of both the INA command and members of the council for action, along orders from Mohan Singh for the INA to disband. Mohan Singh
20188-540: The King-Emperor and treated Bose and the Legion with contempt, most were at least somewhat sympathetic to Bose's cause. While approximately 2,000 became legionnaires, some others did not complete their training owing to various reasons and circumstances. The maximum size of the Legion was 4,500. Bose sought and obtained agreement from the German High Command for the rather remarkable terms under which
20384-520: The King-Emperor. The Free India Centre—in charge of the legion after the departure of Bose—faced a number of grievances from legionaries. The foremost were that Bose had abandoned them and left them entirely in German hands, and a perception that the Wehrmacht was now going to use them in the Western Front instead of sending them to fight for independence. The attitude of the Legion's soldiers
20580-583: The League's leadership, most notably Rash Behari Bose . Later on, the leadership of the Indian National Army was handed to Subhas Chandra Bose . A large number of the INAs initial volunteers, however, later went on to join the INA in its second incarnation under Subhas Chandra Bose . This first incarnation of the Indian National Army was involved in operations of espionage in the Burma frontier which, according to some military historians and allied generals, threatened
20776-756: The Legion (from the 2nd Battalion) also saw action in Italy. Having been deployed in the spring of 1944, it faced the British V Corps and the Polish II Corps , until it was withdrawn from the front to be used in anti-partisan operations . It surrendered in Italy to the Allied forces in April 1945. With the defeat of the Third Reich imminent in May 1945, the remainder of the Indian Legion stationed in Germany sought sanctuary in neutral Switzerland. They undertook
20972-454: The Legion was so much smaller than the INA and was not engaged in its originally conceived role. Bose's plans for the Legion, and even the INA, were too grandiose for their military capability, and their fate was too strongly tied to that of the Axis powers. Looking at the legacy of Azad Hind, however, historians consider both movements' military and political actions (of which the Legion was one of
21168-490: The Legion would serve in German military. German soldiers would train the Indians in all branches of infantry and motorized units in using weapons under the strictest military discipline, in the same way a German formation was trained; the Indian legionnaires were not to be mixed with any German structures; they were not to be sent to any front other than in India for fighting against the British, but would be allowed to fight in self-defence at any other place. In all other respects,
21364-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
21560-470: The Officers' Training School and Lt. Col. A.C. Chatterji (later Major A.D. Jahangir) as head of enlightenment and culture. A number of the officers and troops who had returned to PoW camps, or had not volunteered in the first place, made it known that they would be willing to join the INA only on the condition that it was led by Subhash Chandra Bose . Bose was a hard-line nationalist, previously having won
21756-457: The POWs and Indians expatriates in Germany were sent to Frankenberg camp near Chemnitz , to train and convince arriving POWs to join the legion. As the numbers of POWs joining the legion swelled, the legion was moved to Königsbrück for further training. It was at Königsbrück that uniforms were first issued, in German feldgrau with the badge of the leaping tiger of Azad Hind . The formation of
21952-539: The attention of the officers commanding the units. Soon, defection by British Indian troops had become a problem significant and regular enough in the Burma theatre to form a regular part of the intelligence summaries in the first half of 1943. The Quit India movement had reached a crescendo within India, while the continuing British reversals at Burma further affected the morale of the army. The Irwin 's First Campaign had been contained and then beaten back by inferior Japanese forces at Donbaik. Intelligence analysis of
22148-429: The authoritarian methods which he saw in Italy and Germany during the 1930s, and thought they could be used in building an independent India. Bose's view was not necessarily shared by the men of the Free India Legion, and they were not wholly party to Nazi ideology or in collaboration with the Nazi machinery. The Legion's volunteers were not merely motivated by the chance to escape imprisonment and earn money. Indeed, when
22344-456: The basis of religion and regional or caste identity. Bose sought to end this practice and build up one unified Indian identity among the men who would fight for independence. Consequently, the Indian Legion was organised as mixed units so that Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs all served side by side. Sources gave varying demographics for the Legion. Most sources put the demographics at two third Hindus, and one third Muslims and other religious including
22540-525: The centre stage. By the time that the pan-Asiatic regained any prominence, Japan's aggressive and often nihilistic war in China had robbed her of the high ground that Japan held among the Indian population, and among Indian nationalist leadership. At the outbreak of the war in south-east Asia, Japan had not formulated any concrete policy with regards to India. Its headquarters lacked any India experts, while civilian experts on India were few in Japan. India
22736-564: The close relation of Fujiwara and Mohan Singh was not replicated after the I-Kikan replaced Fujiwara's office. Iwakuro was considered less idealistic and romantic than Fujiwara. Iwakuro took his post at a time the Pacific War faced a higher priority among Japanese forces for materiel . and did not use his expertise to encourage the "true Indian army" that Fujiwara had envisioned. By some accounts he only engaged in as much development of
22932-460: The connection of the two Asian nations, their heritage, and the vision of pan-Asianism. After the end of World War I, Japan increasingly became a haven for radical Indian nationalists in exile, who were protected by patriotic Japanese societies. Notable among these included Rash Behari Bose , Taraknath Das , A M Sahay as well as others. The protections offered to these nationalists effectively prevented British efforts to repatriate them and became
23128-446: The counsel of Rash Behari Bose . Rash Behari Bose had lived in self-exile in Japan since the 1920s. He encouraged the formation of the INA, but also sought to attach it to a central civilian authority speaking for and encouraging Indian civilian Indian population of the region to become a part of it. The framework of local Indian associations that existed before the war reached Malaya were rekindled. In December 1941, after meeting with
23324-485: The cruel nature of the Japanese and would further affirm their decision to not join the INA in May 1942. In April 1942, as the discussions and the process of setting up the Indian Independence League and defining the aims of the movement carried on, Mohan Singh convened a meeting of a group of his officers to frame what is now called the Bidadary resolution. This resolution announced that: Indians stood above all differences of caste, community, or religion. Independence
23520-446: The department of Indre during their retreat, and some elements of the unit also undertook anti-partisan operations in Italy. However, events that occurred within India after the war indicate that in political terms Bose may have been successful. After the war, the soldiers and officers of the Free India Legion were brought as prisoners to India, where they were to be brought to trial in courts-martial along with Indians who had been in
23716-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
23912-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
24108-702: The downfall of the Raj. The first troops of the Indian Legion were recruited from Indian POWs captured at El Mekili, Libya during the battles for Tobruk . The German forces in the Western Desert selected a core group of 27 POWs as potential officers and they were flown to Berlin in May 1941, to be followed, after the Centro I experiment, by POWs being transferred from the Italian forces to Germany. The number of POWs transferred to Germany grew to about 10,000 who were eventually housed at Annaburg camp, where Bose first met with them. A first group of 300 volunteers from
24304-482: The earliest elements, and an integral part of Bose's plans) and the indirect effect they had on the era's events. In German histories of the Second World War, the Legion is noted less than other foreign volunteer units. Film-maker and author Merle Kröger [ de ] , however, made the 2003 mystery novel Cut! about soldiers from the Legion in France. She said she found them an excellent topic for
24500-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
24696-697: The effort had little acceptance from the Indians in the unit, who did not wish to serve under Italian officers. After Italy lost the Second Battle of El Alamein , the Indians mutinied when told to fight in Libya. Consequently, the remnants of the battalion were disbanded in November 1942. Although the Indian National Congress (INC), the organisation leading the struggle for Indian independence, had passed resolutions conditionally supporting
24892-705: The end of 1941, India had started featuring prominently in the Japanese policies. By early 1942, Tōjō 's speeches to the Diet included specific references to the independence of India and to decisions to strike the British colonial authority in India. Specific plans for the invasion of India were, however, not formulated. The Japanese IGHQ in October set up the Fujiwara Kikan , or the F-kikan, in Bangkok , headed by
25088-511: The failure, as well as Irwin's own personal analysis of the campaign, attributed significant demoralisation and rising discontentment amongst Indian troops due to the subversive activity of INA agents at the frontline, as well as rising nationalist (or " Pro-Congress ") sentiments. Although the Congress had conditionally supported the Allied war effort, following failure of the Cripps mission ,
25284-443: The fall of Singapore, these troops grew to number nearly 2,500. There was significant deviation from the British Indian Army. Officers were organised into a single class, a common kitchen (opposed to caste -based kitchen as had been the norm), common slogans were adopted. All these efforts attempted to bridge any communal and casteist rivalries that were accepted or even institutionalised in the British Indian Army. On 10 March 1942,
25480-527: The fight against fascism, some Indian public opinion was more hostile toward Britain's unilateral decision to declare India a belligerent on the side of the Allies. Among the more rebellious Indian political leaders of the time was Subhas Chandra Bose , a former INC president, who was viewed as a potent enough threat by the British that he was arrested when the war started. Bose escaped from house arrest in India in January 1941 and made his way through Afghanistan to
25676-403: The fight for India's Independence. The INA was revived , and the units of dissolved INA were incorporated into Bose's army. The Hindustan Field Force formed the nucleus of the new INA's 2nd division, to form the 1st Infantry regiment. The first INA, therefore, formed the nucleus of the army under Bose's leadership, which he proclaimed the army of his Provisional Government of Free India . It drew
25872-414: The first POWs were brought to Annaburg and met with Subhas Chandra Bose, there was marked and open hostility towards him as a Nazi propaganda puppet. Once Bose's efforts and views had gained more sympathy, a persistent query among the POWs was 'How would the legionary stand in relation to the German soldier?'. The Indians were not prepared to simply fight for Germany's interests, after abandoning their oath to
26068-639: The formation of the Indian National Army— he and other representatives of the INA and IIL, were invited to attend a conference in Tokyo at Rash Behari Bose 's invitation. Rash Behari Bose also invited members of the Indian National Council to this meeting, which saw the declaration of the formation of the All-Malayan Indian Independence league . The League became the liaising organisation with
26264-426: The high-command and significantly hindered the Allied war effort. In south-east Asia, this was perceived as the signal that the INA and the League expected to receive to start its war. Intelligence summaries initially did not believe the INA to be a substantial force or have any purpose more than propaganda and espionage purposes. However, by the end of 1942, they had become aware of trained Indian espionage agents (of
26460-542: The home of Hinduism and from the second decade of the 20th century, the home of Gandhian philosophy , had been an attraction for Japanese and Buddhist and literary figures. India, in the meantime, looked to Japan as an inspiration of a model industrialised, advancing Asian society and nationhood. The Japanese victory over Russia in 1905 had furthered the inspiration Japan infused, especially among Indian nationalists. Noted Indian and Japanese cultural figures, including Okakura Tenshin and Rabindranath Tagore acknowledged
26656-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
26852-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
27048-721: The intelligence services played a significant role in the failure of Noel Irwin 's First Arakan Offensive . Earnest organisation of the INA in preparation for the battle began after news of Quit India had reached South-east Asia. This uprising within India was taken to be the signal from Congress and Indian people that the INA and the league had been waiting for. Iwakuro visited Tokyo in August 1942, and on his return had expected to train and equip 15,000 men over three months. These men were to be moved to Burma in stages to avoid concentrating in Singapore. Mohan Singh's ambition, however, outpaced Iwakuro. Lists of men intending to enlist were collected from individual camp commanders. Hugh Toye,
27244-519: The ire of Mohan Singh and League members. The final straw to this was a report to the council by an officer of the situation in Burma, where Japanese military administration refused or prevaricated to handover abandoned Indian property to the league, as demanded n the Bangkok resolutions. A group of Japanese officers meeting league members had very candidly declined to attach any importance to the Bangkok resolutions or to Indians. Amidst worsening tensions,
27440-506: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . First Indian National Army The First Indian National Army ( First INA ) was the Indian National Army as it existed between February and December 1942. It was formed with Japanese aid and support after the Fall of Singapore and consisted of approximately 12,000 of
27636-399: The leadership and the officer corps, were also transferred to Azad Hind after its formation, and saw action in the INA's Burma Campaign. A segment of the Free India Legion fought against British and Polish Forces in Italy in 1944. Large number of Indian troops had begun arriving in Malayan peninsula and Singapore by 1941, as a part of defensive preparations for possible war with Japan. It
27832-517: The legion was very shortly transferred from Obersturmbannführer Kurt Krapp to Oberführer Heinz Bertling. The Indian personnel noticed a change of command was at hand and started to complain. Noting he wasn't "wanted", Bertling soon agreed to be relieved of command. On 15 August, the unit pulled out of Lacanau to make its way back to Germany. On the second leg of this journey, from Poitiers to Châteauroux , it suffered its first combat casualty, Lieutenant Ali Khan, while engaging French regular forces in
28028-511: The legion's formation, as part of his efforts to win India's independence by waging war against Britain, when he came to Berlin in 1941 seeking German aid. The initial recruits in 1941 were volunteers from the Indian students resident in Germany at the time, and a handful of the Indian prisoners of war who had been captured during the North African campaign . It later drew a larger number of Indian prisoners of war as volunteers. Though it
28224-550: The legionnaires would enjoy the same facilities and amenities regarding pay, clothing, food, leave, etc., as German soldiers. As for the unit's eventual deployments in the Netherlands and France, they were ostensibly for training purposes, according to Bose's plans for the unit to be trained in some aspects of coastal defence . After the invasion of France by the Allies, the unit was ordered back to Germany, so that it would not participate in fighting for German military interests. The British Indian Army organised regiments and units on
28420-431: The local Indian population and the Japanese. In June, the formation of an all-Indian IIL was proclaimed at Bangkok. In June 1942, a second conference was held in Bangkok with Rash Behari Bose as chair. This conference saw the adoption of a resolution declaring the INA sub-ordinate to the League. K.P.K Menon, Nedyam Raghavan were civilian members among the civilian members of the council while Mohan Singh and an officer by
28616-412: The major Axis Powers sought to support armed revolutionary activities in India, and aided the recruitment of a military force from Indian prisoners of war (POWs) captured while serving in the British Indian Army, and Indian expatriates . The most notable and successful Indian force to fight with the Axis was the Indian National Army (INA) in southeast Asia, that came into being with the support of
28812-575: The morale of Indian troops and fed discontentment and was partly responsible for the failure of the first Burma offensive. Operatives of the INA were also landed in the Indian coast by submarine for planned espionage operations within India. Coming at the time that the Quit India Movement had raised turmoil within British India, the threat of the INA affecting British Indian troops and INA operatives mounting espionage within India saw
29008-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
29204-459: The name of Gilani were to be the INA's members. The Bangkok resolution further reaffirmed the Bidadary resolution that the INA was only to go to war when the Congress and the Indian population wished it to. On the back of the success of the INA, Fujiwara suggested in January 1942 expanding the work of the F-Kikan to all parts of Asia. In the spring of 1942, based on Fujiwara's own proposals, he
29400-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
29596-547: The nucleus what came to be the Indian National Army was born. The units that were formed in this predecessor of the INA numbered about 200. They were volunteers from within the British Indian soldiers captured in Malaya. They were issued rifles and given armbands bearing the letter "F". They were organised into units and trained and worked along with those already under Pritam Singh in Malaya and Thailand . They were further tasked to work amongst fighting British-Indian Army units to foment dissent and encourage defection. Before
29792-408: The presidency of Indian National Congress in the 1930s in the face of staunch opposition from Gandhi , who disagreed with Bose's approach to radical nationalism. Bose had, at the start of the war in Europe, escaped from house arrest to make his way first to the Soviet Union and then to Germany, reaching Berlin on 2 April 1941. In a series of meetings between the INA leaders and the Japanese in 1943, it
29988-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
30184-478: The remaining men of the Indian Legion made efforts to march to neutral Switzerland over the Alps , but they were captured by American and French troops and eventually shipped back to India to face charges of treason . After the uproar the trials of Indians who served with the Axis caused among civilians and the military of British India, the legion members' trials were not completed. The idea of raising an armed force that would fight its way into India to bring down
30380-471: The start of a propaganda campaign in the British Indian Army and a news ban on the unit that was not to be lifted till after the war ended. With the onset of the Second World War all the three major Axis Powers , at some stage of their campaign against Britain, sought to support and exploit Indian nationalism . They aided the recruitment of a military force from within Indian expatriates, and from disaffected Indian prisoners-of-war captured while serving with
30576-492: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
30772-449: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
30968-405: The thirty-four points of the Bangkok resolution, the INA and the IIL raised a number of questions and sought clarifications. These included the role and position of India in Japan's co-prosperity sphere, Japan's intentions in – and towards – an independent India. These were presented via the Iwakuro Kikan after the Bangkok conference, and a point-by-point answer were demanded for each. Tokyo, however,
31164-417: The town of Dun . The unit also engaged with Allied armour at Nuits-Saint-Georges while retreating across the Loire to Dijon . It was regularly harassed by the French Resistance, suffering two more casualties (Lieutenant Kalu Ram and Captain Mela Ram). The unit moved from Remiremont through Alsace to Camp Heuberg in Germany in the winter of 1944, where it stayed until March 1945. The 9th Company of
31360-407: The troops of forming the Indian National Army to fight for an independent India, and invited the troops to join it. As an Indian Jawan present at the time remembers, Mohan Singh's speech was powerful and touched a chord, and the troops responded with wild enthusiasm and excitement. It is estimated that nearly half of those present at Farrer Park later joined the first INA. Significantly however,
31556-405: The unit was partially motorised. It was equipped with 81 motor vehicles and 700 horses. In this structure, the legion came to consist of: It also included hospital, training, and maintenance staff. It is doubtful that Subhas Chandra Bose envisaged the Free India Legion would ever be an army sufficient or strong enough to conduct an effective campaign across Persia into India on its own. Instead,
31752-431: The war, such as the Russian Vlasov movement . One viewpoint sees it as a collaborationist unit of the Third Reich; the other views it as the realisation of a liberation army to fight against the British Raj. Unlike the Indian National Army, conceived with the same doctrine, it has had little exposure since the end of the war, even in independent India. This is because it was far removed from India, unlike Burma, and because
31948-467: The work of the Hindustan field force threatened to destroy the Sepoy 's loyalty in the British Indian Army , This threat was perceived significant enough that the failure of the First Arakan Offensive was attributed by Commonwealth commanders to the "lack of martial skills of eastern races". British intelligence began the Jiffs propaganda campaign after this to preserve the sepoy' s moral and loyalty. At this time also began efforts to improve morale
32144-438: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
32340-415: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
32536-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
32732-404: Was also to include a heavy gun battalion, a company each of transport corps, signal corps, engineering corps and a company of medical corps. The remaining four regiments, designated Gandhi , Nehru and Azad regiment, were to be a part of what was called the Sherdil Guerrilla group, each with three battalions. An additional Special Services Group was intended for long-range infiltration, and
32928-407: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
33124-419: Was approximately three times the width of the coloured bands. The words "Azad" and "Hind" in white were inscribed over the saffron and green bands respectively, and over the white middle band was a leaping tiger. This is essentially the same design that the Azad Hind Government later adopted as their flag (although photographic evidence shows that the Indian National Army, at least during the Burma Campaign, used
33320-421: Was attractive. It would also have been consistent with the idea that Japanese expansion into Asia was part of an effort to support Asian government of Asia and against western colonialism. Nonetheless, the task of establishing a stable orderly state if the independence movement succeeded would be enormous. The army would be occupied in China and the Manchuria-Russia border and in the newly occupied territories. It
33516-427: Was decided to cede the leadership of the IIL and the INA to Subhas Chandra Bose . In January 1943, the Japanese invited Bose to lead the Indian nationalist movement in East Asia. He accepted and left Germany on 8 February. After a three-month journey by submarine, and a short stop in Singapore, he reached Tokyo on 11 May 1943, where he made a number of radio broadcasts to the Indian communities, exhorting them to join in
33712-411: Was enraged to find a number of his students dispatched to India without his approval or permission. Japanese efforts to censor Indian broadcasting in Singapore also brought forth rank disagreements which had culminated in the arrest of the Indian director of broadcasting. In addition to this, non-committal replies from Japan on the points raised by the council for action in the Bangkok resolutions raised
33908-427: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
34104-439: Was estimated that were some 37 000 Indian troops stationed in these areas, making up roughly about the 40 percent of the total military strength of the British forces. The British-Indian troops swelled from 200 000 to 900 000 between 1939 and 1941. However, these deployments were beset with a number of problems. The troops were spread too thinly, with insufficient resources and supplies in the Malay Peninsula and Singapore. Further,
34300-439: Was every Indian's birthright. An Indian National Army would be raised to fight for it. The resolution further specified that the army would go to battle only when the Congress and the people of India asked it to. It did not, however, specify the army was to interact with the Japanese forces. This resolution was circulated among the Indian PoWs, followed by tour of the mainland camps by Mohan Singh and Fujiwara. The PoW headquarters
34496-532: Was followed by the capture of a number of other operatives by Commonwealth forces. Both Hugh Toye and Joyce Lebra conclude in their research that Gill was, in fact, intending to escape back to commonwealth forces also. However, he was summoned back from Burma to Singapore by this time in November. Other members of the Indian Council also voiced their concerns and displeasure at what was seen as Japanese intrusion into INA's work. Raghavan, in charge of Swaraj schools training intelligence and espionage agents in Singapore,
34692-405: Was initially raised as an assault group that would form a pathfinder to a German–Indian joint invasion of the western frontiers of British India , only a small contingent was ever put to its original intended purpose. A small contingent, including much of the Indian officer corps and enlisted leadership, was transferred to the Indian National Army in South-East Asia . The majority of the troops of
34888-454: Was logistically impossible, and there is no documentary evidence of it taking place. The legion was transferred to Zeeland in the Netherlands in April 1943 as part of the Atlantic Wall and later to France in September 1943, attached to the 344th Infantry Division and later the 159th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht . From Beverloo in Belgium, the 1st Battalion was reassigned to Zandvoort in May 1943 where they stayed until relieved by
35084-501: Was made to land these troops in Sri Lanka by submarine . Singapore surrendered on 15 February 1942. On the evening of the 16th, the Indian troops of the now amalgamated 1/14th and 5/14th Punjab were ordered by the Malaya command of the Commonwealth forces to assemble at Farrer Park . The British officers were, in the meantime, ordered to assemble east to Changi . On the morning of 17 February 1942, some 45,000 Indian POWs who gathered at Farrer Park where addressed by in turns, first by
35280-409: Was made up of Indian prisoners of war and expatriates in Europe. Owing to its origins in the Indian independence movement , it was known also as the "Tiger Legion", and the "Azad Hind Fauj". As part of the Waffen-SS it was known as the Indian Volunteer Legion of the Waffen-SS ( German : Indische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen-SS ). Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose initiated
35476-409: Was mainly from the intelligence and subversion training schools that the first frictions arose between the Indians and Japanese, as the trainees began to be sent before completing their training and without knowledge or consent of the Indian leaders. By late 1942, the divisions appeared as the Indian troops increasingly felt as pawns in the hands of the Japanese. Anticipating a thrust towards Imphal, both
35672-422: Was not able to give assurances of the kind sought by the league and the INA, which was seen as unacceptable to the council formed at the time of the Bangkok conference. The Indian National Congress had conditionally supported the Allied war effort, and the Indian expatriate nationalists were concerned during this early phase that they might be seen as Quislings . This was particularly strong amongst members of
35868-457: Was one of the most prominent leaders of the Indian movement at the time (rivalling Gandhi in stature), arrived in Germany in April 1941 after escaping from house arrest in Calcutta . He met with Hitler (with whom he had one meeting) and the Nazi high command, making the case for raising an Indian unit from Rommel 's Indian prisoners of war from the battlefields of Europe and Africa, as the nucleus of an Indian Liberation force. The Indische Legion
36064-461: Was peripheral to Japanese war plans at least through 1941. It did not feature in the plans for Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere , which focused on south-east Asia up to the Indo-Burmese border. From late 1941 the Japanese began to profess increasing support for the Indian Independence movement. Exiles like Rash Behari Bose had already voiced their demands to the Japanese authorities that support and pursuit of Indian Independence be an aim of
36260-408: Was preserved to hasten operational deployments. Almost 16,000 men comprised this first division of the INA. According to the reviews available, the INA was to be organised of twelve infantry battalions of 650 troops, organised into four guerrilla regiments of 2000 men. Battalion and regimental commanders were appointed on 5 September, and assumed their commands on 8 and 9 September. A few days later it
36456-423: Was primarily a propaganda move of initiating anti-British sentiments among civilians and soldiers in South-east Asia, and some Indian organisations like the Thai-Bharat Cultural Lodge held mistrust of the Japanese, and of local Indians who worked with them. The lodge preferred to work independently, and used Thai-donated equipment and the German embassy in Bangkok to Liaise directly with Subhas Chandra Bose . By
36652-416: Was replaced by Col. Hideo Iwakuro . The Iwakuro Kikan (I-Kikan) was considerably larger, with some 250 officers and with offices in Rangoon , Penang , Saigon and Hong Kong. Iwakuro, the founder of the Army intelligence school Rikugun Nakano Gakko , was aware that the IGHQ did not have immediate plans to invade India. Using his expertise in intelligence and special missions , Iwakuro sought to train
36848-406: Was reviewed by Rash Behari Bose and Mohan Singh. The first of these was the Hindustan Field Force, under the command of J.K. Bhonsle . The unit was formed at Singapore and comprised three battalions derived from troops of the 17th Dogra Regiment , Garhwal Rifles and the 14th Punjab Regiment (now a part of the Pakistani Army ) and had a strength of nearly 2000 troops. The Hindustan Field force
37044-459: Was seen to be lacking legitimacy by the troops. By November 1942, following the defeats in El Alamein , the Italian efforts had failed. German motives and intentions with relation to India were more complex. The German Foreign office wanted to support Indian revolutionaries and nationalists, but there is consensus that, ultimately, Hitler held the belief that the British had to rule over the unfit Indian masses. However Subhas Chandra Bose , who
37240-399: Was set up at Neesoon under M. Z. Kiani . Other smaller PoW camps housing Indian troops were set up at Bidadari, Tyersall, Buller, Seletar and Kranji . To Lt. Col N.S Gill went the overall direction of PoW. It would not be until 9 May 1942 that the INA would come into full effect. However, following the events of Farrer Park, Indians in Singapore begun to enjoy special privileges during
37436-428: Was similar to that of the Italian Battaglione Azad Hindoustan , which had been of dubious loyalty to the Axis cause—it was disbanded after a mutiny. In one instance, immediately prior to the first deployment of the Legion in the Netherlands in April 1943, after the departure of the 1st Battalion from Königsbrück, two companies within the 2nd Battalion refused to move until convinced by Indian leaders. Even in Asia, where
37632-422: Was subsequently arrested by the Japanese and exiled to Pulau Ubin . A number of the Indian troops who chose to revert to PoW were subsequently sent away to labour camps in New Guinea or to work in the Death railway . Between December 1942 and February 1943, Rash Behari Bose tried but failed to keep the IIL and INA going. Thousands of INA soldiers returned to the status of POWs(prisoners of war) again and most of
37828-403: Was subsequently dissolved and the staff were transferred to Mohan Singh's supreme command. On 9 May, Singh began recruiting for the INA. The process involved identifying units that were most likely to come up with volunteers. These units were transferred to Neesoon and Bidadary, while the other units were shipped away to other camps. In April 1942— the same month as Mohan Singh formally declared
38024-408: Was thus formed. In January 1942, a small contingent parachuted into Eastern Iran with a Brandenburg unit to commence sabotage operations against the British. Most of the legion however only ever saw action in Europe, fighting as a Heer unit and later incorporated into the Waffen SS (as were other national legions of the Wehrmacht) after the Allied invasion of France . Nearly thirty, including
38220-403: Was unlikely. Meanwhile, Bose had travelled to the Far East , where the Indian National Army was able to engage the Allies alongside the Japanese Army in Burma, and ultimately in northeastern India. The German Naval High Command at this time made the decision to transfer much of the leadership and a segment of the Free India Legion to South Asia, and on 21 January they were formally made a part of
38416-468: Was widely accepted that the Congress was anti-Japanese. Gandhi , even during the intense Quit India Movement , had categorically warned the Japanese "Make no mistake. You will be sadly disillusioned if you believe that you will receive a willing welcome from India" However, in April 1941, the Consul General to Calcutta had noted activities of the Forward Bloc . From Berlin , ambassador Oshima Hiroshi had reported on Subhas Bose 's organisation of
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