Indo-German Contact Through the Lens of Gender: Three Cases of Anti-Imperialist Miscegenation: Dr. Zakir Husain, Virendrenath “Chatto” Chattopadhyaya, and S.C. Bose

Abstract

This chapter examines the connections between male Hindu nationalists and German women during the first half of the twentieth century. These relationships, subversive for their time, inverted the gendered hierarchy of male colonizers and feminine indigenous subjects. Dr. Zakir Husain had a friendship with Jewish German Gerda Philipsborn that saved her from the Nazis. Virendrenath “Chatto” Chattopadhyaya, leader of the First World War Berlin Committee, had relationships with several European women. Subhas Chandra “Netaji” (Great Leader) Bose had a daughter with the Austrian Emilie Schenkl during the 1930s. These interracial relationships reveal an intersection of anti-imperialist struggle and overcoming racism in public struggles and personal lives.