I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 190

British India was vast.

The ‘Indian Empire’ encompassed a huge land that included Burma, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and parts of modern Afghanistan. 

Its population of 400 million was larger than that of Europe, excluding the Soviet Union, and its vast area of 4.5 million square kilometers was also wider than Europe, excluding the Soviet Union.

To rule this vast land, Britain used all kinds of tricks.

It stirred up conflicts between ethnicities and religions, while also projecting its massive capital power.

But Britain’s power gradually declined. 

Its national strength, which had been shaken by the First World War, was finally broken by its archenemy Germany, who trampled on its homeland in the Second World War.

“Release the Congress! Release them!”

“Britain, get out! Get out!”

Taking advantage of this gap, the Indian National Congress, led by Gandhi and Nehru, launched the ‘Quit India’ movement in 1942. But this movement, which demanded a orderly withdrawal of Britain from the Indian subcontinent, was quickly crushed by the British authorities who ruled India.

After Gandhi’s ‘Quit India’ speech, the members of the Indian National Congress were swiftly arrested by the Imperial Police and the British troops stationed in India.

The Congress leaders, who were arrested without warrants under the pretext of banning migration during the war, were still in prison even after the war officially ended with the defeat of the Axis.

“Release them! Release them!”

“Get out! Get out of India!”

The Indian capitalists, who had made huge profits from the enormous war expenditures and had enjoyed the spoils of imperialism, supported Britain’s war and took the lead in suppressing the Indian independence movement.

But even after the war ended, the Congress leaders did not expect to be released, and Britain, which was suffering from a budget deficit, was in economic distress.

After the war, the British, who had promised to grant independence, now plundered the Indian subcontinent to fill their homeland’s poverty and devoted themselves to taxation and extortion.

“We can’t starve any longer! My child is dying!”

“India wants independence! Britain, the plunderer, get out!”

“Charge!!!”

The Imperial Police, who saw the angry crowds rushing in, drew their swords and raised their dark sabers toward the protesters.

“Damn it… Why don’t they just keep fighting with non-violence and non-resistance…”

“Then they would have been swept away sooner.”

Gandhi’s ‘Satyagraha’ (non-violence and non-resistance) movement never resorted to any violence, not even guns or trivial stones, against the British.

The British felt a sublime fear when they saw them being trampled or dragged as they pleased.

But now they were afraid for a different reason.

“My brothers, my body is falling apart, but my spirit is with you. Until the day of India’s independence…”

“Oh, Mahatma!”

“My God…”

Mahatma Gandhi was now in prison, refusing all food and fasting again.

Nehru, Gandhi, and other top leaders were afraid of influencing the outside world even in prison, so their letters and visits were all banned, but the damned rats seemed to have smuggled out Gandhi’s letter.

The police, who gritted their teeth and said they had to punish the guards, looked at the protesters who were getting more and more angry and excited.

“My fast is now approaching two weeks. In fact, I have no more attachment to this land. My wife, Kasturba, died of fasting for me. My longtime comrade and secretary, Mahadev, also died. I’m starting to get a fever again. When my consciousness becomes blurred, I can’t hold a pen anymore. My brothers, the brothers of India…”

The young speaker, who was reading Gandhi’s letter, could not read any more and started to cry, and the crowd also burst into tears.

“Mahatma is in critical condition in prison. They say it’s malaria, but…”

Another young man shouted to the people with a loudspeaker. 

They said it was malaria, but they didn’t know exactly what was causing Gandhi’s critical condition.

They only knew too well that the indirect cause was Britain’s imprisonment and the poor treatment in prison.

“Release him! Release him!!!”

“Britain, get out! Get out of India!”

The crowd’s mood became more and more fierce, and the police, who formed a scrum to prevent the Indians from advancing to the government building, pushed back their sabers, but retreated one step at a time.

At the same time, the surviving underground members of the Congress were broadcasting on the radio.

[This is the Voice of India, the Voice of India. Our great leader Mahatma Gandhi’s health is deteriorating day by day, while the British government is ignoring the demand of all Indians for independence and giving no response…]

“Oh, my, what’s going to happen? Honey?”

“…”

There were few households with radios, but in those few households, the whole village people gathered and talked about today’s broadcast.

Since one day, the underground broadcast of the Congress, <The Voice of India>, was the most listened to broadcast by the Indians. Even in rural villages, people gathered and listened with curiosity to what had happened.

As the news of Mahatma Gandhi, who was revered by many Indians, being in critical condition in prison spread, public opinion boiled up from the countryside.

The old woman with white hair asked her son, who clenched his fist, but he said nothing. 

The old woman also lost her words when she saw her son’s face, which was bloodshot and bleeding from biting his lips.

“My son…”

“Yes, mother…”

“This kid… a blunt stone is right, stop it…”

The son clenched his fist tighter. The wrinkled and knotted hand of the mother stroked the son’s clenched fist.

“You should back off, you have to be safe with your one body… This mother doesn’t want anything else…”

“Mother.”

“Yes…?”

“I’m sorry.”

As Gandhi’s fast exceeded 15 days and headed towards 20 days, the flames of protest grew stronger throughout India.

***

“Those ungrateful bastards… Damn it!”

“…”

The bureaucrats at the U.S. State Department spat out low curses as they received the ‘notification’ from the British government.

“Why can’t they do it! Do they have the power to keep that land? Huh!”

“…Britain is no longer the British Empire after losing India.”

The State Department officials shook their heads. 

The Conservative Party, which won the election, was trying to make Britain ‘great again’ by squeezing out the colonies.

This was completely contrary to the intention of the U.S., Franklin Roosevelt, who secretly hoped for the dismantling of the colonial empires.

Roosevelt thought that the world should be integrated into one economic zone.

‘Wasn’t it because they closed their doors and sucked the colonies dry during the Great Depression that the second war broke out?’

From the perspective of the U.S., which had no significant colonies, the dismantling of the British colonial empire meant opening up new markets. 

And since they interpreted that protectionism caused the Second World War, Roosevelt wanted to see the colonial empires collapse somehow.

In addition, if the Soviet Union, the largest country in the world, joined the U.S.-led market, the world would never be able to wage such a terrible war again because of mutual dependence! Not a few State Department officials sympathized with Roosevelt’s plan.

The Soviet Union, sensing this intention, imported a large amount of U.S. goods and exported massive natural resources and gold, becoming increasingly entangled with the U.S. in trade.

But now Britain was turning the tables!

“If they can’t give India independence, at least try to get the Indian National Congress out of prison. We’re talking about defending freedom and democracy, but the so-called allies are locking people up in solitary confinement for years without warrants. How does that make sense?”

“That also has the potential for internal interference…”

“We’ve given them so much money, and now they’re talking nonsense! Damn Tommy bastards!”

But the U.S. was also having a hard time doing anything decisive to Britain.

At the moment, the only allies left in Europe for the U.S. were ‘bad students’.

“Phew… Franco, this bastard, I told him to release the political prisoners, but he’s already executed them all and there’s no one left to release. South Italy is so rotten that they’re doing all kinds of crap. And Britain in the meantime…”

The only allies that could be said to be in the U.S. hands were Spain, Portugal, South Italy and Benelux, and Britain. 

Among the four Nordic countries, Finland was virtually incorporated into the Soviet sphere of influence after being trampled by the Red Army for invading the Soviet Union, and Norway, Sweden, and Denmark declared strict neutrality.

But what if Britain also split over the colonial issue? It was no different from being expelled from Europe.

Troublesome bastards… The State Department was grinding its teeth and wondering how to deal with them.

***

“India for Indians! Indian land for Indian farmers! <The Voice of India> will inform you of the position of the Indian National Congress on land distribution after India’s independence today.”

The basement of a shabby building in Calcutta. This place, which looked like it would collapse soon, had various radio broadcasting equipment in the basement.

There were surprisingly many foreigners in this secret hideout of the Indian independence activists who broadcasted <The Voice of India>. And that…

“Why is the Soviet Union giving such full support?”

“It’s simple. In fact, the question should be the opposite.”

Bhimrao Ambedkar, who was sitting in his seat and looking at the Soviet adviser with a displeased eye, changed his expression again at the vague words of the Soviet adviser.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Our Soviet Union has been working hard to achieve the independence of the colonized peoples and the resolution of the class problem since its founding. Even if we cooperated with Britain for a while against the common enemy Germany… the colonial empire and the Soviet Union are actually incompatible.”

“…”

The Soviet adviser smiled faintly and spoke in fluent English.

He offered a huge amount of gold from the ‘Kremlin’ to support the Indian independence movement. He even provided equipment to broadcast.

Of course, when someone showed such kindness, one had to doubt their intentions. But in the midst of the world’s silence, this help was even touching.

Ambedkar, who was born as an untouchable (Dalit), received education and rose to prominence under British rule. 

He was discriminated against by either the Hindu Indians of the upper caste who had oppressed him, or the British who discriminated against the Indians in every way.

So he opposed Gandhi, who was a devout Hindu and discriminated against the untouchables, even though he followed Gandhi’s line of ‘Satyagraha’ and led the untouchables in his hometown.

What was the point of independence if the untouchables still remained untouchables after India was liberated! He argued against his compatriots who criticized him for working as an adviser to the Viceroy of India. The British, at least, were willing to discuss giving the untouchables a constituency and representation.

But now a new ally appeared. One who spoke of liberation from colonialism and class discrimination.

“…Why did you come now…”