Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c14.s3.t5.1

v2.c14.s3.t5.1

The Indian National Association of China was founded by Anand Mohan Sahay, an Indian political activist with close links to the Indian National Congress, who was based in Japan from the 1920s through the 1940s. While based in Japan, Sahay had carried on political activities for the cause of Indian freedom from the British rule and was associated with other Indian nationalists in East Asia eg Rash Behari Bose and Raja Mahendra Pratap. He sought and received some kind of approval from the Congress leadership in India to be considered as the representative of the Congress in Japan. However, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and then China made this difficult. Sahay appears to have written to Gandhi opposing the Congress’ unqualified support for the Chinese resistance and its denunciation of Japanese aggression. He also toured Manchuria and Shanghai in 1939, and spoke to many Chinese. While professing himself to be in sympathy with the Chinese, he nevertheless urged them not to fight with Western support against the Japanese, and preached unity between the Asian nations, India, China and Japan, against British imperialism. This position was not uncommon among Indian political activists in Asia at the time.