War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

76 WARBYREVOLUTION

TurkeyjoinedtheCentralPowersinthewarandBritainbeganboth

itsmilitaryassaultontheDardanellesanditsplanstodismember

theTurkishempire.

OrganizingagainstBritain in India
AttheendofSeptember1914,theForeignOfficelearned,apparently
fromtheBritishconsulinBasra,thatthirty-twosecretemissaries
fromTurkey,includingGermanofficers,were"ontheirwaytopreach
a'jehad'inIndia,Afghanistan,andBaluchistan.">A few weekslater
theBritishlegationinSwitzerlandreportedtoLondonthecoopera-
tionoflocalIndianrevolutionarieswithGermany"witha viewto
makingtroubleinIndia.?»
OfalltheforeignschemesfortheMiddleEastdevelopedby Ger-
manyduringWorldWarI,itsplansforIndiawereprobablythemost
far-fetchedandillusory.Ontheonehand,Germanyhadontheeve
ofthewaralmostnopresenceinIndia,exceptfor consulatesin
Calcutta,Bombay,andMadras,whichlookedafterGermantrade.>
ItsonlyothermajorlinkwithIndiainvolvedGermanscholars;sev-
eral,includingHelmuthvonGlasenapp,hiredduringthewar bythe
foreignministryandtheInformationService fortheEast,studied
IndianphilosophyandotheraspectsofthesubjectofIndology.On
theotherhand,evenifGermanyhadhadenoughtroopsatitsdis-
posalin1914,whichitdidnot,andiftheyhadbeentransportedto
Indiasomehow,itstillseemshighlydubiousthattheReichcould
havearousedtheIndianstorebelagainsttheircolonialmasters.v
TheIndiansdidnotrebelduringthewar,andinfact theysup-
portedBritainwithbothmoneyandtroops,ofwhichthousands
foughtanddiedinEuropeandtheMiddleEast.Thisresultednot
merelyfromconciliatorypoliciestowardIndiaadoptedbeforethe
war bytheviceroy,Hardinge.WhatparticularlyhelpeddampenIs-
lamicfervorwastheloyaltyoftheMuslimprincesinIndia,including
theAgaKhan,whoowedmuchoftheirauthoritytoBritain.Further-
more,fromthewar'sbeginningtheGovernmentofIndiasuccess-
fullyimplementedpoliticalmeasuresthatrenderedvirtuallyimpos-
sibleGerman,Turkish,andevennationalistIndianinfiltration.In
additiontopolicevigilancetowardrevolutionaries,especiallyinthe