Knowledge of India as an Instrument of Nazi Politics: Ludwig Alsdorf, German Indology and Indian Anti-Colonialism

Abstract

Ludwig Alsdorf (1904–1978) is primarily remembered as a scholar of ancient and medieval India. This paper examines a little known aspect of Alsdorf’s career: his role as an expert of modern India in Nazi Germany. Alsdorf, who was in India from 1930 to 1932, joined the NSDAP and a few of its subsidiaries after 1933. Political contacts as well as his claims of having “first-hand experience” of India secured Alsdorf writing assignments that aimed to fulfil the regime’s political objectives. In return, he gained professional advancement and the reputation of being an authority on modern India. This paper reviews Alsdorf’s trajectory within the NS state by focussing on the following aspects: the ways in which Alsdorf offered his knowledge of India to the Nazi regime; the material and symbolic resources that he received in return; the relative importance of political affiliations, professional networks and academic accomplishments for Alsdorf’s career; the “politics of the past” practised by Alsdorf and some of peers after 1945; and the (re)presentation of the “uses” of Indology in the “Third Reich” and in the Federal Republic of Germany by Alsdorf and his colleagues.