When on 21 February 1918 the Bund der Freunde Indiens (Union of Friends of India) was founded in Berlin for the spreading of knowledge about India, A. R. Pillai along with other prominent Indians including Chempakaraman Pillai, Bhupendranath Datta, Mahendra Pratap and Naik and Germans like Admiral Recke, Hermann von Staden and L. Viereck joined the Bund. The first public activity of this new organisation was a reception held in honour of Raja Mahendra Pratap, "the most colourful Indian personality then in Germany" (also called "The Marco Polo of the East") on 13 April 1918. In a letter to A. R. Pillai, Mahendra Pratap wrote: "I am glad to hear that you are doing a useful service both to your country and mankind at large since the literary service to science is beneficial all round. I am also trying my best to serve our mutual cause according to my light." When the World War ended in the defeat of Germany and its allies, the Indian Independence Committee of Berlin wrote to A.R. Pillai (see letters below), saying that the Committee could not thereafter give him any financial aid or support to continue living in Germany and that he had to fend for himself. The British even after the War continued to prevent any letters or money from his home reaching him or his letters reaching anyone in India, considering him as an enemy of the British Crown; they would not also allow him to return to India unless he recanted and apologized, which he considered shameful and would not do.