India in World War II
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When England went to war on September 3, 1939, the Dominions had the right to decide in their legislatures whether to fight. Ireland remained neutral; Canada waited a few days to show their independence. India, with colonial status, had no such choice. India went to war when England went to war.
The India Congress Party, led by Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawarhal Nehru, controlled the provincial legislatures. Rather than support the war, the Congress Party pulled their deputies out of the legislatures. With only the Nazis to fight, Indian units gave good service in North Africa; but the Indian public did not mobilize to support the war.
In 1941, India went from colonial combatant to potential battlefield when the Japanese attacked the Western powers. India became the scene of political upheaval. Gandhi and Nehru tied Indian participation in the war to Indian independence. Rioting and strikes led to the outlawing of the Congress Party in August 1942.
Gandhi's political rival, Chandra Bose, went to Berlin and then Tokyo to raise an Indian National Army out of exiles and POWs captured in Singapore. Many POWs claimed they were coerced into joining. Bose raised 7,000 and joined the Japanese when they invaded India in March 1944.
In Kohima-Imphal, the British and Indian units waged a running battle with the Japanese and Indian Nationalists, who were poorly supplied and far from their base of operations. By August 1944 the invasion was repelled.
Bose and the Axis powers had assumed that there was widespread contempt for England in India. In fact, Indians would support both England and the war effort. 2,000,000 Indians served in the Army, and 24,000 were killed. Major infrastructure was built to support both the Indian Army and the Allied Armies. By war's end, most of the Indian Army's officers were Indian. With food shortages after the fall of Burma, some 1,500,000 Indians died of starvation during the war.
Bose died in 1945, enigmatically dying in a plane crash on his way to Japan. Many have criticized his alliance with Germany and Japan, since they had no real support for Asian independence and committed many reprisals against civilians. The surviving members of the Indian National Congress were put on trial in 1945 by the British Colonial Administration, and they received huge public attention as support for independence grew.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, turned over the government to Nehru in 1947.
Internet Links
Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian National Army, and The War of India's Liberation
India in World War II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
China Burma India Theater of World War II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battle of Imphal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ledo Road - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battle of Kohima - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Indian National Army - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HyperWar: The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II: India-Burma
'U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II: India-Burma' -- A brief history of US Army operations in 1942.
HyperWar: World War II: China-Burma-India Theater of Operations: Contents
History of World War II, China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. Includes HTML versions of official US Army, US Army Air Forces, US Marine Corps, and US Navy histories; and more.
CHINA-BURMA-INDIA - Remembering the Forgotten Theater of World War II
China-Burma-India - Remembering the Forgotten Theater of World War II - Menu for over 80 sites related to the CBI Theater
India World War II - Flags, Maps, Economy, History, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System
India World War II - Flags, Maps, Economy, History, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System, society
The Indian Air Force in World War Two - A Pictorial History
Indian Air Force Museum - World War 2 Aircraft
World War II impacts on life in India, 5 man rickshaws, mule trains and kundi baskets and those beloved shortwave radio broadcasts
Life in India was increasingly affected by world war II in Europe and on the high seas. This chapter also looks at transportation in India like the 5-man rickshaw, the mule train and the kundi basket.
Indian Aircraft of World War II
Indian World War II armored fighting vehicles ( AFV )
The Ledo Road - China-Burma-India Theater of World War II
The China-Burma-India Theater of WW-II
These pages are dedicated to those who fought in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II.
Welcome the Imperial War Museum's Collections Home Page : What is the Kohima Epitaph?
When you go home, Tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow, We gave our today
BBC - Mid Wales World War Two - The Battle of Kohima
Harold Jones from Welshpool recalls his memories of World War II
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