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India's War: World War II and the Making of Modern South Asia
Between 1939 and 1945 India underwent extraordinary and irreversible change. Hundreds of thousands of Indians suddenly found themselves in uniform, fighting in the Middle East, North and East Africa, Europe and-something simply never imagined-against a Japanese army poised to invade eastern India. With the threat of the Axis powers looming, the entire country was pulled into the vortex of wartime mobilization. By the war's end, the Indian Army had become the largest volunteer force in the conflict, consisting of 2.5 million men, while many millions more had offered their industrial, agricultural, and military labor. It was clear that India would never be same-the only question would the war effort push the country toward or away from independence?
In India's War , historian Srinath Raghavan paints a compelling picture of battles abroad and of life on the home front, arguing that the war is crucial to explaining how and why colonial rule ended in South Asia. World War II forever altered the country's social landscape, overturning many Indians' settled assumptions and opening up new opportunities for the nation's most disadvantaged people. When the dust of war settled, India had emerged as a major Asian power with her feet set firmly on the path toward Independence.
From Gandhi's early urging in support of Britain's war efforts, to the crucial Burma Campaign, where Indian forces broke the siege of Imphal and stemmed the western advance of Imperial Japan, Raghavan brings this underexplored theater of WWII to vivid life. The first major account of India during World War II, India's War chronicles how the war forever transformed India, its economy, its politics, and its people, laying the groundwork for the emergence of modern South Asia and the rise of India as a major power.
In India's War , historian Srinath Raghavan paints a compelling picture of battles abroad and of life on the home front, arguing that the war is crucial to explaining how and why colonial rule ended in South Asia. World War II forever altered the country's social landscape, overturning many Indians' settled assumptions and opening up new opportunities for the nation's most disadvantaged people. When the dust of war settled, India had emerged as a major Asian power with her feet set firmly on the path toward Independence.
From Gandhi's early urging in support of Britain's war efforts, to the crucial Burma Campaign, where Indian forces broke the siege of Imphal and stemmed the western advance of Imperial Japan, Raghavan brings this underexplored theater of WWII to vivid life. The first major account of India during World War II, India's War chronicles how the war forever transformed India, its economy, its politics, and its people, laying the groundwork for the emergence of modern South Asia and the rise of India as a major power.
592 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2016
About the author
Srinath Raghavan
13 books108 followersSrinath Raghavan is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. He is also a senior research fellow at the India Institute at King’s College London. Srinath works on contemporary and historical aspects of India’s foreign and security policies.
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August 25, 2016
Dr. Raghavan has produced a well written, well researched and even handed look at India’s contributions to the Allied victory in the Second World War. While telling the story, the author just doesn’t relate the combat contributions of the Indian Army, but also tells what is going on at home - the internal politics of both the independence movement of Gandhi and Nehru, the social change the expansion of the military brought to the Indian society and the effect the war had on the Indian economy.
The author starts the narrative with the Indian Viceroy declaring war on Germany in September of 1939 without any input from local gov’ts and especially the Congress Party. The split this caused in the Congress Party, the principle political party for the independence of India is very well presented. It ranged from total support for the “Mother Country” to "while Britain is preoccupied with Germany, this would be a good time to declare independence and go our own way". The majority seemed to seek a middle ground of "lets support Britain, but we can use our support as leverage for independence after the war." Even Gandhi in favor of supporting Britain, but only in a non-combat role and using that support as leverage for independence after the war.
One aspect of the Raj that is well illustrated is just how much it functioned as a mini empire of its own. The gov’t in New Delhi was not just concerned about defending the subcontinent, but everything from Egypt to Singapore was its responsibility to defend. The troops dispatched to secure the Middle East Oil fields in Iran and Iraq were from the Indian Army as well as many of those tasked to defend Malaysia, Singapore, and Burma.
Dr. Raghavan does an excellent job of telling the exploits of the various Indian Units, including the well traveled 4th Indian Infantry Division. This unit made a name for itself as one the first units to meet and defeat the Italians in North Africa, following the initial Libyan victories it was redeployed to Eretria again routing the Italians, then back to Libya/Egypt and later Italy proper. He also tells of the problems later units had, especially in Malaysia and Burma. He does explain their poor performance as due to almost total lack of training in Jungle warfare. One example he gives is when an Indian Division arrives in Burma to take up defense of the country and the GOC asks about training he is basicly told by one of the resident British officers, ”Training, what training, we’re in a jungle!” This attitude left the divisions defending South East Asia almost totally untrained in 1941/2 and it showed. This lack of training wasn’t totally rectified until Gen Slim took command of the 14th Army in 1943.
In World War Two, the Indian Army expanded from just fewer than 200,000 men to over 2.5 million. The author looks at how this was accomplished. It was originally thought that the expansion would be able to be accomplished by recruitment from the traditional sources of manpower –the so called martial races, Muslims, Sikhs, Rajput’s and a few others. When the required manpower was not raised, the army was opened to all castes and ethnic groups, creating the largest all volunteer army of the war as well as a logistical nightmare for those who had to feed the army. The effect this had on Indian society post war is briefly examined
In addition to the British Indian Army, Dr. Raghavan looks at the attempts of the Japanese and Germans to raise Indian Units from prisoners of war. The Germans were not particularly successful as the units raised were used against the Russians and not the British. The Japanese on the other hand were fairly successful. Some captured British Indian Army units of battalion strength or smaller joined the Japanese sponsored Indian National Army almost to a man. However the Japanese never really trusted their loyalty and they were never given a major combat role. The author explores the problems these INA veterans caused the British authorities after the war when they attempted to put some of the leaders on trial for desertion.
Finally the effect the war had on India economy is examined and explained. Americas role in the Subcontinent is also examined and as well the British response to the American anti-imperial sentiments.
All in all an excellent overview of a topic that is virtually unexamined in the United States. I highly recommend this one to any student of World War II. If GR allowed, this a 4.25 star read.
The author starts the narrative with the Indian Viceroy declaring war on Germany in September of 1939 without any input from local gov’ts and especially the Congress Party. The split this caused in the Congress Party, the principle political party for the independence of India is very well presented. It ranged from total support for the “Mother Country” to "while Britain is preoccupied with Germany, this would be a good time to declare independence and go our own way". The majority seemed to seek a middle ground of "lets support Britain, but we can use our support as leverage for independence after the war." Even Gandhi in favor of supporting Britain, but only in a non-combat role and using that support as leverage for independence after the war.
One aspect of the Raj that is well illustrated is just how much it functioned as a mini empire of its own. The gov’t in New Delhi was not just concerned about defending the subcontinent, but everything from Egypt to Singapore was its responsibility to defend. The troops dispatched to secure the Middle East Oil fields in Iran and Iraq were from the Indian Army as well as many of those tasked to defend Malaysia, Singapore, and Burma.
Dr. Raghavan does an excellent job of telling the exploits of the various Indian Units, including the well traveled 4th Indian Infantry Division. This unit made a name for itself as one the first units to meet and defeat the Italians in North Africa, following the initial Libyan victories it was redeployed to Eretria again routing the Italians, then back to Libya/Egypt and later Italy proper. He also tells of the problems later units had, especially in Malaysia and Burma. He does explain their poor performance as due to almost total lack of training in Jungle warfare. One example he gives is when an Indian Division arrives in Burma to take up defense of the country and the GOC asks about training he is basicly told by one of the resident British officers, ”Training, what training, we’re in a jungle!” This attitude left the divisions defending South East Asia almost totally untrained in 1941/2 and it showed. This lack of training wasn’t totally rectified until Gen Slim took command of the 14th Army in 1943.
In World War Two, the Indian Army expanded from just fewer than 200,000 men to over 2.5 million. The author looks at how this was accomplished. It was originally thought that the expansion would be able to be accomplished by recruitment from the traditional sources of manpower –the so called martial races, Muslims, Sikhs, Rajput’s and a few others. When the required manpower was not raised, the army was opened to all castes and ethnic groups, creating the largest all volunteer army of the war as well as a logistical nightmare for those who had to feed the army. The effect this had on Indian society post war is briefly examined
In addition to the British Indian Army, Dr. Raghavan looks at the attempts of the Japanese and Germans to raise Indian Units from prisoners of war. The Germans were not particularly successful as the units raised were used against the Russians and not the British. The Japanese on the other hand were fairly successful. Some captured British Indian Army units of battalion strength or smaller joined the Japanese sponsored Indian National Army almost to a man. However the Japanese never really trusted their loyalty and they were never given a major combat role. The author explores the problems these INA veterans caused the British authorities after the war when they attempted to put some of the leaders on trial for desertion.
Finally the effect the war had on India economy is examined and explained. Americas role in the Subcontinent is also examined and as well the British response to the American anti-imperial sentiments.
All in all an excellent overview of a topic that is virtually unexamined in the United States. I highly recommend this one to any student of World War II. If GR allowed, this a 4.25 star read.
March 21, 2017
On a trip to visit Monte Cassino while stationed in Italy, I happened upon the Commonwealth Cemetery. I had already visited the Polish Cemetery (near the Monastery) and the German Cemetery (tucked in behind some hills, off the beaten path); the closest American Cemetery being near Anzio-Nettuno. What seemed remarkable about this seemingly "British" Cemetery was its location; outside the town that was reduced to rubble during the war (as was the Monastery), overlooked by commanding heights and the polyglot nature of its graves: British, South African, New Zealander, Australian and, yes, Indian (most, I would gather, courtesy of the 4th Indian Division). What struck me about the Indian graves were their Regimental crests and their distinctive religious forms – distinguishing Hindu and Muslim troops. Of the three Commonwealth Cemetery's I'd visited (the other two being at Normandy and Arnhem), this one seemed to best represent the "Commonwealth" nature of the British role in World War II. Srinath Raghavan's book, "India's War" goes a long way in explaining how those graves got there, and elsewhere. His primary focus is the great change that overtook India as it would field a force of over 2.5 million men in the largest volunteer force in the war. In his own experience as a junior officer in the post-War Indian Army, he was surprised to learn of his regiment's long history (the Rajputanan Rifles) and of the many campaign names that were unfamiliar to him. The dissolution of the Raj, Indian Independence and the origins of the conflict between India and Pakistan which we live with today all have much to do with this historical amnesia. But in his recounting, the changes that occurred in India during this conflict were instrumental in understanding the sub-continent today. For those who've studied other campaigns in World War II - North Africa and the Mediterranean, Malaya and Burma -- he gives context to the competing demands between these, more well-known campaigns and other lesser ones, in which the Indian Army played a critical role -- Sudan, Eritrea, Iraq, Syria and Iran. He spends time on the great figures of the period – Churchill and Nehru; the notable Generals – Slim, Wavell and Auchinleck as well as the Soldiers who engaged in battles both famous and almost unknown today. Not unlike most of the Western Allies, the Indian Army suffered numerous setbacks early in the conflict both at the hands of the Germans and Japanese, particularly in Malaya and Burma. Since the author’s central theme is political change, we follow the political maneuvering on the domestic front, as increased demands for support to Allied forces transform the local economy and bring increased political awareness to the people. India’s ports are transformed into huge logistics hubs for the air centric Allied forces as well as a feeder for Allied support to China. He also examines the role of the Indian National Army – a Japanese raised force, largely recruited from the prison camps of the defeated Allied Armies, which were a propaganda tool actively countered by the Indian Officer Corps. Interestingly, while the author points out how the recently divided Army will literally go to war with itself (India and Pakistan) in the wake of Partition, there was very little animosity between the Soldiers of the Indian Army and those of the INA after the war. In fact, one of the few collaborative efforts that lasted through this period was the recording of the various Regimental Histories, organizations themselves truncated by Partition. For someone with little first hand knowledge of the sub-continent, it will be difficult to judge the validity of his overall argument -- the overall influence of the conflict on India. But as someone who has worked with both Pakistani and Iraqi officers, the influence of the British -- or more accurately, the Indian Army -- is unmistakable. Overall, I found this to be a fascinating account of one of the most significant combatants of World War II. I, for one, would have like to have seen more detail on the expansion of the Indian Army and the hard choices that faced its leadership as it struggled to deal with competing requirements and the dissolution of so many assumptions about its role in the defense of the Empire. However, the author has shed light on aspects of World War II which would interest anyone who questions how a small island nation and its subjects were able to fight all over the World in a global conflict – and its impact today.
July 14, 2016
India's War is, above all else, a very important book. The "jewel in the crown" was called so for a reason, as India's financial and military aid to the Crown was massive in the war years, with the largest volunteer force ever assembled fighting everywhere from Libya to Indonesia, even as a famine struck India was drained ever further. But this largely tone neutral book doesn't concern itself with the ethical questions of British rule so much as it seeks to document the war itself, and politial developments around it. It is sad today that the battles of Imphal and Kohima are less known even in India than perhaps Verdun or Somme. The Indian military's high intensity Burma campaign is forgotten, where after sustaining heavy casualties to disease, famine and a highly trained and fearsome Japanese force (As a European Officer put it, "I'd rather fight in the trenches of Europe for seven days than in the jungles of Burma for one"), the Indian Army staged a spectacular turnaround under Commander William Slim, the 4th and 5th division's rout of Mussolini in Africa, and their brave stand against Rommel while the English 8th Army collapsed are also relics of history, whatever domestic documentation that remains gathering dust in some old government archive. India's War reveals the sub-imperial sphere of influence that India had prior to its vivisection, when it economically and militarily reigned supreme from Tehran to Singapore, and the massive role of Indian troops in maintaining world security. It also documents the mobilization and militarization of an India largely declawed after the 1857 rebellion, with the mechanization and modernization of the Indian Army. Indeed the modernization and politicization of the Army, and its phenomenal growth in recruitment were major factors contributing to independence immediately following the war, for the Royal Indian Army was still royal, but increasingly less loyal as politicized troops returned home.
Raghavan's narrative switches between scenes at battles, training camps, and the various halls of the powers that directed WWII operations. Recurring figures in the book are the various interactions between Field Marshall Auchinlek, Field Marshall (and viceroy) Wavell, Viceroy Linlithgow, Prime Minister Churchill, President Roosevelt, President Chiang Kai Shek, and his American commander General Joseph Stillwell, directing the fate of operations in North and West Africa, South Asia, South east Asia, and the Middle East.
India's War is a treasure, if only because it captures a defining element of India's history that has largely been ignored in the independent state for having been a colonial exercise. It is perhaps a particularly poignant tale today, as India once more shapes up for another great game in central Asia except this time it does so without valuable British operational oversight and against an opponent far closer to home.
Raghavan's narrative switches between scenes at battles, training camps, and the various halls of the powers that directed WWII operations. Recurring figures in the book are the various interactions between Field Marshall Auchinlek, Field Marshall (and viceroy) Wavell, Viceroy Linlithgow, Prime Minister Churchill, President Roosevelt, President Chiang Kai Shek, and his American commander General Joseph Stillwell, directing the fate of operations in North and West Africa, South Asia, South east Asia, and the Middle East.
India's War is a treasure, if only because it captures a defining element of India's history that has largely been ignored in the independent state for having been a colonial exercise. It is perhaps a particularly poignant tale today, as India once more shapes up for another great game in central Asia except this time it does so without valuable British operational oversight and against an opponent far closer to home.
June 10, 2020
Hard to rate this book. Not as terrible as I claim it is probably, but for a book about India in WW2, only about 1/2 of it is really on India. It’s more Middle East and Africa really. And although I like the authors attempts to stay out of the European theatre, he has a hard time doing so at points. I did like India’s take on the war as it relates to British occupation and their struggles with it towards the end of the British empire, although the author tended to rush the independence explanation, even though I know that is not what the book is about. I will keep it and probably read it again, just will probably look for something else to supplement, which is sad because I might have to delve into British history for that.
July 29, 2016
It seems to be the case that I come into Srinath Raghavan books with misleading expectations. And this was no different. I presumed this was going to be a social and political history of 'India's (World) War (II)' but with a more top down focus as is Yasmin Khan's The Raj at War: A People’s History of India’s Second World War. Instead, as seems to be the case with the author, in a happy accident (for me) or perhaps to Mr. Raghavan's credit I was positively surprised and came out of the book much enriched.
The book is Srinath Raghavan's magnum opus without a doubt - truly a comprehensive and panoramic history (as the FT called it). It is worth going over the various strands of history the books tries and mostly succeeds in crafting a narrative to explain. Broadly India's War seeks to explain what India did for the war and what the war did for, more accurately, to India. In explaining the former, the book tracks the Indians on all the fronts they fought, from Rome to Rangoon. He analyzes logistics, tactics and grand strategy behinds the victories and losses of the British Indian Army. In explaining the impact of the War on India, the book argues persuasively for placing it centrally in the history of South Asia: "the emergence of Pakistan and its protracted rivalry with India; the establishment of a constitutional democracy in India and the dominance of the military in Pakistan; the adoption of planning for economic development; the role of the state in the provisions of social goods; the popular movements in the region fired by ideas of economic and social rights"; none of these can be explained satisfactorily without understanding the impact of the war on India.
Even by his masterful standards, Raghavan does exceptional archival work here. India's war is analyzed from a variety of perspectives (Indian and international). The narrative is both top down, discussing grand strategy, and bottoms up - using anecdotal and empirical evidence creatively to analyze morale on the front. As is his wont, the temperament of the narrative is cool and reserved for a most part but the author's wit does shine through occasionally as does his personal judgement in the short epilogue at the end. A certain talent for pithy insight about the cast of characters suffuses the narrative and with the aforementioned makes the book despite its length an engrossing read.
Given the breadth and depth of this landmark work, it seems almost jejune to pick at flaws. However, the book does fall into the trap of a web of names and units and places and movement covered too quickly to make sense of it at times, there being so much ground to cover. Ironically this in turn makes it drag a slight touch at times. The author also doesn't clarify as he seemingly intends to in the beginning, the impact of the war and how that fits in with "the establishment of a constitutional democracy in India and the dominance of the military in Pakistan". Perhaps it is asking too much when the book in addition to everything mentioned above covers everything from the cause of the Bengal famine the spread of Chinese cuisine in India, to, an intriguing analysis of the causes of Partition (if not the definitive than the persuasive). Similarly, the rest of the list quoted earlier at times does seem a bit rushed through because of the scope, though even a cursory critical analysis demonstrates a persuasive case being made between the lines.
Funnily, perhaps because his last book was such a breezy read, I rated this originally 4.5 rounded down to 4 because of the occasional slog and quick glance over many things. However having slept over it, I think the rating ought to be rounded up to 5 because of the sheer landmark nature of the work. 5/5
The book is Srinath Raghavan's magnum opus without a doubt - truly a comprehensive and panoramic history (as the FT called it). It is worth going over the various strands of history the books tries and mostly succeeds in crafting a narrative to explain. Broadly India's War seeks to explain what India did for the war and what the war did for, more accurately, to India. In explaining the former, the book tracks the Indians on all the fronts they fought, from Rome to Rangoon. He analyzes logistics, tactics and grand strategy behinds the victories and losses of the British Indian Army. In explaining the impact of the War on India, the book argues persuasively for placing it centrally in the history of South Asia: "the emergence of Pakistan and its protracted rivalry with India; the establishment of a constitutional democracy in India and the dominance of the military in Pakistan; the adoption of planning for economic development; the role of the state in the provisions of social goods; the popular movements in the region fired by ideas of economic and social rights"; none of these can be explained satisfactorily without understanding the impact of the war on India.
Even by his masterful standards, Raghavan does exceptional archival work here. India's war is analyzed from a variety of perspectives (Indian and international). The narrative is both top down, discussing grand strategy, and bottoms up - using anecdotal and empirical evidence creatively to analyze morale on the front. As is his wont, the temperament of the narrative is cool and reserved for a most part but the author's wit does shine through occasionally as does his personal judgement in the short epilogue at the end. A certain talent for pithy insight about the cast of characters suffuses the narrative and with the aforementioned makes the book despite its length an engrossing read.
Given the breadth and depth of this landmark work, it seems almost jejune to pick at flaws. However, the book does fall into the trap of a web of names and units and places and movement covered too quickly to make sense of it at times, there being so much ground to cover. Ironically this in turn makes it drag a slight touch at times. The author also doesn't clarify as he seemingly intends to in the beginning, the impact of the war and how that fits in with "the establishment of a constitutional democracy in India and the dominance of the military in Pakistan". Perhaps it is asking too much when the book in addition to everything mentioned above covers everything from the cause of the Bengal famine the spread of Chinese cuisine in India, to, an intriguing analysis of the causes of Partition (if not the definitive than the persuasive). Similarly, the rest of the list quoted earlier at times does seem a bit rushed through because of the scope, though even a cursory critical analysis demonstrates a persuasive case being made between the lines.
Funnily, perhaps because his last book was such a breezy read, I rated this originally 4.5 rounded down to 4 because of the occasional slog and quick glance over many things. However having slept over it, I think the rating ought to be rounded up to 5 because of the sheer landmark nature of the work. 5/5
August 28, 2016
World War II has had many chapters. While Europe was the main stage, the effects of the War were felt across the globe with no corner left untouched. No single book can cover it in its entirety. For those who love to read up on history, and who have an inclination to learn more on World War II, then Srinath Raghavan's book India's War covers in great detail another chapter from the War which would appear as a footnote in most of the other books that delve into this bloody phase of human history. The War did reach the shores of India too, when the Japanese troops attacked the city of Imphal in 1944. But none of the Axis forces ever made any inroads into India, which was a British colony then. And so we may carry a misconception that the Indians were largely insulated. No one was!
Raghavan delves into great depth to explain the effects of the War on different aspects of the life in India. There was the on-going struggle between the British Government and the Indian National Congress with the latter seeking independence for India from British rule, and the War providing another opportunity to stake its claim. Apart from this political tussle, the Indian Army was very much driven into the War as troops were deployed to different countries where battles were on-going. The Indian Army was involved in the fight in North Africa against the Italian and the German forces, and was also needed in the Middle East. Later on, its services would be needed in Asia itself once the Japanese entered the War. The book also brings about the effect the War had on normal human life, the problems that inflation brought about, the lives lost due to famine, the rapid growth of domestic industrialisation etc. It's a well-researched book that throws light on the smaller points which shaped in a way India as well as South Asia.
The book though is not an easy read. At times it has the feel of a research paper, with charts and statistics being stated too enthusiastically. Some of the historical battles lose their charm as Raghavan again brings in a lot of statistics about which infantry was part of which battalion, and the numbers slowly become confusing and then start to look meaningless. For researchers and historians, these statistics would indeed hold a lot of significance. But for a casual reader of history, it hinders the flow of the story. Nonetheless, if one can skip those aspects which are tedious to read, India's War does do a great job in taking us to an India prior to independence which a newer generation may not be well aware of, an India where every citizen faced problems both from the colonial rule and the demands of the War, an India which got reshaped too because of the War.
Raghavan delves into great depth to explain the effects of the War on different aspects of the life in India. There was the on-going struggle between the British Government and the Indian National Congress with the latter seeking independence for India from British rule, and the War providing another opportunity to stake its claim. Apart from this political tussle, the Indian Army was very much driven into the War as troops were deployed to different countries where battles were on-going. The Indian Army was involved in the fight in North Africa against the Italian and the German forces, and was also needed in the Middle East. Later on, its services would be needed in Asia itself once the Japanese entered the War. The book also brings about the effect the War had on normal human life, the problems that inflation brought about, the lives lost due to famine, the rapid growth of domestic industrialisation etc. It's a well-researched book that throws light on the smaller points which shaped in a way India as well as South Asia.
The book though is not an easy read. At times it has the feel of a research paper, with charts and statistics being stated too enthusiastically. Some of the historical battles lose their charm as Raghavan again brings in a lot of statistics about which infantry was part of which battalion, and the numbers slowly become confusing and then start to look meaningless. For researchers and historians, these statistics would indeed hold a lot of significance. But for a casual reader of history, it hinders the flow of the story. Nonetheless, if one can skip those aspects which are tedious to read, India's War does do a great job in taking us to an India prior to independence which a newer generation may not be well aware of, an India where every citizen faced problems both from the colonial rule and the demands of the War, an India which got reshaped too because of the War.
May 24, 2018
WW2 and India's participation completely altered the course of the Indian subcontinent. The political fallout of Britains involvement and reliance on Indian soldiery was the creation of several new states. Unfortunately, the full involvement of Indian soldiers in WW2 have never been highlighted, because the new nation states are busy creating their separate legacy, a policy which unfortunately is stifling progress in the region.
If India is to revert to its older role as the ‘pivot’ of Asian security, it will first have to aim at the economic and strategic integration of the subcontinent: both to its west with Pakistan and Afghanistan and to its east with Bangladesh and Burma. Only then can the rise of India – prefigured in the Second World War – be fully realized.
If India is to revert to its older role as the ‘pivot’ of Asian security, it will first have to aim at the economic and strategic integration of the subcontinent: both to its west with Pakistan and Afghanistan and to its east with Bangladesh and Burma. Only then can the rise of India – prefigured in the Second World War – be fully realized.
January 1, 2018
This book is a mixed bag. I thought I was going to get something like Rick Atkinson's "Liberation Trilogy" but applied to the Indian Army. But that is not what this book is. It covers, in one large volume, India during the second world war. Many topics are covered, some interesting, some not
* The politics of pre-war India and the machinations as to which parties were willing to support the Raj and which were not. These chapters were confusing to a non-specialist or non-Indian as the cast of characters was large and their personalities barely sketched out.
* The initial experiences of the Indian army units in East Africa and North Africa. These chapters could have benefited from the Atkinson or Beevor style but either first hand accounts are not available or the author chose to write a traditional military history of the form "the 11/4 battalion advanced on XX and met heavy losses. General YYY then flung the 3rd brigade at ZZ" and so on. No real sense of scene or place. Maps were of the theatre and place names mentioned in the text were not locatable on the maps. When the author did go into a tactical battle (Keren for example), the detailed maps of Keren were nowhere to be found.
* Mobilization - This is a hard topic to engage the reader with. The chapters were filled with statistics but lacked the human touch. One learns much about railroad gauges, daily caloric content, and the development of an effective anti-malarial program.
In the early days of mobilization and after the loss of Burma, famine set in to India. Modern day polemicists blame Churchill for allowing it to happen but the subject gets short attention in the book -- however, the gigantic issues faced by the economy of the time during a dire period in the war yet makes it clear that systemic forces beyond anyone's direct control were at play. And speaking of Churchill, one does get a reminder how determined he was to hold onto Empire despite the handwriting on the wall.
* The Indian National Army - This was the most interesting chapter as I knew little about this and where the forces came from. The struggle by Bose to get Hitler and Mussolini to arm the Indian Legion (made up of captured soldiers) was a side of WW II that I knew nothing about.
* The Italian Campaign - although three Indian divisions participated, the subject is given but a few pages. North Africa gets more attention.
* The Burma campaign - more attention is paid here but again, no Atkinson-style writing so it could have been taken from any WW II overview.
* Post-war India and the slide towards partition. An interesting thread here was that the communal violence was more 'effective' due to the large numbers of trained soldiers de-mobilized back to their communities. The experience of the Indian army during the war would prove to be 'useful' in the 1948 war of partition as both sides had a well of expertise to draw upon.
So, the summary:
1. The Indian Army units were commanded by Brits and as such, the story of battles is largely told through their plans and actions. This makes it hard for the reader to identify with the Indian officers, NCO, and soldiers as their story and experience is haphazardly brought to the fore. Thus, an Atkinson-like retelling was not available to the author's toolbox. Similarly, telling the story of India at war by following specific individuals through their diaries wasn't really appropriate for the scale of this work.
2. The straight military history has been better told in other books focused on the individual campaigns. See for example Road Of Bones: The Siege Of Kohima 1944 The Epic Story Of The Last Great Stand Of Empire. The entire Burma campaign history is well-told with much better maps in Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945
3. You'll learn nothing about any role played by Indian air force or naval units (apparently a small role)
4. You won't get a real sense of the social tensions or bonds between the British officers and their Indian subordinates. There clearly was some? / plenty? of racism but at the same time, units performed effectively so this couldn't be a pervasive condition. I'd be interested in more coverage of this topic.
5. The experience of Indian POWs is tangentially covered. Many became INA recruits and there is one short bit on a group of 2,000 INA-refusals who were shipped to Rabaul with most dying en route. Were Indian POWs exploited in constructing the "Bridge over the River Kwai" railroad line from Thailand to Burma as their Aussie and Brit counterparts? Did they get sent to work in the mines of Manchuria? No idea from this book.
Bottom line - as I stated in the beginning, this is a subject not previously addressed in a single volume so Raghavan gets full marks for tackling it. Those interested in more detail can use it as a starting point.
* The politics of pre-war India and the machinations as to which parties were willing to support the Raj and which were not. These chapters were confusing to a non-specialist or non-Indian as the cast of characters was large and their personalities barely sketched out.
* The initial experiences of the Indian army units in East Africa and North Africa. These chapters could have benefited from the Atkinson or Beevor style but either first hand accounts are not available or the author chose to write a traditional military history of the form "the 11/4 battalion advanced on XX and met heavy losses. General YYY then flung the 3rd brigade at ZZ" and so on. No real sense of scene or place. Maps were of the theatre and place names mentioned in the text were not locatable on the maps. When the author did go into a tactical battle (Keren for example), the detailed maps of Keren were nowhere to be found.
* Mobilization - This is a hard topic to engage the reader with. The chapters were filled with statistics but lacked the human touch. One learns much about railroad gauges, daily caloric content, and the development of an effective anti-malarial program.
In the early days of mobilization and after the loss of Burma, famine set in to India. Modern day polemicists blame Churchill for allowing it to happen but the subject gets short attention in the book -- however, the gigantic issues faced by the economy of the time during a dire period in the war yet makes it clear that systemic forces beyond anyone's direct control were at play. And speaking of Churchill, one does get a reminder how determined he was to hold onto Empire despite the handwriting on the wall.
* The Indian National Army - This was the most interesting chapter as I knew little about this and where the forces came from. The struggle by Bose to get Hitler and Mussolini to arm the Indian Legion (made up of captured soldiers) was a side of WW II that I knew nothing about.
* The Italian Campaign - although three Indian divisions participated, the subject is given but a few pages. North Africa gets more attention.
* The Burma campaign - more attention is paid here but again, no Atkinson-style writing so it could have been taken from any WW II overview.
* Post-war India and the slide towards partition. An interesting thread here was that the communal violence was more 'effective' due to the large numbers of trained soldiers de-mobilized back to their communities. The experience of the Indian army during the war would prove to be 'useful' in the 1948 war of partition as both sides had a well of expertise to draw upon.
So, the summary:
1. The Indian Army units were commanded by Brits and as such, the story of battles is largely told through their plans and actions. This makes it hard for the reader to identify with the Indian officers, NCO, and soldiers as their story and experience is haphazardly brought to the fore. Thus, an Atkinson-like retelling was not available to the author's toolbox. Similarly, telling the story of India at war by following specific individuals through their diaries wasn't really appropriate for the scale of this work.
2. The straight military history has been better told in other books focused on the individual campaigns. See for example Road Of Bones: The Siege Of Kohima 1944 The Epic Story Of The Last Great Stand Of Empire. The entire Burma campaign history is well-told with much better maps in Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945
3. You'll learn nothing about any role played by Indian air force or naval units (apparently a small role)
4. You won't get a real sense of the social tensions or bonds between the British officers and their Indian subordinates. There clearly was some? / plenty? of racism but at the same time, units performed effectively so this couldn't be a pervasive condition. I'd be interested in more coverage of this topic.
5. The experience of Indian POWs is tangentially covered. Many became INA recruits and there is one short bit on a group of 2,000 INA-refusals who were shipped to Rabaul with most dying en route. Were Indian POWs exploited in constructing the "Bridge over the River Kwai" railroad line from Thailand to Burma as their Aussie and Brit counterparts? Did they get sent to work in the mines of Manchuria? No idea from this book.
Bottom line - as I stated in the beginning, this is a subject not previously addressed in a single volume so Raghavan gets full marks for tackling it. Those interested in more detail can use it as a starting point.
October 3, 2016
With “India’ War”, Srinath Raghavan has probably put to rest the old lament about India’s role in the Second World War being unrecognized by scholars and historians. Coming closely on the heels of two other books dealing with this subject – Raghu Karnad’s “The Farthest Road” and Yasmin Khan’s “A people’s history of the War”, Raghavan has managed to bring in multiple new perspectives in this thoroughly researched book. Though certain sections such as India’s economy during the war, the rations and per capital calorie intake of the armed forces, indepth analysis of the Cripps Mission etc are aimed at the serious scholar of the subject, the book is worth reading to gain an appreciation of the seriousness of the war and the threat of chaos which loomed over India during those days.
Strangely, I have no recollection of the War being mentioned in the school history classes save for the reference to it being one of the reasons for the “Quit India” call. But now, the appointment of Wavvel and Mountbatten as the last two viceroys makes absolute sense as they were military commanders who supervised thousands of Indians in action across diverse theaters of war be it North Africa, the Middle East or South East Asia.
The Burmese campaign gets a lot of attention. Right from explaining the initial purge, the doomed attempts at regaining the peninsula, the Japanese defeat at Kohima, the INA in the mix to the subsequent defense of Bose’s army by the nationalists – Raghavan examines the different options which were considered and narrates the actual events in a good pace.
One of the more intriguing perspectives was Raghavan linking the violence of partition with the trained soldiers who were systematically decommissioned after the war and ended up setting up village protection and defence units. According to him, the bloodiness of the Partition though communal was also backed by actors who were trained for just that – slaughter!
July 28, 2018
Not as much a military history as expected, more a social history of India before, during and after the war. The book focuses more on the political, social and economic aspects of India's participation in WW II. This isn't a criticism, just a heads up for somebody seeking a deeper dive into the military details of India's participation. It was still an enjoyable and informative read.
The parts I found most interesting were those that detailed the changes to the economic infrastructure, industrial production, and associated logistical operations required to make the Indian army a potent, modern fighting force. The chapter about the buildup before the offensive effort to retake Burma from the Japanese was of particular interest to me.
Very little, expect in passing about the Indian air force or navy. There is mention of the "mutinies" of both the IAF and the I Navy in the final chapter. However, there is scant mention of their participation in any of the military's campaigns before then.
This is the third book I've read recently about India's participation in WW II: India at War (The Raj at War in UK editions) by Khan and Farthest Afield by Karnad. Perhaps had I read this before, or in lieu of, those other two I would rate if higher. However, I found those two to be more informative and greater in scope than this one.
The parts I found most interesting were those that detailed the changes to the economic infrastructure, industrial production, and associated logistical operations required to make the Indian army a potent, modern fighting force. The chapter about the buildup before the offensive effort to retake Burma from the Japanese was of particular interest to me.
Very little, expect in passing about the Indian air force or navy. There is mention of the "mutinies" of both the IAF and the I Navy in the final chapter. However, there is scant mention of their participation in any of the military's campaigns before then.
This is the third book I've read recently about India's participation in WW II: India at War (The Raj at War in UK editions) by Khan and Farthest Afield by Karnad. Perhaps had I read this before, or in lieu of, those other two I would rate if higher. However, I found those two to be more informative and greater in scope than this one.
August 21, 2016
Short Review
The “India’s War” by Srinath Raghavan can be divided in to two sections. One section covers Politics from 1939 till independence and other covers stories of Indian Military or Indian soldiers in action during world War II. And after finishing the book I could quite easily pin point which section was more compelling than other.
Indian Politics for its never ending drama and surprises always has a aura to keep you interested. With that in mind, the book includes insights on politics as India was in to last phase of its Independence. The acute capture of drama has clearly overshadowed all other elements of the book. Not that adventures of Indian soldiers had any aura to keep you going. It was mostly a bunch of numbers moving on the field for me. And it actually sabotage interest created by stories related to Indian Politics.
It would be easy for you to skip the sections on Indian Soldiers without missing most of interesting buzz created by Indian Politics in the book. The book is recommended if you want to read brief on India’s politics during 1939 till Independence.
Read the full review at Critichawk
The “India’s War” by Srinath Raghavan can be divided in to two sections. One section covers Politics from 1939 till independence and other covers stories of Indian Military or Indian soldiers in action during world War II. And after finishing the book I could quite easily pin point which section was more compelling than other.
Indian Politics for its never ending drama and surprises always has a aura to keep you interested. With that in mind, the book includes insights on politics as India was in to last phase of its Independence. The acute capture of drama has clearly overshadowed all other elements of the book. Not that adventures of Indian soldiers had any aura to keep you going. It was mostly a bunch of numbers moving on the field for me. And it actually sabotage interest created by stories related to Indian Politics.
It would be easy for you to skip the sections on Indian Soldiers without missing most of interesting buzz created by Indian Politics in the book. The book is recommended if you want to read brief on India’s politics during 1939 till Independence.
Read the full review at Critichawk
January 27, 2018
This is a very interesting and probably definitive history of India in World War II. In the general historical imagination, India at this time may be considered just a huge land on the cusp of freedom from Britain (thanks to Gandhi's nonviolent yet fiery perseverance). But Raghavan exhaustively shows that India was pivotal in the war's Pacific Theater. The subcontinent was indeed a bulwark between the West and Japan and Southeast Asia. The British Empire depended on India like never before in its efforts to never surrender. India's sons fought valiantly and tactically, especially in vicious combat in Burma. India's fighting for king, country and Western civilization provided the foundation for its independence, granted in 1947. Yet in the most terrible war in human history, India wasn't just the empire's strategic reserve. It was its royal rampart. Thanks to Raghavan, India's feats in the last good war are no longer obscure.
June 9, 2020
The 1940s was the most pivotal decade in the history of modern India. It was during these years that India broke away from centuries of British rule and established their independence after a bloody partition that still defines relations between two nuclear-armed powers. Numerous books have chronicled the struggle for independence and the chaos of the partition that followed, spotlighting the role of these events in shaping the nation. Yet this focus has the effect of overshadowing India's role in an even larger historical event, namely the Second World War. Indeed India is one of the few participants in that conflict for whom the war was overshadowed by other developments which assumed a greater place in the nation's history.
As a consequence, India's role in the Second World War and the war's role in India's history remain extraordinarily understudied events. To fill this gap Srinath Raghavan provides readers with a book that examines India's participation in the conflict and how it affected the lives of millions of Indians. It is a wide-ranging work that covers events from North Africa and Italy to Burma and Malaya, addressing the manifold ways in which India's participation shaped events and how these events, in turn, shaped India for better and for worse.
Raghavan begins by explaining the circumstances facing India at the start of the war. When war broke out in Europe in 1939, British politicians and administrators were dealing with a fractious Indian political scene, one dominated by the Congress Party but consisting of a range of different ideological and sectional interests. As they had a quarter century earlier, the British committed India to the war without any sort of consultation with India's political leadership, a decision which only fueled resentments. Yet these leaders were hardly united in their views on the war, with opinion ranging from Gandhi's nuanced pacifism to supporters of the war effort to those who believed that an Axis victory might lead to independence. These disagreements hampered efforts to form an united response to the war, which made it easier for the British to draw upon its resources for their war effort against Nazi Germany.
India's role in the war was substantial from the start. As Raghavan details, India played a vital role in Britain's strategic planning, with India in charge of imperial defense efforts in a vast swath of territory stretching from the Middle East to southern Asia. From the Indian perspective, the greatest threat was posed by the Nazi-Soviet Pact, as British officers in the region feared a Soviet attack through Afghanistan. Yet their ability to meet such an attack was constrained by the small size of the Indian army, which was geared towards more of a constabulary role than one of conflict against the military of a modern Western power. Efforts to train and equip Indian soldiers for more of a traditional battlefield role were hampered by a variety of factors, key among them being a lack of proper equipment and British beliefs about the "martial races" in Indian society. As a result, Indian mobilization was slow and half-hearted.
This changed with Japan's attack on Britain's empire in southeast Asia. The Japanese offensive in Malaya and Burma transformed the situation dramatically, as British military power crumbled before it. Indian units quickly demonstrated the limits of their military training, as they disintegrated in the face of aggressive Japanese forces. Raghavan describes the full impact of the war coming before India's doorstep, with hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing the Japanese advance and evacuating the eastern coastal cities in fear of a possible Japanese invasion. Yet as he details, it was at this point when India was fully committed to the struggle. Resources and equipment poured in to equip a rapidly expanding Indian army, which received better treatment and more extensive training than before. The improved results could be seen in 1944, when Indian forces proved more than a match for the Japanese army in the battles in Burma, allowing the British to retake the colony. An awakened India soon proved too difficult for a weakened Britain to manage, however, with the war's legacy contributing to the British decision to grant independence just two years after it ended.
Raghavan's book provides readers with a much-needed account of India's vital part in the Second World War. It is impressively comprehensive, covering not just the role played by India's soldiers, but the political, economic, and social impact of the war on India as well. Such a vast topic can sometimes overwhelm a book yet Raghavan's grasp of his material is impressively secure, veering off course only during his chapters covering the roles played by Indian troops in the Middle East and North African, in which his narrative deviates into more of a general history of the campaigns in those regions. Yet this does nothing to detract from the merits of a book that should be read by anyone interested in modern Indian history or the history of the Second World War, thanks to its long overdue coverage of a subject that straddles both subjects.
As a consequence, India's role in the Second World War and the war's role in India's history remain extraordinarily understudied events. To fill this gap Srinath Raghavan provides readers with a book that examines India's participation in the conflict and how it affected the lives of millions of Indians. It is a wide-ranging work that covers events from North Africa and Italy to Burma and Malaya, addressing the manifold ways in which India's participation shaped events and how these events, in turn, shaped India for better and for worse.
Raghavan begins by explaining the circumstances facing India at the start of the war. When war broke out in Europe in 1939, British politicians and administrators were dealing with a fractious Indian political scene, one dominated by the Congress Party but consisting of a range of different ideological and sectional interests. As they had a quarter century earlier, the British committed India to the war without any sort of consultation with India's political leadership, a decision which only fueled resentments. Yet these leaders were hardly united in their views on the war, with opinion ranging from Gandhi's nuanced pacifism to supporters of the war effort to those who believed that an Axis victory might lead to independence. These disagreements hampered efforts to form an united response to the war, which made it easier for the British to draw upon its resources for their war effort against Nazi Germany.
India's role in the war was substantial from the start. As Raghavan details, India played a vital role in Britain's strategic planning, with India in charge of imperial defense efforts in a vast swath of territory stretching from the Middle East to southern Asia. From the Indian perspective, the greatest threat was posed by the Nazi-Soviet Pact, as British officers in the region feared a Soviet attack through Afghanistan. Yet their ability to meet such an attack was constrained by the small size of the Indian army, which was geared towards more of a constabulary role than one of conflict against the military of a modern Western power. Efforts to train and equip Indian soldiers for more of a traditional battlefield role were hampered by a variety of factors, key among them being a lack of proper equipment and British beliefs about the "martial races" in Indian society. As a result, Indian mobilization was slow and half-hearted.
This changed with Japan's attack on Britain's empire in southeast Asia. The Japanese offensive in Malaya and Burma transformed the situation dramatically, as British military power crumbled before it. Indian units quickly demonstrated the limits of their military training, as they disintegrated in the face of aggressive Japanese forces. Raghavan describes the full impact of the war coming before India's doorstep, with hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing the Japanese advance and evacuating the eastern coastal cities in fear of a possible Japanese invasion. Yet as he details, it was at this point when India was fully committed to the struggle. Resources and equipment poured in to equip a rapidly expanding Indian army, which received better treatment and more extensive training than before. The improved results could be seen in 1944, when Indian forces proved more than a match for the Japanese army in the battles in Burma, allowing the British to retake the colony. An awakened India soon proved too difficult for a weakened Britain to manage, however, with the war's legacy contributing to the British decision to grant independence just two years after it ended.
Raghavan's book provides readers with a much-needed account of India's vital part in the Second World War. It is impressively comprehensive, covering not just the role played by India's soldiers, but the political, economic, and social impact of the war on India as well. Such a vast topic can sometimes overwhelm a book yet Raghavan's grasp of his material is impressively secure, veering off course only during his chapters covering the roles played by Indian troops in the Middle East and North African, in which his narrative deviates into more of a general history of the campaigns in those regions. Yet this does nothing to detract from the merits of a book that should be read by anyone interested in modern Indian history or the history of the Second World War, thanks to its long overdue coverage of a subject that straddles both subjects.
April 23, 2016
Really quite excellent book that deserves to be read very widely.
March 4, 2023
WW2 is curiously absent from any accounts of the freedom struggle except for the emergence of INA, and this book fills the gap of those 6 years leading to independence while not taking anything away from the Indian campaign in the allied camp.
A tremendous achievement chronicling in details the Indian campaigns in North Africa, Middle East, Burma and Malaya during WW2 from a fairly ancient, lacklustre and insufficiently armed garrison to a to well equipped army that proved its mettle across the British sphere of influence. An army that grew 50 folds and did away with “Churchill’s Martial Race Theory” through volunteer conscription and finally tilted the economics from India being a perpetually indebted nation to a net creditor while in turn made the British Raj impossible to sustain. A must read for anyone interested in the subject.
A tremendous achievement chronicling in details the Indian campaigns in North Africa, Middle East, Burma and Malaya during WW2 from a fairly ancient, lacklustre and insufficiently armed garrison to a to well equipped army that proved its mettle across the British sphere of influence. An army that grew 50 folds and did away with “Churchill’s Martial Race Theory” through volunteer conscription and finally tilted the economics from India being a perpetually indebted nation to a net creditor while in turn made the British Raj impossible to sustain. A must read for anyone interested in the subject.
November 16, 2021
Although I am not sorry I read it, and I learned many things that I did not even know I did not know, this was a slog to get through. The parts on politics started out confusing and intricate and then became repetitive and dull, and the battle scenes had plenty of action, but, in part because of the poor quality of provided maps, were very hard to follow. Still there was powerful information here and stories well worth sharing.
2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge: The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list.
2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge: The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list.
October 23, 2016
Upon entering the Indian Army, the author was surprised to see that among the great regimental military actions were included battles like El Alamein, Mandalay and Monte Casino, which gave him pause. The Indians contributed 2.5 million troops to Britain's war effort from 1939-1945, and Indian troops fault bravely in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Iraq, Iran, and many other places. Indian troops were in France in 1940 and Singapore and Hong Kong a year later. This was set against the backdrop of the ongoing Indian independence movement. Often misused and disparaged by British officers, the Indians were not conscripted but were all volunteers. The independence leaders took three different takes on the war: 1) to completely back the British all the way in order to reap benefits later, (Nehru), 2) to resist passively all sides, (Gandhi) or 3) to actively collaborate with the axis, (Bose.) Most of the collaboration led to very little, the Indian National Army being mostly ineffective against the British in favor of the Japanese. A fascinating book about a little-known front of the war.
November 25, 2017
India’s war is a great work that took too long to come out – an account of the Indian army’s effort during World War II, from North Africa to Myanmar, written by a former officer of the Indian Army. This is a work that mostly does justice to the very impressive blurbs from Ramchandra Guha, John Keay and Sunil Khilnani.
Its span, depth and detail make this an outstanding book. Raghavan goes into the strategy, economics and politics of the context, before describing the military aspects in some detail. He does all this keeping the reading very easy. That is a great achievement.
It helps that the author zooms in and out very fluently. The very first line has an interesting detail – the Viceroy of India announced India’s entry into WWII without consulting a single governing body. As a result, the Indian Army would increase in strength from 200,000 to 2.5 million. Many such details follow – including that India was a member of the League of Nations, reflecting its importance even as a colony, and that there was a run on the Post Office savings bank in India following the German Blitzkrieg.
As I expected, the accounts of military action are very detailed. For the first time, I got a sense of the huge spread of theatres that the Indian Army saw action in, from Italy to Hong Kong. There are a few places where the maps don’t really support the detailed narrative, though.
On the other hand, there are aspects that I liked a bit less about the work. First, the sense that the “Indian” armed forces were the foundation of the British Raj, and that the Raj crumbled mainly because of mutinies in it – the Royal Indian Navy in particular – is not quite strong enough. The book does describe the naval mutiny briefly. It is interesting that the great leaders of Indian independence were super-quick to supress disorder in the Indian Navy, but not that effective in keeping murder and mayhem in check outside.
I did like it that Raghavan quickly dismisses Mountbatten, who has been subjected to an incredible amount of hero-worship elsewhere, as a “train-wreck of a general” and implies that his main achievement was to leave the fighting to Slim. However, that brings up what I see as a second shortcoming: the lost opportunity to re-examine General Slim and the glow of his Caesar-like conquest of Burma, versus the “military losers” reputation of the Indian National Army.
The investment in re-training, logistics, fighting spirit, medical infrastructure etc. and the turnaround of the 14th Army to a winning force make a very interesting case study. However, I am inclined to believe Pater Ward Fay came closer to the truth when remarked that some British Generals were better at winning battles in the bookshops than in the battlefield. As Bayly and Harper put it, right on the first page of the preface to Forgotten Armies , “the ultimate victors forged heroic legends around the later successes of British Arms in the Eastern War.”
I am no historian, but it is clear to me that Slim lied in print in Defeat to Victory when he wrote that the main contribution of the Indian National Army was to smilingly lay down arms at the point of crossing of the Irawady River. Equally, one doesn’t have to be a genius or historian to figure that the Japanese were preparing for an assault on Iwo Jima when the British Indian Army launched its offensive in Burma (Fay points this out). I would have liked more detail in Raghavan’s work on what happened when the British Indian Army and the Indian National Army came face to face. Too often, Bose and the INA are still treated with either crazy veneration or Raj-initiated contempt.
Yashpal, in his classic Jhhootha Sach, notes that the Indian Army did not overturn the “British” Indian Army’s attitude towards the INA after indepence. As a result, the INA “found itself to be the ghost at the feast in Prime Minister Nehru’s independent and non-aligned India” (Bayly and Harper).
A revised edition of India’s War with a more in-depth and balanced treatment of this sub-plot will be a great addition to the telling of Indian WWII history. The author is quite dismissive in this work – “ the Indian National Army was no match for the Indian Army” – which, of course, is the common narrative. It would not hurt to dwell more on the establishment of the Indian National Army, its dismantling of religious divisions and its few credible military actions. There are authors like Fay, Toye and Lebra who seem to suggest that the INA was a military disaster on the whole, but did have some moments of success and did demonstrate courage.
I was shocked to read in Hajari’s Midnight’s Furies that Mohan Singh, who led the INA before becoming disillusioned with the Japanese, was leading a Sikh militia unit and in the thick of the genocide of partition a few years later. Raghavan clearly notes that the demobilization of trained soldiers was a factor in the large-scale butchery that prevailed during the partition. The 2.5 million strong army could have been demobilized at a slower rate, and could have been used as a peace-keeping force, if Indian independence was not also badly botched up by the Great Leaders who ruled over it.
An even wider coverage of India’s war would include the Indian Legion that served in trained in Konigsbruck and served in Normandy under the Germans, and the POWs sent to Rabaul.
All of this doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy India’s War. It’s one of those books I set aside for a second cover-to-cover reading later, and I will also look forward to Raghavan’s next book.
Its span, depth and detail make this an outstanding book. Raghavan goes into the strategy, economics and politics of the context, before describing the military aspects in some detail. He does all this keeping the reading very easy. That is a great achievement.
It helps that the author zooms in and out very fluently. The very first line has an interesting detail – the Viceroy of India announced India’s entry into WWII without consulting a single governing body. As a result, the Indian Army would increase in strength from 200,000 to 2.5 million. Many such details follow – including that India was a member of the League of Nations, reflecting its importance even as a colony, and that there was a run on the Post Office savings bank in India following the German Blitzkrieg.
As I expected, the accounts of military action are very detailed. For the first time, I got a sense of the huge spread of theatres that the Indian Army saw action in, from Italy to Hong Kong. There are a few places where the maps don’t really support the detailed narrative, though.
On the other hand, there are aspects that I liked a bit less about the work. First, the sense that the “Indian” armed forces were the foundation of the British Raj, and that the Raj crumbled mainly because of mutinies in it – the Royal Indian Navy in particular – is not quite strong enough. The book does describe the naval mutiny briefly. It is interesting that the great leaders of Indian independence were super-quick to supress disorder in the Indian Navy, but not that effective in keeping murder and mayhem in check outside.
I did like it that Raghavan quickly dismisses Mountbatten, who has been subjected to an incredible amount of hero-worship elsewhere, as a “train-wreck of a general” and implies that his main achievement was to leave the fighting to Slim. However, that brings up what I see as a second shortcoming: the lost opportunity to re-examine General Slim and the glow of his Caesar-like conquest of Burma, versus the “military losers” reputation of the Indian National Army.
The investment in re-training, logistics, fighting spirit, medical infrastructure etc. and the turnaround of the 14th Army to a winning force make a very interesting case study. However, I am inclined to believe Pater Ward Fay came closer to the truth when remarked that some British Generals were better at winning battles in the bookshops than in the battlefield. As Bayly and Harper put it, right on the first page of the preface to Forgotten Armies , “the ultimate victors forged heroic legends around the later successes of British Arms in the Eastern War.”
I am no historian, but it is clear to me that Slim lied in print in Defeat to Victory when he wrote that the main contribution of the Indian National Army was to smilingly lay down arms at the point of crossing of the Irawady River. Equally, one doesn’t have to be a genius or historian to figure that the Japanese were preparing for an assault on Iwo Jima when the British Indian Army launched its offensive in Burma (Fay points this out). I would have liked more detail in Raghavan’s work on what happened when the British Indian Army and the Indian National Army came face to face. Too often, Bose and the INA are still treated with either crazy veneration or Raj-initiated contempt.
Yashpal, in his classic Jhhootha Sach, notes that the Indian Army did not overturn the “British” Indian Army’s attitude towards the INA after indepence. As a result, the INA “found itself to be the ghost at the feast in Prime Minister Nehru’s independent and non-aligned India” (Bayly and Harper).
A revised edition of India’s War with a more in-depth and balanced treatment of this sub-plot will be a great addition to the telling of Indian WWII history. The author is quite dismissive in this work – “ the Indian National Army was no match for the Indian Army” – which, of course, is the common narrative. It would not hurt to dwell more on the establishment of the Indian National Army, its dismantling of religious divisions and its few credible military actions. There are authors like Fay, Toye and Lebra who seem to suggest that the INA was a military disaster on the whole, but did have some moments of success and did demonstrate courage.
I was shocked to read in Hajari’s Midnight’s Furies that Mohan Singh, who led the INA before becoming disillusioned with the Japanese, was leading a Sikh militia unit and in the thick of the genocide of partition a few years later. Raghavan clearly notes that the demobilization of trained soldiers was a factor in the large-scale butchery that prevailed during the partition. The 2.5 million strong army could have been demobilized at a slower rate, and could have been used as a peace-keeping force, if Indian independence was not also badly botched up by the Great Leaders who ruled over it.
An even wider coverage of India’s war would include the Indian Legion that served in trained in Konigsbruck and served in Normandy under the Germans, and the POWs sent to Rabaul.
All of this doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy India’s War. It’s one of those books I set aside for a second cover-to-cover reading later, and I will also look forward to Raghavan’s next book.
July 19, 2016
Quite a detailed and reasoned exposition..
July 25, 2021
A fascinating book which provides a perspective of on how Indian Army changed from a 2 hundred thousand strong Army mainly deployed for internal security, some ops in NWFP & imperial garrisons to dominating Middle East , East and North Africa & South East Asia defeating Italians and Japanese in the way while swelling up to the strength of 2.5 million strong.
Also it tells how India , Indian politicians viewed the War & how in Post War ex soldiers affected society like in Partition or society in general.
The Army's growth and influence is not well read and here you are able to know it's achivement and failures and how truly it was becoming a Army of a proper Nation State.
Also it tells how India , Indian politicians viewed the War & how in Post War ex soldiers affected society like in Partition or society in general.
The Army's growth and influence is not well read and here you are able to know it's achivement and failures and how truly it was becoming a Army of a proper Nation State.
August 15, 2022
A deeply researched book on the South Asia battlefield during the second World War. The account of brave Indian Army, those time British Indian Army, come vivid with the detailed description of the Author. The Battle of Kohima and Imphal, often neglected and forgotten , has been given a due importance , rightly so. A fantastic work of immense scholarship
September 3, 2016
“India’s War: World War II and the making of modern South Asia,” by Srinath Raghavan (Basic Books, 2016). A companion, of sorts, to “Farthest Field: an Indian story of the Second World War,” by Raghu Karnad (Norton, 2015), which tried to describe India’s role in the war through the stories of three of Karnad’s distant relatives---none of whom he actually knew. Raghavan paints the same picture on a much larger canvas. He too speaks of how Indians and Pakistanis pay virtually no attention to what India did during World War II---they are still too concerned with what happened afterward, the terrible Partition and the wars since. Rhagavan tries to cover a huge field: the development of the Indian economy, the growth of manufacturing, the actual exploits of Indian troops in almost every theater of the war (all except Northern Europe). And he also tries very diligently to unravel all the political and nationalist threads that are so heavily tangled. There was the Raj, nominally British, an empire in itself with vast areas of influence, with an almost autonomous government that fought frequently with what the British wanted. The Congress, Gandhi’s party, massive, unwieldy, not clear about exactly what it wanted except independence from Britain; Gandhi was the most powerful force, but he did not always go the way the Congressmen wanted; the Muslim League, led by Jinnah, which demanded either separation from Hindu India, or an equal role in the government, or partition. The infighting among these parties and individuals make one’s head swim: the bureaucracy, the concern for specific language and wording, perhaps even argument for the sake of argument. Churchill hated the Indians; his racism was pure, candid and open. But the British needed India, for its manpower and tremendous potential. Raghavan devotes plenty of time to the army itself, how it grew from a scrabbly frontier force over time to a huge, formidable, modern fighting force (dependent still on British and even more American equipment, supplies, training and support). Western histories of the fighting in North Africa tend to ignore the role of the Indian army, but the Fourth Indian Division was right there with the Desert Rats of the Seventh Armoured---they were the troops fighting the Italians and then Rommel. In East Africa almost all the fighting, in Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia, was done by Indian troops, usually poorly trained and badly equipped. Then there is Iraq: From before the war, the British were most afraid of the Russians, coming down through Afghanistan and later through Iran. The Indian troops did almost all the fighting in Iraq. And of course, in the East, where a large proportion of the troops which surrendered in Singapore were Indian. The British tried a number of offensives through Burma, most of which were abject failures until Gen. William Slim took command of the Fourteenth Army and made it a supremely effective fighting force. One thing that puzzled me throughout: if India was ruled by the British, what was the Raj and how did it resist British demands? The Raj was British, too. I never got that. Another puzzling element: while Indian politicians were clubbing one another over the future of India, of how the nation should be organized, whether they were all going to kill one another first---while all this was happening, the Indian Army was entirely volunteer, ultimately 2.5 million men. Why did the Indians fight a war that barely involved them until the Japanese actually pushed west. There were “martial” castes with military traditions, but there were plenty of castes without. The troops often had to be kept separate, their foods were different, their languages were different. But they joined the army and fought. Well. Raghavan spends a good deal of time with Subhas Chandra Bose, who tried to develop alliances with Hitler and Mussolini, to support a true independent India with his Indian National Army. He managed to raise a force of about 50,000, which did not fight well and basically dissolved. Nevertheless, after the war Indians of all sorts were proud of what he had tried to do. There never was a huge revolt, though there was a relatively brief Quit India movement that frightened the British. There was a terrible famine, as Indian produce was exported for the troops and the Allies. He does not spend a huge amount of time on that, though. All told, fascinating, confusing, extraordinary.
http://www.cprindia.org/people/srinat...
January 24, 2017
This is an excellent history of the cultural, economic, political and military realities of India through the inter-war years through World War II to the post war period of partition.
India was in a way the lynch pin of the British Empire, a vast country whose British controlled military through the Raj was used primarily to keep order within the country and to be used by the British as an Army who conquered territories and claimed the for England and occupied them to enforce colonial rule.
I had known India from post colonial novels and films but it was not really covered in my history classes. I had seen films about the war in North Africa which had Sikhs in turbans and smart uniforms whose primary function seemed to be to serve tea and care for British officers. They were not portrayed as valiant warriors.
The British like all colonials had a relationship built of their sense of moral and intellectual superiority over all of the native peoples in their colonies and within the Dominion. They restricted to a handful the number of Indians who were allowed to train or serve as officers. They never allowed these few Officers to eat in their mess, or billet with them or even enter their clubs
The British held a firm belief that there were within any occupied country a warrior or martial class, therefore they recruited the Indian military primarily from Sikh and Muslim minority populations. It is typical for colonial powers to give power to minorities within a region, the minority owes its existence and status to the occupiers, and the majority who once subjected them become now subjected by them. So, in just looking at the Middle East: in Iraq the Sunnis were put in power over a majority Shia population, in Syria the Allowites minority is placed in power over a majority Sunni population. It was not a uniquely British system, but was used by all colonial powers across the globe, through out Africa and Asia, South America and the Philippines as it is the best method of control.
All Indian Army Divisions were mixed with regular British Army Personnel as it was believed that it took real soldiers to set an example, they had always until the middle of the second world war had British officers command all Indian Army units. At the outbreak of the war the Brits began a heavy recruitment campaign to enlarge the Indian Army which was already massive in size, both to protect the country from belligerent neighbors like Russia, but to secure their possessions in North Africa, Africa and Asia. By the end of the war India would have the largest standing Army, and to accomplish this they would begin recruiting from 'less desirable' groups and castes, and lowered the standards so that even under nourished men from famine areas could serve in spite of having diseases from malnutrition.
Rarely did members of the Indian Army get appropriate training, or adequate armaments: the generally went to war with WWI equipment, and inadequate munitions. Tank Divisions were trained in borrowed motor vehicles and never in combination with artillery. If sent to North Africa they learned desert fighting through heavy attrition, and as soon as they became victorious and veteran desert fighters their units were dissolved and sent to another war theater, like the jungles of Burma, where they were trained in jungle warfare by British Officers who had never seen a jungle. It was not unlike what the British did with most colonial soldiers.
This text does not cover the battles fought by the Indian Army except lightly, but covered all of the factors sociologically, economically and politically that affected them and their families and their desires to be free of English rule.
Very important to understand the backdrop to colonialism that was to end after people were recruited to fight for democracy and freedom when both were denied to them. So many things struck me and informed me but I will not share them all, as it would be a real spoiler.
India was in a way the lynch pin of the British Empire, a vast country whose British controlled military through the Raj was used primarily to keep order within the country and to be used by the British as an Army who conquered territories and claimed the for England and occupied them to enforce colonial rule.
I had known India from post colonial novels and films but it was not really covered in my history classes. I had seen films about the war in North Africa which had Sikhs in turbans and smart uniforms whose primary function seemed to be to serve tea and care for British officers. They were not portrayed as valiant warriors.
The British like all colonials had a relationship built of their sense of moral and intellectual superiority over all of the native peoples in their colonies and within the Dominion. They restricted to a handful the number of Indians who were allowed to train or serve as officers. They never allowed these few Officers to eat in their mess, or billet with them or even enter their clubs
The British held a firm belief that there were within any occupied country a warrior or martial class, therefore they recruited the Indian military primarily from Sikh and Muslim minority populations. It is typical for colonial powers to give power to minorities within a region, the minority owes its existence and status to the occupiers, and the majority who once subjected them become now subjected by them. So, in just looking at the Middle East: in Iraq the Sunnis were put in power over a majority Shia population, in Syria the Allowites minority is placed in power over a majority Sunni population. It was not a uniquely British system, but was used by all colonial powers across the globe, through out Africa and Asia, South America and the Philippines as it is the best method of control.
All Indian Army Divisions were mixed with regular British Army Personnel as it was believed that it took real soldiers to set an example, they had always until the middle of the second world war had British officers command all Indian Army units. At the outbreak of the war the Brits began a heavy recruitment campaign to enlarge the Indian Army which was already massive in size, both to protect the country from belligerent neighbors like Russia, but to secure their possessions in North Africa, Africa and Asia. By the end of the war India would have the largest standing Army, and to accomplish this they would begin recruiting from 'less desirable' groups and castes, and lowered the standards so that even under nourished men from famine areas could serve in spite of having diseases from malnutrition.
Rarely did members of the Indian Army get appropriate training, or adequate armaments: the generally went to war with WWI equipment, and inadequate munitions. Tank Divisions were trained in borrowed motor vehicles and never in combination with artillery. If sent to North Africa they learned desert fighting through heavy attrition, and as soon as they became victorious and veteran desert fighters their units were dissolved and sent to another war theater, like the jungles of Burma, where they were trained in jungle warfare by British Officers who had never seen a jungle. It was not unlike what the British did with most colonial soldiers.
This text does not cover the battles fought by the Indian Army except lightly, but covered all of the factors sociologically, economically and politically that affected them and their families and their desires to be free of English rule.
Very important to understand the backdrop to colonialism that was to end after people were recruited to fight for democracy and freedom when both were denied to them. So many things struck me and informed me but I will not share them all, as it would be a real spoiler.
April 6, 2023
The years preceding India’s Independence were momentous in many ways. The events leading up to the British decision to leave India cannot be seen in isolation. The second world war (1939-45) had many consequences which can explain the reasons for the end of British rule in India. It is always interesting and educative to study historical events in perspective. In history, any event is a result of many seemingly unconnected events. India being a colony of the British, has no say in any of the events leading up to the war. India was the victim of the war. It has no enmity with any of the Axis powers or any of the Allied forces except the British were ruling over us. It is the circumstances that made us a party to the war. Srinath Raghavan in this well-researched and extremely readable book-“India’s War” gives an account of India’s participation in the war - its contribution in terms of the huge volunteer force of nearly 2.5 million army-personal and many more contributions to the wartime economy, industry, agriculture, and sheer hard military labor between 1939 till the end of the war in 1945.
The political struggle for independence during this war period was complex and was evolving in response to the events as they unfolded. The resignation of provincial governments and aggressive assertion of the Muslim league claiming to represent the entire Muslim community pressing for a separate nation, the emergence of Subhash Bose as a counterpoint to Congress establishing ties with Axis powers to fight the British and the fluctuating fortunes of the Allied forces in Europe, North Africa, East Africa, and SE Asia resulted in political flux in India. Gandhi’s early call to support the British in the war effort to his gradual hardening of stance culminating in the Quit India movement were responses to the changing situation during the war. Raghavan presents the politics within the British war cabinet presided over by Churchill. His pathological hatred for India and anything Indian comes out clearly in his support of the then-viceroy Linlithgow who was considered a remote unimaginative personality. Linlithgow, with Churchill’s support, did everything in his control to undermine Congress and encourage the Muslim league. The major issue facing the British was the post-war status of India. They required Indians in the army to fight their battles in all theatres. They were forced to announce their post-war withdrawal plans from India obliging public opinion and an increasingly restive Congress. American President Roosevelt was also persuading them to be proactive in that direction. Stafford Crips' mission was the result of such political dialogues between Churchill and Roosevelt.
Raghavan has described the war in North Africa, East Africa, the Middle East, SE Asia, and Burma in great detail where Indian Army participated. Ordinary citizens, in addition to martial class like Rajputs, were drafted into the army and taken to the war fronts with minimum training and equipment. Indians fought in the hot deserts of North Africa and in the jungles of Malaya and Burma away from their natural habitat. Though constrained by their inherent handicaps Indians fought in the most trying circumstances and were responsible for pushing back the Axis powers. By the end of the war, India had one of the most experienced armies, confident and asserting their place in the world. Post-war India’s economy, politics, society, and their sense of self were transformed forever leading to the liberation from British rule. The second world war ushered in a new world order making colonialism irrelevant and hastening the process of liberation. In that sense, the war and our active participation were in a way turning points in the freedom struggle leading to liberation.
By way of suggestion, it would be better to add some explanatory notes on some of the army terminologies like Division, brigade, battalion, company, infantry, flanking, etc. For a layperson, these terms require some explanation though the narrative can be understood even without the explanations.
Upon completion of the book, I digressed into thinking about the very futility of war, though this has nothing to do with the narrative of the book. Frankly, Mr. Raghavan’s brief was only to give an account of the war from the perspective of Indians and their contribution to the war. However, I was compelled to wonder as to what is it that humanity has achieved from this terrible war fought across continents destroying lacs of lives and livelihoods.
In any war the type of “outbox thinking” that goes into planning, strategy, coordination, armaments, transportation, supply lines, storage, logistics, infrastructure, technical innovation, health, training, recruitment, and housing is astounding. The ingenuity with which humans can think and implement plans under extreme pressure conditions is a testimony to their perseverance. But then, the end goal of all this extraordinarily creative wartime activity is to bomb and kill or dislocate people from their homes, who have no clue of the motivations behind the senseless violence. They practically have no role to play in the larger scheme of things. The army man who comes to kill them or rape them has no enmity with them. It is simple motiveless cruelty. They possibly wonder as to what is it that they have done to deserve the long marches out of their hometowns with bags and baggage as a Rommel or a Montgomery enter their town from the other end. In what way a man in a small hamlet in a Malayan forest is related to the rivalries between a few European leaders? Who are these people who started this dance of destruction? There are no answers!
No lessons are learned from the catastrophic second world war. Though not on the same scale, wars of extreme destructive potential are a reality in the present-day world resulting in unbearable privations to populations at large. As I write these lines thousands of men, women, and children are getting killed in the Russia-Ukraine war. Many a time, it is the geography of your location that decides your fate! How can the common man escape war? Somehow it appears peace is a brief interlude between violent disruptions. Or is it reasonable to conclude that we humans are hardwired for a relentless march toward self-destruction?
To conclude, for anyone who has a flair for history this book is a treat. Mr. Raghavan made it accessible for a lay reader. However, this is not a book for those whose attention span is not more than 30 seconds! Mr. Raghavan has done a commendable job.
The political struggle for independence during this war period was complex and was evolving in response to the events as they unfolded. The resignation of provincial governments and aggressive assertion of the Muslim league claiming to represent the entire Muslim community pressing for a separate nation, the emergence of Subhash Bose as a counterpoint to Congress establishing ties with Axis powers to fight the British and the fluctuating fortunes of the Allied forces in Europe, North Africa, East Africa, and SE Asia resulted in political flux in India. Gandhi’s early call to support the British in the war effort to his gradual hardening of stance culminating in the Quit India movement were responses to the changing situation during the war. Raghavan presents the politics within the British war cabinet presided over by Churchill. His pathological hatred for India and anything Indian comes out clearly in his support of the then-viceroy Linlithgow who was considered a remote unimaginative personality. Linlithgow, with Churchill’s support, did everything in his control to undermine Congress and encourage the Muslim league. The major issue facing the British was the post-war status of India. They required Indians in the army to fight their battles in all theatres. They were forced to announce their post-war withdrawal plans from India obliging public opinion and an increasingly restive Congress. American President Roosevelt was also persuading them to be proactive in that direction. Stafford Crips' mission was the result of such political dialogues between Churchill and Roosevelt.
Raghavan has described the war in North Africa, East Africa, the Middle East, SE Asia, and Burma in great detail where Indian Army participated. Ordinary citizens, in addition to martial class like Rajputs, were drafted into the army and taken to the war fronts with minimum training and equipment. Indians fought in the hot deserts of North Africa and in the jungles of Malaya and Burma away from their natural habitat. Though constrained by their inherent handicaps Indians fought in the most trying circumstances and were responsible for pushing back the Axis powers. By the end of the war, India had one of the most experienced armies, confident and asserting their place in the world. Post-war India’s economy, politics, society, and their sense of self were transformed forever leading to the liberation from British rule. The second world war ushered in a new world order making colonialism irrelevant and hastening the process of liberation. In that sense, the war and our active participation were in a way turning points in the freedom struggle leading to liberation.
By way of suggestion, it would be better to add some explanatory notes on some of the army terminologies like Division, brigade, battalion, company, infantry, flanking, etc. For a layperson, these terms require some explanation though the narrative can be understood even without the explanations.
Upon completion of the book, I digressed into thinking about the very futility of war, though this has nothing to do with the narrative of the book. Frankly, Mr. Raghavan’s brief was only to give an account of the war from the perspective of Indians and their contribution to the war. However, I was compelled to wonder as to what is it that humanity has achieved from this terrible war fought across continents destroying lacs of lives and livelihoods.
In any war the type of “outbox thinking” that goes into planning, strategy, coordination, armaments, transportation, supply lines, storage, logistics, infrastructure, technical innovation, health, training, recruitment, and housing is astounding. The ingenuity with which humans can think and implement plans under extreme pressure conditions is a testimony to their perseverance. But then, the end goal of all this extraordinarily creative wartime activity is to bomb and kill or dislocate people from their homes, who have no clue of the motivations behind the senseless violence. They practically have no role to play in the larger scheme of things. The army man who comes to kill them or rape them has no enmity with them. It is simple motiveless cruelty. They possibly wonder as to what is it that they have done to deserve the long marches out of their hometowns with bags and baggage as a Rommel or a Montgomery enter their town from the other end. In what way a man in a small hamlet in a Malayan forest is related to the rivalries between a few European leaders? Who are these people who started this dance of destruction? There are no answers!
No lessons are learned from the catastrophic second world war. Though not on the same scale, wars of extreme destructive potential are a reality in the present-day world resulting in unbearable privations to populations at large. As I write these lines thousands of men, women, and children are getting killed in the Russia-Ukraine war. Many a time, it is the geography of your location that decides your fate! How can the common man escape war? Somehow it appears peace is a brief interlude between violent disruptions. Or is it reasonable to conclude that we humans are hardwired for a relentless march toward self-destruction?
To conclude, for anyone who has a flair for history this book is a treat. Mr. Raghavan made it accessible for a lay reader. However, this is not a book for those whose attention span is not more than 30 seconds! Mr. Raghavan has done a commendable job.
July 19, 2017
How did Indians perform in the second WW? That question is answered in this book. Loved the lucid description which was story like. It became un-putdownable at times. Must read for all Indians.
September 4, 2020
A comprehensive and lucid account of pre-independence India’s contribution to World War II in the context of the following:
John Connell mentions in Auchinleck: A Biography of Field-Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck
The shrewd Jinnah comes across as an astute scheming politico, running circles around the Gandhi/Nehru Congress and British bureaucrats. The Chinese generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek
The Civil Services, railways, roads, irrigation canals apart, the British managed to unite the subcontinent into a country. John Masters wistfully remarks on the surrender of the Japanese to the Indian Army
Strategic dimensions of warThere is a lot one learns from the narrative, the most important being the dismissive attitude of Western leaders about the capacity of Indians to rule themselves. Churchill’s views are well known:
International dimensions of war
Domestic politics
Socio-economic dimensions
The War itself
I hate Indians, they are beastly people with a beastly religionHitler too had a poor opinion of Indians
If the English give India back her liberty, within twenty years India will have lost her liberty againThe War made strange bed-fellows – the US, China, UK/India ganged up against the rampaging Japanese. Geopolitics changed and now the target of Japan, the US, India, England is a resurgent China.
John Connell mentions in Auchinleck: A Biography of Field-Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck
As long as a cat arches her back, spits and faces the dog in front of her, he will hesitate and sometimes go away: the moment she turns tail she is done for.This prompts the author to add a flippant comment
Such were the zoological assumptions on which the defence of the Far East rested, Little wonder, it failed to survive contact with the enemyThe Japanese campaign is covered exhaustively, but the North African campaign stops at Tobruk and the decisive battle of El Alamein is described after many chapters – the thread of the narrative is lost.
The shrewd Jinnah comes across as an astute scheming politico, running circles around the Gandhi/Nehru Congress and British bureaucrats. The Chinese generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek
found Jinnah ‘dishonest’: ‘the British make use of people like this – but it’s not true that Hindus and Muslims can’t get on’Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck, in a gloomy letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, wrote
Jinnah, in particular, was a ‘demagogue of the most dangerous type’. He had no love for his country and was the ‘perfect tool for the Axis’.George Orwell contributed as a BBC announcer. Here is a surprisingly prejudiced aspect of the author of 1984 and Animal Farm
The failure of Cripps’ mission, in fact, brought out Orwell’s submerged prejudices. He noted with approval Wintringham’s observation that ‘in practice the majority of Indians are inferior to Europeans, and one can’t help feeling this and, after a while, acting accordingly.And again
Yet Orwell held that Indian nationalism was racist and xenophobic. ‘Most Indians who are politically conscious hate Britain so much’, Orwell patronizingly claimed, ‘that they have ceased to bother about the consequences of an Axis victory.’Here is a staccato account of the evacuation of Madras in anticipation of Japanese bombing:
Hundreds of tanks came out in procession. Thousands of small explosions occurred. Bomb trenches were dug. Visiting the beach after 6 pm was prohibited. Wild animals in the Zoo were shot. Chinese restaurants opened. Dancing halls proliferated. Talcum powder became costlier… Use of electricity was restrictedA fallout of wartime shortages
Another lasting culinary consequence of the war was the rava idli - a variant of the staple south Indian breakfast that substituted semolina for the increasingly scarce riceSuch scattered nuggets make the, at times, turgid reading with statistics, tables and graphs, entertaining.
The Civil Services, railways, roads, irrigation canals apart, the British managed to unite the subcontinent into a country. John Masters wistfully remarks on the surrender of the Japanese to the Indian Army
As the tanks burst away down the road to Rangoon … (they) took possession of a the empire we built … Twenty races, a dozen religions, a score of languages passed in those trucks and tanjks. When my great-great-grandfather first went to India there had been as many nations: now there was one - India
August 6, 2018
In the prologue of the book, the author Srinath Raghavan, former infantry officer in the Indian Army who is now a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi states as follows.
Indian soldiers had fought in a stunning range of places: Hong Kong and Singapore; Malaya and Burma; Iraq, Iran and Syria; North and East Africa; Sicily and mainland Italy. The Indian army had raised, trained and deployed some 2.5 million men. Even at the time, this was recognized as the largest volunteer army in history. Nearly 90,000 of these men were killed or maimed. Many more millions of Indians were pulled into the vortex of the Second World War – as industrial, agricultural and military labour. India’s material and financial contribution to the war was equally significant. India emerged as a major military-industrial and logistical base for Allied operations in South-East Asia and the Middle East, and the country was also among the largest wartime creditors of Britain. Such extraordinary economic mobilization was made possible only by imposing terrible privations on a population that barely skirted the edge of subsistence. The human toll on the Indian home front must be counted in millions. And yet, the story of India’s war is only dimly remembered.
It is simply astonishing that despite playing such an important role in World War-II, the story of the Indian Army during WWII is hardly known. India was not an independent nation during WWII and was a colony of the British Empire whose rule is referred as the British Raj. India was a crucial part of the allied powers in their fight against the axis powers. Indian troops fought bravely in Africa, Malaya, Europe, Burma, and most importantly, defended home posts of Imphal and Kohima against the invading Japanese. Meanwhile, the war effort had a huge impact on the Indian economy. Some positive and some negative. The war years also saw numerous political standoffs between the Congress Party, the British Raj, and the Muslim League. 1942 saw the Quit India movement. In 1943, India was hit by famines across the country with the one at Bengal being the worst among them.
Often let down by their colonial masters which lack of preparation, lack of proper planning, and lack of proper equipment, against a powerful enemy, Indian troops fought gallantly at multiple theatres of war. I particularly liked the Burma campaign covered in the book. Initially, the Indian troops were at the receiving end of a brutal Japanese assault. They lost Malaya and Burma to the marauding Japanese. However, the Indian Army prepared itself and ultimately overcame the Japanese and won back all the territories which had been previously lost. The author has covered the Burma campaign exceptionally well. The legendary story of the Indian National Army and its commander, the great Subhas Chandra Bose is also covered quite well.
Every aspect of the war is covered brilliantly by the author. The politics leading up to the buildup of the war, how politics shaped and was shaped by the war. The economic condition of India, how the army was mobilised and trained during different stages, war campaigns across the world, and ultimately the book ends by stating how South Asia, not just India was shaped by the Second World War are covered in an extensive manner. Hats off to Prof Raghavan's meticulous research done for this book. The extensive research done by him shows throughout the book and it is indeed a superb work of scholarship. I profusely thank Prof Srinath Raghavan for writing this outstanding book. A must read for every Indian.
Indian soldiers had fought in a stunning range of places: Hong Kong and Singapore; Malaya and Burma; Iraq, Iran and Syria; North and East Africa; Sicily and mainland Italy. The Indian army had raised, trained and deployed some 2.5 million men. Even at the time, this was recognized as the largest volunteer army in history. Nearly 90,000 of these men were killed or maimed. Many more millions of Indians were pulled into the vortex of the Second World War – as industrial, agricultural and military labour. India’s material and financial contribution to the war was equally significant. India emerged as a major military-industrial and logistical base for Allied operations in South-East Asia and the Middle East, and the country was also among the largest wartime creditors of Britain. Such extraordinary economic mobilization was made possible only by imposing terrible privations on a population that barely skirted the edge of subsistence. The human toll on the Indian home front must be counted in millions. And yet, the story of India’s war is only dimly remembered.
It is simply astonishing that despite playing such an important role in World War-II, the story of the Indian Army during WWII is hardly known. India was not an independent nation during WWII and was a colony of the British Empire whose rule is referred as the British Raj. India was a crucial part of the allied powers in their fight against the axis powers. Indian troops fought bravely in Africa, Malaya, Europe, Burma, and most importantly, defended home posts of Imphal and Kohima against the invading Japanese. Meanwhile, the war effort had a huge impact on the Indian economy. Some positive and some negative. The war years also saw numerous political standoffs between the Congress Party, the British Raj, and the Muslim League. 1942 saw the Quit India movement. In 1943, India was hit by famines across the country with the one at Bengal being the worst among them.
Often let down by their colonial masters which lack of preparation, lack of proper planning, and lack of proper equipment, against a powerful enemy, Indian troops fought gallantly at multiple theatres of war. I particularly liked the Burma campaign covered in the book. Initially, the Indian troops were at the receiving end of a brutal Japanese assault. They lost Malaya and Burma to the marauding Japanese. However, the Indian Army prepared itself and ultimately overcame the Japanese and won back all the territories which had been previously lost. The author has covered the Burma campaign exceptionally well. The legendary story of the Indian National Army and its commander, the great Subhas Chandra Bose is also covered quite well.
Every aspect of the war is covered brilliantly by the author. The politics leading up to the buildup of the war, how politics shaped and was shaped by the war. The economic condition of India, how the army was mobilised and trained during different stages, war campaigns across the world, and ultimately the book ends by stating how South Asia, not just India was shaped by the Second World War are covered in an extensive manner. Hats off to Prof Raghavan's meticulous research done for this book. The extensive research done by him shows throughout the book and it is indeed a superb work of scholarship. I profusely thank Prof Srinath Raghavan for writing this outstanding book. A must read for every Indian.
July 30, 2020
AN AMAZING READ! I have always been fascinated with the second world war history but always felt that many documentaries and books, the Indian Army, the largest volunteer force did not get its due. So I was really looking forward to this book and it did not disappoint at all.
Of the military aspects, it was very interesting to read about the East African campaign and how the experiences in Eritrea affected the troops and the commanders who later went on to fight in other theatres. Another interesting aspect I did not know about previously was how much back and forth happened in terms of the planning for the operations in Burma and the American-Chinese angle to those preparations.
To my mind however, what makes this book a must read is not the account of the campaigns but the detailed account of the political context and happenings in the political sphere including attitudes of various leaders and their reaction. It was interesting to read about the 'empire of the raj' i.e. the British Indian government's views of its strategic interests around the world as well as the tussule between New Delhi and London on issues of financing the war including the sterling balances. The book also opened my eyes to the outsized influence which American public opinion and Roosevelt had on Churchill and the India office during the war years. Lastly, ofcourse the chapters about the war economy and those which elaborate on the thinking of the Indian nationalist leaders at each of the stages i.e. declaration of the war, Cripps mission and the post war cabinet mission as well as Indian representation at Bretton Woods and UN, are also interesting.
All in all, make sure that you read it if you have slightest interest in the history of the Indian Army and the political developments during the war years in South Asia.
Of the military aspects, it was very interesting to read about the East African campaign and how the experiences in Eritrea affected the troops and the commanders who later went on to fight in other theatres. Another interesting aspect I did not know about previously was how much back and forth happened in terms of the planning for the operations in Burma and the American-Chinese angle to those preparations.
To my mind however, what makes this book a must read is not the account of the campaigns but the detailed account of the political context and happenings in the political sphere including attitudes of various leaders and their reaction. It was interesting to read about the 'empire of the raj' i.e. the British Indian government's views of its strategic interests around the world as well as the tussule between New Delhi and London on issues of financing the war including the sterling balances. The book also opened my eyes to the outsized influence which American public opinion and Roosevelt had on Churchill and the India office during the war years. Lastly, ofcourse the chapters about the war economy and those which elaborate on the thinking of the Indian nationalist leaders at each of the stages i.e. declaration of the war, Cripps mission and the post war cabinet mission as well as Indian representation at Bretton Woods and UN, are also interesting.
All in all, make sure that you read it if you have slightest interest in the history of the Indian Army and the political developments during the war years in South Asia.
July 8, 2021
In 1940 Britain stood alone ... apart from the Dominions and the Empire! The role of India in the Second World War doesn't seem to be especially well known here, certainly in comparison to that of the Canadians and Australians, and tends to be limited to tales of plucky Sikhs and Gurkhas fighting in North Africa, Italy and Burma. This book certainly gives the bigger picture and teases out what is quite a convoluted and nuanced story. It's certainly one that Britain doesn't come out of very well and it's almost a wonder that Britain got the support that it did from India. Of course, Churchill's unhelpful views on India feature, but he is largely absolved of blame for the terrible Bengal famine, which seems to have been down to inflation, incompetence and global war! It's good to read a book on India by an Indian author and he really covers a lot of ground in a relatively small space. I certainly learned a lot. If I have a criticism it's just that for me it didn't flow as a single narrative. Maybe that's because I wouldn't normally choose a book with so much politics and economics - yes, I'm a lightweight! - but I found the changes in pace, from broad chapters about the political situation and war economy, to detailed accounts of Indian Army operations in North Africa etc. disconcerting. It is well provided with maps and atmospheric photos and it is certainly a story that deserves to be better known.
May 14, 2022
This is one of the few good books written over Indian contribution to world war 2.
This book discuss various aspects of and around the time of war. Author starts with discussing political environment created by war and how various political factions reacted and thought there way of future proceeding. After that author travels back on forth on home turf and foreign frontiars. However this affect the continuation of story yet I think it was necessary because keeping story in one aspect like politics might bore down the reader.
Author nicely covers all aspects like economy internal security , food grain shortage, US Mindset etc and give a wide base to understand.
I liked the book but personally I found few gaps in story like closing of Africa front in very few pages.
The best I liked is that this book really helped me understand indian freedom struggle and quit India movement in good way and she'd true light on my point of view of Indian freedom struggle
This book discuss various aspects of and around the time of war. Author starts with discussing political environment created by war and how various political factions reacted and thought there way of future proceeding. After that author travels back on forth on home turf and foreign frontiars. However this affect the continuation of story yet I think it was necessary because keeping story in one aspect like politics might bore down the reader.
Author nicely covers all aspects like economy internal security , food grain shortage, US Mindset etc and give a wide base to understand.
I liked the book but personally I found few gaps in story like closing of Africa front in very few pages.
The best I liked is that this book really helped me understand indian freedom struggle and quit India movement in good way and she'd true light on my point of view of Indian freedom struggle
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