World War II & India

The aspect of Second World War was a strange chapter in Indian history. The war which continued from 1939 till 1945 had left its deadliest marks on mankind not only in India but in the entire world. India at that time was under the British colonial rule and the whole of Indian subcontinent and its people had no connections at all with the war. But the colonial masters made the Indians fight on their behalf and the Indian men fought bravely at various battle fields of the world and gave their lives at the command of their British masters. The Bengal province witnessed one its worst disasters in the form of the Great Bengal Famine during WW-II. The famine took the lives of around 3 million Bengalis and remained as an infamous example of man-made devastations.

British India officially declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939. Britain, as a part of the Allied Force engaged around 2.5 million Indian volunteer force to fight under their command against the Axis Powers. The Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army fought bravely with distinction throughout the world and more than 87,000 Indian soldiers gave their lives in this devastating war. In the political sphere in India the Muslim League supported the war efforts of the British however, the largest political party in India i.e the Congress party asked for complete independence of India as a pre-condition before forwarding any support. Britain rejected the proposal from the Congress party and continued to send Indian men to the war front. As a result of this, Mahatma Gandhi announced the “Quit India Movement” in August 1942, which was the final movement demanding the end of British Raj. After the failure of Cripps Mission, Mahatma Gandhi made the call for 'Do Or Die' in his Quit India speech delivered in Mumbai on August 1942. This was a massive mass movement launched by the Indian National Congress. The colonial government took the matter very seriously and within a short time they arrested almost all the top Congress leaders and there was no one left to lead the movement. The Muslim League, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Communist Party of India and most of the princely states of British India did not support the movement. At the end due to lack of leadership the movement lacked proper direction and there were occasions were the peaceful protests tuned violent. The government crushed the movement with the use of heavy force and armed forces from Australia and New Zeeland were also used for the same. Many people died due to the firing by the armed forces during the demonstrations and the movement ultimately failed.

Importantly, in 1939 the top young leader and the president of the Congress party Subhas Chandra Bose after winning the presidential elections for the second time suggested Ghandhiji and the top other Congress leaders to start a armed struggle against the colonial British. He was in favour of taking advantage of the WW-II and throwing the colonial masters out of India with the use of force, which may require foreign help too. Mahatma Gandhi and most of the Congress leaders had different ideas and Bose had to leave the party. Shubhas Chandra Bose founded a new political wing within the Congress in 1939, which is the 'Forward Bloc'. Later, when Bose went to Germany and formed the Azad Hind Fauz and in 1942 when Mahatma Gandhi announced the Quit India Movement and called for do or die, Bose through his Azad Hind Radio extended his support. Historians believe that though the ideologies of both Bose and Gandhi were different on the point of use of force but their thoughts came closer during the World War, as Mahatma called for do or die.