World War II: The unsung role of India and its soldiers in the global conflict
This article examines the significant but often overlooked role of Indian soldiers in World War II. It explores how the complex relationship between India's nationalist movement and British colonial rule has led to a lack of public memory regarding India's wartime contributions.
Why it matters
Understanding this history provides context for India's post-colonial identity and the historical tensions between its independence movement and global military participation.
The years spanning the Second World War, from Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, to Japan’s surrender on September 2, 1945, remain etched in history as a global conflict that lasted six years and involved millions of people across four continents. Approximately 85 million people lost their lives, most of them civilians, due to mass killings, genocide, starvation, and disease
World War II, which also bears the grim distinction of being the only conflict in which nuclear weapons were used, was fought between the Axis powers, principally Nazi Germany, Italy and Imperial Japan, and the Allied powers, including Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, France and China.
In India, memories of the war have largely receded from public consciousness, as the years between 1939 and 1945 are remembered chiefly as the closing phase of the struggle for Independence.
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