1. Radio announcement by the Viceroy declaring that India is at war, 3 September 1939
Thousands of volunteers start to join the Indian Army, often for regular pay and food. By the end of the war the army would be ten times larger than at the start and radically transformed, with recruits from across the subcontinent.
2. The battle of Keren, February – April 1941
An East African battle in 1941, at least 4,000 men wounded, the majority of them South Asians. Overlooked in much of the literature on the Second World War.
Image credit: Ibiblio
3. The fall of Singapore, 15 February 1942
The rapid fall of the British imperial colony of Singapore to the Japanese sent shockwaves around India, as rumours of the retreat spread. Many believed that the Japanese would invade India’s eastern coastline.
Image credit: Australiangeographic
4. Bose’s first broadcast, 19 February 1942
Bose’s first broadcast from Germany – revealing he
has escaped house arrest and fled to Europe - elated the Indian public at a
moment when invasion and turmoil threatened India’s borders.
Image credit: Indiaopines
5. American troops start to arrive in India, 1942
The war brought thousands of American soldiers to India; and along with them, high wages for labourers, and jazz, coca cola and Hollywood for the wealthy.
Image credit: Teaching.msa.maryland
6. Building of the Ledo Road begins, January 1943
Local politicians argued that building a 465-mile road between China and India via. Burma was simply impossible; it took over two years and cost thousands of Chinese and Indian labourers’ lives.
Image credit: Eucmh
7. Cripps mission fails and Stafford Cripps leaves India, 12 April 1942
Stafford Cripps was sent by Churchill to broker a deal, to persuade Indian leaders to take part in the war effort. His offer was rejected - he was 30 months too late - and the course of India’s history was set towards Partition.
Image credit: Nww2m
8. Arrest of Gandhi, Nehru and other Congress leaders, 9 August 1942
These arrests triggered the Quit India movement. Congress leaders spent the rest of the war in prison in Ahmednagar Fort – Gandhi stayed at the Aga Khan palace and was released in 1944 because of his ill-health.
Image credit: Palwalonline
9. Bengal Famine, 1943
Without a doubt the most important event in India’s Second World War and a time of horrors which historians are still coming to terms with. How many died? It is still unclear, and figures range from 1 to 3 million.
Image credit: Historicaltimes