Honour Indian legacy of World Wars

THE annals of global history often overlook a profound truth. The monumental contribution and sacrifices of Indian soldiers during the two World Wars. It is forgotten not just by the Western powers that benefited from their service but tragically by even the very nation in whose name they served professionally with quiet dignity and fortitude.

There needs to be recognition that these soldiers, notwithstanding whether they served in the British Indian Army, the Indian Legion or the Indian National Army, ultimately shed their blood for a civilisational continuum called India, even though it was unfortunately colonised at that time.

The scale of India’s contribution was staggering. During the First World War, the Indian Army expanded from about 150,000 personnel in 1914 to around 1.4 million by 1918.

By the time the Second World War culminated, this figure had swelled to an astonishing 2.5 million personnel, constituting the largest volunteer army in history.

Following the near destruction of the British Expeditionary Force in the opening months of World War I, the arrival of 28,500 Indian troops in France by September 1914 provided a critical reinforcement without which the Western Front might have collapsed. Field Marshal Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief of India, later conceded that Britain “couldn’t have come through both wars if they hadn’t had the Indian Army”.

During the First World War, Indian Expeditionary Forces were deployed across an astonishingly broad geographical spectrum — from the Western Front to East Africa, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Gallipoli and beyond.

The pre-war Indian Army had developed considerable expertise in conducting operations across diverse terrains and climates. This versatility proved invaluable to British strategy, which required simultaneous campaigns across radically different operational environments.

The Indian Army functioned as an imperial fire brigade, deployed to critical sectors where its specialised capabilities could achieve maximum effect. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Middle East, where Indian formations constituted the overwhelming majority of British imperial forces.

On the Western Front in 1914, Indian soldiers played a crucial role in preventing a German breakthrough during the First Battle of Ypres, where they held approximately one-third of the entire British lines despite having recently arrived from garrison duty in India.

Military historians have recognised and applauded the fact that the pre-1914 Indian Army was “a leading professional force” with “high training standards both for regular warfare and for small wars”.

At the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, Indian cavalry units conducted a critical counterattack that prevented German forces from exploiting a breach in Allied lines. In Mesopotamia, despite the disastrous surrender at Kut al-Amara, a failure attributable to British command deficiencies, Indian units subsequently demonstrated remarkable operational effectiveness during the capture of Baghdad and further advances into Persia.

The Second World War witnessed an even more dramatic demonstration of Indian military prowess across vastly different battlefields. In North Africa, Indian formations proved pivotal in both offensive and defensive operations against Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps.

The 4th Indian Infantry Division established itself as one of the most effective Allied formations in the desert campaign, contributing significantly to the victory at El Alamein. At Monte Cassino, Indian soldiers fought with extraordinary determination under appalling conditions, with the Gurkha regiments particularly distinguishing themselves in mountain combat.

The most significant contribution occurred in the Asian theatre. Following the disastrous British defeats in Malaya and Burma in 1942, Indian formations constituted the bulk of the Commonwealth forces available to defend India itself and eventually launch counteroffensives into Southeast Asia.

Indian units provided the majority of the combat power in the victories at Imphal and Kohima in 1944, described as the ‘Stalingrad of the East’. The Fourteenth Army, which contained substantial Indian components, became the largest single field army in the British imperial order of battle.

The Indian contribution extended to even include specialised capabilities and encompass broader geopolitical considerations. The Royal Indian Navy expanded significantly during the Second World War, contributing to naval operations in the Indian Ocean and protecting vital sea lanes against Japanese and German threats.

The availability of Indian manpower allowed Britain to maintain her global empire while simultaneously fighting major conflicts in Europe, a strategic luxury unavailable to other European colonial powers. France, for instance, lacked equivalent colonial military resources, contributing to her rapid defeat in 1940 and subsequent dependence on Allied support for liberation. The Netherlands also could not draw upon substantial colonial military forces, limiting its ability to contribute to Allied campaigns.

What makes the sacrifices of Indian soldiers particularly poignant, and what justifies our national remembrance, is that they did not fight merely as imperial mercenaries. They were also motivated by the promise of self-determination — a promise repeatedly made and cynically betrayed.

In 1917, Edwin Samuel Montagu, Secretary of State for India, dangled the prospect of ‘self-government’ for India in exchange for wartime loyalty. Yet, after World War I, instead of freedom, India received the repressive Rowlatt Act and the horrors of Jallianwala Bagh.

The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms of 1919 offered not ‘responsible government’ but a diluted parody of autonomy. Similarly, during World War II, the British despatched the Cripps Mission in 1942, offering Dominion status post-war, a proposal Gandhi astutely dismissed as a “post-dated cheque drawn on a failing bank”.

The yearning for independence also manifested in the actions of those who opposed the British Raj through armed struggle. The 1915 Singapore Mutiny, orchestrated under the foiled Hindu-German conspiracy, was a clear manifestation of the simmering discontent.

The Indian National Army (INA), led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and the Indian Legion in Europe were composed of soldiers who believed that Axis support could catalyse India’s liberation. They fought with the same patriotic fervour as their Allied-serving counterparts. The INA’s campaigns in Burma and the Indian Legion’s existence in Europe symbolised a desperate bid for sovereignty. History, always complex, is often convoluted.

Oxymoronically, post-Independence India has failed to adequately honour these sacrifices. While nations like Russia, France and China commemorate their war dead with grandeur, India remains curiously silent. While we decided to remain a part of the Commonwealth, we chose to forget those who had shed blood and martyred themselves for the same Commonwealth. In the narrative of the Indian freedom struggle, theirs was the inconvenient truth that was airbrushed out of history books.

As a nation that values her heritage and her future, India must establish a day of remembrance, not to glorify war but to honour sacrifice, not to celebrate an empire but to recognise the unwavering spirit of those who served with fidelity and honour in the global struggle against Nazism, fascism and Japanese expansionism in Asia. We owe them nothing less than everlasting remembrance.

Manish Tewari is Lok Sabha MP and former I&B Minister.