British India: The Forgotten Army

India took part in the Second World War under British rule, without making a sovereign decision to enter the conflict. This episode reconstructs the expansion of the British Indian Army, the participation of Indian soldiers in Africa, the Middle East, Italy, and Burma, and the territory’s vast material contribution to the Allied war effort. It also explores the Quit India movement, colonial repression, the Japanese threat, Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army, and the Bengal famine of 1943. A perspective on a decisive, exploited, and mobilized colonial society whose wartime experience accelerated the path to independence. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.