
World War II videos When England went to war on September 3, 1939, the Dominions had the right to decide in their legislatures whether to fight. Ireland remained neutral; Canada waited a few days to show their independence. India, with colonial status, had no such choice. India went to war when England went to war. The India Congress Party, led by Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawarhal Nehru, controlled the provincial legislatures. Rather than support the war, the Congress Party pulled their deputies out of the legislatures. With only the Nazis to fight, Indian units gave good service in North Africa; but the Indian public did not mobilize to support the war. In 1941, India went from colonial combatant to potential battlefield when the Japanese attacked the Western powers. India became the scene of political upheaval. Gandhi and Nehru tied Indian participation in the war to Indian independence. Rioting and strikes led to the outlawing of the Congress Party in August 1942. Gandhi's political rival, Chandra Bose, went to Berlin and then Tokyo to raise an Indian National Army out of exiles and POWs captured in Singapore. Many POWs claimed they were coerced into joining. Bose raised 7000 and joined the Japanese when they invaded India in March 1944. In Kohima-Imphal, the British and Indian units waged a running battle with the Japanese and Indian Nationalists, who were poorly supplied and far from their base of operations. By August 1944 the invasion was repelled. Bose and the Axis <b>...</b>
World
War
II
India
British
Axis
Nazi
England
Mountbatten
Allied
Armies
Berlin
Germany
Singapore
Japanese
Mohandas
K.
Gandhi
bn
442
RCT