Britain and France declared war over Nazi Germany in 1939. At that point of time, the British Empire ruled over the countries of Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Libya, Italian Somaliland, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Madagascar and the Indian Empire.

The Indian Empire itself contributed for 205,000 voluntary soldiers to fight for the British in this war. By the end of the war, the recruitment was so great that it grew to 2,500,000 men being the largest all-volunteer force in history. The total number of soldiers in the British army was around 3 million, and so you can imagine how much of a contribution the Indians single-handedly had during the war.

In fact, the Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck later acknowledged this by saying that the United Kingdom, “couldn’t have come through both wars if they hadn’t had the Indian Army”, referring to both WW1 and WW2. 

87,000 Indians in the British Army lost their lives in the Second World War, including modern day Pakistani, Bangladeshi and ethnic Nepalese soldiers.

Meanwhile, within the country, there were two major political parties which dominated the scene. The All-India Muslim League founded by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Khwaja Salimullah and Aga Khan III was pro-British. On the other hand, the Indian National Congress led by Mahatma Gandhi was anti-colonial in nature.

Another branch of thinkers emerged from the Indian National Congress, breaking apart from it with their own radical ideology. This was led by Subhas Chandra Bose, who reorganized the Indian National Army with help from the Japanese. Japan, Germany and Italy were the Axis powers who were fighting the war against the Allies of Britain, France and Soviet Russia.

Bose was also the puppet head of a The Provisional Government of Free India. In the German and Italian military, there were Indian battalions and infantry regiments offering their support in the war from India. 

The powers of the British Empire weakened even after they won the war, they began having economical crises themselves and a lot of rebellions occurred in their colonies. Eventually, it led to the independence of the Indian Empire and the partition. Violence broke out nationwide, leading to estimated deaths from 250,000 to over 1,000,000 deaths.

To take back some positivity from the situation, India now has a well-trained defence force along with other strong legislative and judicial forms of institutions.