India in 1945

The First World War had pushed British rule in India close to collapse and had arguably made home rule or dominion status only a matter of time. During the Second World War the Quit India campaign manifested itself as open rebellion against Britain and the subsequent famine in Bengal discredited Churchill’s wartime government in the eyes of much of the population. By 1945 the pressures that Japan’s war against Britain’s Asian Empire had placed on the colonial rulers had made the end of empire an inevitability. Not only had the British failed to show their martial prowess against Japan, but the war had revolutionised Indian society, seen the development of a huge war industry and a powerful Indian army of over a million men had been primarily responsible for taking the fight to the Japanese. The consequences of this for British rule were catastrophic. Listen to the podcast here for more:

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