Talk:India in World War II

Untitled
India wasn't the only major Allied nation in Asia during WWII, China took the major brunt of the fighting there for the entire war.
 * correction is don fawk u guys

Why did India participate
I think this article needs to be greatly expanded. Especially the section "Army of India Involvement". There simply isn't enough detail there. (Lord Vader 17:20, 2 August 2006 (UTC))

This article doesn't give any idea as to what made Indian leaders change their mind so that they allowed the participation of Indian forces. What happened to British 'hypocrisy'? Were they promised freedom in return?--Shashankgupta (talk) 09:54, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

My father served in India as a medic with the then United States Army Air Corp, more informaiton about this would be greatly appreciated. What bases were in India, what type of missions etc. and how did the now USAF fight from India?

Change
I changed that section name from "Collaboration with Axis powers" from "Collaboration with Axis Powers for independence",because they helped for for freedom.Ovsek (talk) 13:49, 31 May 2013 (UTC)
 * that doesn't quite work -- the Bose people were often expatriates who did not intend to live in India anyway. Rjensen (talk) 21:39, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

What are you talking about?Thousands of Indian soldiers went to fight for British,in WW2,they were captured by Axis,then they decided to join Indian Freedom cause.During WW2,separate identity of Indian immigrants in South East Asia did not rise unlike now,in Germany there were no Indian expatriates than students,they went there to study,most of the Indians in Germany in WW2 were Indian prisoners.How can you say they had nothing with India?

I reverted it,or you just dont want to accept the truth.Ovsek (talk) 05:41, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Everytime someone reverts Ovsek's edit, he immediately attacks the editor. See Talk:Bhagavad_Gita --Tito Dutta (talk • contributions • email) 05:56, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

I think another is missing,that is "Quite India Movement" by Congress,is not it?Ovsek (talk) 06:29, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Exactly, "Quite India Movement" --Tito Dutta  (talk • contributions • email) 06:47, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
 * The POW's had the choice of dying in Japan's horrible POW camps or joining the Bose army, along with thousands of people who had never lived in India. Who says they fought for India's Freedom??? Rjensen (talk) 08:40, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Who says they fought for India's Freedom??? — Bose said it --Tito Dutta  (talk • contributions • email) 11:32, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Indeed Bose said it-- he said it to Hitler and Tojo as well. He perhaps was unaware of how Hitler and Tojo handled freedom in their puppet states like Italy and China & Philippines? The issue is what the soldiers thought and they were either a) escaping horrible POW camps; or b) were permanent residents of places like Malaya but were enlisted because they were of Indian ancestry. Rjensen (talk) 11:38, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
 * The issue is what the soldiers thought and they were either a) escaping horrible POW camps; or b) were permanent residents of places like Malaya but were enlisted because they were of Indian ancestry. — Yes Doctor Jensen, ans since you are a researcher and scholar yourself, it requires no citation! But, Bose formed INA/AZF to fight against British for India's freedom, not to help people escape PoW camps! Here is a news report of November 1945. It is defamatory to say people like Mohan Singh (general), Lakshmi Sahgal, Prem Sahgal, Ram Singh Thakur joined INA to escape PoW camps and not to fight for India's freedom! --Tito Dutta (talk • contributions • email) 12:04, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your replies,sirs.Basically India was not an independent country.Colony of Britain,so it should be said India was forced to participate In WW2.Now the question is why Indians helped Axis?

The goal of Axis was to create empire or to recover lost territory.Indians helped Axis not for empire for Freedom.So it should be mentioned.

By the way,the soldiers who joined INA almost all were Indian prisoners from Singapore,and they all joined for freedom they were inspired by Netaji.If they were not inspired they would be defeated easily,but recent debate in Britain shows Battle of Kohima-Imphal was the toughest battle Britain ever fought,and INA clearly played important role.So it is clear they were inspired.

How can you say those people never lived in India?They were all either first generation or 2nd Generation Indian immigrants.Today if you ask any Singapore Indian they will say they are Singaporian not Indian,these concept still did not come then.If they had no connection with India then why did they help Netaji for funding?

From completely Neutral view,hence British did not seek permission of Indian province government,and declared war on Germany-so the title should be "Forced Participation on Behalf of Allies'' should not be?

Of course I am not sure how Japan would treat India if British was ousted from India,how ever Netaji was not leaders like Philippines or Burma,you can see during Tokyo trial Japanese paid their respect for Netaji.Thank you.Ovsek (talk) 14:55, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
 * the problem here is that Ovsek is speculating using his personal POV  about unknown motivations-- the article however must be based on reliable secondary sources which he ignores. As for the speculation he might ponder how a person facing the horrors and deaths in a Japanese POW camp might respond.  Note that the Indian POWs in those camps had not been drafted into the (British) forces--they all volunteered from their villages in India. Rjensen (talk) 21:27, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes,off course they volunteered to join British?Does it matter here?Read my comment again please.It answers.Ovsek (talk) 04:54, 2 June 2013 (UTC)


 * what is the evidence from RS that the poor POW's believed in Bose's dreams? Seems they were trying to get freedom for themselves--they faced death and horrid conditions in Japanese POW camps otherwise. It seems that 95% of the volunteers joined the British rather than the Bose forces Rjensen (talk) 08:47, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Hi,sorry for contradicting,you said 95% joined British,it is wrong,infact entire INA was made by Indian prisoners of wars,INA never collected recruits from Mainland India directly,about 50,000 Indian prisoners were captured in various battlefields of South-East Asia,about 45000 joined.

Here is a famous book written by Shyamal Bose-Subhas Ghare Fere Nai(Subhas Did not come back home),you can take a look here,it is best book about Netaji.INA soldiers were motivated for freedom,Britain agreed that,recent debate says INA campaign was toughest war Britain ever fought.

Your allegation that Bose was collaborator of Axis is partially true,you know he sent Medical Mission in China during 2nd Sino-Japanese war?He famous policy was Enemy's Enemy was my enemy.

Collaborators of Axis helped Axis through out WW2,Aung San revolted against Japan,Japan insisted INA to fight against BNA,Netaji declined.

Here are many much more,please do a little research again.Think from neutral vie point.Ovsek (talk) 11:54, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

A victim of systematic bias.Ovsek (talk) 20:03, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Quit India Movement
Where is it?Ovsek (talk) 14:21, 2 June 2013 (UTC)
 * good point. I added a section. Rjensen (talk) 08:41, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Sorry,sir,it is better to mention that section as "Indian Stance" as it was previously.Quit India Movement needs another different section,like ii is "Bengal Famine"Thank you.Ovsek (talk) 14:38, 4 June 2013 (UTC)


 * "The Muslim League rejected the Quit India movement and worked closely with the Raj authorities. They were regarded very poorly in India, as they did nothing": I don't understand the referent of "they": the members of the Muslim League, the Raj authorities, or someone else? I skimmed the reference at the end of the paragraph, but wasn't enlightened; if there's a reference to someone being regarded poorly in India, I didn't notice it.Mcswell (talk) 04:37, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

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Nonsense heading
The location in question was British-India and the various kingdoms which were near to British-India. It was not India or even Pakistan or Bangladesh.

These kinds of low-class writings are all over the Wikipedia India pages. Academicians in India have nothing much to do, other than to write all these kinds of silly articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2405:204:D10E:7C45:1835:B00C:9222:5FB5 (talk) 10:49, 23 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Before 1947 there was only the Indian Army, with British and Indian officers and manned by Indians. There is no source anywhere which refers to any such entity as the British Indian Army dating from that time. That name was invented by Wikipedians to avoid the confusion but is a complete POV anachronism.Vinay84 (talk) 16:02, 15 July 2021 (UTC)