**In this solo episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we explore Srinath Raghavan's brilliant *India's War: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1939–1945* – a book that places India at the centre of the Second World War, rather than at its margins.**
India is frequently overlooked in histories of the Second World War. When it appears at all, it is as a source of manpower for the British Empire – a vast reservoir of soldiers and labourers to be deployed in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. But as Raghavan demonstrates, India was not simply a British asset. It was the engine of the Allied war effort in the East – and the war transformed it in ways that would lead, inexorably, to independence.
By December 1941, when Nehru emerged from prison, India stood at the intersection of two major theatres of war: the Mediterranean and North Africa on one side, and South Asia, China and the Pacific on the other. The defence of India was no longer a British prerogative; it had become a focal point of Allied grand strategy. Indian politics could not be insulated from the pressures emanating from Britain's key wartime allies.
Drawing on Raghavan's narrative, we trace the debates within the Congress Party as it wrestled with the question of whether to cooperate with the British war effort. Gandhi insisted on non-violence and non-participation; Nehru advocated non-participation for political reasons; a third group, led by Rajagopalachari, believed that cooperation was available – if the British did the right thing. The compromise resolution that emerged was, as Gandhi observed, \"like the Indian dish *khichri*\" – a mixture of pulses, rice, salt, chilli and spices.
We also examine the American perspective on India, which was shaped by a mixture of exotic fantasy, missionary prejudice and strategic calculation. By 1941, the State Department had concluded that the situation in India was \"very serious indeed\" and that the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, was \"a man of small vision.\" American officials took a sympathetic stance towards Congress demands, reporting that the British were following a policy of \"divide and rule.\" Even the conservative *Reader's Digest* carried a favourable profile of Nehru. The British cabinet, alert to American opinion, took hardly any major decision on India without reference to its impact on public opinion in the United States.
**Topics covered:**
- India's central role in the Second World War
- The Congress Party debates on cooperation and non-participation
- Gandhi, Nehru and Rajagopalachari
- The \"Quit India\" campaign and the refusal of Indian soldiers to serve
- American perceptions of India and the British Raj
- The strategic importance of India to the Allied war effort
- The beginning of the end of the British Empire in India
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