British Gratitude

[Guest guest]

The Indian Army has indeed an excellent record in WW II. The Brits

(and the Americans) rarely acknowledge this.

 

After the war India asked for help from Britain to build up its

munitions industry. India was laboring under the myth that the

Commonwealth meant something to the Brits. Britain of course flatly

refused and eventually India had to go to firms like the Oerlikon Co.

in switzerland to help India with technical help in building up its

machine tool Industry and weapons industry. So much for gratitude for

the immense war effort that India helped Britain with, a war effort

which incidentally was forced upon the country. Gandhi's main bone of

contention was 'you should at least go through the pro-forma of asking

India before committing its troops'. For that he was of course put in

prison along with Nehru, as on many previous occasions.

India was not even asked by Britain, whether it wanted to be part of

the war effort. All Gandhi asked of the British master was a pro-forma

request. Even that much of a fig leaf ,the arrogant colonial master

was not willing to provide. And for exhibiting the temerity to ask

,the naked fakir & Nehru were promptly imprisoned till the end of the

war ( a total of about 15 years, more than a murderer gets in the US

these days).

 

There has never been any doubt among those who knew (the Brits esp.)

that the Indian soldier is and has been a tenacious and formidable

soldier throughout his history. Unfortunately, his leaders were no

match for the trickery and deceit that the British played on India

during the years that they consolidated their hold on the British

Indian Empire, at a time when the Indian subcontinent was in turmoil.

 

Kaushal