This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns.

Hello and welcome to the World War II podcast. I'm Angus Wallace.

In this episode, we're turning our attention to British India during the Second World War.

While the war in Europe and the Pacific often dominates the narrative, the role India played both as a military contributor and as a nation on the cusp of independence is overlooked. I'm joined by Philip Craig, author of 1945 The Reckoning.

His book looks at the global repercussions of the war, including the political and social upheavals

that reshaped the world in its aftermath. One of the key stories is how India's experience

during the conflict accelerated its path to independence. Welcome, Philip. Thanks for joining me.

There's often a lot of context needed when we think about pre-war India.

People sometimes hold a lingering Victorian image of the country, forgetting that India had already contributed trips to Europe during the First World War.

And by the late 1930s, other parts of the British Empire, such as Canada and Australia,

had achieved Dominion status.

So before the outbreak of the Second World War, what was the political mood in India?

And how strong was the independence movement during that period?

India had become, by the beginning of the Second World War, one of the great causes,

one of the great international causes of what you might call the liberal intelligentsia writers,

journalists, politicians. Gandhi, of course, had become world famous as a protester and a leader of

protesters. And so too had had Sir Mast Chandra Bose.

He was extremely well known internationally as a very articulate, passionate campaigner for

independence. He'd written a best-selling book that was called The Indian Struggle,

which was all about his vision of the future. And actually, it's a strikingly moderate book,

...