India's War: World War II and the Making of Modern South Asia

India's role in World War II has long been overlooked. But as Srinath Raghavan shows in this authoritative account, India did not fight the war as merely an appendage of the British Empire. From the start, India defended its own sub-empire from Imperial Japan and assisted its allies in battles in Italy, East Africa, and the Pacific.

The war also brought great changes to the subcontinent. By the war's end, the Indian Army had become the largest volunteer force in history, while many millions more Indians had worked in their nation's rapidly expanding industry and agriculture. This nationwide commitment to victory altered the country's social landscape, overturning assumptions about class and opening up new opportunities for India's most disadvantaged people.

The first major account of India during World War II, India's War chronicles how the demands of war forever transformed the country, its economy, its politics, and its people, laying the groundwork for the rise of modern South Asia.