Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

At World War II's end, the British faced a political dilemma in India. During the Quit India struggles of 1942, only the wartime special powers had enabled the British to suppress the movement. The Congress leftists were clamoring for a resumption of militant struggles. British troops were war-weary and wanted no part in smashing popular upsurges in India. Indian army units used to help the Dutch and French recover their lost colonies in Indonesia and Vietnam were unhappy. Viceroy Wavell was apprehensive, but the Supreme Allied Commander, Lord Mountbatten, overruled him. Meanwhile, postwar problems of unemployment and high prices, exacerbated by a partial crop failure and other local factors, resulted in a ration cut by February 1946 to 1,200 calories per head, compared with wartime London's 2,800 calories (in 1943). Eventually, upsurges occurred in cities, among workers, radical youth, soldiers, and peasants, creating the potential for a mass revolution. While the British imperialists were under pressure to withdraw, nationalists pushed the country toward a compromise of freedom with partition and a conservative government.During the war, Subhas Chandra Bose had formed an army named the Azad Hind Fauz (Indian National Army, INA) out of volunteers and prisoners of war in Singapore. Bose died in a plane crash shortly after the surrender of Japan while en route to Soviet forces. The ... log in or subscribe to read full text