Key Facts

On Remembrance Day (11 November), historical commemorative discourses highlighted India's monumental yet under-recognised contributions to the Allied efforts during the First and Second World Wars. Special tributes were paid to Lieutenant General Premindra Singh Bhagat, the first Indian officer of the British Indian Army to be decorated with the Victoria Cross (the highest British military gallantry award) during the Second World War for clearing 15 minefields under intense Italian fire in Eritrea in 1941. Historians reflected on the profound socio-political contradiction of over 2.5 million Indian soldiers volunteering and fighting for democratic liberties across Africa, Europe, and Asia while their own homeland remained denied basic political freedom under British colonial subjugation.

GK Context

India provided the largest volunteer army in human history during the Second World War (over 2.5 million personnel), fighting in crucial theatres, including North Africa, Italy, and the Burma Campaign that halted Japanese expansionism in 1944. Concurrently, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose galvanized the Indian National Army (INA or Azad Hind Fauj), formed initially by Captain Mohan Singh in 1942 and reorganized in July 1943, creating a provisional government in exile that challenged colonial rule directly. The historic Red Fort Trials of INA officers (Sahgal, Dhillon, and Shah Nawaz Khan) in 1945 triggered massive public unrest and the 1946 Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Mutiny, accelerating the end of British rule.