India at War

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 8th Year

Issue

Issue No.

2

Date Released

1942

Length of issue (in feet)

1736

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1India at War

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

The March of Time synopsis: Today, Japan’s armies, consolidating their grip on China, see in India the key to the final conquest of the whole of Asia. But though India’s four hundred million people are facing invasion the leaders of India’s powerful National Congress Party have refused all active co-operation with the Allies in defence of their own land. Not even the plea of their good friend and neighbour, hard-fighting Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, could move them from their resolve to meet the enemy only with passive resistance. However, the National Congress Party, though great in influence, does not speak for the majority of the Indian people, who know that their best chance of winning the independence they have so long sought lies in giving full support to the United Nations’ efforts to stop the Axis. In India, under the supreme command of General Wavell, the United Nations are massing their forces for the struggle. But the war that has come to India today is not the kind of war for which the pre-war Indian armies were organised and trained, and for which India’s defences were prepared. Men of India, now joining the Indian Army at the rate of fifty thousand a month, have been fighting hard and bravely since the war’s beginning, and the thousands of young men who have flocked to join the Royal Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force have already proved their worth by their daring and skill. Throughout the long struggle, in which victories have been few and reverses many, the men of India have lacked neither courage nor endurance, but only what the Allies have lacked everywhere in these first years - tanks and fighting planes, the essential weapons of modern war.

But, inevitably, India’s greatest contribution to final victory, even more than numbers, skill and bravery of her fighting men, is her natural resources and the productive capacity of her expanding war industries. Since the commencement of the war almost the whole of India’s industry has been converted to Empire defence, for with the Asiatic battlefronts moving closer to India, her efforts have become increasingly important to the United Nations. Along India’s coastline scores of shipyards have been enlisted in an ambitious wartime programme to build sorely needed cargo vessels, corvettes for coastal patrol, and a fleet of harbour minesweepers. In India’s reserves of coal and iron ore, and in her steel mills, there already exists the framework of a heavy industry capable of making many engines of war which the United Nations so urgently require. With cargo space precious and sea routes hazardous, the Allies need only transport to India the non-ferrous metals she lacks, and the tools she needs, to increase even further her already enormous output. And the millions of Indian workers co-operating for a United Nations’ victory hope that they toil and sacrifices, no less than the soldier’s, will bring, not simply deliverance from Axis invasion, but the right to live as free men in an independent India.

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.8 No.10 of the US edition.

Keywords

War and conflict

Written sources

The March of Time Promotional Material   Lobby Card, Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Time Inc.