 in this picture to Ben, he might use that one. And then there's another one, look. Oh, Ben, you chode. Hey, welcome back to our stupid drag series, it's up Corbin. I'm Ricky. Is it about circumcision? No, World War II. Oh, I was close, man, a little bit. Yeah. It's World War II from India's perspective. Yay, Churchill! Yeah, right. But, so this is actually from the armchair of the story, we've seen one video of his. And we actually did a fantastic job. Yeah. So I thought this was really, because it's so interesting how everybody's taught history. They're taught history from their own perspective, right? Their people. India's probably taught history from India's perspective. Yeah. England from England's Germany. Well, Germany, actually I do think they taught it from their perspective, which is why they, you know. Outlawed Nazis. Exactly. Yes. Yep. But yeah, obviously the United States is very guilty of teaching stuff from just their perspective. Boys and girls, we've done nothing wrong. And we are the heroes of everything. We're the greatest country ever who's done nothing wrong to anyone ever. But my dad said you can go see the principal, Bobby. Anyways, so I thought it'd be really interesting. I do know, obviously, but obviously at the time that World War II was happening, India was not a free, they were under Britain still at the time. Right. And I know that obviously the Sikhs were, some people that were sent. Yes. In two battles. World War I as well. Really to fight for the British, even if they didn't want to. Yep. And they were kind of like some unsung heroes and I'm sure there was millions and millions of, and then also obviously the famine, that church hell and all that kind of stuff. But hopefully this is a very informative video. I thought it would be very interesting to see. I love learning. I like learning from different perspectives of other, because obviously once again, we're just taught the American. American, World War II, American, World War I. We come in, we save the day. Everybody loves us, right? No. And then we come at war crimes. Do, do, do, do, do, drop the nuke. Here we go. You ain't wrong. Special thanks to India Shastra and Historia Maxima for helping out with this video. Thanks. Break a war in Europe and the Far East, and every corner of our empire must stand ready to answer the call of king and country. And nowhere is a faction for his Britannic Majesty stronger than in the fabled lands of India. As our government's policy of Indianization takes root, the natives assume great control over their destiny as we march together into battle against the foes of our common empire. The great bread basket of our far-off empire happily keeps us in war material with enough food, cotton, and rubber to keep our boys fighting forever. No sacrifice is too great for victory. That was great. I'm wondering if that's like a real... I bet it was a real audio job. The armchair historian, yeah. When one thinks of British participation in the Second World War, images of Tommies in their Brody helmets slogging through the dust of Egypt were charging the beaches of Normandy spring to mind. Others may picture the maroon-buried boys of the airborne descending on Pegasus Bridge or gentlemen spies like the late Sir Christopher Lee slinking through the shadows of occupied Europe. These images all have one thing in common, however. Their protagonists are universally Anglo-Saxon. In reality, the Second World War was a clash of empires, empires who called upon all of their people to take up arms and fight for the survival of their dominion. For the British Empire, this included over 370 million people of India, their largest colony, and the much touted jewel in the imperial crown. In today's episode, we'll take a look at the Second World War from the perspective of the jewel rather than the head that wore it and how this conflict realized Indian independence. During any major conflict, information can be just as valuable as bullets. The Axis powers, in particular, sunk vast amounts of resources into the science of encryption. But while the vaunted enigma machine was eventually cracked by allied code breakers, our sponsor, NordVPN, promises to keep your data safe and anonymous with over 5200 servers in 60 countries. I think it's having a last one too. It has really nice seamless in search of ads. By passing region-locked content filters and letting you access historical videos, research papers, documentaries, anywhere at any time. A single subscription supports up to six devices on every major platform, from Windows to Linux, ensuring continued protection no matter what system you're operating on. Fans of the Armshare Historian can also take advantage of a unique discount by going to nordvpn.com slash historyvpn to get a huge discount with a bonus gift. Try today without risk thanks to Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. The India of 1939 was a vastly different place than we know today. The British colonial government, or Raj, was a racially segregated and socially stratified body with a white ruling class held above the native Indians. The caste system assisted in maintaining social control. White's only businesses were common and Indian people were even prohibited from entering certain districts of cities in their own country. Despite these prohibitions, a kind of Indian middle class developed. Professionals who managed to work within the system to find some measure of security and prosperity. A young Gandhi belonged to this class as an up-and-coming lawyer. However, the vast majority of Indians were, to put it mildly, dissatisfied with the system. Perhaps since in the rising tide of anti-colonial sentiment, the Raj began a policy of Indianization in the 1920s and 30s which saw more and more native Indians placed in government and military positions. A particular note was the introduction of Indian officers to the local military forces which until this point had been under exclusively white command. These native officers were often placed in charge of all Indian units. While on their face, these reforms were billed as steps towards self-rule and Indian success, the reality was that they were token concessions to silence nationalist rumblings, a way for the British to simultaneously modify their critics and maintain control. Britannia rules the Indians as they rule the waves. This was, to the Raj's mind, a fact. The Second World War would put this fact to the test. The fall of Poland in 1939 brought the infamous Sitzkrieg and eight months of little change to the subcontinent. This gave the people of India time to reflect, time to begin seeing the war in Europe as a far-off matter, a news item that wouldn't touch their homeland. Like the United States, India was thousands of miles from Europe protected by sea and desert, mountain and plain. Being in India was like being in a grandstand, watching some game or other, according to British civil service officer, hey, MacDonald. MacDonald's attitude was not a popular one, however. Many of his compatriots were firmly fixed on joining the coming fight. Thus, the British ordered the Indian army mobilized at the start of the war in 1939 with viceroy of India, Lord Linlethgarh, believing wholeheartedly that the Indian people would sign on in droves to fight for democracy and freedom, king and country. Don't you want to fight for us in our war? And in one group of native Indians came to talking to the Indian Jack, the wealthy Maharajas of the princely states. Within the structure of the Raj, roughly one-third of the native population was ruled over by Indian princes who administered fiefdoms in the empire's name. When Linlethgarh called, the Maharajas saw an opportunity to shore up their power in the face of the rising Indian independence movement. The princes viewed Indian nationalism as an existential threat and hoped that by eagerly and vigorously supporting the British crown, their survival would be guaranteed in an independent India. Revolutions, even peaceful ones, are often unkind to the crowned heads. The princes raised battalions of infantry and artillery were funneled their wealth into the British war chest, scores of princes writing six-figure checks to the British air ministry and other departments. With their men and their money, these old royals hoped to preserve their preeminence in Indian society, be it under British rule or in a free Indian state. Average Indians were equally interested in the conflict and public opinion was surprisingly varied over who was in the right. India at this time included a variety of ethnic and religious groups, groups that did not always coexist peacefully. The cause of Indian independence sometimes ran along these religious and ethnic lines and Hitler's idea of racial purity found willing adoptees in the militant wings of the Indian independence movement. Such Hitlerians included the Rashtriya Swayamsavak Sankh, Hindu nationalist group who openly celebrated Adolf Hitler and his desire for racial purity as well as his methods in obtaining it. It's funny, we had a president who did this. Meanwhile, those Indians who favored the allies found themselves increasingly frustrated with the British who should have been their compatriots. While Indian politicians were anxious to defend their homes and promote their people's prosperity, the British showed interest in India solely as a well of manpower from which to draw colonial troops. Hopes of a new cooperation came in 1940 when the British and Indian governments reached an astonishing agreement. London would pay for the entirety of India's war expenses and flood the colony with investment. The British would flip the bill for recruitment and transport of Indian soldiers and bankroll-sweeping infrastructure improvements. I wonder where they got the money from. But London's generosity proved hollow. The British paid their debts with sterling credits, essentially government IOUs that forced India to front the actual money, devastating the Indian economy. Shocker! When the British government enacted the Defense of India Act, granting government officials unlimited power to crack down on any sentiment, speech, or action they considered disloyal, the Imperial government's priorities were spelled out. Focus on the war and keep India under political and economic control. While the British worked to consolidate control on the home front, Indian soldiers found their life in the field surprisingly varied. The social dynamics of some units were perfect mirrors of the Raj, with white officers enforcing a kind of de facto segregation. Disputes broke out over pay discrepancies between white and Indian officers of equal rank, the content of ration tins, and even whether radios should be tuned to Western or Indian musical stations. While this form of petty, racially driven office politics was the rule in some units, others turned out to be surprisingly progressive for the era. A common rule for these units was the prohibition of speaking in derogatory terms in the presence of Indian officers about their political leaders, customs, traditions, or music, while others accepted their Indian peers of their own accord, once they'd proven their metal and competence in the field. This attitude began to work its way up to the lines, with the Infantry Committee penning a report midway through the war identifying segregation within units as a critical issue. The most strenuous efforts must be made to ensure that no discrimination of any nature is permitted. By the end of the war, 2.5 million Indians would fight for the British Empire, providing a critical component of the Allied forces that defeated the Axis powers, powers that succeeded in bringing the war to India's doorstep. Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor was like a bucket of icy water dumped onto India's head. Up till now, the people of India thought the Second World War would play out much like the First, with Indian troops sent to far-off lands and the subcontinent spared of actual fighting. The Japanese were all too happy to disabuse India of this notion, and Pearl Harbor was followed by an East Asian blitzkrieg that toppled colonial government after colonial government. The Japanese carved a beach head into India's neighbor, Burma, and seized Hong Kong, Singapore, and British Malaya. India, therefore, became a crucial staging ground for the Allies in the Pacific, and refugees fled the Japanese advance for the perceived safety of Iraq, a flow which only intensified after the Japanese captured the Burmese capital in March. By the end of the month, the Japanese had captured all of Burma and cut the critical overland supply route from India to China. Burma's fall opened India up to a direct Japanese invasion, with Bengal first on the block. Panic swept through this province. In this desperate hour, as their imperial subjects were wracked with fear, the British Walsh stacked in to restore calm by enacting a scorched earth policy that devastated the civilian population. Food stockpiles were seized by government forces, bridges were destroyed, civilian watercraft confiscated or sunk, waterways sabotaged. If the Japanese invaded Bengal, they would inherit a ruin. However, the Japanese had reached the end of their supply lines in Burma and were unable to advance in India, so they bombed it. As British soldiers sacked what they should have been defending and Japanese ordinance fell from the sky, the people of Bengal found themselves straddling a tightrope over the bottomless chasm of starvation. Fishermen had no craft with which to ply their trade. Farmers had no crops nor way to get them to market if they did. In 1942, the ravening claws of hunger would snare India in their clutches. The Bengal famine had begun. The famine was a tragedy within a tragedy, an epidemic of hunger and disease that saw between two to three million people die. While the dominant narrative for some time has been that extreme weather was a leading cause of the famine, more modern research seems to indicate British policies in India as the true cause of the famine. Indian-American scientist and journalist Madhushree Mukherjee posits that over-exploitation of Indian resources by British leadership directly caused the famine, with London continuing to pull tons of rice from India even as a use of a large bed for emergency food aid. There's no pussy-footing around it. Hordes of refugees from Burma poured into India, increasing demand for what food was available. Fungus devastated rice crops, severely limiting edible produce. British industrialists and landowners intervened, engaging in profiteering during the crisis, freak weather devastated farmland and wiped out villages. And lastly, though not exhaustively, the Raj made great efforts to keep the famine out of the press, which prevented the possibility of international aid that could have saved lives. What is beyond debate is the devastating impact the famine had on the people of Bengal. The British inquiry into the famine noted a breakdown of family units as husbands deserted wives and wives' husbands. Elderly dependents were left behind in villages. Babies and young children were sometimes abandoned. And they don't teach it here in America. Historian Dr. Janam Rukorju describes the health scheme that Bengal became. Corpses lay scattered over several thousand square miles of devastated land. 7400 villages were partly or wholly destroyed by the storm. Cholera, dysentery and other water-borne diseases flourished. As the Japanese postured and people starved in the streets, social pressures began to mount. Politics in India did not stop with the declaration of war, and Indian nationalism only intensified as British administrators fumbled and fumbled again. The discussion was dominated by Mahatma Gandhi's Indian National Congress, drawn from the Hindu majority of Indians, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim League, who feared becoming second-class citizens in an independent India. As time wore on, the INC began to emphasize Hinduism as a critical component to Indian society, leading to the Muslim League's Lahore Resolution calling for separate Muslim and Hindu states. This marked the effective end of cooperation between the two, and Indian nationalists were driven into the arms of militant extremist leaders. These included pro-access forces, such as the Indian National Army, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose grew the INA to 43,000 members at its peak, rallying the disaffected Indians with his promise, give me blood and I will give you freedom. The INA would go on to fight in Burma against the British, collaborating with the Japanese until the wars end. Other Indians chose less drastic methods of expressing their displeasure with the British. As numbers of British and American troops in India swelled, cultural clashes and outright crime ensued, American troops began slaughtering cattle, held sacred in Hinduism, while allegations of sexual assault scandalized the Indian population. Gandhi and the INC responded by issuing the Quit India Resolution in August of 1942, a largely symbolic call for India to cease cooperation with the British until they guaranteed independence. The British responded by arresting Gandhi and many INC leaders who they would hold for three years. Gandhi, even from prison, exhorted his followers to peaceful protest. Instead, the Indian independence movement chose violence. Protests in Bombay saw 33 people killed by police in the four days following the INC leadership's arrest and a wave of attacks on government buildings ensued. A British cracked down hard and 2,500 Indians were killed. The Raj ultimately succeeded in putting down the insurrection and Indian independence would have to wait until the war was won. While the British fought the Indian people, the Japanese fought the Indian army. Indian troops managed to reclaim some of Burma in December of 1942, and the Japanese responded by bombing Calcutta for several days. Most of 1943 in India would be dedicated to reorganization and rearming of the Indian army, as the Japanese had taught the Raj a bloody lesson. They were not ready to face the Japanese in open battle. While troops in the subcontinent ready to defend their home, Indians abroad helped liberate North Africa before participating in Operation Husky, seeing action throughout Sicily. As 1943 drew to a close, the reinvigorated Indian army prepared to march against the Japanese. The Japanese watched the Indian revitalization with concern and decided they needed to once again launch a surprise attack to keep the initiative. In March of 1944, they enacted their plan, dubbed Operation Hugo, which saw intense fighting on the Burmese border. The Indians stood against the Japanese at the border towns of Imphal and Kohima. The determined Indians stood their ground against the Japanese invasion and come July, their foe had no choice but to break off the attack. The Indian national army under both fought in the Japanese attack and along with civilian collaborators rendered aid and comfort to the retreating Japanese. As the allies gave chase to the Japanese and encountered these collaborators, they chose honey over vinegar, sending doctors and food supplies to the isolated villages that had helped the Japanese. In this way, they hoped to win the locals back to the Allied side rather than punish them for collaborating. August brought an Allied drive deep into Burma and the bloody and brutal campaign to liberate the country merits its own video. Regardless, May of 1945 saw the Indian army successfully capture the Burmese capital. For India, the war was over. And the end could not have come soon enough. Food shortages were rampant even after the official end of the Bengal famine in 1944 and basic necessities like cloth were in equally short supply. Demobilization meant an epidemic of unemployment as war workers were unceremoniously laid off. Members of the INA were arrested and interrogated but public outcry saw many of them spared prosecution. Some Indians saw the INA as a legitimate member of the independence movement rather than Japanese chrislings. Speaking of independence, the British agreed to discussions with Indian leaders regarding the possibility of Indian statehood and released political prisoners as an opening gesture including Gandhi. Independence soon became an inevitability and Indian statehood talks opened. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims were a key issue of the negotiations leading to an agreement to partition the colonial territory into the Hindu state of India and the Muslim states of Pakistan and East Pakistan now known as Bangladesh. The results of these negotiations are outside the scope of our discussion today but suffice to say the liberated colony would experience some growing payments. India would go into the Second World War as a colony and emerge a pair of nations. In terms of military dead, India lost 87,000 soldiers in the fight against the Axis but accounting for civilian dead in the Bengal famine and other incidents, the death toll rises to a staggering 2.2 million at a minimum. The Indian economy was devastated by the war despite being on the winning side and the country remains economically troubled into the modern day. Nevertheless, India was able to throw off the shackles of colonialism kicking off a wave of decolonization in the aftermath of the Second World War. It is no hyperbole to say that Indian troops and material were a substantial contribution to the total Allied war effort. A contribution paid for in the spilled blood and empty stomachs of those living on the subcontinent. Great job. Great video. Very in-depth. I always love the animation too. Yeah, I don't know if he does it or if he hives it. Somebody in his team does their animation. I'll obviously probably say here in the credits but yeah, I think he does a fantastic job and if any of the information is correct, talk to him. Not us. We're just commenting on his video. Yep. But yeah, it's always, because whenever I'm thinking obviously, World War II is pretty early here, right? Yeah. But it's talking from the American perspective. I don't ever recall India being in the conversation. I don't ever remember hearing India. I didn't even know there was a famine in Bengal during World War II until we started this channel. And that would include not just my education but Ashley Alexis and Micah's education. Yep. And I was a teacher in a school. Now, I taught junior high school history for one year, filling in for somebody who couldn't teach that year. Yeah. It was not given to me in syllabus or criteria and we covered World War II. There was nothing in there for me to cover anything that pertained to India. For World War II, it's usually, stuff's going wrong, United States was like, we're good, we don't wanna be part of it. Yep. And then Japan was like, we're gonna bomb you. And then we're like, okay. And we came in and we saved the day. That's that, obviously there's more to it. Obviously. No, but that's what you're basically taught. And there is so much. Hitler was an evil mad man trying to take over the world. We waited too long because it was on the other side of the world. This is the synopsis you're taught. The Japanese partnering with Hitler bombed us. We're like, you sons of bitches, we didn't deserve that. And then we went and we just kicked ass and took names. That's the way it's taught. And then jumped to bomb. Yeah. But how many? Yeah. Yeah. So like, and obviously there's obviously truth to some of it, obviously, but it's obviously all taught from a hero perspective standpoint. And so you don't hear the bad stuff that we did, obviously, and the bombing is not taught from a bad perspective. A few schools that are known for being progressive have done it, and that's a small handful. And I guess it is like Berkeley would have taught that. And I guess it is hard, because obviously it's called World War for reasons. There was count, I don't know how many total countries involved, but essentially if one person would have won, that would have affected the entire world. It did, obviously, if Hitler would have won, that would have affected everyone, because that would not have been good for anyone. Yeah, so many countries were directly involved, and then every country was impacted. So it's hard to teach it from every perspective, of course. But it's like, there's all this that happened, I'm guessing because our history books, there's the whole problem with how our history books in the United States have come about. Right. The Dixie Crats, I believe, once kind of formed our history books, sadly. But, and so since we are friends with the English, we're not taught the bad part about what they did to India, that is never taught a year. No, as we've said many times. And so, obviously, they're not gonna tell us, oh yeah, we caused this famine over here. Do you guys wanna learn about that? There's been a lot of films in Hollywood that have been done that are international films that are big, people have watched them for years that focused on the Holocaust, as it should be. You know, there's obviously Schiller, Stenwood's List, The Pianist. You can rack off probably 10 World War II films that either talk about major battles, like Saving Private Ryan, or The Holocaust. I would like to see at least one major motion picture that has international acclaim done about what happened in Bengal. Yeah, yeah, I would too, I think. And depict it appropriately. Give it to Sujith Sarkar, he just did a fantastic job with that film. But you could give it to any number of great film makers. Also, fantastic video. I love learning about different things that I never knew about. But Rangoon, I feel like Vishal had a film, as a film, it was a military film, and I believe that's the name of it, is Rangoon. So is it about the recapturing of that city during World War II? You can let us know. I think we've reacted to the trailer of it. Shit, is she in there? I don't think she's in there. I don't remember. I just remember Vishal. And I'm wondering, and Johnny, is World War II obviously heavily taught especially in Bengal about the famine. So you guys learn all about that at nauseam probably, right? Yeah, during school. Do you learn about the American's perspective at all? How much of that do you typically learn? Not as much as Indian history, I don't know if it's true. Yeah. Yeah, okay. The World War especially, my highlight is the war. We've had a lot about the Civil War. Yeah, that's super interesting because we only learn ours. Yeah, we have American history, there's world history, but that's I think like one semester. That's like one semester. And it's always predating 20th century stuff. And then if you live in Texas, you have Texas history. That's not a joke. That is a legit class. Only Texas history. Told you Texas cares more about Texas than America. 1,000%. Texas is a cult, it always has been. It's the only country that flies their flag, their state flag as high as the American flag. Yeah. The only country. They are a cult. They are a country. If everything toxic that is about the United States and how we think we're great and everything, they think all that on top of it about their own state as well. They are insane. I grew up there. Ah. Anyway, it's a fantastic video. If there's more informational videos from him, others that we can learn some stuff, please always send it to us. We do enjoy these types of videos. Let us know down below. Josh.