India’s war: the making of modern south Asia (1939–1945)

Srinath Raghavan’s India’s War: The Making of Modern South Asia (1939–1945) is a welcome addition to his previous volumes on South Asia, in particular on Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, in War and Peace in Modern India (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), and the struggle on the creation of Bangladesh and sub-continental historiography in 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh (Harvard University Press, 2013). This book has captured the fundamental elements of India under British colonial rule, and the extraordinary changes that occurred during the Second World War. With few strategic choices offered by the crumbling British Raj, India witnessed sudden fluctuations as millions of Indian soldiers fought in the deadliest conditions in Europe and North Africa against Axis forces, and in Hong Kong against the Japanese Army, which was determined to invade Eastern India.