By 1945, Britain was exhausted and bankrupt, and lacked either the will or the resources to maintain its empire. Realizing that we had lost any remaining vestiges of control, on the afternoon of 20 February 1947 the new prime minister, Clement Attlee, announced before Parliament that British rule would end ‘no later than June 1948’.
The war flattened out the pretensions of empire, making ceremonial and ritual excesses look archaic, challenging old compacts between king-emperor and the landed elites…. It heightened nationalism, both in Britain and India, so that older forms of transnational solidarity became dated and obsolete. The Raj was left in debt, morally redundant and staffed by exhausted administrators whose sense of purpose could not be sustained…. Ultimately, the war delivered decolonization and the partition of 1947 — neither of which was inevitable or even foreseen in 1939.
The second world war is one of the most written-about episodes in all world history: every month sees a dozen new titles published. The two million Indian troops — changed the course of the war, and of how the war irrevocably changed India’s future.
More than 100,000 Britisher's were in India administering the colony before the beginning of second world war in 1939, and due to fear of security and safety many have gone back to England and by the time war ended in 1945 their numbers were just 4,000 with families already sent back to England, confined to Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, anxiously waiting for approvals to return back to England.
More than 100,000 Britisher's were in India administering the colony before the beginning of second world war in 1939, and due to fear of security and safety many have gone back to England and by the time war ended in 1945 their numbers were just 4,000 with families already sent back to England, confined to Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, anxiously waiting for approvals to return back to England.
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