Why the Indian Army continued to fight Britain’s battles even after World War II ended

Though World War II ended when Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, most people don’t realise that the battles continued for a year longer. But this was not a fight against Japan. It was to reimpose European colonial rule over Asians using the British controlled Indian army.

“When Japan swept through Southeast Asia in 1942, it was a cause for celebration for many local inhabitants,” said Phil Craig, author of the recently released 1945 The Reckoning – War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World. “The Age of European empires had truly come to an end. The Asian powers had risen and that genie was not going back into the bottle.”

By mid-1942, Japan had occupied all Southeast Asia, mainly consisting of British, French and Dutch colonies, Craig said in an interview in a cafe near his home in London. Before the end of the war, Britain’s Fourteenth Army – two-thirds of whose soldiers were Indian – had already reconquered Burma. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, Britain easily reoccupied its colonies of Malaysia and Singapore..

However, France and Holland faced a much tougher situation. They were reeling from the five-year occupation of their countries by Nazi Germany. France was unable to deploy their armies to reoccupy French...

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