INDIA,1941 A TIME OF TURMOIL AN ERA OF CONTRAST. Mahatma Gandhi

INDIA,1941

A TIME OF TURMOIL

AN ERA OF CONTRAST

Mahatma Gandhi

Adolf Hitler

Indian soldiers holding a Nazi flag which they had captured at Libyan Omar, December 1941.

Courtesy of: Imperial War Museum (E 6940)

India, 1941

A nation fighting nonviolently for its independence…

A world engaged in deadly war…

• An Indian infantry section of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment about to go on patrol on the Arakan front, Burma 1943.

Courtesy of: Imperial War Museum (IND 2917)

Ahimsa (nonviolence)

The British Indian contingent …became the largest

all-volunteer force in WWII• India at that time included Pakistan,

Bangladesh, and parts of other modern nations

• Two crew members of a Sherman tank of the Scinde Horse, part of the Indian 31st Armoured Division in Iraq, March 1944.

Courtesy of: Imperial War Museum (K 6697)

Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st

Prime Minister of India

What is the right path?

What would you choose? Why?

• The British commander and Indian crew of a Sherman tank of the 9th Royal Deccan Horse, 255th Indian Tank Brigade, encounter a newly liberated elephant on the road to Meiktila, Burma 1945.

Courtesy of: Imperial War Museum (SE 3640)

Families torn apart by the tumult of the times

Gandhiji with Pandit Nehru’s daughter

Unsung heroes

• Subadar (1st Lieutenant) Subramanian served with the Queen Victoria’s Own Madras Sappers and Miners of the Indian Army and became the first Indian to receive the George Cross. He died on 24th June 1944 when he selflessly threw himself over a mine to protect others from the blast.

Courtesy of: National Archives

Unsung heroes (and heroines)

• Sarojini Naidu

•Indian woman nationalist, feminist and poet

Many questions are as relevant in our nation today as they were in India in 1941….

• A week before the German surrender in Italy, sappers of 136 Indian Railway Maintenance Company set about repairing some of the extensive damage in the rail yards of Bologna, Italy.

Courtesy of: Imperial War Museum (K 9874)

Does nonviolence always work? Is war ever justifiable? When, if ever, should a nation go to war? Can we achieve world peace? What does nonviolence mean to you?

WWII in the colonies• Two Lives by Vikram Seth• The images are taken from a google image search that yielded the site containing images from the “we were there”

exhibition

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wewerethere.defencedynamics.mod.uk/ww2/images/flag_lg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wewerethere.defencedynamics.mod.uk/ww2/india_1.html&h=594&w=600&sz=210&hl=en&start=2&sig2=tfcekVSZBV0XnDYL-L7y8w&usg=__Q33Y9amxOBOjPibnt5LSJBKr4eE=&tbnid=8_tt4GYT29oi0M:&tbnh=134&tbnw=135&ei=v8HOSL6gLIKWgAKqt6nyAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBritish%2BIndian%2BArmy%2BNazi%2Bcaptured%2Bflag%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind

The end does not justify the means

Mahatma Gandhi

Faith is

taking the first step even

when you can’t see the staircase

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.