"When the British decided to try the INA (Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army) soldiers at Lal Qila, it was the last nail in the coffin. Intelligence reports of the time are very clear that the Indian soldiers could not be relied on any more if there was a widespread insurrection. Then, the whole focus from February 1946 onwards after the Naval mutiny was how to ensure the safety of European life and limb in India. And that was why the British wanted to get out of India as quickly as possible. This is so obvious when you read the accounts but it is not what we've been told either in India or in the UK.
Had the British had the confidence that they could use the Indian army to put down an insurrection, which they had until the late 1930s, they would have stayed on. They lost that confidence in 1945-46" - Ravindra Rathee, author, True to Their Salt talks to Manjula Narayan about the soldiers of the British Indian army on the Books & Authors podcast.
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