Fought Together, Trusted Together: How India’s WWII Legacy Is Becoming a Soft-Power Asset

The soldiers of the British Indian Army, who embraced gunshells into their chest did not fight for soft power. But nations that remember well earn trust, and trust is the bona fide currency of diplomacy.

On a hillside in Kohima, in the spring of 1944, an inconspicuous tennis court became one of the most famous battlefields of the Second World War. Soldiers on both sides fought across a district commissioner’s compound in close, brutal combat, separated at times by no more than a breadth of hair. Among the defenders were men from across the British Indian Army, serving alongside British and other Allied troops. Today, the Kohima War Cemetery stands on that same slope. Its epitaph, familiar to generations of visitors, speaks of those who gave their “today” for others’ “tomorrow.”

For decades, the Indian share of that story was told discreetly, if at all. That is now changing, and the change carries coherent diplomatic value.

A Volunteer Army on Six Continents’ Worth of Fronts

The numbers are difficult to ignore. More than 2.5 million men from undivided India served in the British Indian Army during the Second World War, making it the largest volunteer army in history. Yet, what makes this achievement even more remarkable is not merely the scale of participation, but the fact that every one of them volunteered. Not a single soldier was conscripted.

Their service took them across East Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, Italy, Burma, Malaya and the Pacific. Indian divisions fought in the Italian campaign. Indian troops took part in the long, grinding war in Burma, which turned at Kohima and Imphal. Indian soldiers were also captured in the fall of Malaya and Singapore, and many ended up as prisoners of war in the Pacific theatre.

The army was also strikingly diverse. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Gurkhas served in the same formations, shared messes and fought shoulder to shoulder on the same battlefields. Like a well-rehearsed orchestra, men of different faiths and backgrounds functioned in remarkable harmony, even as communal divisions would later tear the subcontinent apart. Their shared service remains a powerful reminder of what people from diverse communities can achieve when united by a common purpose.

It is also a shared heritage. The men who served came from lands that are now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Gurkha soldiers from Nepal were central to the story. Any credible remembrance has to be offered in that spirit, as a common inheritance, not a monopoly acknowledging a single nation.

Recognising the Forgotten

For much of the postwar period, the Indian contribution received far less public attention than its scale deserved. Over the past few years, that has begun to shift, driven by governments, historians, families and diaspora groups.

In 2023, a memorial to Yeshwant Ghadge was unveiled in Montone, Italy. Ghadge, a soldier of the Maratha Light Infantry, was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the Italian campaign. Honouring an Indian soldier in a small Italian town is a gesture that speaks directly to both local communities and capitals.

In Scotland, a memorial in Glasgow has been established as the country’s first dedicated to the British Indian Army. In Australia, a campaign is underway for a memorial in Canberra to remember roughly 2,800 Indian prisoners of war who died in Papua New Guinea. In the UK, campaigners are pressing for a London memorial to the WWII Indian Army contribution. And in 2026, the addition of 9,909 previously missing Indian soldiers from the First World War to UK records showed how much recovery work remains, and how much can be done.

None of these efforts is a single, coordinated programme. Taken together, though, they form a movement where communities and institutions in several countries decided independently that these soldiers deserve to be remembered by name.

The Trust Dividend

Why does this matter beyond history? Because shared sacrifice is one of the oldest foundations of trust between nations. When a host country honours Indian soldiers on its own soil, it sends a warm signal about how it perceives India. Not just as a market or a strategic partner, but as a nation with a shared past, adding emotional depth to relationships that are often discussed in terms of trade, technology and security.

Italy has seen local communities embrace Indian war heroes. Australia is home to a large and growing Indian diaspora and has an active remembrance culture around its own wartime experience, including the Pacific. Japan, once the adversary in Burma, is now one of India’s closest partners, and joint remembrance at Kohima and Imphal could become a model of reconciliation turned into friendship. The UK shares the deepest history of all, along with a large diaspora of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Nepali heritage.

For the diaspora, recognition matters in a fairly personal way. When a grandfather’s service is acknowledged by a national memorial or a public archive, families feel a deeper sense of belonging in their adopted countries. Such belonging strengthens civic participation, cultural exchange and the people-to-people ties that diplomacy depends on.

There is a modest economic angle too. Heritage tourism around Kohima, Imphal and related sites could draw international visitors, including descendants of those who fought, to India’s Northeast. It would be wrong to oversell this. Remembrance is not a direct driver of GDP, and it never should be. Its value is indirect, as it captures emotions,  supports goodwill, adds to the atmosphere in which commercial and diplomatic ties grow, and can strengthen interest in underexplored regions.

An Honest Reckoning

A credible account must acknowledge complexity. These soldiers fought under colonial rule, for an empire that did not grant their country freedom. Many Indians at the time opposed the war effort, and the Indian National Army, which sided with Japan in pursuit of independence, remains a subject of debate among historians. The Bengal famine of 1943, which killed millions, is a deep scar on the wartime record and raises hard questions about colonial governance.

These truths do not diminish the soldiers’ service. If anything, they make it more remarkable. Honouring the individual courage of the men who served, while being honest about the political context, is the mark of a confident nation. Mature remembrance holds both.

What India Should Do to Leverage This

Goodwill left untended fades. Here are six practical steps that would turn growing recognition into lasting influence.

• Practise memorial diplomacy. Support and, where appropriate, co-fund memorials in London, Canberra and Glasgow in partnership with host governments and diaspora groups. Local ownership matters; India should be a partner, not a patron.

• Digitise and open the archives. Build a national digital database of WWII Indian service records, working with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the UK, Italian and Australian authorities. Making names searchable lets families find their own history.

• Develop a heritage circuit. Turn Kohima, Imphal and related sites into an international remembrance and tourism circuit, with Japan and the UK as partners. This would also bring attention and visitors to the Northeast.

• Build diaspora partnerships. Formally engage organisations such as Colourful Heritage and Sikh, Muslim and Gurkha community groups. Link their work to Pravasi Bharatiya Divas so the diaspora sees itself in the national story.

• Invest in education and culture. Commission school curriculum content, documentaries and oral history projects. Use ICCR and the Ministry of External Affairs to support joint history programmes with partner countries.

• Weave shared history into strategy. Include remembrance events in bilateral summits and joint military exercises, so that shared history becomes a regular part of how India and its partners talk to each other.

Doing so should also include Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal wherever possible. A legacy shared by several nations is more credible, and more powerful, when it is presented as shared.

The soldiers of the British Indian Army, who embraced gunshells into their chest did not fight for soft power. But nations that remember well earn trust, and trust is the bona fide currency of diplomacy. India has inherited a story of courage that spans continents. The task now is to tell it fully, honestly and together with those who fought beside its sons, so that the next generation inherits not only the memory, but the friendships it built.