As the war drew to a close, Indian political leaders braced themselves
for the anticipated political changes. The war had had far more than an
indirect impact on India. Indian support had not been insignificant: about
1.5 million Indian soldiers had fought, and not a few had died (about
60,000), in the service of Britain. India had effectively supplied a free
army, paid for predominantly from Indian revenues, as had been the case
several times before; but this time, in addition, the (British) government
of India had voted to provide a ‘gift’ on behalf of the ‘Indian people’ of
£100 million for the war effort. Some changes had not altogether been
anticipated. India became a centre of war production: of munitions,
but also of uniforms and jute sandbags, leading to the development of
Indian industry. Wartime disruption of trade inadvertently created
an import-substitution effect, as regular British exports to India were
slowed down. The Indian Munitions Board explored the possibility of
industrialising India quickly for greater efficiency as a centre of war,
something earlier viceroys with an understanding of military imperatives,
such as Lord Curzon, had believed to be desirable. An explicit policy
of industrialisation by the government had long been one of the main
demands of Indian economic nationalists, taking their argument from the
German model propounded by Friedrich List: every nation had to have its
own industry to be strong, and a government’s duty was to protect infant
industries until they were strong enough to stand on their own feet and
compete in the world market. The government appeared at last to be
conceding this; but after the end of the war these plans were quietly
dropped.AFTER THE WAR: CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION
Then, in August 1917, a statement was read in Parliament to the effect
that the goal of British rule in India was ‘the increasing association of
Indians in every branch of the administration’ and ‘a progressive realisa-
tion of responsible government in India’.^6 This, perhaps, was the expected
reward for Indian support during the war. The Secretary of State for India,
Sir Edwin Montagu, visited India at the end of 1917, making the
customary cold-weather tour of the British administrator, and produced
a set of proposals and a time-frame of ‘training’ in self-government for
Indians, the results of this training to be examined in ten years’ time. The
provinces of British India would be provided with a degree of autonomy34 THE YOUNG GANDHIAN