Military and Manpower Contributions
- Troop Recruitment from Rural Areas: The colonial government pressured villages across India to supply soldiers for the British war effort, causing widespread rural anger over forced recruitment.
- Overseas Deployment: Millions of Indian troops were transported on large ships and trains to fight on distant battlefronts abroad in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
- Global Political Awakening of Soldiers: Many Indian soldiers returned from overseas deployment with direct awareness of how imperialist powers exploited Asian and African peoples, inspiring a strong resolve to challenge and oppose colonial rule at home.
Economic and Industrial Production Contributions
- Supplying Military Requisites: With British factories preoccupied with war production, Indian industries were called upon to directly manufacture and supply wartime necessities, including jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, military tents, leather boots, and horse and mule saddles.
- Industrial Expansion and Multi-Shift Operations: To fulfill war orders, existing Indian mills operated multiple shifts, new factories were built, working hours were extended, and large numbers of industrial laborers were hired.
- Filling the Import Void: A sharp decline in foreign imports (particularly Manchester cotton goods) allowed Indian textile mills and handlooms to take over the domestic market, doubling Indian cotton piece-goods production between 1900 and 1912 and booming further through the war years.
- Rise of Indian Business Groups: Indian merchants and industrialists reaped substantial profits from wartime supply contracts and market expansion, positioning them to organize business associations (such as the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and FICCI in 1927) and demand greater opportunities and protective economic policies.
Domestic Sacrifices and Socio-Economic Disruption
- Financing Colonial War Expenditure: The Government of India’s defence expenditure surged dramatically, which was financed through war loans and an increased fiscal burden on Indians—including higher customs duties and the imposition of taxes on individual incomes and business profits.
- Severe Inflation: Diverting supplies to the war front resulted in steep price inflation across India, with prices doubling between 1913 and 1918 and creating severe hardship for the general population.
- Famine and Epidemic Toll: Towards the end of the war period (1918–19 and 1920–21), severe crop failures struck multiple provinces, causing acute food scarcity; combined with the 1918 influenza epidemic, an estimated 12 to 13 million Indians died according to the 1921 Census.
Catalyst for National Political Movements
- Dismantling British Industrial Dominance: Wartime industrial production permanently weakened Britain’s monopoly; after the war, Manchester was unable to recapture its pre-war dominance in the Indian market, solidifying the economic base of Indian entrepreneurs.
- Transforming Resistance into a Mass Movement: The unfulfilled hopes of peacetime relief, coupled with wartime exploitation, economic distress, and forced recruitment, unified diverse classes—peasants, industrial workers, educated youth, and businessmen—transforming the anti-colonial movement after 1919 into a nationwide mass struggle under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership.
Reference Ncert Document
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/jess302.pdf
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/hees202.pdf
https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/jess303.pdf
