When Germany’s invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 led Britain to declare war upon it, Indians noted the irony of the English fighting to defend the sovereignty of a weak country resisting the brute force of foreign conquest—precisely what Indian nationalists were doing against British imperialism. So Britain would fight Germany for doing to Poland what Britain had been doing to India for nearly two hundred years. Yet, it would have found allies in the anti-Fascist Congress governments in the provinces and amongst Congress legislators in the Central Assembly. Gandhi and Rajagopalachari were
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