In 1939 no Indian officer in the regular Indian Army ranked above major
When the Second World War began, India's army had no Indian generals, and its air force's most senior Indian officer was a flight lieutenant. Within six years the Indian Army had grown into the largest volunteer army in history, over 2.5 million strong, and the men who would lead independent India's forces were rising fast.
Military tradition on the subcontinent runs back millennia. Armies are mentioned in the Vedas, and a tidal dock at Lothal, built around 2300 BC in the Indus Valley civilisation, is thought to be the first of its kind. Chanakya's Arthashastra devotes a full chapter to a state department of waterways, and the Cholas carried Indian trade and influence to China and Southeast Asia. In the 17th and 18th centuries Maratha and Kerala fleets at times defeated European navies.
Under British rule the forces served imperial ends. In the First World War about one million Indian troops served abroad, from the Western Front to Gallipoli, with nearly 700,000 in Mesopotamia; 74,187 Indian soldiers died in all. Afterwards change came slowly: in 1928 D. N. Mukherji became the first Indian commissioned in the Royal Indian Marine, and in 1932 the Indian Air Force was created as an auxiliary of the RAF.
The Second World War forced the pace. Starting with just under 200,000 men, the Indian Army fought in Ethiopia, North Africa, Italy and above all Burma against Japan. More than 36,000 Indian servicemen died, and 38 received the Victoria Cross or George Cross. Subroto Mukherjee took charge of an air force squadron in 1940, a first for an Indian, and on 1 May 1945 Kodandera Cariappa became the first Indian brigadier. From October 1945 new regular commissions went only to Indians, and in 1946 some 20,000 sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied across 78 ships, with effects felt nationwide.
Independence in 1947 meant splitting ships, units and aircraft between India and Pakistan. By October 1948 Indian officers led all three army commands, and on 15 January 1949 Cariappa became the first Indian commander-in-chief. Today, with over 1.4 million active personnel, India fields the world's second-largest military and its largest volunteer army.
Source: Indian Armed Forces
