CAT 2018 Slot 1 — VARC Question 9
Answer the following question based on the information given below.
[The] Indian government [has] announced an international competition to design a National War Memorial in New Delhi, to honor all of the Indian soldiers who served in the various wars and counter-insurgency campaigns from 1947 onwards. The terms of the competition also specified that the new structure would be built adjacent to the India Gate – a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died in the First World War. Between the old imperialist memorial and the proposed nationalist one, India’s contribution to the Second World War is airbrushed out of existence.
The Indian government’s conception of the war memorial was not merely absent-minded. Rather, it accurately reflected the fact that both academic history and popular memory have yet to come to terms with India’s Second World War, which continues to be seen as Littlemore than mood music in the drama of India’s advance towards independence and partitioning 1947. Further, the political trajectory of the postwar subcontinent has militated against popular remembrance of the war. With partition and the onset of the India-Pakistan rivalry, both of the new nations needed fresh stories for self-legitimization rather than focusing on shared wartime experiences.
However, the Second World War played a crucial role in both the independence and partition of India. . . . The Indian army recruited, trained and deployed some 2.5 million men, almost 90,000 of which were killed and many more injured. Even at the time, it was recognized as the largest volunteer force in the war. . . .
India’s material and financial contribution to the war was equally significant. India emerged as a major military-industrial and logistical base for Allied operations in south-east Asia and the Middle East. This led the United States to take considerable interest in the country’s future, and ensured that this was no longer the preserve of the British government.
Other wartime developments pointed in the direction of India’s independence. In a stunning reversal of its long-standing financial relationship with Britain, India finished the war as one of the largest creditors to the imperial power.
Such extraordinary mobilization for war was achieved at great human cost, with the Bengal famine the most extreme manifestation of widespread wartime deprivation. The costs on India’s home front must be counted in millions of lives.
Indians signed up to serve on the war and home fronts for a variety of reasons. . . . [M]anywhere convinced that their contribution would open the doors to India’s freedom. . . . The political and social churn triggered by the war was evident in the massive waves of popular protest and unrest that washed over rural and urban India in the aftermath of the conflict. This turmoil was crucial in persuading the Attlee government to rid itself of the incubus of ruling India. . . .
Seventy years on, it is time that India engaged with the complex legacies of the Second World War. Bringing the war into the ambitof the new national memorial would be a fitting –if not overdue – recognition that this was India’s War.
The author suggests that a major reason why India has not so far acknowledged its role in the Second World War is that it:
Answer & solution
- A
wants to forget the human and financial toll of the War on the country.
has been focused on building an independent, non-colonial political identity.
- C
views the War as a predominantly Allied effort, with India playing only a supporting role.
- D
blames the War for leading to the momentous partition of the country.
Easy
The question asks for the reason the author gives for India not yet acknowledging its WWII role. Locate the explanatory sentence in paragraph 2 and match it to an option; reject options that add motives the passage never states.
Wants to forget the human and financial toll. The passage stresses the war's huge cost (90,000 killed, the Bengal famine), but never says India avoids the memory because it wishes to forget that toll. The stated reason is political, not a desire to suppress suffering. Incorrect.
Focused on building an independent, non-colonial political identity. Paragraph 2 says that "with partition and the onset of the India-Pakistan rivalry, both of the new nations needed fresh stories for self-legitimization rather than focusing on shared wartime experiences." The war was fought under colonial command, so remembering it clashes with the new nationalist self-image. This is exactly the author's explanation. Correct.
Views the War as a predominantly Allied effort with India in a supporting role. This is a tempting distractor, but the passage actually argues the opposite, that India's contribution was central. It is not offered as the reason for the non-acknowledgement. Incorrect.
Blames the War for the partition. The passage says the war played a role in independence and partition, but never says India resents or blames the war for partition. Not implied. Incorrect.
Option B is correct: after partition both new nations preferred fresh, self-legitimizing national stories over shared colonial-era wartime experiences, so India built an independent, non-colonial identity instead of acknowledging its WWII role.