World War 1—often called as the war to end all wars—shaped the 20th century. This discourse was first used by the British author H. G. Wells. European powers lost most of their international colonies due to this war. Every country that existed was affected by it; obviously India being one of them. This war was a turning point for the economics of many countries, which eventually changed their political and social structures. Both the colonialism and India were disturbed by it. Many pacts and reforms were passed in India after the war. To fight a powerful military is required. British started recruiting its soldiers from different colonies. Jalal and Bose says, the British Indian army adopted a policy of large scale recruitment of Indian soldiers. 355,000 of these were recruited from Punjab alone; 60,000 among them were killed fighting for Britain in the European and Middle Eastern (p. 102). Such a high …show more content…
103). To overcome the financial hurdles, they started to print money. According to Jalal and Bose the currency circulation in India increased from RS 660 million in 1914 to RS 1530 million in 1919. During that era, inflation of daily usage goods touched the sky because now there were more buyers than goods. However, Indian cotton industries achieved a major breakthrough. Due to the disturbed routes, now cotton was to be obtained from Indian cotton industries, it can’t be imported. Indian textile was the only source of gain at that time. Around 1919-21, India faced violent fluctuations in the rupee exchange. “After a short lived post-war boom in 1919–20, India’s trade was caught in the web of the worldwide slump of 1920–2. The value of the rupee had been held down until 1917. It was raised that year and reached a peak of 2 shillings and 4 pence in December 1919, and fell drastically during the slump, hitting a low of 1 shilling in early 1921.” (Jalal and Bose,