ABSTRACT
Poland was invaded by Germany on 1 September 1939. Great Britain and France pledged their full support to Poland against the Nazi aggression on 3 September 1939. On the same day Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declared that India was a party in the war and expressed his hope that ‘India will make her contribution on the side of human freedom as against the rule of force, and will play her part worthy of her place among the great nations and the historic civilizations of the world’.1 On 4 September 1939, he asked Jinnah for ‘his help towards securing the whole hearted support of the Muslim Community everywhere’.2 Linlithgow also invited Gandhi for an interview the same day and asked him for his support and that of the Indian National Congress in the war effort.
