Possession of India underpinned Britain's claim to global power, and India's structure, institutions and dynamics all marked it out as separate from the other, disparate entities that made up the Empire. Despite some concessions in the 1920s and 1930s, Britain still ruled India directly, through the India Office in London, the Viceroy and the Indian Civil Service. In fact, the question of military morale had assumed great importance, not just in India, but throughout the army in the early 1940s when Britain suffered reverses not only in Asia but also in France and North Africa. Many military observers noted a correlation between lower morale and service within India itself, especially after 1943 with the division of South Asia into South East Asia Command (SEAC) and India Command, the latter functioning as a base for the former. Political education of the forces in this colonial locale called for some different emphases in what the troops heard compared to in other theatres.