ABSTRACT
The Indian nationalists understandably felt slighted when, in September 1939, Lord Linlithgow, the viceroy, declared India at war with Germany without consulting with Congress. New confrontations followed. Congress at first offered to support the war effort if Britain would promise India independence after the war and grant immediately more Indian participation and responsibility in the central government. Once the war started, the need for Indian Jews to stand together to interpret the Jewish position for the Indian community at large and to mobilize contributions of money and personnel to the war effort seems to have promoted an increased unity. In addition to mobilizing money and personnel to aid the British war effort, the Jewish communities also had to deal with an increasingly complicated refugee situation. The outbreak of the war created the challenges not only of internment and continued absorption, but also of the naturalization of "enemy aliens.".
