LONDON: Indians are in dire need of a crash course in history, as far as World War One (WW1) is concerned.

Over 1 in 4 Indians have revealed that they believe India was fighting the British and against the UK in the WW1. In reality, India was actually part of Britain when the war started in 1914 (2014 being the centenary of the great war).

More than 1.4 million Indians fought as part of the British forces making the contingent Britain’s biggest volunteer army. During the course of the war, over 100,000 Indians were killed or wounded by the war’s end.

As part of its commemoration to mark 100 years of the war, the British Council commissioned YouGov to carry out a survey among the adult populations of Egypt, France, Germany, India, Russia, Turkey and the UK to gauge their knowledge surrounding the war.

The report says “When asked which country India was fighting for, 27% assumed that the country was fighting against the UK. The largest contribution to Britain’s war effort came from India. The total number of Indian troops amounted to some 1.4–1.5 million men, serving in France, East Africa, Mesopotamia and Egypt”.

Another interesting myth that emerged was that 78% of French respondents assumed India was neutral, when, in fact, India provided over 1.4 million soldiers – many of them to defend French soil.

Majority of Indians also weren’t aware that Mahatma Gandhi ’s first civil disobedience campaign against British authority in 1919 stemmed from the unrealised hope that India’s contribution to WW1 of around 1.5 million men would be honored with a transition to self-government.

The report says “Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah assumed that Britain would honour India’s contribution to the war with a transition to self-government. Their expectations were dashed in November 1918 with the extension of martial law”.

“In February 1919, Gandhi launched his first India-wide campaign of civil disobedience against British authority. By the outbreak of the Second World War, resistance efforts redoubled. Indian nationalists, under the auspices of the ‘Quit India’ movement, were not going to risk their lives in a British war effort twice with little tangible return”.

This perhaps, the report says, explains the way in which the First World War gives rise to negative perceptions of the UK for some in India.

For the survey, there were 7,488 responses - Egypt (1,052), France (1,029), Germany (1,070), India (1,215), Russia (1,019), Turkey (1,022) and the UK (1,081).

The research revealed a widespread lack of understanding of the global scale.

The report “Remember The World As Well As The War” shows that knowledge of the conflict is limited.

In the UK, less than 22% of the 1081 people questioned were aware that Asia was involved.

The report also revealed the extent to which it still influences overseas views of the UK.

Around 45% of people questioned in India said the UK’s role in the war has a positive effect on how they view the UK today.

Almost three quarters of people (72%) across the seven countries surveyed believe their country is still affected by the consequences of the war.

Only 1 in 3 Indians (34%) knew that the location of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, which sparked the war, was Sarajevo.

A large majority of Indians (75%) feel broadly positive towards the UK. In contrast, when asked about their attitudes with reference to the UK’s role in WW1, over one in 10 state that these have a negative (11%) effect on their views of the country today.

The war certainly started in Europe. On 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo, Gavrilo Princip,a Bosnian Serb student, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Habsburg throne, and his wife Sophie, hoping to end Austria-Hungary’s rule over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Exactly one month later, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

A series of alliances rapidly brought Germany, France, Belgium, Russia and the UK into the conflict, which, within a week, became what we now know as the WW1.

Economically, the contributions from different parts of empires were crucial for Britain during the war.

By 1917, Canada provided Britain with half its shrapnel, 42% of its 4.5-inch shells and 25% of its 6-inch shells; 97% of Australia’s meat was consumed in Britain during the war while India’s jute supply was turned into sandbags.