How wartime logistics exposed India's infrastructure weakness

British India's infrastructure made sense inside a maritime empire because ships could move goods cheaply around the coast. War against Japan exposed the danger of that dependence: without adequate cross-country rail capacity, food and supplies could not be rerouted safely when shipping was constrained. A more resilient network would need several north-south and east-west routes rather than a system optimized around ports. Responsibility falls on the British administration in India for failing to build that redundancy before crisis.