In a survey which highlights lack of knowledge about World War I, over 1 in 4 Indians answered that India fought against the UK in the great war.

The survey was undertaken by YouGov on behalf of the British Council as part of its commemoration to mark 100 years of the war. The survey's target audience included adult populations of Egypt, France, Germany, India, Russia, Turkey and the UK. The objective of the survey was to check the knowledge surrounding the war.

India which was part of the imperial Britain contributed around 1.4 million soldiers to the British forces which made it one of the largest voluntary army in the Europe. Moreover, around 1,00,000 Indians were wounded or killed while fighting for the British cause.

"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," the report said.

Many Indians also didn't knew that Mahatma Gandhi's first civil disobedience campaign was due to disillusionment with the British authorities who Gandhi believed should have honored the contribution of 1.5 million men with transition to the self government.

"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," the report added.

To compile the report which is titled as "Remember The World As Well As The War", the surveyors targeted 7,488 individuals - Egypt (1,052), France (1,029), Germany (1,070), India (1,215), Russia (1,019), Turkey (1,022) and the UK (1,081).