Japan’s Campaigns in World War-II and the Rubber Crisis

The importance of rubber production from strategic and security reasons was realized during World War –II when Japan moved to conquer Southeast Asia, and made 90% of the world’s natural rubber (Hevea) unavailable to the allies. Rubber was used in tires and other components of military vehicles; and its strategic importance was realized during the world war-II.

Between December 1941 and March 1942, Japan seized South East Asia in its lightning campaigns. This resulted in loss of over 90% of world’s cultivated Hevea brasiliellsis trees to the allies. Rubber was one of the two components of the allies’ war machine, another being oil from Middle East. Such was the crisis that it had brought the allies to the brink of military catastrophe. To meet the contingency, Britain shared rubber from Ceylon; it’s last remaining source of Rubber. This was the time when efforts to create new synthetic rubbers were on war scale.

At that time, India’s Rubber production was not even able to meet the domestic consumption. The rubber growers in India were encouraged to produce the maximum rubber required  use during war. After the war, there were growing demands from the growers for setting up a permanent organisation to look after the interests of the industry. Thereupon the government set up an ad-hoc committee in 1945 to study the situation and to make appropriate recommendation. On the recommendation of this ad-hoc committee, the government passed the Rubber (Production and Marketing) Act, 1947, on 18th April 1947, and the “Indian Rubber Board” was constituted forthwith. The Rubber Production and Marketing (Amendment) Act, 1954, amended the name of the Board as “The Rubber Board”.