There is a temptation, watching India’s LPG crisis unfold in March 2026, to invoke the Second World War as a counterpoint, an era when civilisation itself was at stake, yet somehow, fuel still moved, kitchens still burned, and industrial supply chains held together well enough to sustain a global war effort. The comparison is emotionally satisfying. It is also, at first glance, historically plausible. But the data tells a more complicated and ultimately more instructive story