{"id":532,"date":"2020-09-17T10:20:34","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T10:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/?p=532"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:20:34","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T10:20:34","slug":"the-quit-india-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/2020\/09\/17\/the-quit-india-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quit India Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

World War II took an alarming turn for India when Japan made a\nsurprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii on December 7,\n1941 and destroyed their 20 warships and about 250 aircraft. Next day, the\nJapanese forces occupied Shanghai and Thailand. On the third day, they sank two\nBritish battleships, the Repulse  <\/em>and\nthe Prince of Wales.  <\/em>The Allies\nwere being crippled. It looked difficult for the British to be able to defend\nIndia effectively against Japan. To take stock of the new dangers to the\nsecurity and defence of the country, the Congress Working Committee met at\nBardoli on December 23, 1941. It told the British in unequivocal terms that it\ncould not offer voluntary help to the imperialist cause until India was granted\nfreedom. In what way was the arrogant imperialism better than the authoritarian\nfascism ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dawn of the year 1942 made the situation worse for the Allied\npowers. There were further major reverses for them. Singapore fell on February\n15, 1942. Next was the turn of Malaya. Then Burma (now Myanmar) went into the\nhands of the Japanese. Its capital, Rangoon (now Yangon) was occupied by the\nenemy on March 9, 1942. All these setbacks shattered the morale of British\nimperialism. It had to reconcile with India at this critical hour to seek her\ncooperation in the war effort. There was also mounting pressure from her\nallies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt of America, Chiang Kai-shek of China\nand Lester Pearson of Canada asked British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to\ndo something positive to reach an under\u00adstand\u00ading with the Indian leaders. The\nBritish Government, therefore, decided on March 11, 1942 to send Sir Stafford\nCripps, Lord Privy Seal and leader of the House of Commons, to India to meet\nthe political leaders to find a solution to the Indian problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Stafford Cripps reached Delhi on March 22, 1942. He was known to\nbe a personal friend of Jawaharlal Nehru and other Indian leaders. He was a\nsocialist and had the reputation of being sympathetic to the Indian cause. The\nproposals he had brought were, however, not so favourable. He offered the\ndominion status to India at the end of the War and recognised the right of the\nIndian people to frame their own constitution through a Constituent Assembly\nwith the right to secede. The provinces as well as the princes were free to\naccept or reject the new constitution and maintain their existing links with\nthe empire. The Indians were to be associated with the governance of the\ncountry by reconstituting the Viceroy\u2019s Executive Council with an interim\ngovernment of party leaders, but the responsibility for the defence of the\ncountry had to remain with the Viceroy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cripps\u2019 proposals, thus, envisaged the postponement of grant of\nfreedom to a distant date at the end of the War. Mahatma Gandhi, therefore,\ndescribed them as a \u201cpost-dated cheque\u201d on a \u201ccrashing bank\u201d. He told Cripps,\n\u201cWhy did you come if this is what you had to offer ? I advise you to take the\nnext plane home.\u201d Jawaharlal Nehru also did not view them with favour as \u201cthe\nexisting structure of government would continue exactly as before, the\nautocratic power of the Viceroy would remain, and a few of us would become his\nliveried camp-followers and look after canteens and the like.\u201d Apart from the\nCongress, the proposals were also rejected by other parties, like the Muslim\nLeague, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Sikhs. Sir Stafford Cripps had, therefore,\nto go back to London on April 12, 1942 as a disappointed person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The failure of the Cripps Mission disheartened the people. The day\nCripps left was Sunday. Monday was Gandhiji\u2019s day of silence. He pondered over\nthe difficult situation as to what could be the solution. His inner voice spoke\ntwo words \u201cQuit India\u201d. The British should leave India to its fate. In his\npaper, Harijan,  <\/em>he wrote on April\n26, 1942, \u201cWhatever the conse\u00adquences, therefore, to India, its real safety and\nBritain\u2019s too, lies in the orderly and timely British withdrawal from India.\u201d\nHe reiterated again on May 24, 1942, \u201cLeave India in God\u2019s hands; or in modern\nparlance, to anarchy. Then all parties will fight one another like dogs or when\nreal responsibility faces them,  they will\ncome to a reasonable agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Working Committee of the Con\u00adgress met at Wardha. It continued\nits deli\u00adberations for many days over Gandhiji\u2019s new slogan to the nation. On\nJuly 14, 1942, the Committee passed a long resolution known as the \u201cQuit India\u201d\nresolution. It demanded that the British rule in India must end immediately and\npower should be transferred to the Indians to enable them to defend their\ncountry as well as saving the world from perils of Nazism, Fascism and\nmilitarism. If this just and reasonable demand was not accepted, the Congress\nwould be reluctantly compelled to start a non-violent agitation of direct\naction. A meeting of the All-India Congress Committee was accordingly convened\nin Bombay to endorse this resolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government paid no heed to the resolution of the Working\nCommittee. The Viceroy refused to meet Mira Ben whom the Congress had sent to\nhim for explaining the Working Committee\u2019s resolution. It was clear that the\ngovernment would not yield. The All-India Congress Committee, which assembled\nin Bombay on August 7, 1942, therefore, endorsed the resolution of the Working\nCommittee by an overwhelming majority and proposed the starting of a mass,\nnon-violent struggle under the leadership of Gandhiji. Addressing the delegates\non the night of August 8, 1942, Gandhiji said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want freedom immediately, this very night, before dawn, if it can\nbe had. Freedom cannot wait for the realisation of communal unity. Congress\nmust win freedom or be wiped out in the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere is a mantra,  <\/em>a\nshort one that I give. You may imprint it on your hearts and let every breath\nof yours give expression to it. The mantra \n<\/em>is: \u2018Do or Die\u2019. We shall either free India or die in the attempt;\nwe shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early on the morning of August 9, 1942, Gandhiji and other Congress\nleaders were arrested. The All-India Congress Committee and all the Provincial\nCongress Committees were declared unlawful. Thousands of Congress workers were\nthrown into jails. The headquarters of the Congress at Allahabad was sealed and\nCongress funds confiscated. Gandhiji was lodged at Poona in Aga Khan Palace and\nthe other leaders were detained in Ahmednagar fort. Next day, Kasturba Gandhi\ngot herself arrested by attempting to address a meeting at Bombay in which\nGandhiji was scheduled to speak before his arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news of the arrest of the nationalist leaders caused a wave of\nindignation among the people. If the government thought that they would be able\nto suppress them, it proved to be wrong. There were demonstrations, meetings\nand hartals  <\/em>all over the country.\nNational songs and slogans demanding release of the leaders filled the air. In\nthe beginning, the crowds were peaceful, but when the police tried to control\nthem by force, they became violent. In Delhi alone, the police opened fire\nforty-seven times upon peaceful demonstrators in which 76 persons were killed\nand 114 were injured during the two days, i.e.,<\/em> August 11 and 12,\n1942. Similar incidents took place in other cities like Bombay, Ahmedabad and\nPoona. The workers and students organised strikes in factories, colleges and\nschools. At times, the mobs destroyed the police posts, post offices and\nrailway stations, considered to be the symbols of the foreign rule. The revolutionary\ngroups also attempted to cut telephone wires and damage railway tracks. In\nrural areas, the peasants refused to pay taxes to the government. At many\nplaces, they were able to paralyse the local administrative machinery\ncompletely and set up their own governments. Prominent among them were Ballia\nin Uttar Pradesh, Midnapore in Bengal and Satara in Maharashtra. At Ballia, the\npeople opened the jail. One of the prisoners installed himself as \u201cSwaraj\nTehsildar\u201d and set up the panchayati raj. At Tamluk in Midnapore district, a\nnational government was established. At Satara, the people set up a parallel\ngovernment known as the Patri Sarkar. \n<\/em>In the then Madras Presidency, the railway line between Renigunta\nand Bezwada (now Vijayawada) was uprooted. In many other areas, the peasantry\nresorted to the guerilla resistance to the British rule which continued for\nquite a long time. The leaders of the underground movement were Jayaprakash\nNarayan and Ram Manohar Lohia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government claimed that it had largely been able to suppress the\nmovement within a month and crush it completely by the end of the year. For\nthis, it arrested 60,000 people, detained 18,000 without trial, resorted to\nfiring 533 times, killing 940 and injuring 1,630 people. These figures were bound\nto be far less than the actual number of arrests and casualties. These\nsacrifices did not go in vain as they were able to bring freedom to the country\nwithin a span of five years on August 15, 1947. Prime Minister Churchill\nboasted on November 10, 1942, \u201cI have not become the King\u2019s First Minister in\norder to preside over the liquidation of the British empire.\u201d The mighty\nempire, however, collapsed later in his own lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For putting the robes of legitimacy on its policy of repression, the\ngovernment blamed the Congress leadership for the disturbances and violence in\n1942 and claimed that it had evidence to vindicate its charges. How could\nGandhiji swallow this false-hood? He complained to the Viceroy that he had been\nmisjudged and challenged the government to try him and the members of the\nWorking Committee on the charges of fostering and abetting violence. As the\ngovernment turned a deaf ear to all his pleas and protests, Gandhiji undertook\na fast of 21 days from February 10, 1943, a last resort of a true satyagrahi.  <\/em>It caused great resentment among the\npeople, but produced no effect on the Viceroy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Midway during the fast, Gandhiji\u2019s health deteriorated to the point\nof death. This was bound to cause anxiety all over the country. A non-party\nconference met at Delhi and requested the government to release him\nimmediately. But the British authorities were adamant and refused to release\nhim until he withdrew the \u201cQuit India\u201d movement. As a protest against this\nheartless approach, three members of the Viceroy\u2019s Executive Council, Homi\nModi, M. S. Aney and N. R. Sarkar tendered their resignations. The government\nwas prepared to face the eventuality of Gandhiji\u2019s death and had made complete\narrangements for his funeral, but God saved him for the nation. He completed\nhis self-imposed ordeal of three weeks on March 3, 1943 by accepting a glass of\norange juice from Kasturba, his devoted wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, this was the last occasion on which Kasturba was to be\nnear Gandhiji at the end of his fast. She had volun\u00adtarily shared the rigours\nof imprisonment with him. But this had adverse effect on her health. She had\nnot been maintaining good health for many months. She became seriously ill with\nchronic bronchitis in December 1943 and breathed her last on February 22,\n1944 with her head resting on Gandhiji\u2019s lap. They had lived together for\nsixty-two years. Her death left a void which could never be filled up. Barely\nsix weeks after her death, Gandhiji suffered a severe stroke of tertian malaria\nand the government released him on May 6, 1944. This was his last stay in jail.\nAltogether, he had spent 2,338 days in jail during his life\u20142,089 days in India\nand 249 days in South Africa.            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World War II took an alarming turn for India when Japan made a surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 and destroyed their 20 warships and about 250 aircraft. Next day, the Japanese forces occupied Shanghai and Thailand. On the third day, they sank two British battleships, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}