Quit India Movement

• After Cripss, Gandhi calling for British withdrawal and a non-violent non-cooperation movement against any Japanese invasion.
• CWC meeting at Wardha (July 14, 1942) accepted the idea of a struggle.

Reason for Struggle Start

• Failure of the Cripps Mission.
• Popular discontent because of rising prices and shortage of rice, salt, etc. Fears of Britain following a scorched earth policy in Assam, Bengal and Orissa against possible Japanese advance.
• Reverses suffered by the British in South-East Asia, Japanese troops were approaching the borders of India.
• People were withdrawing deposits from banks and post offices.
• Rout of a European power by an Asian power shattered white prestige nd the British behaviour towards the Indian subjects in South-East Asia exposed the racist attitude of the rulers.

‘Quit India’ Resolution.

• Congress Working Committee met at Wardha, take charge of the non-violent mass movement.
• Approved by Bombay meeting in August & Ratified at congress meeting Gowalia Tank, Bombay, on August 8, 1942.
• Demand an immediate end to British rule in India.
• Declare commitment of free India to defend itself against all types of Fascism and imperialism.
• Form a provisional Government of India after British withdrawal.
• Sanction a civil disobedience movement against British rule.
• Gandhi leader of the struggle.

Gandhi’s General Instructions to Different Sections

• Government servants: Do not resign but declare your allegiance to the Congress.
• Soldiers: Do not leave the Army but do not fire on compatriots.
• Students: If confident, leave studies.
• Peasants: If zamindars are anti-government, pay mutually agreed rent, and if zamindars are pro-government, do not pay rent.
• Princes: Support the masses and accept sovereignty of your people.
• Princely states’ people: Support the ruler only if he is anti-government and declare yourselves to be a part of the Indian nation.

Now-famous exhortation, The mantra is: ‘Do or Die’.

Spread of the Movement

• Tempo - organisational revamping.
• Government, however, was in no mood to either negotiate with the Congress or wait for the movement to be formally launched.
• August 9, 1942, in a single sweep, top leaders of the Congress were arrested and taken to unknown destinations.
• Congress Working Committee, the All India Congress Committee and the Provincial Congress Committees were declared unlawful associations under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1908.
• Assembly of public meetings was prohibited.
• Young Aruna Asaf Ali, presided over the Congress committee session on August 9, and hoisted the flag.

Public on Rampage

• General public attacked symbols of authority & hoisted national flags forcibly on public buildings. Satyagrahis offered themselves up to arrest, bridges were blown up, railway tracks were removed and telegraph lines were cut.
• Most intense in eastern United Provinces and Bihar.
• Students responded by going on strike, participating in processions, writing and distributing illegal news sheets (patrikas) and acting as couriers for underground networks.
• Workers went on strike in Ahmedabad, Bombay, Jamshedpur, Ahmednagar and Poona.

Underground Activity

• Took to subversive activities.
• Phase of underground activity was meant to keep up popular morale by continuing to provide a line of command and guidance to distribute arms and ammunition.

Parallel Governments

• Ballia (in August 1942 for a week).
• Tamluk (Midnapore, from December 1942 to September 1944)
• Satara (mid-1943 to 1945) - Prati Sarkar

Active help was provided by businessmen, students, Simple villagers, Piolets & train Drivers, government officials including police.

Extent of Mass Participation

• Youth
• Women - Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kripalani and Usha Mehta.
• Workers
• Peasants - Even some zamindars participated, complete absence of anti-zamindar violence.
• Government Official - lower levels in police and administration, erosion of government loyalty.
• Muslims - Giving shelter to underground activists, no communal clashes.
• Communists- did not join the movement, wake of Russia attacked by Nazi Germany, communists began to support the British war against Germany. ‘Imperialist War’ became the ‘People’s War’
• Muslim League - opposed the movement, fearing that if the British left India at that time, the minorities would be oppressed by the Hindus.
• Hindu Mahasabha - boycotted the movement.
• Princely states - showed a low-key response.

Government Repression

• Martial law was not applied.
• Crowds were lathi-charged, tear-gassed and fired upon.
• Press was muzzled.
• Mmilitary took over many cities; police and secret service reigned supreme.
• Rebellious villages were fined heavily

Estimate

• Left without leaders, no restraint and violence became common.
• Main storm centres - eastern United Provinces, Bihar, Midnapore, Maharashtra, Karnataka.
• Students, workers and peasants are backbone.
• Upper classes and the bureaucracy remained largely loyal.
• Loyalty to government suffered, deep nationalism had reached.
• Movement established the truth that it was no longer possible to rule India without the wishes of Indians.
• Spontaneity was higher than before. Congress had been ideologically, politically and organisationally preparing for the struggle for a long time.
• Demand for independence.
• Common people displayed unparalleled heroism and militancy.

Gandhi Fasts

• February 1943, Gandhi started a fast as an answer to an exhortation by the government to condemn violence & against the violence of the State.
• Protests were organised at home and abroad through hartals, demonstrations and strikes.
• Three members of the viceroy’s executive council resigned.
• Achieves,
• Public morale was raised.
• Anti-British feeling was heightened.
• An opportunity was provided for political activity.
• Government’s high-handedness was exposed.
• March 23, 1943 Pakistan Day was observed.

Famine of 1943

• Worst-affected areas were south-west Bengal comprising the Tamluk-Contai-Diamond Harbour region, Dacca, Faridpur, Tippera and Noakhali.
• Man-made famine, the epidemics (malaria, cholera, small pox), malnutrition and starvation.
• Fundamental causes of the famine.
• Feed a vast Army diverted foodstuffs.
• Rice imports from Burma and South-East Asia had been stopped.
• Famine got aggravated by gross mismanagement and deliberate profiteering.
• Rationing methods were belated & confined to big cities.

Rajagopalachari Formula

C. Rajagopalachari (CR), the veteran Congress leader, formula for Congress-League cooperation in 1944, acceptance of the League’s demand for Pakistan.

• Muslim League to endorse Congress demand for independence.
• League to cooperate with Congress in forming a provisional government at centres.
• Muslim majority areas in the North-West and North-East India to decide by a plebiscite.
• Case of acceptance of partition, agreement to be made jointly for safeguarding defence, commerce, communications, etc.
• Above terms to be operative only if England transferred full powers to India

Objections

• Jinnah wanted the Congress to accept the two-nation theory.
• Wanted only the Muslims of North-West and North-East to vote in the plebiscite.
• Opposed the idea of a common centre.
• League did not care for independence of the Union & only interested in a separate nation.
• Hindu leaders led by Vir Savarkar condemned the CR Plan

Desai-Liaqat Pact

• Bhulabhai Desai, leader of the Congress Party in the Central Legislative Assembly, met Liaqat Ali Khan, deputy leader of the Muslim League in that Assembly.
• Draft proposal for Formation of an interim government at the centre.
• Equal number of persons nominated by the Congress and the League in the central legislature.
• 20% reserved seats for minorities.
• No settlement could be reached.

Wavell Plan

• Japanese threat still remained
• Viceroy Lord Wavell was permitted to start negotiations with Indian leader, Congress leaders were released in June 1945.

Government was Keen on a Solution Now

• General election in England was scheduled for mid-1945.
• Pressure from the Allies.
• Government wanted to divert Indian energies into channels more profitable for the British.

The Plan

Reconstruct, pending the preparation of a new constitution. conference of Wavell, at Shimla in June 1945.

• Exception of the governor-general and the commander-in-chief, all members of the executive council were to be Indians.
• Hindus and Muslims - Equal Representation.
• Reconstructed council was to function as an interim government within the framework of the 1935 Act.
• Governor-general was to exercise his veto on the advice of ministers.
• Representatives of different parties were to submit a joint list to the viceroy for nominations to the executive council.
• Joint list was not possible, then separate lists were to be submitted/

Muslim League’s Stand

• League wanted all Muslim members to be League nominees.
• Other Minorities - depressed classes, Sikhs, Christians, etc., same as those of the Congress.
• Arrangement would reduce the League to a one-third minority.
• Claimed some kind of veto, decisions opposed to Muslims needing a two-thirds majority for approval.

Congress Stand

• Objected to the plan - "an attempt to reduce the Congress to the status of a purely caste Hindu party and insisted on its right to include members of all communities among its nominees"

Wavell’s Mistake

• Giving the League a virtual veto & This strengthened the League’s position, boosted Jinnah’s position.
• Exposed the real character of the Conservative government of Churchill.