The Quit
India Act (Hindi: भारत छोड़ो आन्दोलन Bhārat Chhodo Āndolan), or the India August Movement
(August Kranti) was a civil disobedience movement launched in India
in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's call for satyagraha.
The All-India Congress Committee proclaimed
a mass protest demanding what Gandhiji called "an orderly British
withdrawal" from India. The call for determined, but appears in his call
to Do or Die, issued on 8 August at the Gowaliar Tank
Maidan in Mumbai on year 1942.
The
British were prepared to act. Almost the entire INC leadership, and not just at the
national level, was imprisoned without trial within hours after Gandhi's speech.
Most spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses.
The British had the support of the Viceroy's Council (which had a majority
of Indians), of the Muslims, the Communist Party, the princely states,
the Imperial and state police, the Indian Army,
and the Indian Civil Service. Many Indian businessmen
were profiting from heavy wartime spending and did not support Quit India. Many
students paid more attention to Subhas Chandra Bose, who was in exile and
supporting the Axis. The only outside support came from the Americans, as
President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Prime Minister Winston
Churchill to give in to Indian demands. The Quit India campaign was
effectively crushed.[1]
The
British refused to grant immediate independence, saying it could happen only
after the war ended.
Sporadic
small-scale violence took place around the country but the British arrested
tens of thousands of leaders, keeping them imprisoned until 1945. In terms of
immediate objectives Quit India failed because of heavy-handed suppression,
weak coordination and the lack of a clear-cut programme of action. However, the
British government realized that India was ungovernable in the long run, and
the question for postwar became how to exit gracefully and peacefully.
In
1939 Indian nationalists were angry that British Governor-General of India, Lord Linlithgow, had
without consultation with them brought India into the war. The Muslim League
supported the war, but Congress was divided.
At
the outbreak of war, the Congress Party had passed a resolution during the
Wardha meeting of the working-committee in September 1939, conditionally
supporting the fight against fascism,[2]
but were rebuffed when they asked for independence in return. Gandhi had not
supported this initiative, as he could not reconcile an endorsement for war (he
was a committed believer in non-violent resistance, used in the Indian Independence Movement and
proposed even against Adolf Hitler, Benito
Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo). However, at the height of the Battle of
Britain, Gandhi had stated his support for the fight against racism
and of the British war effort, stating he did not seek to raise a free India
from the ashes of Britain. However, opinions remained divided.
After
the onset of the war, only a group led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose took any decisive
action. Bose organized the Indian National Army with the help of the Japanese, and, soliciting
help from the Axis Powers, conducted a guerrilla war
against the British authorities.
Cripps' Mission
In
23 March 1942, faced with an increasingly dissatisfied sub-continent only
reluctantly participating in the war and deterioration in the war situation in Europe holand]]
and with growing dissatisfaction among Indian troops -especially in Africa- and
among the civilian population in the sub-continent, the British government sent
a delegation to India under Stafford Cripps,
the Leader of the House of Commons, in what
came to be known as the Cripps mission. The purpose of the mission was
to negotiate with the Indian National Congress a deal to
obtain total co-operation during the war, in return for progressive devolution
and distribution of power from the crown and the Viceroy
to an elected Indian legislature. The talks failed, as they did not address the
key demand of a timetable of self-government and of definition of the powers to
be relinquished, essentially making an offer of limited dominion-status that
was wholly unacceptable to the Indian movement.[3]
In 1939, with
the outbreak of war between Germany and Britain, India was announced to be a
party to the war for being a constituent component of the British Empire.
Following this declaration, the Congress Working Committee at its meeting on 10
October 1939, passed a resolution condemning the aggressive activities of the
Germans. At the same time the resolution also stated that India could not
associate herself with war unless it was consulted first. Responding to this
declaration, the Viceroy issued a statement on 17 October wherein he claimed
that Britain is waging a war driven by the motif to strengthen peace in the
world. He also stated that after the war, the government would initiate
modifications in the Act of 1935, in accordance to the desires of the Indians.
Gandhi's
reaction to this statement was; "the old policy of divide and rule is to
continue. The Congress has asked for bread and it has got stone."
According to the instructions issued by High Command, the Congress ministers
were directed to resign immediately. Congress ministers from eight provinces
resigned following the instructions. The resignation of the ministers was an
occasion of great joy and rejoicing for leader of the Muslim League, Mohammad
Ali Jinnah. He called the day of 22 December 1939 'The Day of Deliverance'.
Gandhi urged Jinnah against the celebration of this day, however, it was
futile. At the Muslim League Lahore Session held in March 1940, Jinnah declared
in his presidential address that the Muslims of the country wanted a separate
homeland, Pakistan.
In the
meanwhile, crucial political events took place in England. Chamberlain was
succeeded by Churchill as the Prime Minister and the Conservatives, who assumed
power in England, did not have a sympathetic stance towards the claims made by
the Congress. In order to pacify the Indians in the circumstance of worsening
war situation, the Conservatives were forced to concede some of the demands
made by the Indians. On 8 August, the Viceroy issued a statement that has come
to be referred as the "August Offer". However, the Congress rejected
the offer followed by the Muslim League.
In the context
of widespread dissatisfaction that prevailed over the rejection of the demands
made by the Congress, Gandhi at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee
in Wardha revealed his plan to launch Individual Civil Disobedience. Once
again, the weapon of satyagraha found popular acceptance as the best means to
wage a crusade against the British. It was widely used as a mark of protest
against the unwavering stance assumed by the British. Vinoba Bhave, a follower
of Gandhi, was selected by him to initiate the movement. Anti war speeches
ricocheted in all corners of the country, with the satyagrahis earnestly
appealing to the people of the nation not to support the Government in its war
endeavors. The consequence of this satyagrahi campaign was the arrest of almost
fourteen thousand satyagrahis. On 3 December 1941, the Viceroy ordered the
acquittal of all the satyagrahis. In Europe the war situation became more
critical with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Congress realized the
necessity for appraising their program. Subsequently, the movement was
withdrawn.
The Cripps'
Mission and its failure also played an important role in Gandhi's call for The
Quit India Movement. In order to end the deadlock, the British government on 22
March 1942, sent Sir Stafford Cripps to talk terms with the Indian political
parties and secure their support in Britain's war efforts. A Draft Declaration
of the British Government was presented, which included terms like
establishment of Dominion, establishment of a Constituent Assembly and right of
the Provinces to make separate constitutions. These would be, however, granted
after the cessation of the Second World War. According to the Congress this
Declaration only offered India a promise that was to be fulfilled in the
future. Commenting on this Gandhi said; "It is a post dated cheque on a
crashing bank." Other factors that contributed were the threat of Japanese
invasion of India and realization of the national leaders of the incapacity of
the British to defend India.
Resolution for immediate independence
The Congress
Working Committee meeting at Wardha (14 July 1942) passed a resolution demanding complete
independence from the British government. The draft proposed massive civil disobedience if the British did not accede
to the demands.
However, it
proved to be controversial within the party. A prominent Congress national
leader Chakravarti Rajgopalachari quit the
Congress over this decision, and so did some local and regional level
organizers. Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad
were apprehensive and critical of the call, but backed it and stuck with
Gandhi's leadership
until the end. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad
and Dr Anugrah Narayan Sinha openly and
enthusiastically supported such a disobedience movement, as did many veteran
Gandhians and socialists like Asoka Mehta and Jayaprakash Narayan.
Allama Mashriqi
(head of the Khaksar Tehrik) was called[by
whom?] to join the Quit India Movement. Mashriqi
was apprehensive of its outcome and did not agree with the Congress Working
Committee's resolution. On 28 July 1942, Allama Mashriqi sent the following
telegram to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Mahatma Gandhi, C.
Rajagopalachari, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad and Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya. He also sent a copy to
Bulusu Sambamurti (former Speaker of the Madras Assembly). The telegram was
published in the press, and it stated:
"I am in
receipt of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's letter of 8 July. My honest opinion is
that Civil Disobedience Movement is a little pre-mature. The Congress should
first concede openheartedly and with handshake to Muslim League the theoretical
Pakistan,
and thereafter all parties unitedly make demand of Quit India. If the British
refuse, start total disobedience..."[4]
The resolution
said"-The committee,therefore,resolves to sanction for the vindication of
India's inalienable right to freedom and independence,the starting of a mass
struggle on non-violent lines on the widest possible scale,so that the country
might utilise all the non-violent strength it has gathered during the last 22
years of peaceful struggle...they(the people) must remember that non-violence
is the basis of the movement..."
