Quit India Movement (1942–1944): Background
From the Cripps Mission to the Call for Withdrawal
- Following the departure of the Cripps Mission without a settlement, Mahatma Gandhi drafted a resolution calling for the complete withdrawal of British rule from India, along with a non-violent movement of non-cooperation in the event of a Japanese invasion.
The Wardha Resolution and the Call for Complete Independence
The Resolution for Complete Independence
- The Congress Working Committee (CWC), meeting at Wardha on 14 July 1942, accepted the case for a mass struggle and passed a resolution demanding complete independence from British rule, proposing large-scale civil disobedience if the government did not accede to Congress’s demands.
- The resolution declared: “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…” (A useful line to cite verbatim in a Mains answer on the ideological basis of the Quit India call.)
- The resolution proved controversial within the Congress itself:
- Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, a prominent national leader, resigned from the Congress in protest, as did several local and regional organisers.
- Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad were apprehensive and critical of the call, but backed it and remained with Gandhi’s leadership until the end.
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr Rajendra Prasad, and Dr Anugrah Narayan Sinha extended open and enthusiastic support, as did veteran Gandhians and socialists such as Asoka Mehta and Jayaprakash Narayan.
Reasons for Launching the Struggle
- The failure of the Cripps Mission to resolve the constitutional deadlock confirmed Britain’s unchanged stance on constitutional advance; further silence would have amounted to accepting Britain’s right to decide India’s fate without consulting Indians.
- Popular discontent was mounting over rising prices and shortages of rice, salt, and other essentials, compounded by the commandeering of boats in Bengal and Orissa and fears that Britain would adopt a scorched-earth policy in Assam, Bengal, and Orissa in the face of a possible Japanese advance.
- News of British reverses in South-East Asia and the prospect of an imminent British collapse emboldened popular expression of discontent — public confidence in British rule had fallen so low that people were withdrawing their savings from banks and post offices.
- The manner of the British evacuation from South-East Asia, which left local subjects to their fate while providing a separate “White Road” for European refugees and a “Black Road” for Indian refugees, along with the rout of British forces by an Asian power, shattered white prestige and exposed the racist character of colonial rule.
- The Congress leadership also sought to prepare the masses psychologically for a possible Japanese invasion.
The Gowalia Tank Resolution (AICC, Bombay, 8 August 1942)
- The Quit India Resolution, adopted by the CWC at Wardha on 14 July 1942, was ratified — with some modifications — by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) at Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay, on 8 August 1942.
- The British government, prepared to act, arrested Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Abul Kalam Azad, along with other senior Congress leaders, the very next morning — 9 August 1942. Most spent the remainder of the war in prison, cut off from the masses.
- The ratified resolution resolved to:
- demand an immediate end to British rule in India;
- declare free India’s commitment to defend itself against all forms of Fascism and imperialism;
- form a provisional Government of India after British withdrawal;
- sanction a civil disobedience movement against British rule; and
- name Gandhi as the leader of the struggle.
Gandhi’s Instructions to Different Sections of Society
- Though outlined at the Gowalia Tank meeting, these instructions were never formally issued, since Gandhi was arrested the following day. They were addressed to:
- Government servants — not to resign, but to declare allegiance to the Congress;
- Soldiers — not to leave the army, but not to fire on their compatriots;
- Students — to leave their studies if sufficiently confident to do so;
- Peasants — to pay a mutually agreed rent if their zamindars were anti-government, and to withhold rent if their zamindars were pro-government;
- Princes — to support the masses and accept the sovereignty of their people; and
- The people of princely states — to support their ruler only if he opposed the government, and otherwise to declare themselves part of the Indian nation.
- At the same session, on 7 August 1942, Gandhi issued his famous exhortation: “Here is a mantra, a short one that I give you. You may imprint it on your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. The mantra is: ‘Do or Die’. We shall either free India or die in the attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery.” (A key primary-source quote worth citing verbatim in a Mains answer on Gandhi’s mobilisation strategy.)
The Movement Unfolds
Arrest of the Leadership and the Outbreak of Violence
- Gandhi had carefully built momentum through individual civil disobedience, organisational restructuring, and sustained propaganda; the government, however, had no intention of negotiating with the Congress or waiting for the movement’s formal launch.
- In a single sweep in the early hours of 9 August, all top Congress leaders were arrested and taken to undisclosed locations, leaving younger and more militant elements to act on their own initiative.
- With no leadership left outside prison, the movement quickly turned violent: government offices were set ablaze, and the Congress lost all ability to control the unrest. The British government deployed the army, and over one lakh people were arrested; contact between the imprisoned leadership and the masses was completely severed.
- With senior leaders arrested, the young and then-unknown Aruna Asaf Ali presided over the AICC session on 9 August and hoisted the national flag; the Congress was subsequently banned.
- Despite the absence of direct leadership, large-scale protests and demonstrations swept the country — mass strikes and worker absenteeism, and, in several places, bomb explosions, arson against government buildings, and the severing of electricity, transport, and communication lines. The repression that followed only deepened public sympathy for the cause.
Public Action and Regional Patterns of Resistance
- The general public attacked symbols of colonial authority and forcibly hoisted the national flag on public buildings; satyagrahis courted arrest, while bridges were blown up, railway tracks removed, and telegraph lines cut.
- This activity was most intense in eastern UP and Bihar.
- Students went on strike in schools and colleges, joined processions, produced and distributed illegal news-sheets (patrikas), and served as couriers for underground networks.
- Workers struck work in Ahmedabad, Bombay, Jamshedpur, Ahmednagar, and Poona.
- In Saurashtra (western Gujarat), the region’s ‘baharvatiya’ tradition — of operating outside the law — lent itself readily to the movement’s sabotage activities.
- In rural west Bengal, the movement drew strength from peasant resentment against new war taxes and the forced export of rice; resistance verged on open rebellion in 1942, before the Bengal Famine of 1943 brought the agitation to a halt.
Underground Activity and the Congress Radio
- Underground work was carried out by Socialists, Forward Bloc members, Gandhian ashramites, revolutionary activists, and local organisations across Bombay, Poona, Satara, Baroda, and parts of Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra, UP, Bihar, and Delhi.
- Prominent underground leaders included Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali, Usha Sharma, Biju Patnaik, Chhotubhai Puranik, Achyut Patwardhan, Sucheta Kripalani, and R.P. Goenka. This phase sustained popular morale by maintaining a line of command and coordinating the distribution of arms and material.
- Congress Radio, a clandestine station that broadcast for about three months during the movement from various locations in Bombay, was organised by Usha Mehta (1920–2000) with the help of ham-radio operators.
- Her associates included Vithalbhai Jhaveri, Chandrakant Jhaveri, and Babubhai Thakkar, while technicians and equipment were supplied by Nanak Motawani of Chicago Radio, Mumbai. Figures such as Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyutrao Patwardhan, and Purushottam Trikamdas were also associated with the station.
Parallel Governments
- Ballia (August 1942, for about a week) — established under Chittu Pandey, who secured the release of many imprisoned Congress leaders.
- Tamluk, Midnapore (December 1942–September 1944) — undertook cyclone relief work, sanctioned grants to schools, redistributed paddy from the wealthy to the poor, and organised Bidyut Bahinis (volunteer corps).
- Satara (mid-1943–1945) — known as the “Prati Sarkar,” organised under leaders such as Y.B. Chavan and Nana Patil; it set up village libraries and Nyayadan Mandals (people’s courts), ran prohibition campaigns, and conducted simplified “Gandhi marriages.”
Extent of Mass Participation and Support
- The movement’s principal storm centres were eastern UP, Bihar, Midnapore, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.
- Participation cut across social groups:
- Businessmen offered donations, shelter, and material support — though many others were profiting from wartime spending and stayed away from the movement;
- Students served as couriers;
- ordinary villagers withheld information from the authorities;
- pilots and train drivers helped deliver bombs and other material; and
- government officials, including police personnel, passed on secret information to activists.
- Students, workers, and peasants formed the backbone of the movement, while the upper classes and the bureaucracy remained largely loyal to the government.
- Youth, especially school and college students, remained at the forefront, though a section of students was drawn instead to Subhas Chandra Bose, then in exile and aligned with the Axis powers.
- Women, particularly school and college students, participated actively — among them Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kripalani, and Usha Mehta.
- Workers struck work and faced heavy repression.
- Peasants of all strata were at the movement’s core, and even some zamindars took part; peasant action was directed almost entirely at symbols of authority, with a notable absence of anti-zamindar violence.
- Government officials, especially at the lower levels of the police and administration, also participated, eroding official loyalty to the government and reflecting the depth to which nationalist sentiment had spread.
- Muslims offered shelter to underground activists, and the movement saw no communal clashes.
- Communists, despite their official anti-war position, felt the pull of the movement, while the princely states responded in a comparatively low-key manner.
- The only external support came from the United States, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed Prime Minister Winston Churchill to accommodate Indian demands.
- The common people displayed extraordinary heroism and militancy in the face of the most brutal repression under highly adverse circumstances, establishing beyond doubt that British rule could no longer continue without the consent of Indians.
Opposition to the Quit India Movement
- The Congress had limited success in uniting other political forces behind a common programme.
- The Hindu Mahasabha and other smaller parties opposed the call.
- The Communist Party of India (CPI) strongly opposed the movement and supported the British war effort, given the need to assist the Soviet Union — despite considerable support for Quit India among industrial workers; in response, the British lifted the ban on the party.
- The movement received limited support in the princely states, whose rulers actively opposed and funded resistance to it.
- Muslim leaders also opposed the call: Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s opposition encouraged large numbers of Muslims to cooperate with the British and enlist in the army, and the Muslim League gained substantial new membership. As Congress members resigned from provincial legislatures, the League took control of Sindh, Bengal, and the North-West Frontier Province; Pakistan Day was observed on 23 March 1943.
- International support for the movement was minimal. Although Indian nationalists believed the United States to be a natural ally given its stated support for Indian independence, Washington quietly backed Churchill after he threatened resignation, while simultaneously running a propaganda campaign in India to bolster support for the war effort — an approach that left both the British and Indians dissatisfied.
Government Repression
- Although martial law was not formally imposed, repression was severe: agitating crowds faced lathi charges, tear gas, and firing, with an estimated 10,000 deaths.
- The press was muzzled, the military took control of many cities, and police and secret service agencies dominated public life; rebellious villages were subjected to heavy fines, and mass flogging was carried out in several places.
Assessment of the Quit India Movement
Nature and Significance
- With the entire top leadership arrested by 9 August, the masses were left without guidance; Gandhi’s “Do or Die” call had created a nationwide upheaval, disrupting the atmosphere of non-violence that had characterised earlier movements.
- Unlike the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience movements, both closely directed by Gandhi, the Quit India Movement captured the essence of a spontaneous popular uprising.
- This spontaneity, however, built upon years of ideological, political, and organisational preparation by the Congress, even though the leadership had sanctioned only a limited degree of popular initiative, subject to specific instructions.
- The movement’s greatest significance lay in placing the demand for independence firmly on the immediate agenda of the national struggle — after Quit India, there could be no retreat from this demand.
Gandhi’s Fast, February 1943
- Imprisoned at the Aga Khan Palace, Pune, Gandhi endured the deaths of his wife Kasturba Gandhi and his personal secretary Mahadev Desai within months of each other, and his own health was failing. Despite this, he undertook a 21-day fast and remained resolute in continuing the resistance.
- The fast was Gandhi’s response to the government’s demand that he condemn the movement’s violence; he directed it instead against the violence of the state. The popular response was immediate and overwhelming, with hartals, demonstrations, and strikes organised both in India and abroad, and three members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council resigned in protest. Gandhi survived the fast, denying his opponents the outcome they may have anticipated.
- The fast achieved several outcomes:
- it raised public morale;
- it heightened anti-British sentiment;
- it created an opportunity for renewed political activity; and
- it exposed the high-handedness of the government.
- Though released in 1944 on health grounds, Gandhi continued to press for the release of the imprisoned Congress leadership.
- By early 1944, the country had largely returned to calm while the Congress leadership remained incarcerated. A sense that the movement had failed weighed on many nationalists, even as Jinnah and the Muslim League, along with rivals such as the Communists, sought political advantage by criticising Gandhi and the Congress.
Why Did Gandhi Support the Violent Turn of the Movement?
- Gandhi departed from his long-standing condemnation of violence in the months preceding the Quit India resolution, arguing that under certain conditions, the use of violence would not injure the national cause, however much he might personally prefer a different form of resistance.
- He had long held that violence was justifiable in cases of immediate self-defence — against murderers or rapists, for instance — and by 1942 had come to view violent resistance to British rule as falling within this same category: an instinctive response to what he considered a criminal usurpation of India’s freedom.
- While Gandhi continued to urge non-violent methods on all participants, he refrained from condemning those who took up arms, and appears to have anticipated the likelihood of violence, as reflected in this 1942 interview exchange: Gandhi: In the villages…the peasants will stop paying taxes…their next step will be to seize the land. Fischer: With violence? Gandhi: There may be violence, but then again the landlords may cooperate. Fischer: You are an optimist. Gandhi: They might cooperate by fleeing. (A revealing primary-source exchange, useful for a Mains answer on Gandhi’s evolving position on violence during Quit India.)
