Eternal India Encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

Eternal India

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QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT

1942 Chronology

Feb: Fall of Singapore.

Mar: Fall of Rangoon .

Churchill announces Cripps Mission; Sir Stafford Cripps reaches

Delhi.

Conference of Indians in South-East Asia at Tokyo organised

by Rash Bihari Bose; invites Subhas Bose.

Mar-April: Stafford Cripps Mission to negotiate with Indian

leaders fails.

April: Cripps unsuccessful, leaves India.

June: Conference of Indians at Bangkok.

July: 'Quit India' Resolution passed by A.I.C.C.

Aug: Arrest of Gandhi and other leaders, followed by violent

outbreaks all over India. All India Congress Committee

adopts resolution for mass struggle; Congress leaders arrested.

About 60,000 were arrested, 18,000 detained without trial and

940 killed in police firing.

The declaration of war by Britain against

Germany automatically made India a belliger-

ent, as in 1914. To begin with, there was a

considerable amount of sympathy and support

for Britain. Gandhi and Nehru

expressed deep sympathy for

Britain in her hour of trial. But

there was one leader, Subhas

Bose, who was against this

policy. His party, the Forward

Bloc, declared openly that it

did not want Britain to win the

war because only after the

defeat and break-up of the

British Empire could India

hope to be free.

Bose's stand had great

influence over the Congress.

Its resolution on Sep. 1939

took the gravest view of the

Viceroy's proclamation of war

without the consent of the

Indian

people,

protested

against the exploitation of In-

dian resources for imperialis-

tic ends, and openly declared

that, ‘

India cannot associate

herself with a war said to be for

democratic freedom when that

very freedom is denied to her.

’

The war suddenly took an

alarming turn, so far as India

was concerned, by the entry of

the Japanese into the war on

the side of the Axis powers

against Britain. The rapidity

with which they captured Sin-

gapore, hither to regarded as almost impreg-

nable, overran Malaya and entered Burma

raised their prestige as a military power and

brought India within the vortex of the war. For

it was quite evident that the Japanese intended

to invade India from the east through Burma

and Manipur. The Japanese victories had con-

siderably lowered the British prestige and de-

stroyed the myth of their invincibility. Many

had come to believe that the days of the British

Empire were numbered.

To enlist India's support the British gov-

ernment sent Sir Stafford Cripps to India with

certain proposals. These were: in order to

achieve the earliest possible realisation of

self-government in India, the British govern-

ment proposed that steps should be taken to

create a new Indian Union which will have the

full status of a Dominion.

Immediately upon the cessation of hostili-

ties a Constitution-making body shall be

set up.

Any province or provinces which are not

prepared to accept the new Constitution will

be entitled to frame by a similar process a

Constitution of their own, giving them the

same full status as the Indian

Union.

Signing of a treaty to be ne-

gotiated between the British

government and the Constitu-

tion making body to cover all

matters arising out of the

complete transfer of responsi-

bility from British to Indian

hands, particularly the protec-

tion of racial and religious

minorities.

Until the new Constitution

can be framed, the British gov-

ernment must retain control

of the defence of India as part

of their World War effort.

The Cripps' proposal, how-

ever, did not appeal to the

Congress apart from the vir-

tual partition of India which

the long-term proposals in-

volved. They were open to

another

serious

objection,

namely that the rulers, not the

people of the Indian states,

would determine their future.

The failure of the Cripps

Mission plunged the country

in despondency and anger.

Gandhiji was perturbed by the

developments in South-East Asia. The British

withdrawal from Malaya, Singapore and

Burma had been followed by a total collapse

of local resistance and surrender to Japan was

total and abject. Gandhiji and the Congress

leaders were anxious that what happened in

Malaya and Burma should not be repeated in

India. The people reacted in panic when faced

with military aggression.

Amritsar (Punjab)

Kanpur (UP)

15.

Saharsa (Bihar)

Agra(UP)

Kokri (UP)

16.

Ahmedabad (Guj)

Azamigarh (UP)

Mirzapur (UP)

Bombay (Mah)

Basti (UP)

11.

Patna (Bih)

Chandrapur (Mah)

Baliya (UP)

Sultanpur(UP)

Nasik (Mah)

Chauri Chaura (UP)

13.

Baranasi (UP)

Pune (Mah)

Faizabad (UP)

14.

Baghalpur (Bihar)

Sholapur(Mah)

22.

Wardha (Guj)

23.

Medinipur (WB)

24.

Tamluk (WB)

25. Nandigram (WB)

26.

Calcutta (WB)

27.

Baleshwar (Orissa)

28.

Cuttack (Orissa)

29.

Coimbatore (TN)