Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT 1942 Chronology

* April: Cripps unsuccessful, leaves India.

*

Feb: Fall of Singapore.

*

Mar: Fall of Rangoon .

* June: Conference of Indians at Bangkok.

* 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.

* 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

* 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.

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

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-

* 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

22.

Wardha (Guj)

1 .

8.

Amritsar (Punjab)

Kanpur (UP)

15.

Saharsa (Bihar)

23.

Medinipur (WB)

2.

Agra(UP)

9.

Kokri (UP)

16.

Ahmedabad (Guj)

24. Tamluk (WB) 25. Nandigram (WB) 26. Calcutta (WB) 27. Baleshwar (Orissa) 28. Cuttack (Orissa)

10 .

17 .

3. 4.

Azamigarh (UP)

Mirzapur (UP)

Bombay (Mah)

18 . Chandrapur (Mah)

11.

Basti (UP)

Patna (Bih)

12 . 13.

19 . 20 . 21 .

5.

Baliya (UP)

Sultanpur(UP)

Nasik (Mah)

6.

Chauri Chaura (UP)

Baranasi (UP)

Pune (Mah)

7.

Faizabad (UP)

14.

Baghalpur (Bihar)

Sholapur(Mah)

29.

Coimbatore (TN)

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.

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

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.