Why British Left India?Reality of Quit India Movement Mahatma Gandhi ;1942 The untold story

On 8th August 1942, in the Gwalior Tank Maidan, Mumbai, the leaders of the All India Congress Committee gathered. They were about to announce a movement. A final struggle against the British  imperialist government in power. In front of thousands of people, Mahatma Gandhi gave a historic speech.

 "Every one of you should consider yourself free. We can no longer live under the shoes of imperialism. We need complete freedom. I give you a mantra. You may imprint it on your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. This mantra is 'Do or Die'. Do or Die. Either we will see India free or we will be killed in this attempt. But we shall not live in this slavery anymore. Long live Mother India! We'll succeed or die trying!  We'll succeed or die trying!"  this was the beginning of the Quit India Movement. Quit India Movement. The British government was aware of it. Since a few months prior to this, the  Home Department of the British government was workin g on a 3-stage plan to end this movement.  

Stage 1. Use of Propaganda. Controlling the media in such a way that no newspaper could publish this news. 

Stage 2. Raiding the offices of Congress organizations, seizing their funds, and arresting all the leaders of Congress.

 Stage 3, was to suppress the mass movement, using emergency powers, declaring the Congress leaders as anti-national, and thus, ending the movement  before it even began. The next day, 9th August, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad and all the top leaders of Congress were arrested and put in jail. These leaders were not to be  released from jail for many years. 

Then the question was:  how to further this movement?  you will hear  a great story of inspiration. Amidst so much oppression and difficulties, How does the slogan of revolution reach every corner of the country? And who were those traitors living in the country who were on the side of the British  during this movement? Let's understand the Quit India Movement in depth in today's articles. It was exactly 2 years before this movement started. 8th August 1940. British Raj had presented an offer to Indian  freedom fighters through Viceroy Linlithgow. It was called the August Offer. In this, he said that the Indian  representation would be increased in the British-Indian government. Actually, this was the time when World War II was in full rage in Europe. Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler was successfully invading one country after another and Britain was the only country standing against him. The British government in the UK was in big trouble and was desperate to get help from wherever it could.  Although Indian soldiers were already  fighting on behalf of the British in World War II the British wanted more cooperation from the Indians. So they decided to send in an offer to convince the Indians. Till this time, Congress had decided that they would not accept inconsequential offers. They wanted complete freedom. They said that if the British government wanted India to cooperate with them in WWII then they would have to give  complete independence to India. So this August Offer was a failure. After this, in March 1942, another delegation was sent by Britain. It was called the Cripps Mission because the leader of the House of Commons  at that time was Stafford Cripps. The mission's aim was to give India independence  after the end of World War II, but the offer given by the British in the Cripps Mission was not of full freedom, but of Dominion status. As per the Cripps Offer,  India would be an autonomous region under the British Commonwealth. This was a better offer than the previous one, but Congress outrightly rejected it. They clearly stated their goal, complete freedom. By then, Congress leaders were  fed up with these offers and negotiations. A few months later, on 14th July 1942 in the Wardha Committee, a resolution was passed to  start a civil disobedience movement. Many prominent leaders of the time like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad and Jayaprakash Narayan showed great interest in this initiative. 9 days after the meeting, on 23rd July, Secretary of State for India Lord Amery, wrote a letter to the Secretary of State  for the Colonies Viscount Cranborne. He stated that the resolution  passed at the Wardha meeting would be approved on 7th August in the  All India Congress Committee meeting. After this, a mass movement would begin which would be a direct challenge to the British Empire. He stated that they should  take strict measures to prevent it. He wrote in the letter, "If necessary, we have to contemplate, therefore, the probable arrest of Gandhi and of the members of the Working Committee. It is also mentioned that some of the Congress leaders  should be deported to Africa so that this movement could not begin. The next day, the British Raj's Home Department shared a three-stage plan with Amery to stifle this movement. The same plan that we mentioned this articles This is the reason why when the  All India Committee passed the Quit India Resolution, the British already knew about it. After Mahatma Gandhi's historic speech, on 9th August, at around 5 in the morning, Gandhi and the other top leaders were arrested. After the arrest, Mahatma Gandhi  was taken to the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. The British had a strategic reason for this. Viceroy Linlithgow wrote to Amery saying that they should send the Mahatma to a place  that doesn't have the word 'Jail' in its name. If the people were to find out that he was put into a 'jail' it might infuriate the masses. So they decided to pretend that Gandhi  was placed under house-arrest in a Palace. "We may be quite certain that we shall have some  uphill propaganda battles to fight. After these arrests, the Congress party was banned. All the offices of Congress across the country were sealed and declared anti-national. Two other influential organizations of t hat time, the Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha, didn't face any restrictions. Because both these organizations were not supporting the Quit India Movement. but before that let's see the media's reaction. Not a single word of Gandhi's historic speech  was allowed to be printed in the newspapers. So neither did any newspaper publish  Mahatma Gandhi's speech, nor did they talk about the British government's action. How could one convey Gandhi's mes sage to the people?  at this point in our story, enters 22-year-old activist Usha Mehta. Along with some of her colleagues she found a transmitter and  started an underground radio station. Congress Radio 42.34 thus began. It was on 14th August when this  underground radio station began transmitting. And the words you just heard  were spoken by none other than Usha Mehta. Through this radio, the messages of  the All India Congress Committee were broadcast to every corner of the country. Such underground media channels started  opposing the propaganda of the British Raj. To keep their location hidden, in her messages Usha Mehta used to say, "This is Congress Radio  from somewhere in India." But actually, she was operating from Bombay. It took the British government about 3 months  to find the source of this radio. But by then, a lot of people were already aware. Gradually, All India Radio was called Anti-India Radio when they tried to jam the Congress radio. Finally, on 12th Nov ember 1942, the British government arrested Usha Mehta. All her equipment was seized and despite interrogating her for 6 months, she does not reveal anything to the British. Later, in 1969, when she was interviewed, she said, "When the press is gagged and all news banned, a transmitter certainly helps a good deal in furnishing the public with...spreading the message of rebellion in the remotest corners of the country." When this movement began, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was living in Berlin, G ermany. And he was trying his best to raise awareness through his Azad Hind Radio. As soon as the news of the  Quit India Movement reached Netaji, he told his friend ACN Nambiar, it was time to support Gandhi. Although there was a lot of difference in  the methods of Netaji and Gandhi ji, Netaji was completely in favour  of the Quit India Movement. He called this movement  India's Non-Violent Guerrilla Warfare. On one hand, our freedom fighters were  trying to raise awareness among the masses, ion. She was more courageous than her age. Despite the police threats, she did not stop. "Vande Mataram!" She was leading this rally from the front, chanting Vande Mataram when she was shot thrice. Even after she was shot, she didn't stop chanting Vande Mataram. Eventually, she fell down, holding the Tiranga in her hand. After 30 years of independence, in 1977, Hazra became the first woman revolutionary whose statue was erected in Kolkata Maidan. Thousands of people like Hazra, were open fired and they had already made alternate plans. For example, when Yusuf Meher Ali  was arrested on 9th August, he had already told his friends that it was their responsibility to  continue the movement further. One of them was Aruna Asaf Ali, who led the first demonstration of  the Quit India Movement on 9th August  in Gwalior Tank Maidan. She was later called the Grand Old Lady  of the Independence Movement. She was the first mayor of Delhi and in 1997, she was awarded Bharat Ratna. During the moners, and fled to Nepal, where he started the Azad Dastan. There are many more such stories from all over the country, where during the Quit India Movement, not only the leaders, but even the common people were  doing their best to take part in the protest. From collecting school fees by the students to blocking the railway tracks by the villagers, no stones were left unturned. The British government's police station, courts, post offices, and other symbols of the government authorities were att d Bihar, at that time, there were slogans to set police stations on fire. On 31st August, Viceroy Linlithgaon wrote  a letter to Winston Churchill stating that "I am engaged here in the meeting by far the most serious rebellion since that of 1857. " He acknowledged that the revolution he was dealing with was so big that the last comparable revolution was in 1857. All the strategies of the British government failed here. Despite arresting all the top leaders, this movement was moving ahead rapidl ment, when violent incidents were again seen, Gandhi ji was already tired. On 7th June 1942, he wrote in his weekly magazine, Harijan, "I waited and waited." "...until the country...developed non-violent strength necessary to throw off the foreign yoke. I feel that I cannot afford to wait... If in-spite of all precautions, rioting takes place, it cannot be helped. " Gandhi ji's approach this time was pragmatic, considering this complex situation. In this entire struggle, many people  didn't participate in this movement. Which is understandable. Not At that time, there was a Muslim League leader Fazlul Huq, he was the first Prime Minister of Bengal Province. Their government in Bengal was formed  with an alliance with the Hindu Mahasabha. In this Muslim League government, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was the Finance Minister. It was on 26 July 1942, about two weeks before the start of the Quit India Movement. Syama Prasad Mukherjee wrote a letter to the British government. "Anybody who, during the war, plans to stir up mass feelings,  result dar Savarkar came up with another strategy. The Hindu Mahasabha follows  the strategy of responsive cooperation. Not only did they intend to give  unconditional cooperation to the British government, they were also ready for active and armed resistance. At that time, the Hindu Mahasabha was a political party and at the organizational level, RSS had the same response towards the Quit India Movement. That's why the British intelligence agencies described their stance as follows. "The Sangh has scr named Narayan Apte who joined the British Army and later on, became a recruiter for  the British Royal Indian Air Force. Later on, he was found guilty for being involved in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Along with that, Nathuram Godse's  brother, Gopal Godse was also fighting this war on the British side. Savarkar had said some more things  about the Quit India Movement. That this type of unscrupulous rebellion  did not deserve any sympathy. This was a huge insult to the freedom fighters to find that Mr. Jinnah wants the Muslims to not join the Congress movement and Mr. Savarkar wants Hindus not to join the same." Despite all this opposition, friends, the Quit India Movement was successful. The world started talking about India's freedom. The then American President Roosevelt  also put pressure on the UK government to fulfil some of India's demands. Even in Britain, the British people were  demanding that India be given freedom. In June 1945, the British Labour Party  released ruggle that  our Indian freedom fighters started years ago, became successful. India got complete freedom. Although it was clear by 1945 that India's freedom was inevitable, in 1946, two other important things happened, which increased the importance of freedom. First, the INA soldiers' court-martial, also known as the INA trials, and second, the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny.