Why the British forced to Quit India? | Quit India Movement | Explained by Dhruv Rathee
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| Why the British forced to Quit India? |
The British government was aware of it. Since a few months
prior to this, the Home Department of the British government was working 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? In today's video, 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 blogs post.
Quit India Movement
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 Ianthe 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 Within, 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-2, 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 1942in 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 interesting 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 I mentioned at the beginning of the video. 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 that time, the Muslim
League and Hindu Mahasabha, didn't face any restrictions. Because both these organizations
were not supporting the Quit India Movement. I will discuss this in detail
later in the video, 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 message to the people? Friends, at this point in our story, enters22-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 November 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 dealing 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, Germany.
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, on the other
hand, some new faces emerged who were ready to protest on the ground. A few
words from Mahatma Gandhi inspired people to such an extent that it's beyond
our imagination. Matangini Hazra was a 72-year-old woman who lived in the
Bengal Presidency.
She is known as Gandhi Buri in Bengali, which means old female-Gandhi. On 29 September 1942, she led a rally of 6,000 people in her district. Her plan was to hoist the flag at the Tamluk police station nearby and to capture the police station. 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 at by the British in an effort to suppress this movement. Ram Manohar Lohia wrote a letter to the then Vice Royal Linlithgow, in which he stated that more than 50,000 revolutionaries were k!ll3d during this Quit India Movement.
Apart from this, more than 100,000 arrests were made. These
include many names that might not have never heard of. Like Sucheta Kripalani, who
later became the 4th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She led her own
underground movement. Some leaders were ready to be arrested 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 movement, Aruna Asaf Ali was saved from being arrest by being underground.
On the other hand, there were some leaders who were jailed but when they came
out they continued their work. Like Jai Prakash Narayan, who was put in
Hazaribagh Central Jail and together with his friends, he made a plan to escape
from the jail.
On the night of Diwali, 8th November 1942, when most of the guards were not on duty, they successfully carried out a historic jail break. He escaped from the jail with 7 other prisoners, 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 attacked. In colleges, the students went on strike, and marches were organised. In Bombay, Jamshedpur, and Ahmedabad, factory workers did not go to work for weeks. This is also something to note.
Not everyone needs to take out rallies to participate in the
movement. Stopping your work, going on organized strikes is also a way to
participate in the movement. In some places, there was violence too. Bridges
were blown up, telegraph wires were cut, and railway lines were blocked. In
places like UP and Bihar, at that time, there were slogans to set police
stations on fire. On 31st August, Viceroy Linlithgow wrote a letter to Winston
Churchill stating that “I am engaged here in the meeting by farther 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 rapidly because the common people
were participating in this.
How many people could you shoot? How many could you put in jail? By then, violence was already on the rise. It is also very interesting to note what Mahatma Gandhi thought about this violence. We know that in 1922when violence was seen in the non-cooperation movement, he stopped that movement. Once again in 1934, during the Civil Disobedience Movement when violence began, Gandhi ji stopped that movement. But now, during the Quit India Movement, 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...develop(ed) 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. He blamed all this violence on the British government.
In this entire struggle, many people didn't participate in
this movement. Which is understandable. Not everyone dares to raise their voice
against the people in power. But there were some people who were bootlicking
the British so much that they were supporting the British in ending the Quit
India Movement. There were two major organizations at that time. Muslim League
and Hindu Mahasabha. The Muslim League passed a resolution in 1940which is
known as the Lahore Resolution. Because of this, they demanded that a separate
country be created for Muslims. It is also called the Pakistan Resolution. 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, resulting
in internal disturbances or insecurity must be resisted by the government. Further,
he asked about how the Quit India Movement could be combated in Bengal. He
states that the administration should be such that all efforts by the Congress
would fail. And the movement would not begin in the Bengal Province. He was,
literally, discussing ideas with the British government on how to suppress this
movement. During the 24th session of the Hindu Mahasabha in Kanpur, their party
leader Vinayak Damodar 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 scrupulously kept itself within the law, and...
refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August
1942."While on one hand, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose formed the Azad Hind
Fauja few months after the Quit India Movement, On the other hand, Savarkar was
helping the colonial government recruit hundreds of thousands of Indian sins
the British Armed Forces. These Indians joined the British Army and fought
against Subhash Chandra Bose's Azad Hind Fauj.
At that time, there was a man 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 who were actually fighting against the British at that time. And that
is why, after hearing this, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose could not remain
silent. On 14th August 1942, in Berlin, he sent a message through the radio. “I
would request Mr. Jinnah, Mr. Savarkar, and all those leaders who still think
of a compromise with the British to realise (that).... in the world of tomorrow
there will be no British Empire. "A senior leader of Hindu Mahasabha, N.C.
Chatterjee wrote," It is rather amusing 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
its new manifesto. Let Us Face The Future. They made a promise to the British people
that if they came into power then they would give complete freedom to colonies
like India. Next month, in 1945, the Labour Party came to power in Britain and
the new Prime Minister was Clement Attlee. And he openly declared that it was
time to give India self-governance. As soon as the government changed in Britain,
the arrested Congress leaders were released from jail in India.
And two years after that, the struggle 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. Let's talk about these in detail in another post. For
now, if you liked this video, you can go and watch this video, in which I have
explained in detail why India's partition happened. Who were the people and
what were the incidents that led to the partition? You can click here to watch
it. Thank you very much!