Quit India Movement: A Challenge to the British Power in India

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The Quit India Movement, an offshoot of the situation created by Cripps' failure to resolve the political impasse, was a landmark in India's struggle for freedom. It was the last, and the bitterest fight for freedom ever waged against the alien regime. It surpassed earlier movements in dimensions and intensity. The year 1942 was marked by strenuous political activities in Britain as well as in India; it rocked British imperialism. Gandhi had, after all, succeeded in convincing the British rulers that they were not morally justified in keeping India under bondage and that they had to quit from this land. The movement also marked the end of the Gandhian era in Indian politics.

The present work-Quit India Movement; A Challenge to the British Power in India- unfurls, in brief, the story of the mass upsurge, and strives to recapture the ethos of emotive politics generated by it.

SURESH K. SHARMA (b. 1946) an alumnus of Delhi University, opted for Library profession after obtaining post-graduation in Modern Indian History and Bachelor of Library Science degree in the early seventies. Documentation, bibliography and indexing have been his special forte. He has to his credit a number of publications including Fifty Years of Indian Historical Writings, Social Sciences in Modern India, Kashmir Through the Ages, Rajasthan Through the Ages, Delhi Through the Ages, Cultural and Religious Heritage of India, Raja Rammohun Roy-An Apostle of Indian Awakening, Encyclopaedia of Higher Education-The Indian Perspective, Discovery of North- East India, 1857-A Turning Point in Indian History, Press in India and Documents on North-East India.

The Quit India Movement was born in the midst of the World War II. It was the penultimate phase in the history of India's struggle for freedom. It was the last, and the bitterest fight for freedom ever urged against the British rule in India. It surpassed earlier movements in dimensions and intensity which undermined the foundations of the British rule in India. The movement electrified the political atmosphere of the country. It was a great event in the sense that it saw the involvement of the people of all walks of life. It swept across the length and breadth of the country.

The dominant urge behind the movement was to get rid of the foreign yoke. Cripps' failure to resolve the political impasse created what appeared to Mahatma Gandhi a moral crisis. The latter was determined, as he put it, to free Britain from the taint of hypocrisy and, at the same time, restored the dignity, self-reliance and integrity of the Indian people and convert their illwill to goodwill. Gandhi now, started his campaign for 'orderly British withdrawl from India'. He began his campaign late in April 1942. In his views, "whatever the consequences... to India her real safety and Britain's too lie in an orderly and timely British withdraw from India". It has been suggested that the phrase 'Quit India' was coined by an American journalist during an interview with Mahatma Gandhi. On 10th May 1942 Gandhi wrote in the Harijan: "The presence of the British in India is an invitation to Japan to invade India. Their withdrawl removes that bait". A fortnight later, he wrote in the same periodical: "Leave India in God's hands, or in modem parlance, to anarchy. Then all parties will fight one another like dogs, or will when real responsibility faces them, come to a reasonable agreement".

**Contents and Sample Pages**