79th anniversary of Quit India movement

Last Updated08/08/2021

Quit India Movement was a mass civil disobedience movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942.
He launched the movement in Gowalia Tank Maidan (now also known as August Kranti Maidan), and gave a call 'do or die'.
While launching the movement, he demanded that the British must leave India immediately or else mass agitations would take place.

Quit India Movement was a mass civil disobedience movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942.
He launched the movement in Gowalia Tank Maidan (now also known as August Kranti Maidan), and gave a call 'do or die'.
While launching the movement, he demanded that the British must leave India immediately or else mass agitations would take place.

One of the major triggers of Quit India Movement was British dragging India, without consent, into World War II to fight on behalf of Britain.
Over 87,000 Indian soldiers died in World War II.
The Cripps Mission (March 1942), lead by Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet, was an attempt to secure India's cooperation and support for their efforts in World War II.
It granted India Dominion Status after the war. However, the Congress refused to discuss any terms unless it included total freedom.
Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the tricolour on the Gowalia Tank ground and on the night of 9 August, and all senior leaders of the Congress including Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad and Mahatma Gandhi were arrested on charges of sedition.
British not only arrested the entire INC leadership, they remained incarcerated till the end of the Second World War in 1945 without trial.
The Indian National Congress was declared an unlawful association and its offices were raided across the country, while all its funds were frozen.

The first half of the movement was peaceful with demonstrations and processions.
The peaceful protest was carried till Mahatma Gandhi’s release.
The second half of the movement was violent with raids and setting fire at post offices, government buildings and railway stations.
Lord Linlithgow adopted the policy of violence.
The final phase of the movement was marked on September 1942 where mobs getting together and bombings in government places of Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh and formation of national governments or parallel governments isolated pockets.

Quit India movement was violently suppressed by the British – people were shot, lathi-charged, villages burnt and enormous fines imposed.
In the five months up to December 1942, an estimated 60,000 people had been thrown in jail.
However, the movement changed the character of the Indian freedom struggle, with the masses rising up as they had never before.