77th Anniversary of Quit India Movement

Let's have a close look at the pages of History for 8th August:

History should always be shared from time to time, making the young generations aware of the incidents that led to this day where they are free and independent. Indian history has so many such important occurrences that express the struggle and fight of our great leaders to take what was lawfully ours. India's struggle for Independence wasn't something that was achieved in a day. It was years of constant revolution, sacrifices of life and property that led to this day. Once such incident worth sharing is the "Quit India movement". Let's have some insights into the day.

8th of August in 1942, Disobeying to be ruled by the Britishers, Mahatma Gandhi launched the movement at the Bombay session of All India Congress Committee. This is otherwise also known as "August Movement."

Soon after the declaration of Quit India Movement:

As soon as Gandhiji declared the movement, uprising, mass protests started demanding the orderly withdrawal of Britishers from India. In his great speeches "Do or Die" he proclaimed  “every Indian who desires freedom and strives for it must be his own guide…”. “Let every Indian consider himself to be a free man”. Those were the words that made every Indian follow his lead and demanded acknowledgment as people of equal rights.

17th October 1939, the Viceroy announced his reason for participation in World war II, was for the restoration of world peace. In his statement, he promised that after the war is over, the Act of 1935 would be amended and a provision for the establishment of a “Federation of India” which was supposed to be made up of some or all of the princely states and British India will be set.

The mystery of who was supporting whom?

Despite the engagement in war, Britisher's were prepared for the uprising and within a few hours of the speech by Mahatma Gandhi, most fo the Indian National Congress leaders were arrested and imprisoned for nest three years. As for the reason why the Britishers were so dominating, was the support from Viceroy's council, the communist party, Muslims, princely states and most of the Indian businessmen that were getting benefitted from the wartime spending.

The only supporter of our country was the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was constantly pressurizing the British Prime minister Winston Churchill to at least agree on some of the demands Indians made but te Britishers denied every call and averted everything till the war was over.

Consequences of the Quit India Movement:

Gandhiji always chanted the mantra of non-violence, but despite his constant appeal, the country was enveloped in small-scale violence, which ultimately led to the arrests of thousands of the rebelling leaders. Some of the government offices were burned down and bombs were exploded in quite some places. Britishers, in addition to the arrests, abolished all the civil rights, took away the freedom of press and freedom of speech.

Britishers decided to cut off the contact of the Congress leadership from the world until the war was over. Gandhiji was in prison, still bent on the opposing the British rule went on 21 days fasting. And after that series of events took place, Gandhiji's wife and his personal assistant Mahadev Desi died and his own health was failing. Though he was released because of his ill health, he continued his protest demanding the release of all the Congress leaders who were in prison.

Britishers realized the harsh reality:

But one thing was clear, this movement opened the eyes of the British government that it wouldn't be very much possible to rule in the country for a very long time and the questions that arose was how to leave the country in peace and with the grace of whatever was left of it.

This may a failed movement but it is a souvenir that we Indians keep on fighting for what's ours. So, let's take a moment and remember those who made it possible for us to see the country free today.

  

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