Towards the Quit India Movement

August offer (1940)

• To ensure Indian support in the war effort, the British offered:
• An immediate expansion of Viceroy’s Executive Council by inducting a number of Indians;
• To establish a War Advisory Council comprising representatives of British India and Indian States;
• To promote steps to arrive at an agreement among Indians on the form which the postwar representative body would take.

• Nationalist reaction to this August Offer was hostile.
• But, the British, on their part, went ahead with the scheme and in 1941; the number of Indian members in the Viceroy’s Executive Council was increased from three to eight out of a total of twelve members in all.

Causes of Quit India Movement

• The Cripps mission[18] (1942), with its vague proposals Satisfied none and threatened to Balkanize the Indian subcontinent:

• A post-war Dominion Status for India;
• A constitution making body elected by provincial legislatures and the native states;
• Provincial opt out clause;
• The immediate participation of Indian leaders in war effort but the retention of the control of Indian defence by the British.
• The retreat of the British from Malay, Burma and Singapore, leaving their dependants to fend for themselves.
• The indescribable plight of the Indians trekking back home from these places.
• The racial ill-treatment meted out to Indians by white soldiers stationed in India.
• The 'scorched earth' policy pursued by the British in Bengal to resist probable Japanese invasion which resulted in the commandeering of all means of communicating.
• War-time price rise, black-marketeering and profiteering.
• All these contributed to the creation of an anti-white fury.
• Above all, there was the attempt of the British bureaucracy right from the outbreak of the war for a wholesale crackdown on the Congress on the pattern of 1932.
• The early morning round up of Congress leaders on 9 August 'unleashed an unprecedented and country-wide wave of mass fury'.

Phases of Quit India Movement

There were three broad phases of the movement:

• The first phase was predominantly urban and included hartals, strikes and clashes with the police and army in most major cities.

All these were massive and violent but quickly suppressed.

• The second phase started from the middle of August.

Militant students fanned out from different centres, destroying communications and leading peasant rebellion in Northern and Western Bihar, Eastern UP, Midnapore in Bengal, and pockets in Maharastra, Karnataka and Orissa.

A number of short-lived local 'national governments' were also set up.

• The third phase started from about the end of September and was characterized by terrorist activities, sabotage and guerrilla warfare by educated youths and peasant squads.

Parallel national governments functioned at Tamluk in Midnapore[19], Satara in Maharastra, and Talcher in Orissa.

• All the three phases of the movement were crushed by brutal atrocities including the use of machine guns from the air.

Nature of Quit India Movement

• A good deal of controversy exists about the nature of the movement-whether it was a 'spontaneous revolution' or an 'organized rebellion'.
• The famous 'Quit India' resolution passed by the Bombay session of the AICC on 8^th August, 1942 followed up its call for 'mass struggle on non violent lines on the widest possible scale', 'inevitably' under Gandhi, with the significant rider that if the Congress leadership was removed by arrest, every Indian who desires freedom and strives for it must be his own guide...'.
• At the crucial working committee session of 27 April - 1 May, Gandhi's hard-line was backed by a combination of Right-wingers like Patel, Rajendra Prasad and Kripalni and the socialists like Achyut Patwardhan and Narendra Dev.
• Jawaharlal was initially hesitant, but ultimately joined the queue and only the Communists opposed the Quit India resolution.
• During and after the Quit India upsurge, the British in documents like Tottenhams' Report painted the whole outburst as a 'deliberate fifth columnist[20] conspiracy', intending to strengthen the Axis powers.
• This interpretation not only ignored the consistent anti-fascist international stance of the Congress throughout the 1930s, but also made a historical travesty of the facts that being arrested in the early morning of 9 August the Congress leaders could hardly lead the outburst.
• The movement was, in reality 'elemental and largely spontaneous'.
• It was sparked off by a variety of factors and of an expectation that British rule was coming to an end.
• Bureaucratic high-handedness and provocation worsened the situation.
• Financial losses incurred in Malay and Burma induced sections of Indian business community to give some covert support to a movement (even if violent) for a short while.
• The real picture was that the removal of established leaders left younger and more militant cadres to their own initiative and gave greater scope to pressure from below.
• The participation of labour was short-lived and limited but there was certainly considerable covert upper-class and even Indian high official support to secret nationalist activities in 1942.
• Such support enabled activists to set up a fairly effective illegal apparatus, including even a secret radio station under Usha Mehta for three months in Bombay.
• Unlike in the Civil Disobedience days, middle class students were very much in the forefront in 1942, whether in urban clashes, as organizers of sabotage, or as motivators of present rebellion.
• What made the movement so formidable, however, was the massive upsurge of the peasantry in certain areas, particularly in Bihar.
• Indeed, that 1942 clearly surpassed all previous Congress led movements in its level of anti-British radicalism possibly reduced internal class tensions and social radiation.
• In the struggle there were many who refused to use violent means and confined themselves to the traditional weaponry of the Congress.
• But many of those, including many staunch Gandhians, who used 'violent means' in 1942 felt that the peculiar circumstances warranted their use.
• Gandhi refused to condemn the violence of the people because he saw it as a reaction to the much bigger violence being perpetrated on the state.
• It is held that Gandhi's major objection to violence was that its use prevented mass participation in a movement.
• For in 1942, Gandhi had come round to the view that mass participation would not be restricted as a result of isolated violence.
• He would have liked the movement to be non-violent but was prepared to run the risk of unrestricted mass action even if that meant civil war.
• The Quit India movement was thus not a controlled volunteer movement like Gandhi's previous movements of 1920-22 and 1930-34.
• It was to be a 'fight to the finish', an 'open rebellion', 'short and swift' which could very well plunge the country into a 'conflagration'.
• The continuing police repression and 'Ordinance Raj' further inflamed the feelings of the people.
• There had been no Congress call for civil disobedience. 'Therefore what started as individual acts of angry defiance, soon swelled into a movement and the movement into a revolt'.
• The gravity and extent of the Quit India movement by Linlithgow's own admission may be compared to that of the Revolt of 1857.

Why it failed?

• It failed because an unarmed people without leaders and proper organization could not stand for long before the mighty strength of an imperial government in power.

Significance of Quit India Movement

• Yet, the significance of the great movement lay in the fact that it placed the demand for independence on the immediate agenda of the national movement.
• After Quit India, there could be no turning back.
• Any future negotiations with the British government could only be on the manner of transfer of power.
• Independence was no longer a matter of bargain and this became amply clear after the war.

Participation of women in the movement

• When most of the men-folk were in prison, women came forward to take charge of the struggle.
• Mahatma Gandhi remarked: “When the history of India’s fight for independence comes to be written, the sacrifice made by the women of India will occupy the foremost place.”
• Uneducated and educated women sacrificed time and materials, volunteering, campaigning, protesting, fasting, and donating to the causes of freedom.
• Some women students protested against the British rule by picketing the Secretariat.

UNDERGROUND PARALLEL GOVERNMENTS DURING THE COURSE OF QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT

Bhagalpur

• The people declared the establishment of a National Government or Jatiya Sarkar in North Bhagalpur. Under the guidance of indomitable revolutionary Siaram Singh a parallel government sprang up at Sultanpur.
• An efficient administrative system was set up by the people in the areas.
• Swatantra Mandal was the highest body which worked through village Panchayats.
• Above it were thana Panchayats.
• There were four main departments under Swatantra Mandal - Department of Dislocators, Publicity Department, Village Defence Department and Volunteers Department or Sevak Dal.
• The head of each of the Department was known as Adliyaksha whose orders were carried out by the Sevak Dals under him.
• The two revolutionary groups Siaram Dal and Parasuram Dal were active in Bihar.
• The movement took a very serious turn in U.P. especially in the eastern District of Ballia.
• The Mob led by a local Congressman Chitu Pandey according to government version had installed himself as Swaraj Tahasildar.
• The arrested leaders were made free and National Government was established under Chitu Pandey.

Midnapore

• The best account of a rebel 'National Government' is found from Tamluk sub-division of Midnapore district in Bengal.
• In comparison with Ballia and Bhagalpur flare-up it was less violent but better organised and more sustained.
• Well-planned attacks were made on the police stations of Tamluk, Mahishadal, Sutahat and Naudigrah.

Satara

• The people threw up the foreign yoke and set up a parallel government known as 'Satara Prati Sarkar'.
• Nana Patil was at the head of this government which ran its course for a number of months.
• The parallel government developed bit late from mid 1943 and maintained its existence as late as 1945-46.
• It managed to run people's courts (Nyayadan Mandals).
• Apart from carrying guerilla war it took constructive works on Gandhian lines.
• Mortgaged land was returned to poor peasants and exploitation of women by village big wigs were severely tackled.

Others

• The most spectacular was the formation of a parallel government on 17^th December, 1942 in Eran-Basudevpur.
• It was handed as Swadhina Banchhanidhi chakla (in the name of native Oriya Nationalist poet Banchhanidhi Mohanty) comprising 6 Panchayats and 24 villages.
• For the smooth functioning of the government a five member apex committee was formed with Gouranga Chandra Mohanty as its Prime Minister and Ramala Prasad Kar as its Director-cum-Commander-in-chief.
• Anirudha Mohanty, Pravakar Tripathy and Shyam Sundar Panigrahi were the three members.

Talcher

• It had already witnessed struggle against forced labour (Bethi), forest laws and autocratic rule in September 1938.
• The immediate cause of the popular upsurge was a rumour that Pabitra Mohan Pradhan, President of Talcher state Prajamandal had been murdered.
• For all practical purposes the ruler's administration had collapsed from 31^st August 1942.
• The Jatiya Sarkar was called as 'Chasi-Maulia' or 'Mazdoor Raj'.
• It was to be set up on the basis of adult franchise in each village, block, circle, pargana and sub-division.
• The Central Government was accordingly constituted on the same line.
• Some government servants voluntarily resigned and swore allegiance to the New Raj.
• People had their Raj almost in the whole of Talcher except Talcher town where the ruler and his entourage were under British protection.
• A National Militia was formed by the rebels.
• They were well equipped with crude implements and made an organized march in Talcher principality.
• They requested the ruler to relinquish British authority and to hand over the government of Kisan Mazdoor Raj – the ruler might act as the constitutional head.
• The counter move started with the machine - gunning the mob from the air.
• The firing of the British troops below resulted in many casualties.
• Thus Talcher was one of the five places in India where in 1942 the masses were machine-gunned from air because of the intensity of the movement.

Jatiya Sarkar

• It bloomed in the Gurpal area of Balasore district in September 1942.
• The residents of the locality being influenced by Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar in the East and Swadhina Banchhanidhi Chakla in the west resolved to have their own National Government.
• A strong determined public in the open meetings vowed to paralyze the Government machinery.
• Payment of taxes were stopped.
• Government servants were socially boycotted.
• Rural police force was compelled to resign.
• Post offices, police station and the government offices were demolished.
• In a parallel judicial system the criminal cases were settled by local Panchayat courts rather than by government institutions.

A UNITED STRUGGLE FOR UNITED INDIA: AZAD HIND FAUJ

• In the history of India’s freedom struggle, the INA occupies an important place.
• At the time when there were all round divisions on the Indian national scene, the INA exhibited complete national unity.
• This armed struggled of the INA forced the British to realize that they could no longer depend upon the loyalty of the Indian Army for the maintenance of their rule in the country.
• Besides, the countrywide support and sympathy of the Indian masses for the INA and the opposition of the Indian section of the British Indian Army to the INA trials led the British to transfer power through a negotiated settlement.
• Thus the INA revolt hastened the end of British rule of India.

Origin and Growth

• The INA was organized during the Second World War on September 1, 1942.
• It was first raised by Captain Mohan Singh and Mohammad Akram.
• They came across Giani Pritam Singh, an Indian revolutionary and Secretary General of the Indian Independence League of Thailand and Malaya, with some Sikhs and Major Fujihara from the Japanese forces.
• Giani Pritam Singh informed them that if they took up the cause of their motherland, the Japanese would welcome it and render all assistance to them.
• Captain Mohan Singh seized the opportunity without hesitation.
• He with Japanese help contacted Indian soldiers and persuaded them not to fight for the British Empire but to utilize the opportunity presented by the war for the liberation of India.
• This plan was started by the end of December 1941 and by the end of August 1942, more than 45,000 Indian soldiers, who had been taken as prisoners of war by the Japanese, had joined the INA.
• To materialize the plan of India’s freedom, it was decided by the Indian and Japanese Army Officers and Civilians in Malaya and Thailand to send a select team to Tokyo for consultations with the Japanese High Command as well as with well-known revolutionaries residing there, namely, Raja Mahendra Pratap and Rash Behari Bose.
• The team  included Captain Mohan Singh, Mohammad Akram and Niranjan Singh Gill from the Army side and K.P.K. Menon, N. Raghvan, S.C. Gopi and N.K. Aiyer, all leading lawyers, and Giani Pritam Singh and Swami Satyanand Puri from the civilian side.
• Along with the Japanese team, they flew to Tokyo in to planes in March 1942. Unfortunately the plane carrying Mohammad Akram, Giani Pritam Singh and Swami Satyanand Puri crashed, killing them all.
• They were thus the first martyrs of the INA movement.
• At Tokyo the Indian team met General Tojo, the Japanese Premier, Raja Mahendra Pratap and Ras Behari Bose.
• The latter had founded the Indian Independence League first in Japan and then in all the areas of South-East Asia occupied by Japan that had small pockets of Indians.
• It was at Tokyo that the decision to form the INA was taken.
• It was also decided to hold a conference at Bangkok to seek the co-operation of three million members of the Indian community living all over the East.
• This was held from June 15 to 20, 1942 and attended by 150 Indian delegates.
• The conference commenced with the raising of the tri-colour flag by Rash Behari Bose.
• The Conference decided to set up the INA comprising Indian troops and civilians of East Asia with Captain Mohan Singh as the Commander-in-Chief with the objective of fighting for the freedom of India.
• A council of Action was formed with Rash Behari Bose as its President, Major General Mohan Singh head of the INA and in charge of Defence Affairs.
• By September, three Brigades were formed.
• The Gandhi Brigade was commanded by Lt. Col. M.Z. Kiani;
• Nehru Brigade by Lt. Aziz Ahmed Khan; and
• Azad Brigade by Col. Prakash Chand.
• The members of the INA were exhorted to adopt three principles, that is, Unity, Faith and Sacrifice.
• The Conference, in one of its resolutions, invited S.C. Bose to East Asia to lead the INA movement.
• The INA opened its headquarters at Mount Pleasant in Singapore, the place where no Indian or Asiatic was allowed even to walk.
• Papers were published to rouse the Indians living abroad for the cause of the INA.
• Voice of India and Azad Hind in English, Awaz Hind and Azad Hind in Hindustani and Swatantra Bharat in Tamil, published from Singapore, were quite popular.
• An INA Officers Training School was opened with Lt. Col. Shah Nawaz as the first Commandant.
• The Qaumi song was ‘Sare Jahan Se Acchha Hindustan Hamara’.
• However, differences arose between the INA officials and the Japanese.
• Captain Mohan Singh wanted the Japanese to recognize Indian independence immediately while the Japanese officials were reluctant to do so.
• Mohan Singh became suspicious of the Japanese motives and on December 21, he announced the dissolution of the INA.

Subhas Chandra Bose

• Bose was a disciple of C.R. Das in politics.
• Within the Congress he belonged to the Left Group and was no less popular than Pandit Nehru.
• Bose stood and won the election second time for the post of President in 1939 despite Gandhi’s opposition defeating Pattabhi Sitarammaya.
• In spite of winning the election Bose had to resign because of Gandhi and his supporters’ displeasure.
• He was also suspended from the Congress. Rajendra Prasad, was appointed as the President of the Congress.     
• When Second World War broke out the British put Subhas in jail and later under house arrest due to his opposition to the war efforts.
• He escaped from Calcutta in January 1941 and reached Berlin via Peshawar and Kabul in March 1941 with the help of Akbar Shah, Mohammad Shah, Abad Khan and Bhagat Ram Talwar.
• In Berlin, he founded the Free India Centre and created the Indian Legion consisting of 45,000 soldiers out of the Indian prisoners of war.
• In the first official meeting of the Free Indian Centre on November 2, 1941 he was conferred the title of Netaji.
• ‘Jai Hind’, was introduced as the national greeting and Jana Gana Mana was adopted as the national anthem and Hindustani, the most widely spoken language, as the national language of independent India.
• Azad Hindi Radio too started functioning by the end of the year and Azad, a bilingual journal, was published regularly.
• Bose met both Hitler and Mussolini but resented the attack on Russia by Germany.
• However, he was enthused on hearing the phenomenal success of the Japanese against the British.
• He accepted the request to lead the INA and reached Japan by a German submarine accompanied by Abid Hasan.
• The day after his arrival, Bose was invited by Japanese Premier Tojo to the Japanese Parliament [Diet] where, in his presence, the Japanese Parliament made an official declaration affirming full and unqualified support to the cause of Indian independence.
• Bose spoke from Tokyo over the radio of his firm determination to launch an armed fight against the British from Indian’s eastern border.
• The overseas Indians were thrilled with delight at the prospect of participating in this venture.

Coming of Subash and Reorganization

• Bose arrived in Singapore on July 2, 1943.
• On July 4, Rash Behari Bose handed over the leadership of the India Independence League and INA which still existed despite its dissolution by Captain Mohan Singh.
• On July 5, Bose took the salute of the INA soldiers, himself dressed in military uniform.
• On August 26, 1943, he became the supreme commander of the INA renaming it as Azad Hind Fauj.
• It was there that Bose gave a clarion call to the youth: Tum mujhe khoon do, mein tumhein azadi doonga. [Give me blood, I will give you freedom.]’
• Bose also visited the tomb of the last Indian Emperor of free India, Bahadur Shah, to pay his humble homage to the great soul.
• In September a new brigade, known as the Guerrilla Regiment, was raised with Shah Nawaz its Commander.
• The soldiers themselves gave it the name Subhas Brigade.
• A regiment of women named after Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi was organized on October 23 under Captain Laxmi Swaminathan.
• A nursing unit of women too was formed and it was named after Chand Bibi.
• On October 21, 1943 Bose announced the formation of the Provisional Government of free India ‘Aarzi Hakumat-i-Azad Hind’ with himself as the Head of the State and Supreme Commander of the Azad Hind Fauj. Rash Behari Bose and Bashir Ahmed were appointed Advisors.
• The government was immediately recognised by the Axis powers and countries under their control.  
• The Japanese also handed over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Subhash.
• He renamed the Islands s ‘Shaheed’ and ‘Swaraj’ and appointed Lt. Col. Loganathan as the Chief Commissioner of these.
• Due to Muslims’ objection to Bande Matram, a song, Subha Sukha Chainki Barkha Barse, composed by a Muslim named Hussain, was approved.
• The national salutation was hanged from Bande Mataram to Jai Hind.
• Bose also decided that the tri-colour flag should be retained but without the charkha.
• To liberate India an action plan was drawn up and accordingly the headquarters of the Provisional Government were shifted to Rangoon in January 1944.
• The Azad Hind Bank was also opened.
• The Subhas Brigade under the command of Shah Nawaz Khan, reached Burma to take part in the battlefield first.
• In the middle of March 1944, the INA Soldiers inflicted a defeat upon the much praised Negro troops from Africa in the British Army while engaged in constructing a bridge over the Kaladan river.
• The INA troops, reinforced by Japanese troops, then advanced towards the Indian border.
• The INA was in action on two fronts-one in the Araken areas and the other along the Imphal Road.
• The nearest British post on the Indian side was Mowdok.
• It was captured in May 1944.
• Under the inspiring leadership of Bose the INA moved towards Kohima and along with the Japanese forces captured Kohima in March 1944.

Causes of Failure

• By the end of May the Allied forces were well prepared for the offensive.
• Torrential rains cut off the supply of ration and ammunition.
• The British forces then moved towards Burma and the Japanese retreated.
• Rangoon, which was left in the hands of the INA, was occupied by the British in May 1945.
• In Europe, Italy had fallen and Germany was collapsing.
• There was no alternative before the INA then to surrender.
• They were disarmed and made prisoners and brought back to India.
• But Bose left Burma for Singapore where in early July he laid the foundation stone of the INA Memorial.
• The words inscribed upon the Memorial were Itteefaq [Unity], Etmad [Faith] and Qurbani [Sacrifice].
• Later it was destroyed on Mountbatten’s orders when the Allied forces reoccupied the city.
• Japan surrendered after the bombing of its cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• Bose then planned to go to Russia.
• But before his plan could materialize it is alleged that he died in a plane crash in March 1942.
• Bose’s alleged death ended the INA fight for India’s independence.

INA trials and their significance

• The entire country unitedly rose against the British when the INA soldiers were brought to India and put on trial.
• The INA trials roused the entire country including the Indian sections in the armed forces.
• There were strikes and violent demonstrations against the British and these exhibited complete unity.
• An announcement by the Government, limiting trails of the INA personals to those guilty of brutality or active complicity, was due to be made by the end of August 1945.
• However, before this statement could be issued. Nehru raised the demand for leniency at a meeting in Srinagar on 16^th August 1945.
• The defence of the INA prisoners was taken up by the Congress and Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, K.N. Katju, Nehru and Asaf Ali appeared in court at the historic Red Fort trails.
• The Congress organized an INA relief and enquiry committee, which provided small sums of money and food to the men on their release, and attempted to secure employment for them.

Significance

The INA agitation was a landmark on many counts.

• Firstly, the high pitch or intensity at which the campaign for the release of Ina prisoners was conducted was unprecedented.
• INA Day was observed on 12 November and INA week from 5 to 11 November 1945.
• The second significant feature of the Ina campaign was its vide geographical reach and the participation of diverse social groups and political parties.
• This had two aspects. One was the generally extensive nature of the agitation; the other was the spread of pro – INA sentiment to social groups hitherto outside the nationalist pale.

THE POST-1945 DEVELOPMENTS: PARTITION AND INDEPENDENCE

C.R. Formula (1944)

• C. Rajagopalachari, realizing the necessity of a settlement between the Congress and the Muslim League for the attainment of independence by India. Evolved in 1944, a formula, called the C.R. Formula. Its main contents were:
• The Muslim League should cooperate with the Congress in the formation of provisional interim government for the transitional period.
• After the close of war, a commission shall be appointed to demarcate the boundaries of the Muslim-dominated districts in the north-west and east of India. The people of these districts shall decide, be plebiscite, the issue of separation from India.
• In the event of separation, a mutual agreement shall be entered into between the two governments for jointly safeguarding defence, commece, communications and other essential sectors, etc.

Gandhi-Jinnah Talks (1994)

• The talks began on September 9, 1944 in Bombay and continued up to September 27, when Jinnah announced their termination and failure to reach agreement. Gandhi maintained that since the `C R Formula’, conceded the substance of the Muslim League demand, he wanted the League to renounce its Lahore Resolution which, in his opinion, was based on the two-nation theory. But Jinnah argued that Gandhi should accept this premise and recognize that Hindus and Muslims were two independent nations.

Desai-Liaqat Pact (1945)

• Talks between Bhulabhai Desai and Liaqat Ali Khan, leaders of the Congress and the League respectively, were meant to find a way out of the 1942-45 political impasses. After Desai’s declaration at Peshawar on April 22, 1945, Liaqat Ali published the gist of the agreement. According to it, the Congress and the League would form the interim government at the centre on the following lines: (i) nomination of equal number of persons by both in the central executive; and (ii) representation of the minorities, in particular of the scheduled castes and the Sikhs.
• Known as the Desai-Liaqat pact, it was never formally endorsed either by the Congress or the League.

Wavell Plan and Simla Conference (1945)

• After the failure of the Gandhi-Jinnah talks based on the C R Formula. Lord Wavell, the then governor-general, offered a new plan to end the Constitutional deadlock. He summoned a conference of the leaders of all the Indian political parties and interest groups at Simla in 1945 to discuss it.
• His plan proposed to leave the executive council comprising all Indian members, excepting the commander-in-chief, and to give equal representation to the Muslims and Hindus in the council. This was to be an interim arrangement till a new constitution was drafted for India.
• But the plan as well as the conference ended in failure due to the unreasonable attitude of the Muslim League, headed by Jinnah. He wanted that the League alone should choose the Muslim members of the Executive Council, which was, however, not acceptable to the Congress.

Cabinet Mission Plan (1946)

• In the 1945 general elections of England, the Conservatives under Churchill were routed by the Labour Party under C.R. Attlee who took over as the new prime minister. Soon after Lord Wavell was summoned to London and informed that Britain had made up its mind to quit India.
• Later, in the same year (1945-46) elections were held in India also to the provincial assemblies and the legislative assembly at the centre. In these general elections, the Congress won 57 seats in the Central Legislative Assembly. The Muslim league captured all the 30 seats reserved for Muslims. In the provinces, while in 1937 the Congress had 714 seats, in 1946 it won 923. The League did even better: in 1937, its representatives numbered a bare 109 out of the Muslim quota of 492; in 1946, it won 425 seats, its percentage going up to eighty-six.
• On March 24, 1946, a special mission of cabinet ministers consisting of Lord Pethick Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander came to India to help her to achieve freedom as speedily as possible. The mission spent nearly five weeks in discussions with the representatives of the Indian States as well as those of British India. Finally, a conference of leaders of the Congress and League was begun at Simla on May 5 to consider the grouping of provinces; character of the federal union; and the setting up of a constitution-making machinery.
• When the Congress and League differences were found to be irreconcilable, the conference was closed. On May 16 the mission published a statement putting forward their recommendations, which came to be known as the Cabinet Mission Plan. Its main provisions were as follows:
• A union of India, comprising both British India and princely states, should deal with three subjects viz. foreign affairs, defence and communications.
• All subjects other than the Union subjects and all residuary powers should vest in the provinces of British India.
• The princely states would retain all subjects other than those ceded to the Union.
• Provinces should be free to form groups (subfederal).
• The constitution of the Union and the groups should contain a provision whereby province should by a majority vote of its legislative assembly call for a reconsideration of the terms of the constitution after an initial period of ten years.
• The formation of a constituent assembly on the basis of the recently elected provincial legislatures by allotting to each province a total number of seats proportional to its population. Elections were to be held by a method of proportional representation with single transferable vote.
• To carry on the country’s administration while the constitution-making was proceeding, an interim government having the support of the major political parties should be set up.
• The proposed Constituent Assembly was to consist of 292 members from British India and 93 from the Indian States. The British India members were to be divided into 210 General (viz., all those who were not Muslims or Sikhs), 78 Muslim and 4 Sikh seats. In the preliminary meeting, the Assembly was to elect not only a chairman and other office bearers but also an advisory committee. Next it divided itself into three sections consisting of groups of Provinces `A’, `B’, `C’. Provinces thus, put in group `A’ were Madras. Bombay, the United Provinces, Bihar, the Central Provinces and Orissa; Group `B’ consisting of Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province and Sind; and Group `C’, Bengal and Assam.
• Further, it was provided that any decision about the secession of any province from a group would be taken by the legislature of that province after the first general election under the new constitution.                          
• Both the Congress and the League were quite ambivalent in their reaction to the Cabinet Mission proposals. And about the issue of filling posts in the proposed interim government, there was more disagreement.
• Thus Cabinet Mission got exasperated in its attempts to find a meeting ground between the two major political parties. For members of the Mission could satisfy neither the Congress nor the League. Finally they left for England on 29 June.
• The Congress agreed to contest the election and take part in the constituent assembly, but refused to join the interim government. The Muslim League approved the plan and expected the viceroy to call upon it to form the interim government. But the viceroy refused to do so. The League refused to participate in the constituent assembly that met to draft the constitution. It continued its insistence on Pakistan and called upon the British government to dissolve the constituent assembly.

Direct Action Day

• The League decided on July 30 that August 16 would be observed as `Direct Action Day’ throughout the country. In this tense situation, the viceroy’s decision to invite the Congress to form the interim government at the centre added fuel to the fire. In Calcutta on August 16, the league organized public demonstration and hartals, resulting in clashes and rioting all over the city. The mob fury continued for four consecutive days, after which normalcy was gradually restored. The Bengal government led by the League leader, H.S. Suhrawardy had declared August 16 a public holiday which made things worse. Nor did it call the army until the situation had got completely out of hand.

Interim Government (1946-47)

• The personnel and portfolios of the composite four-teen member government were – Jawaharlal Nehru (vice-president of the Executive Council, External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations); Vallabhai Patel (Home, information and Broadcasting); Baldev Singh (Defence); Dr John Matthai (Industries and Supplies); C. Rajagopalachari (Education); C.H. Bhabha (Works, Mines and Power); Rajendra Prasad (Food and Agricultural); Asaf Ali (Railways); Jagjivan Ram (Labour); Liaqat Ali Khan (Finance); T.T. Chundrigar (Commerce); Abdur Rab Nishtar (Communications); Ghazanfar Ali Khan (Health); and Jogendra Nath Mandal (Law). The first nine represented the Congress, while the last five belonged to the League.

Constituent Assembly (1946-50)

• Elections to the Constituent Assembly were over by the end of June 1946. Out of a total of 292 seats allotted to British Indian, 4 remained vacant because of the Sikh refusal to join the Assembly. The remaining 288 were divided into three sections: `A’, `B’ and `C’. In Section `A’ Congress won 162 general and two Muslim seats, the League 19 and the Independents one. In group `B’ the Congress won 7 general and 2 Muslim seats; the League 19, the Unionist Party 3, Independents one. In group `C’, the Congress won 32, the League 35, the Communists 1, the Scheduled Castes 2 and the Krishak Praja Party 1. Thus totally the Congress won 201; the Muslim League 73; there were 8 independents and 6 members from other parties.
• The Assembly held its first meeting on December 9 in the Library of the Council Chamber and 205 members attended. The League representatives abstained, as did those form the Indian States. As part of the preliminary business, the Assembly elected a committee of 15 to frame the rules of procedure, and Dr. Rajendra Prasad as Chairman.
• The most important resolution known as the `Objective Resolution’ was adopted by the Assembly on January 22, 1947. It was later to the incorporated substantially into the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. After nearly three years of strenuous work, the constitution was finally adopted by the Assembly on November 26, 1949 and came into force on January 26, 1950.  

Mountbatten Plan and Achievement of Freedom (1947)

• Lord Mountbatten, who replaced to effect the transfer of power at the earliest opportunity, and worked out a compromise plan after long discussions with the leaders of the Congress and the League.
• According to his plan, India was to be free but not united. The main contents of the plan were:

June Third Plan (1947)

• Though the work of the existing Constituent Assembly was to be continued, the constitution framed by it was not applicable to those parts of India unwilling to accept it.
• For ascertaining the wishes of the different parts of the country, two alternative suggestions were made, viz. (i) through the existing Constituent Assembly which would be joined by the representatives of the dissident parts; or (ii) through separate constituent assemblies.
• In the case of provinces, the following arrangements were made: (i) in the Punjab and Bengal the legislative assembly would be divided into two sections, one for members belonging to the Muslim-majority districts and the other for the non-Muslim districts. If any of them opted for partition of the provinces, each section would join that constituent assembly preferred by the provinces; (ii) the legislative assembly of a province would decide which constituent assembly the province would join; (iii) in the NWFP this choice would be exercised through a referendum; (iv) the district of Sylhet in Assam would also decide its choice by means of a referendum; (v) the Governor-General would prescribe the method and mode of ascertaining the will of the people of Baluchistan; (vi) there would be elections in parts of the Punjab, Bengal and in Sylhet to choose representatives for their respective constituent assemblies.
• Negotiation were to be held – (i) between the successor governments concerning the central subjects; (ii) between the successor governments and England for treaties in regard to matters arising out of the transfer of power; (iii) between the parts of the partitioned provinces concerning the administration of provincial subjects.
• With regard to the Indian States, the British government would cease to exercise the powers of paramountcy. It would then be open to the States to enter into political relations with the successor governments.         

Indian Independence Act (1947)

• A bill was rushed through the British parliament in the short span of 12 days (4-16 July) and received Royal assent on July 18 to become an act. The Act fixed August 15, 1947 as the date for setting up the two Dominions. It specified the territorial division of India and the constitution of two provinces each in the Punjab and Bengal. It provided for a separate governor-general for each Dominion and a legislature each.