congress war of independence

congress war of independence

congress was created by a o hume to help the indians to voice their concern about governance. it was joined by many educated Indians, most of them steeped in western education. in due course, it demanded home rule, for Indian and to be partners in governance. in early 1900s, Gokhale became a prominent leader of Congress. mild man, he advocated petitioning british government for concessions and inclusion in governance. but there was another faction led by lal, bal, pal who were for more active and energetic action. in 1905, congress session there was open voilence on the dias and amongst the people below. moderates won.

alarmed, british took action against tilak, senencing him to isolated imprisonment in mandalay in burma. gokhale then led the congress, proving useful to british in cooling passions. gokhale visited souh africa in 1912 and, noting his modus oprendii, brought gandhi to india. over the years, the mantle was passed on to gandhi to carry on the cooperation with the british.

gandhi followed the tradition but in order to build a following, he launched movements, periodical because sustained movement was never the aim. the whole idea was to avoid the anger of civilians against the british overflowing into violent clashes. the movement was suspended when it threatened to get out of hand. a period on inactivity followed. again an agitation in the name of salt satyagraha. again the same tactics, suspend it as soon as it became unwieldy. movement to burn foreign goods, was another attempt. all these were sporadic events with no long-time purpose to be served except to convince rhe people that something was being done and congress was active. to show activity, some social reforms were also introduced into action of gandhi like harijan upliftment or propagation of khadi.  any revolutionary act was downplayed as meant to be counterproductive. though congress had a battery of lawyers amongst them, there is no record of anyone trying to defend the revolutionaries including bhagat singh.

then we come to second world war.

ninth august and quit india movement

first of all, was there a movement? quit india movement was never launched. the congress working committee passed a resolution, in an open meeting,  to that effect on 9th august 1942 but the leaders were arrested early next morning and the movement could not be launched.

but the resolution was passed in the presence of some five thousand persons at chowpatty. the message spread all over india and agitations were launched all over without any central direction. no one was in control and no one cared, least of all leaders like gandhi who was comfortably in a palace and fully informed of events that were taking place. the man who withdrew his movement because one police station in chaura chauri was burnt did not do anything even though 58 railway stations were burnt, telegraph offices attached, even courts occupied (though temporarily). the movement could not be withdrawn because it was never there.

but why this resolution in 1942.

the second world war started in 1939. next day viceroy declared india to be a partner in the war against germany. the congress ministries resigned on the premises that they were not consulted before this decision.

good. but did they oppose the war? no.

emphatic no.

1939 passed, 1940 did likewise and so did 1941. no agitation from congress, no movement, no boycott call. no call to indian soldiers not to cooperate in this war thrust on india.

half of 1942 passed. still no agitation.

meanwhile japan had entered the war. it rapidly occupied singapore, and came up to burma. in july 1942,  mohan singh and ras bihari bose formed azad hind fauj which consisted of indian prisoners of war but who pledged to fight for india's freedom. (the command was later handed over to subhash chandar bose).

the congress, inactive till then, was alarmed. the rapid march of japanese unnerved them. if india achieves independence through the efforts of azad hind fauj and the japanese, all the credit would go to them. gandhi and congress will be the forgotten men of the so called freedom movement. they had to show themselves active and hence the quit india movement. once having given the call, they could not even withdraw it since till 1943, japanese were advancing and azad hind fauj had liberated andaman nicobar islands and manipur and part of nagaland.

indirectly, the quit india movement helped the british to unleash reign of terror so that the indians do not rise up in favour of japanese and subhash chandar bose and the azad hind fauj. after 1943, it did not really matter wheher it was withdrawn or not. used to sporadic action in the past, the agitation died is own death and was forgotten.

in the meantime, the british had reconciled themselves to lose indian empire being more concerned with saving their own island. the process once started could not be stopped especially after the naval mutiny and with restive soldiers returning from the war scenes. under the circumstances, they thought it fit to hand over to their companions in war against indIans, namely the congress stalwarts.