Why British Left India? | Reality of Mahatma Gandhi's Role | Quit India Movement | Dhruv Rathee

 

Why British Left India? | Reality of Mahatma Gandhi's Role | Quit India Movement | Dhruv Rathee

Hello, friends!On 8th August 1942,in the Gwalior Tank Maidan, Mumbai,the leaders of the All India Congress Committee gathered.They were about to announce a movement.A final struggle against the British imperialist government in power.In front of thousands of people,Mahatma Gandhi gave a historic speech."Every one of you should consider yourself free.We can no longer live under the shoes of imperialism.We need complete freedom.I give you a mantra.You may imprint it on your heartsand let every breath of yours give expression to it.This mantra is 'Do or Die'.Do or Die.Either we will see India freeor we will be k!ll3d in this attempt.But we shall not live in this slavery anymore.Long live Mother India!We'll succeed or d!e trying!We'll succeed or d!e trying!"Friends, this was the beginning ofthe Quit India Movement.Quit India Movement.The British government was aware of it.Since a few months prior to this, the Home Department of the British governmentwas working on a 3-stage plan to end this movement.Stage 1. Use of Propaganda.Controlling the media in such a way thatno newspaper could publish this news.Stage 2. Raiding the offices of Congress organizations,seizing their funds,and arresting all the leaders of Congress.Stage 3, was to suppress the mass movement,using emergency powers,declaring the Congress leaders as anti-national,and thus, ending the movement before it even began.The next day, 9th August,Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azadand all the top leaders of Congresswere arrested and put in jail.These leaders were not to be released from jail for many years.Then the question was: how to further this movement?In today's video, you will hear a great story of inspiration.Amidst so much oppression and difficulties,How does the slogan of revolutionreach every corner of the country?And who were those traitors living in the countrywho were on the side of the British during this movement?Let's understand the Quit India Movement in depthin today's video.It was exactly 2 years before this movement started.8th August 1940.British Raj had presented an offer to Indian freedom fighters through Viceroy Linlithgow.It was called the August Offer.In this, he said that the Indian representation would be increasedin the British-Indian government.Actually, this was the timewhen World War II was in full rage in Europe.Germany's dictator Adolf Hitlerwas successfully invading one country after anotherand Britain was the only country standing against him.The British government in the UKwas in big trouble and was desperateto get help from wherever it could.Although Indian soldiers were already fighting on behalf of the British in World War IIthe British wanted more cooperation from the Indians.So they decided to send in an offer to convince the Indians.Till this time, Congress had decided thatthey would not accept inconsequential offers.They wanted complete freedom.They said that if the British government wantedIndia to cooperate with them in WWIIthen they would have to give complete independence to India.So this August Offer was a failure.After this, in March 1942,another delegation was sent by Britain.It was called the Cripps Mission becausethe leader of the House of Commons at that time was Stafford Cripps.The mission's aim wasto give India independence after the end of World War II,but the offer given by the British in the Cripps Missionwas not of full freedom,but of Dominion status.As per the Cripps Offer, India would be an autonomous regionunder the British Commonwealth.This was a better offer than the previous one,but Congress outrightly rejected it.They clearly stated their goal,complete freedom.By then, Congress leaders were fed up with these offers and negotiations.A few months later, on 14th July 1942in the Wardha Committee,a resolution was passed to start a civil disobedience movement.Many prominent leaders of the time likeSardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasadand Jayaprakash Narayan showed great interestin this initiative.9 days after the meeting, on 23rd July,Secretary of State for India Lord Amery,wrote a letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies Viscount Cranborne.He stated that the resolution passed at the Wardha meetingwould be approved on 7th August in the All India Congress Committee meeting.After this, a mass movement would beginwhich would be a direct challenge to the British Empire.He stated that they should take strict measures to prevent it.He wrote in the letter,"If necessary, we have to contemplate,therefore, the probable arrest of Gandhiand of the members of the Working Committee.It is also mentioned thatsome of the Congress leaders should be deported to Africaso that this movement could not begin.The next day, the British Raj's Home Departmentshared a three-stage plan with Ameryto stifle this movement.The same plan that I mentioned at the beginning of the video.This is the reason why when the All India Committee passed the Quit India Resolution,the British already knew about it.After Mahatma Gandhi's historic speech,on 9th August, at around 5 in the morning,Gandhi and the other top leaders were arrested.After the arrest, Mahatma Gandhi was taken to the Aga Khan Palace in Pune.The British had a strategic reason for this.Viceroy Linlithgow wrote to Amery saying thatthey should send the Mahatma to a placethat doesn't have the word 'Jail' in its name.If the people were to find out that he was put into a 'jail'it might infuriate the masses.So they decided to pretend that Gandhi was placed under house-arrest in a Palace."We may be quite certainthat we shall have some uphill propaganda battles to fight.After these arrests, the Congress party was banned.All the offices of Congress across the countrywere sealed and declared anti-national.Two other influential organizations of that time,the Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha,didn't face any restrictions.Because both these organizationswere not supporting the Quit India Movement.I will discuss this in detail later in the video,but before that let's see the media's reaction.Not a single word of Gandhi's historic speech was allowed to be printed in the newspapers.So neither did any newspaper publish Mahatma Gandhi's speech,nor did they talk about the British government's action.How could one convey Gandhi's message to the people?Friends, at this point in our story, enters22-year-old activist Usha Mehta.Along with some of her colleaguesshe found a transmitter and started an underground radio station.Congress Radio 42.34 thus began.It was on 14th August when this underground radio station began transmitting.And the words you just heard were spoken by none other than Usha Mehta.Through this radio, the messages of the All India Congress Committeewere broadcast to every corner of the country.Such underground media channels started opposing the propaganda of the British Raj.To keep their location hidden,in her messages Usha Mehta used to say,"This is Congress Radio from somewhere in India."But actually, she was operating from Bombay.It took the British government about 3 months to find the source of this radio.But by then, a lot of people were already aware.Gradually, All India Radio was called Anti-India Radiowhen they tried to jam the Congress radio.Finally, on 12th November 1942,the British government arrested Usha Mehta.All her equipment was seizedand despite interrogating her for 6 months,she does not reveal anything to the British.Later, in 1969,when she was interviewed, she said,"When the press is gagged and all news banned,a transmitter certainly helps a good dealin furnishing the public with...spreading the message of rebellion in the remotest corners of the country."When this movement began, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bosewas living in Berlin, Germany.And he was trying his bestto raise awareness through his Azad Hind Radio.As soon as the news of the Quit India Movement reached Netaji,he told his friend ACN Nambiar,it was time to support Gandhi.Although there was a lot of difference in the methods of Netaji and Gandhi ji,Netaji was completely in favour of the Quit India Movement.He called this movement India's Non-Violent Guerrilla Warfare.On one hand, our freedom fighters were trying to raise awareness among the masses,on the other hand, some new faces emergedwho were ready to protest on the ground.A few words from Mahatma Gandhi inspired people to such an extent thatit's beyond our imagination.Matangiri Hazra was a 72-year-old woman who lived in the Bengal Presidency.She is known as Gandhi Buri in Bengali,which means old female-Gandhi.On 29 September 1942,she led a rally of 6,000 people in her district.Her plan was to hoist the flag at the Tamluk police station nearbyand to capture the police station.She was more courageous than her age.Despite the police threats, she did not stop."Vande Mataram!"She was leading this rally from the front,chanting Vande Mataramwhen she was shot thrice.Even after she was shot,she didn't stop chanting Vande Mataram.Eventually, she fell down, holding the Tiranga in her hand.After 30 years of independence, in 1977,Hazra became the first woman revolutionarywhose statue was erected in Kolkata Maidan.Thousands of people like Hazra,were open fired at by the British in an effort to suppress this movement.Ram Manohar Lohia wrote a letter to the then Vice Royal Linlithgow,in which he stated thatmore than 50,000 revolutionaries were k!ll3dduring this Quit India Movement.Apart from this, more than 100,000 arrests were made.These include many names that might not have never heard of.Like Sucheta Kripalani,who later became the 4th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.She led her own underground movement.Some leaders were ready to be arrestedand they had already made alternate plans.For example, when Yusuf Meher Ali was arrested on 9th August,he had already told his friendsthat it was their responsibility to continue the movement further.One of them was Aruna Asaf Ali,who led the first demonstration of the Quit India Movement on 9th Augustin Gwalior Tank Maidan.She was later called the Grand Old Lady of the Independence Movement.She was the first mayor of Delhiand in 1997, she was awarded Bharat Ratna.During the movement, Aruna Asaf Ali was saved from being arrestby being underground.On the other hand, there were some leaderswho were jailed but when they came out they continued their work.Like Jai Prakash Narayan,who was put in Hazaribagh Central Jailand together with his friends, he made a plan to escape from the jail.On the night of Diwali, 8th November 1942,when most of the guards were not on duty,they successfully carried out a historic jail break.He escaped from the jail with 7 other prisoners,and fled to Nepal, wherehe started the Azad Dastan.There are many more such stories from all over the country,where during the Quit India Movement, not only the leaders,but even the common people were doing their best to take part in the protest.From collecting school fees by the studentsto blocking the railway tracks by the villagers,no stones were left unturned.The British government's police station, courts,post offices, and other symbols of the government authoritieswere attacked.In colleges, the students went on strike,and marches were organised.In Bombay, Jamshedpur, and Ahmedabad,factory workers did not go to work for weeks.This is also something to note.Not everyone needs to take out rallies to participate in the movement.Stopping your work, going on organized strikesis also a way to participate in the movement.In some places, there was violence too.Bridges were blown up, telegraph wires were cut,and railway lines were blocked.In places like UP and Bihar, at that time,there were slogans to set police stations on fire.On 31st August, Viceroy Linlithgaon wrote a letter to Winston Churchill stating that"I am engaged here in the meeting by farthe most serious rebellion since that of 1857."He acknowledged that the revolution he was dealing withwas so big thatthe last comparable revolution was in 1857.All the strategies of the British government failed here.Despite arresting all the top leaders,this movement was moving ahead rapidly becausethe common people were participating in this.How many people could you shoot?How many could you put in jail?By then, violence was already on the rise.It is also very interesting to note whatMahatma Gandhi thought about this violence.We know that in 1922when violence was seen in the non-cooperation movement,he stopped that movement.Once again in 1934, during the Civil Disobedience Movementwhen violence began,Gandhi ji stopped that movement.But now, during the Quit India Movement,when violent incidents were again seen,Gandhi ji was already tired.On 7th June 1942, he wrote in his weekly magazine, Harijan,"I waited and waited.""...until the country...develop(ed) non-violent strengthnecessary to throw off the foreign yoke.I feel that I cannot afford to wait...If in-spite of all precautions,rioting takes place,it cannot be helped."Gandhi ji's approach this time was pragmatic,considering this complex situation.Which is understandable.Not everyone dares to raise their voice against the people in power.But there were some people whowere bootlicking the British so much thatthey were supporting the British in ending the Quit India Movement.There were two major organizations at that time.Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha.The Muslim League passed a resolution in 1940which is known as the Lahore Resolution.Because of this, they demandedthat a separate country be created for Muslims.It is also called the Pakistan Resolution.At that time, there was a Muslim League leader Fazlul Huq,he was the first Prime Minister of Bengal Province.Their government in Bengal was formed with an alliance with the Hindu Mahasabha.In this Muslim League government,Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was the Finance Minister.It was on 26 July 1942,about two weeks before the start of the Quit India Movement.Syama Prasad Mukherjee wrote a letter to the British government."Anybody who, during the war,plans to stir up mass feelings,resulting in internal disturbances or insecuritymust be resisted by the government."Further, he asked about how the Quit India Movement could be combated in Bengal.He states that the administration should be such thatall efforts by the Congress would fail.And the movement would not begin in the Bengal Province.He was, literally, discussing ideas with the British governmenton how to suppress this movement.During the 24th session of the Hindu Mahasabha in Kanpur,their party leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkarcame up with another strategy.The Hindu Mahasabha follows the strategy of responsive cooperation.Not only did they intend to give unconditional cooperation to the British government,they were also ready for active and armed resistance.At that time, the Hindu Mahasabha was a political partyand at the organizational level,RSS had the same response towards the Quit India Movement.That's why the British intelligence agenciesdescribed their stance as follows."The Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law,and...refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August 1942."While on one hand, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose formed the Azad Hind Fauja few months after the Quit India Movement,On the other hand, Savarkar was helping the colonial governmentrecruit hundreds of thousands of Indiansin the British Armed Forces.These Indians joined the British Armyand fought against Subhash Chandra Bose's Azad Hind Fauj.At that time, there was a man named Narayan Aptewho joined the British Armyand later on, became a recruiter for the British Royal Indian Air Force.Later on, he was found guiltyfor being involved in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.Along with that, Nathuram Godse's brother, Gopal Godsewas also fighting this war on the British side.Savarkar had said some more things about the Quit India Movement.That this type of unscrupulous rebelliondid not deserve any sympathy.This was a huge insult to the freedom fighterswho were actually fighting against the British at that time.And that is why, after hearing this, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose could not remain silent.On 14th August 1942,in Berlin, he sent a message through the radio."I would request Mr. Jinnah, Mr. Savarkar, and all those leaderswho still think of a compromise with the Britishto realise (that).... in the world of tomorrow there will be no British Empire."A senior leader of Hindu Mahasabha, N.C. Chatterjee wrote,"It is rather amusing to findthat Mr. Jinnah wantsthe Muslims to not join the Congress movementand Mr. Savarkar wantsHindus not to join the same."Despite all this opposition, friends,the Quit India Movement was successful.The world started talking about India's freedom.The then American President Roosevelt also put pressure on the UK governmentto fulfil some of India's demands.Even in Britain, the British people were demanding that India be given freedom.In June 1945, the British Labour Party released its new manifesto.Let Us Face The Future.They made a promise to the British peoplethat if they came into powerthen they would give complete freedom to colonies like India.Next month, in 1945, the Labour Party came to power in Britainand the new Prime Minister was Clement Attlee.And he openly declared thatit was time to give India self-governance.As soon as the government changed in Britain,the arrested Congress leaders were released from jail in India.And two years after that, the struggle that our Indian freedom fighters started years ago,became successful.India got complete freedom.Although it was clear by 1945 thatIndia's freedom was inevitable,in 1946, two other important things happened,which increased the importance of freedom.First, the INA soldiers' court-martial,also known as the INA trials,and second, the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny.Let's talk about these in detail in another video.For now, if you liked this video,you can go and watch this video,in which I have explained in detailwhy India's partition happened.Who were the people and what were the incidentsthat led to the partition?You can click here to watch it.Thank you very much!