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Today in History 8 August

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 8/8/2022 12:19:45 PM

8th August 1942: Mahatma Gandhi launches the quit India movement in Mumbai

The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Movement was a Civil Disobedience Movement launched by Gandhi for Satyagraha (independence). The movement was accompanied by a mass protest on non-violent lines, in which Gandhi called for “an orderly British withdrawal from India”. Through his passionate speeches, Gandhi moved people by proclaiming “every Indian who desires freedom and strives for it must be his own guide…”. “Let every Indian consider himself to be a free man”, Gandhi declared in his fiery “Do or Die” speech the day the Quit India Movement was declared. The British were prepared for this massive uprising and within a few hours of Gandhi’s speech most of the Indian National Congress leaders were swiftly arrested; most of whom had to spend the next three years in jail, until World War II ended. During this time the British were deriving heavy support from the Viceroy’s Council, Muslims, the Communist Party, princely states, the Indian Army and the Civil Services. Most Indian businessmen were experiencing profits due to wartime spending and hence did not support the Quit India Movement. Most students were drawn towards Subhas Chandra Bose who was in exile and the only support Indian got from outside the country was from American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who compelled the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to agree to the demands of the Indians. But the British refused to do so and said that this would only be possible when World War II ended. Isolated incidents of violence broke out around the country, but the British acted quickly and arrested thousands of people and kept them in jail till 1945. Apart from filling up jails with rebellious leaders, the British also went ahead and abolished civil rights, freedom of speech and freedom of press. The reason why it was so easy for the British to crush the Quit India Movement was because of a weak coordination and no clear cut plan of action. Though despite of its flaws, the Quit India Movement remains significant because it was during this movement that the British realized that they would not be able to govern India successfully in the long run and began to think of ways they could exit the country in a peaceful and dignified manner.