In a meeting at Mumbai's Gowalia Tank Maidan, on August 8, 1942, Gandhiji asked the
British to 'Quit India' and gave the crowded gathering a mantra, 'Do or Die,' 'Either free
India or die in the attempt.' The government reacted swiftly and arrested all the congress
leaders the next day. Along with his wife Kasturba, Gandhiji and few others interned in
Pune, in Aga Khan's palace. Serious disturbances broke out all over India, as the news
spread of the arrest of the leaders. People destroyed government property and all that
they considered to be symbols of British rule, with the cry of 'Quit India on their
lips.There were strikes and public demonstrations. The government was ruthless. People
were shot down from moving vehicles, tear-gassed and machine-gunned from air. About 10,000
were killed and over 60,000 people were arrested, by the end of 1942. To avoid arrest,
many went underground to carry on the fight. While in detention at Aga Khan's Palace,
Gandhiji lost Kasturba, which affected his health. In 1944, on health grounds he was
released.
About eighty years after the first war of independence of 1857, India was again gearing up
for an armed revolt. A fiery revolutionary, Subhash Chandra Bose, had little faith in
Gandhiji's non-violence and felt that the only way to compel the British to Quit India was
an armed struggle. Bose was under house arrest when he made a dramatic escape to Kabul and
from there to Berlin and then to Japan in 1941, to enlist the support of the Japanese
government. He raised the Indian National Army (INA) or the Azad Hind Fauj, within two
years, consisting of some 60,000 Indian prisoners of war who had fallen into Japanese
hands in South-East Asia. At Singapore, he proclaimed a provisional national
government-Asad Hind government of free India. The INA entered India's eastern frontier
through Burma and raised the Tricolour on Indian soil on March 22, 1944. However, the
onset of the monsoon and Japan's surrender to the allied forces in the World War II,
forced Netaji to call off his campaign and order a withdrawal. In 1945, when the war
ended, thousands of INA soldiers were taken prisoners by the British and charged with
treason. Many were executed but some were put on trial. Their trial at the Red Fort
aroused public protests in the country. Leading Indian advocates, who defended them, drew
the nations attention to the stirring rule the INA had played under Bose, in furthering
the national cause. Finally the British released them.
During and after World War II, people of India suffered great hardships due to shortages
of essential commodities and rising prices. In addition, in 1943, a severe famine ravaged
Bengal, claiming three million lives. There was a wave of discontent against the
government when the war ended in Europe, the government realized that it would be
impossible to hold India by force. So, on June 14, 1945, it invited the Indian leaders to
a conference at Shimla to discuss the formation of a new Executive Council consisting of
Hindus and Muslims, based on caste representation. But because of disagreement between the
Muslim league and the congress, the talks failed. To work out a plan for the transfer of
power to Indian leaders so that they could form an Interim National Government, a British
Cabinet Mission led by Lord Pethick Lawrence came to India. But the Muslim league did not
agree to the transfer of power till a separate Muslim state of Pakistan was given to them,
while the congress stood for a united India.
About 3,000 naval ratings on the Signal Training Ship HMIS Talwar of the Royal Indian Navy
(RIN) in Mumbai rebelled against racial discrimination, poor pay and inadequate food, on
February 19, 1946 and attacked a number of British officers. The ratings called themselves
Azad Hindi, shouted slogans of 'Quit India' and 'Jai Hind', and renamed RIN, the Indian
National Navy. The revolt spread to major naval establishments in Mumbai, Karachi, Kolkata
and other places, within 48 hours. The mutineers were in control of nearly twenty vessels
in Mumbai Harbour, including the flagship of British Vice-Admiral and had trained the ship
guns on the city by February 22nd. Between the British army, the police and RIN strikers,
there were pitched battles, leaving over thousand injured and 236 people dead in Mumbai
alone. When Indian leaders urged the mutineers to surrender and assured them that their
legitimate demands would be met, on February 23, the strike was called off. The mutiny
convinced the British government that the foundations of their empire were collapsing and
they must speed up the process of independence for India.
As Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten arrived in March 1947 with instruction from
the British government to transfer power to Indians by June 1948. The situation in India
was grim. In Punjab, Bengal and Assam, communal fury and killings were leading to division
of the country and the congress dream of a free, united India was shattered. All the
parties accepted the plan of the portion of India announced by Lord Mountbatten. The
Western areas of the North-West Frontier Province, Punjab, Baluchistan, in the west and
Sind and the Eastern half of Bengal with Muslim majorities were to form the new
independent state of Pakistan. The date for simultaneous transfer of power to India and
Pakistan was advanced to August 15, 1947, as the Hindu-Muslim relations further
deteriorated. Within the British Commonwealth, the constituent assembly in New Delhi
declared India a Dominion. Lord Mountbatten was chosen by India as its first
Governor-General.
On the night of August 14, 1947, arrived a most memorable and glorious moment in the
History of India, when the power passed from British to Indian hands. Lord Mountbatten,
the governor-general, swore in Jawaharlal Nehru as the first Prime Minister of free India.
On the morning of August 15, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the India Tricolour
atop the historic Red Fort in Delhi amid shouts of 'Bharatmata Ki Jai.'
