Quit India Movement and Indian National Army

Quit India Movement (1942 – 44)

Gandhi ji started Quit India Movement because Japan was extending Eastward & Britishers were fleeing from Malaysia & Singapore. Gandhi ji understood correctly that Japanese are fascist & will never liberate India, hence he started this movement in between when Britishers were involved in second world war.

Gandhi called Cripps proposals as a “Post-dated Cheque” & in Bombay session of Indian National Congress framed a resolution with following key provisions –

An immediate end to British rule in India.
Commitment of free India to defend itself against all types of Fascism & imperialism.
A provisional Government of India after British withdrawal.
A civil disobedience movement against British rule.

Gandhi’s Instructions to Different Sections

Government Servants	Do not resign but declare your allegiance to the Congress.
Soldiers	Do not leave the Army but do not fire on compatriots.
Students	If confident, leave studies
Peasants	If zamindars are anti-government, pay mutually agreed rent, and if zamindars are pro-government, do not pay rent
Princes	Support the masses and accept sovereignty of your people
Princely state people	Support the ruler only if he is anti-government and declare yourselves to be a part of the Indian nation
Do or Die	We shall either free India or, die in the attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery

The Government, however, was in no mood to either negotiate with the Congress or wait for the movement to be formally launched, therefore, in a single sweep, all the top leaders, of the Congress were arrested and taken to unknown destinations.

Quit India Movement was the final attempt for country’s freedom as –

Large number of students left their schools and colleges to join the movement
Youth of the nation participated in this movement with patriotism viz. strikes, demonstrations and public meetings along with armed attacks on government buildings
British Government ordered for 538 rounds of firing, at least 7,000 people were killed, nearly 60,229 persons were jailed.
Paved the way for India’s freedom & aroused among Indians the feelings of bravery, enthusiasm and total sacrifice.
There were no communal clashes during the movement.
The movement established the truth that it was no longer possible to rule India without the wishes of Indians.

Indian National Army

The idea of the Indian National Army (INA) was first conceived in Malaya by Mohan Singh, an Indian officer of the British Indian Army, when he decided not to join the retreating British Army and instead turned to the Japanese for help.

The Japanese handed over the Indian prisoners of war (POWs) to Mohan Singh who tried to recruit them into an Indian National Army.
In1942, After the fall of Singapore, Mohan Singh further got 45,000 POWs into his sphere of influence.
2 July 1943, Subhash Chandra Bose reached Singapore and gave the rousing war cry of ‘Dilli Chalo’
Was made the President of Indian Independence League and soon became the supreme commander of the Indian National Army
Here he gave the slogan of Jai Hind

INA’s three Brigades were the Subhas Brigade, Gandhi Brigade and Nehru Brigade.
The women’s wing of the army was named after Rani Laxmibai.
INA marched towards Imphal after registering its victory over Kohima but after Japan’s surrender in 1945, INA failed in its efforts.
Under such circumstances, Subhash went to Taiwan & further on his way to Tokyo he died on 18 August 1945 in a plane crash.
Trial of the soldiers of INA was held at Red Fort in Delhi.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai, Kailash Nath Katju, Asaf Ali and Tej Bahadur Sapru fought the case on behalf of the soldiers.

Subhash Chandra Bose

Popularly known as Netaji, was born on Jan 23, 1897 at Cuttack.
He passed the Indian Civil Services Examination in 1920 but left it on the Gandhiji’s call of Non – Cooperation Movement.
He founded the Independence for India League with Jawahar Lai Nehru.
In 1938, he was elected the President of the INC at its Haripura session and in 1939, he was elected President of its Tripuri session.
But he had to resign from Tripuri due to differences with Gandhiji.
He founded the Forward Block in 1939.
In 1941, he escaped to Berlin and met Hitler.
In 1943, he took charge of Indian National Army in Singapore and set up the Indian Provisional Government there.
He gave the war cry of ‘Dilli Chalo’.
He addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the Father of the Nation
He gave the slogan of ‘Jai Hind’
He wrote his autobiography ‘The Indian Struggle’
He supposedly died in a plane crash on Aug 18, 1945