Quit India Movement: A fight for freedom from British rule

On August 8, 1942, Mahatma Gandhi addressed the people in the Gowalia Tank Maidan (now known as August Kranti Maidan), Bombay (Mumbai) where he delivered his famous “Do or Die” speech. Aruna Asaf Ali, one of the prominent female revolutionary figures, hoisted the Tricolour on the ground, and the Quit India movement was officially announced.

July 16 is the birth anniversary of Aruna, who is widely remembered for her daring act of hoisting the Tricolour. Therefore, any discussion on India’s freedom struggle in the 1940s cannot be held without mentioning her name. But before taking a look at her contributions, let’s have a brief overview of the Quit India movement during which she rose to prominence. 

Quit India Movement 

In the exhausting summer of 1942, an even more exhaustive talk was underway in Delhi between Indian freedom fighters and a mission led by Sir Stafford Cripps. The mission was sent by then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to secure India’s support for the Second World War. 

Before Cripps, Lord Linlithgow, then Viceroy of India, made what is known as the ‘August offer’ in 1940 and proposed dominion status to India but with veto power to the Muslim League and other minority leaders. 

With rising tensions and rapid troop movements between the Axis and Allied powers in Europe, Indian leaders were hard-pressed to take their stand. Coupled with rising war-time inflation, Bengal was staring at the worst famine of the 20th century. 

South East dominions of Britain such as Rangoon, Sittwe, etc. were falling like dominoes in the hands of dictator Gen. Hideki Tojo (Head of Imperial Rule Assistance Association of Japan). The incoming news of British soldiers running away for their lives and leaving the Burmese to their fate in the wake of Japanese attacks was not assuring either.

In the midst of this political turmoil, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) at Wardha passed the resolution on the Quit India Movement (also known as the Bharat Chhoro Andolan) on July 14, 1942. The idea was that the British should now ‘leave’ India to its fate. Mahatma Gandhi, according to historian Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, was in an uncharacteristically militant mood. 

On August 8, Gandhi delivered his famous “Do or Die” speech in the Gowalia Tank maidan. This was unusual of Gandhi, to say the least, because ‘Dying’ as an act involved the element of violence. Gandhi was known for putting brakes on movements like Non-Cooperation (1920-21) solely due to the occurrence of violence.

Female freedom fighters

Several chroniclers documented the formidable participation of women in the Quit India movement as never seen before. Although women participated in protests from the early days of Gandhian movements, the Quit India movement seemed to be the coming of age of women-led political struggle in India.

On the intervening night of August 8, 1942, Gandhi and all the leaders were put behind bars. Thereafter, women leaders played an unconventional role in the movement. A general roll call of the women leaders in and out of jail, over and underground tells us how women leadership evolved by leaps and bounds over the course of the movement. These include Sarojini Naidu, Sucheta Kripalani, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Usha Mehta, Matangini Hazra, Kanaklata Barua, Purnima Banerjee and Aruna Asaf Ali.

Aruna Asaf Ali

Aruna Asaf Ali is an iconic revolutionary figure, who is widely remembered for her contributions to India’s freedom struggle. She is hailed as the heroine of Quit India Movement, who dared to even defy the orders of Mahatma Gandhi to surrender in late 1946.

Born as Aruna Ganguly, she had been brought up with a liberal Brahmo Samaj upbringing. Her marriage to a Muslim Congress leader, Asaf Ali, was not supported by her family primarily because he was 20 years older than her. 

In his recent book ‘The Circles of Freedom’, T C A Raghavan, India’s former High Commissioner to Pakistan, noted that the life of Aruna in 1928 Old Delhi Kucha Chelan after marriage was a world entirely different from the Anglo-Indian background in which she was brought up. 

Though she was not expected to practice the purdah, her Anglo-Indian background did make it challenging to accept the life of domesticity and seclusion in a traditional Muslim household. Initially, her role was limited to being the wife of a public figure. She was often invited to the high teas of the nationalist circles in Delhi. 

But Aruna came into her own and became part of the female leadership of the Congress along with figures like Sarojini Naidu, Sucheta Kripalani, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. She claimed to have heard the slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ for the first time when her husband visited Sardar Bhagat Singh in Lahore Jail as his designated advocate and emissary of Gandhi. 

According to the author, Aruna described that the small room was filled with the tall Bhagat and his thundering slogan. This alone was enough for her to take on the call of the nationalist struggle.

In 1932, Aruna was jailed for participating in the Civil Disobedience movement. After the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, all the political prisoners were to be released. But Aruna, in spite of Gandhi’s directions, decided to stay.

She was protesting against the inhuman treatment meted out to prisoners in Tihar Jail. Her efforts helped improve the conditions of Tihar jail.

After 1932, Aruna spent the next ten years in solitary confinement in Ambala. The British state was particularly harsh on female revolutionaries. Often, they had to sacrifice their family life and close relations.

Aruna got the distinction of unfurling the Tricolour at the Gowalia Tank meeting of the Quit India Movement in Bombay (Mumbai). She was proclaimed an offender by the police and her property was seized and later auctioned. But she evaded arrest and found mentorship and protection under Ram Manohar Lohia. Perhaps it was her long arduous underground struggle with Socialist leaders like Lohia and Jay Prakash Narayan that steered her towards socialism. 

Aruna co-edited a newspaper called ‘Inquilab’ with Lohia and continued to struggle till 1946. Gandhi, particularly moved by her determination, wanted her to surrender. He wrote, “I have been filled with admiration for your courage and heroism. You are reduced to a skeleton. Do come out and surrender yourself and win the prize offered for your arrest. Reserve the prize money for the Harijan (untouchables’) cause.”

Aruna, determined towards her socialist training only surrendered after the prize money over her was removed. Even after resurfacing and courting arrest, Aruna continued to voice her political opinions by supporting the Royal Indian Navy mutiny of HMIS (His Majesty’s Indian Ship) Talwar.

Post-independence, Aruna left the Congress for the Communist Party of India. There she created the ‘National Federation of Indian Women’- women’s wing of Communist Party of India. Aruna lost her husband in 1953. Asaf Ali by this time was the first ambassador to the United States from India. Although this role would have taken Aruna close to the Capitalist camp in the Cold War world, she chose to remain close to her ideological moorings. 

In 1965 she was awarded the Order of Lenin prize. The government of India awarded her the second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in her lifetime in 1992. In 1997, she was given the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously.  In 1998, a stamp commemorating her was issued. Aruna Asaf Ali Marg in New Delhi was named in her honour.

Other prominent freedom fighters

Dr. Harish Chandra in Participation of Women in India’s Freedom Movement: With Special Reference to Quit India Movement (1942-1947) underlined that women often bore the biggest brunt of British wrath. They were often searched and paraded out of their houses in the dark. Attempts were made to make them conscious of their bodies often to dissuade new entrants in the freedom struggle. 

Police atrocities were not limited to lathi charges as they occasionally resorted to firing bullets. Sarojini Naidu, the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress (INC), was arrested immediately after the passing of the Quit  India resolution. She was considered a veteran and her name was put on the top priority in the list of the leaders to be incarcerated. 

In her absence, women leaders of the INC put up a brave face. Sucheta Kripalani led from the front. She was the wife of Congress leader and Gandhian stalwart J B Kripalani, and founded the All India Mahila Congress. 

She had the experience of teaching Constitutional History at BHU, which was reflected in her fiery speeches. Coming in close contact with Ram Manohar Lohia, Kripalani’s political views carried the marks of socialism. This helped her become the first female Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 2 October 1963. Being a high-profile target, she couldn’t remain a free soldier for long on the ground and was finally taken into custody in Patna. 

Usha Mehta, another noted freedom fighter, was 22 years old when her voice reverberated through the radio announcing, “this is Congress Radio from 42.34 meters from somewhere in India”. Moved by Gandhi’s speech, she used the newly invented radio waves transmission technology to bypass censorship and amplify the voice of resistance. 

From August to November 1942, the Congress Radio broadcasted news of jailed revolutionaries, atrocities meted out to them and the workings of the Azad Hind Fauj. It occasionally aired patriotic songs such as Vande Mataram. 

Mehta was the daughter of a government Magistrate, which perhaps made her operations nearly opaque in front of British intelligence. But she was later caught and put in Pune’s Yerawada Jail till March 1946. She was hailed in the nationalist media as “Radio-ben”.

Matangini Hazra, another staunch Gandhian and revolutionary, exemplified the slogan “Do or Die”. In 1942, at the age of 73, she led a protest march of 6,000 volunteers, mostly women, to ransack the Tamluk Police station in Bengal. As they neared their destination, the police opened fire. Hazra was battered with bullets and reportedly died with the Tricolour in her hands and ‘Vande Mataram’ on her lips.

Post Read Question

Who was Aruna Asaf Ali? Why is she known as the Grand Old Lady of Indian Independence?

Discuss prominent female freedom fighters who played formidable roles in the Quit India Movement.

Write an essay on the Quit India Movement. What were the reasons and impact of it? 

What was the prominent objective of the Quit India Movement?

(Aakanksha Jha teaches at the Delhi University.)

Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week.

Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGOLZAP9m9M?si=ip1xfwVaUxCoKl5P