Congress crisis, wartime politics, Quit India Movement and the Indian National Army (1939-1943)
Tripuri Crisis and Subhas Bose's Resignation
The Basics
By 1938, Congress ministries were in office in most provinces. Subhas Chandra Bose, president of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee, was unanimously elected Congress president at Haripura in February 1938. Bose believed the ministries had revolutionary potential. He also pushed for economic planning. He increasingly disagreed with Gandhi over the pace and method of the freedom struggle, especially as Europe moved toward war.
By 1939, Bose stood outside the Congress mainstream. He believed non-violence alone could not end British rule. He respected Gandhi deeply, later calling him the "Father of Our Nation". But he believed the Congress needed a militant, uncompromising programme.
The Second World War broke out on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. The Government of India immediately declared India to be at war with Germany, without consulting Congress or the elected members of the central legislature. This unilateral act angered Indian leaders, who felt an enslaved nation was being dragged into a war for freedoms it did not itself enjoy.
By late 1940, the government had refused Congress demands for real power. The Congress had already withdrawn its ministries in protest. Gandhi and the Congress leadership were still reluctant to embarrass Britain's war effort with a mass upheaval. This was partly because they themselves opposed the victory of Nazism. Towards the end of 1940, Congress asked Gandhi to take command. He devised a middle path: a limited, symbolic protest rather than a full mass movement.
By early 1942 the war had reached India's doorstep. In March 1942 Japan captured Rangoon after overrunning South-East Asia. A Japanese invasion of India now seemed a real danger. Britain desperately needed active Indian cooperation for the war effort. The United States, the Soviet Union and China pressed for this. Labour Party leaders in Britain also urged Prime Minister Winston Churchill to win over Indian opinion.
By the summer of 1942 the Cripps Mission had failed. Japan's armies were also sweeping through Burma towards India's border. The British evacuation of South-East Asia shattered the image of British power. Indian subjects were left to their fate while Europeans were evacuated to safety. Rising prices, shortages, and the commandeering of boats in Bengal and Orissa deepened public anger. People even began withdrawing bank deposits in fear of collapse. Gandhi concluded that only immediate withdrawal and a mass struggle could restore public confidence and prepare people to resist Japan.
Bose had been kept under house arrest in Calcutta after a hunger strike in December 1940. In January 1941 he escaped in disguise, travelling overland through Kabul, Afghanistan, and reached Germany. He hoped the Soviet Union would help India's cause, but it joined the Allies in June 1941. He then turned to Nazi Germany instead. In Berlin he set up the Free India Centre and began broadcasts on Azad Hind Radio from January 1942. He came to be known as Netaji, and gave India the rallying cry 'Jai Hind'.