Nationalist Movement Phase 3 (1939-1947) - 1 - Delhi Police Constable Free

• In 1934, the idea of a Constituent Assembly for India was put forward for the first time by M. N. Roy, a pioneer of India's communist movement and an advocate of radical democratism.

• In 1935, the Indian National Congress (INC), for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India.

• In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru, on behalf of the INC declared that ‘the Constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected based on adult franchise’. The demand was finally accepted in principle by the British Government in what is known as the ‘August Offer’ of 1940.

• August offer made by the British during the course of the Second World War.

• The Congress leaders, released in December 1941, were anxious to defend Indian Territory and go to the Allies' aid.

• The CWC overrode Gandhi’s and Nehru’s objections and passed a resolution offering to cooperate with the Government in defence of India, if

(i) Full independence was given after the war, and

(ii) Substance of power was transferred immediately. It was at this time that Gandhi designated Nehru as his chosen successor

• An Indian Union with a dominion status would be set up; it would be free to decide its relations with the Commonwealth and free to participate in the United Nations and other international bodies.

• After the end of the war, a constituent assembly would be convened to frame a new constitution. Members of this assembly would be partly elected by the provincial assemblies through proportional representation and partly nominated by the princes.

• The British Government would accept the new constitution subject to two conditions.

• Any province not willing to join the Union could have a separate constitution and form a separate Union, and (ii) the new constitution-making body and the British Government would negotiate a treaty to effect the transfer of power and to safeguard racial and religious minorities.

• In the meantime, defence of India would remain in British hands, and the Governor General’s powers would remain intact.

• Cripps was sent to negotiate an agreement with the nationalist leaders, speaking for the majority Indians, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, speaking for the minority Muslim population.

• Cripps discussed the proposals with the Indian leaders and published them.

• Cripps worked to keep India loyal to the British war effort in exchange for a promise of full self-government after the war. Cripps promised to give dominion status after the war and elections to be held after the war.

• Both the major parties, the Congress and the League, rejected his proposals and the mission proved a failure.

• The Lahore Resolution written by Muhammad Zafarullah Khan and others and presented by A. K. Fazlul Huq, the Prime Minister of Bengal was a formal political statement adopted by the All-India Muslim League on the occasion of its three-day general session in Lahore on 22-24 March 1940.

• The resolution called for independent states as seen by the statement: ‘That geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in the majority as in the North-Western and Eastern Zones of (British) India should be grouped to constitute ‘independent states’ in which the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign’.

• Although Choudhary Rahmat Ali had proposed the name ‘Pakistan’ in his Pakistan Declaration, it was not until after the resolution that it began to be widely used.

• It was one of the biggest famines ever to take place in British India.

• Bengal’s economy was predominantly agrarian. For at least a decade before the crisis, between half and three-quarters of those dependent on agriculture were already at near subsistence level. Underlying famine causes included inefficient agricultural practices, dense population, and depeasantization through debt bondage and land grabbing.

• An estimated 2.1 million people died in the famine, the deaths occurring first from starvation and then from diseases, including cholera, malaria, smallpox, dysentery and kala-azar.

• Other factors, such as malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions and lack of healthcare, further increased disease fatalities.

• Proximate causes comprise localised natural disasters (a cyclone, storm surges and flooding, and rice crop disease) and at least five consequences of war: initial, general war-time inflation of both demand-pull and monetary origin; loss of rice imports due to the Japanese occupation of Burma (modem Myanmar); near total disruption of Bengal’s market supplies and transport systems by the preemptive etc.

• As an Ode to Mother Bengal, it was written by Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore in 1905.

• During the Swadeshi movement, the song was written when the ruling British Empire had an undivided India’s province of Bengal split into two parts. The word sonar literally means ‘made of gold’ or ‘beloved’, but in the song 'sonar Bangla may be interpreted to either express the preciousness of Bengal or refer to the colour of paddy fields before harvest.

Considering the importance of the song in the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and Rabindranath Tagore's contribution, it was made the National Anthem of Bangladesh.

• In August 1942 at the All-India Congress Committee session in Bombay, Mahatma Gandhi launched the ‘Quit India’ movement.

• The next day, Gandhi, Nehru, and many other Indian National Congress leaders were arrested by the British Government.

• On this occasion, the Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Ministry has planned to organize the Sankalp Se Sidhi program at several Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and ICAR institutes.

• The programs comprise Kisan Film having a PM message to double farmers’ income by year 2022.

• The farmers will also be shown various KVKs and institutes' activities to acquaint them with the latest technologies.

• The Cripps Mission's failure and the British's sudden withdrawal from the Malayan peninsula brought discontent in Congress and Gandhi. It was reasons for the launch of Quit India movement or August Revolution.

• It was started in 1942 by Gandhi but it drew protests from the All-India Congress Committee demanding what Gandhi called was ‘An Orderly British Withdrawal’ from India.

• This forced the British to act immediately and soon all the senior INC leaders were imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhi’s speech. On 14th July 1942, the Congress Working Committee at Wardha had passed a resolution demanding complete independence from the British government.

• Government servants not to resign but declare allegiance.

• Soldiers not to fire.

• Peasants refuse to pay land revenue.

• People of princely states to be declared part of India and accept the leadership of princely states if they support people's will.

• Ballia in UP under the leadership of Chittu Pande.

• Tamluk in Bengal and were known as Jatiya Sarkar.

• Satara, Maharashtra.

• After World War II, the fate of the members of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA) became a prevalent issue.

• The British captured members of the Indian National Army in World War II in the eastern theatre. The government announced a trial for those guilty of brutality. In reaction to this INA, agitation was organized.

One INA battalion commanded by Shah Nawaz was allowed to accompany the Japanese Army to the Indo-Burma front and participate in the Imphal campaign. But the discriminatory treatment which Included being denied rations, arms and being made to do menial work for the Japanese units, completely demoralized the INA men. The failure of the Imphal campaign and the steady Japanese retreat thereafter quashed any hopes of the INA liberating the nation.

• The INA's idea 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 went to the Japanese for help.

• Until then, the Japanese had only encouraged civilian Indians to form anti-British organizations but had no conception of forming a military wing consisting of Indians.

• The Japanese handed over Indian prisoners of war to Mohan Singh who then tried to recruit them into an Indian National Army.

• Singapore's fall was crucial, as it brought 45,000 Indian POWs into Mohan Singh’s sphere of influence.

• By the end of 1942, 40,000 men expressed their willingness to join the INA. The INA was also seen by many to check the misconduct of the Japanese against Indians in South-East Asia and a bulwark against a future Japanese occupation of India.

• The outbreak of the Quit India Movement gave a fillip to the INA as well. Anti-British demonstrations were organized in Malaya. On 1 September 1942, the first division of the INA was formed with 16,300 men.

• By now, the Japanese were more amenable to the idea of an armed Indian wing because they were contemplating an Indian invasion. By December 1942, great differences emerged between the Indian army officers led by Mohan Singh and the Japanese over the INA's role.

The Indian National Army was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia.

• It aimed to secure Indian independence from British rule. It formed an alliance with Imperial Japan in the latter’s campaign in the Southeast Asian theatre of WWII.

• The army was first formed in 1942 under Mohan Singh, by Indian PoWs of the British-Indian Army captured by Japan in the Malayan campaign and Singapore.

• This first INA collapsed and was disbanded in December that year after differences between the INA leadership and the Japanese military over its role in Japan’s war in Asia.

• It was revived under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose after he arrived in Southeast Asia in 1943.

The INA's creation by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose during the Second World War was the clearest manifestation of the linkages established between India and overseas Indians during the freedom struggle.

• Known as Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind, it was supported by the Axis powers of Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, the Italian Social Republic, and their allies.

• He had launched a struggle to free India from British rule under the provisional government-in-exile banner during the latter part of the Second World War.

• Bose was convinced that armed struggle was the only way to achieve independence for India. He had been a leader of the Indian National Congress's radical wing in the late 1920s and 1930s, rising to become Congress president in 1938 and 1939 but was ousted following differences with Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress leadership.