Examine why Quit India Movement was started and how do you think the Quit India Movement was genuinely a mass movement.

Explanation

Quit India Movement was genuinely a mass movement.
(a) As the movement brought hundreds of ordinary Indians into the National Movement.
(b) As all the prominent political leaders were put behind the bars, the young activists organised strikes and indulged in sabotage all over the nation.
(c) In the underground resistance socialist members were very active.
(d) In Satara and Medenipur, independent government were proclaimed. British in turn responded with brute force, yet it took them more than a year to supress the rebellion.
(i) In September 1939, the Second World War broke out. The British government in India needed help from the Indian leaders. The leaders were ready to support the British war effort.
(ii) But in return they wanted that India be granted independence after the war. The British refused to accept the demand. This enraged the Congress ministers. They all resigned to show their protest.
(iii) Mahatma Gandhi was deeply perturbed. He now decided to initiate a new phase of movement against the British rule in the middle of the Second World War. This movement came to be known as the Quit India Movement.
(iv) Gandhiji thought that the British must Quit India without further delay. He raised the slogan .Do or Die. which spread among the common masses very soon. But at the same time he warned the people not to be violent in any condition.
(v) The British took repressive measures. Gandhiji along with other leaders were sent to jail immediately. But this did not prevent the movement from spreading. It specially attracted peasants and the youth who gave up their studies to join the movement.
(vi) Communications and symbols of state authority were attacked all over the country. In several areas people set up their own governments. The British tried to repress these developments severely.
(vii) About 90,000 people were arrested and wounded 1,000 killed in police firing.
But the movement did not go in vain. It brought freedom very close.
(vill) Mahatma Gandhiji is often identified with the making of nation, as role played by him in India.s freedom struggle cannot be forgotten.