The Climax of Indian Independence Movement
In 1937, provincial elections were held and the Congress came to power in eight of the eleven provinces. This was a strong indicator of the Indian people's support for complete Independence.
When World war II started, Viceroy Linlithgow had unilaterally declared India a belligerent on the side of the Britain, without consulting the elected Indian representatives. In opposition to Linlithgow's action, the entire Congress leadership resigned from the local government councils. However, many wanted to support the British war effort, and indeed the British Indian Army was the largest volunteer forces, numbering 2,500,000 men during the war.
Especially during the Battle of Britain in 1940, Gandhi resisted calls for massive civil disobedience movements that came from within as well as outside his party, stating he did not seek India's freedom out of the ashes of a destroyed Britain. In 1942 the Congress launched the Quit India movement. There was some violence but the Raj cracked down and arrested tens of thousands of Congress leaders, including all the main national and provincial figures. They were not released until the end of the war was in sight in 1945.
The independence movement saw the rise of three movements. The first of these, the Kakori conspiracy (9 August 1925) was done by the Indian youth under the leadership of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, second was the Azad Hind movement led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, saw its inception early in the war and joined with Germany and Japan to fight Britain. . And the third one after 17 years of the first from the same date (9) saw its inception in August 1942 which was led by Lal Bahadur Shastri and the common man resulting the failure of the Cripps' mission to reach a consensus with the Indian political leadership over the transfer of power after the war.
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