Rising tension
During the Second World War, the Indian National Congress repeatedly called on the British Government to grant full independence to India after the war. Britain did not agree to this condition which eventually led to members of Congress, including Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, organising illegal protests as part of a ‘Quit India’ campaign in 1942.
The Quit India campaign demanded the withdrawal of the British from India and included a number of peaceful demonstrations and strikes led by Gandhi and Congress. The mass movement turned into a rebellion which led to the British responding by deploying 55 army battalions. Congress was declared an unlawful organisation and Gandhi, Nehru and other leaders of the party were arrested and put in prison. This removed leading members of Congress from the political arena at a time when independence was high up on the agenda.
Photo shows Procession at Bangalore during Quit India movement by Indian National Congress. Author: Dore chakravarty~commonswiki assumed
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
Quit India Movement By Beohar Rammanohar Sinha
In 1943 a devastating famine swept across the province of Bengal, which many historians believe was primarily a result of poor British colonial policies. Large-scale exports of food from India were directed to Britain for use in war theatres and consumption. India exported more than 70,000 tonnes of rice between January and July 1943, even as the famine set in, and refused to redirect grain for the war effort to India, instead stockpiling food in Britain. The famine was responsible for an estimated 1.5-3 million deaths in Bengal and gave rise to a feeling of discontent toward the British across the province.
In the summer of 1946 Jinnah called on the Muslim League to organise a Direct Action Day to demand for the state of Pakistan. On 16th August peaceful demonstrations were held in various parts of India, however, mass communal violence erupted in Calcutta (Kolkata), the capital of Bengal, during which many thousands of people were killed. This violence spread across northern India continuing well into the following year and was carried out along religious lines.