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PM Modi remembered freedom fighters on Quit India movement anniversary 

About quit India movement

• The decisive campaign against the British rule was launched in 1942 on Mahatma Gandhi’s call at the Bombay session of the Congress on August 8 in his famous “do or die” speech.
• An alarmed British government arrested the top leadership of the Congress but people embraced Gandhi’s call.
• in March 1942, a mission led by Sir Stafford Cripps arrived in India to meet leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League. The idea was to secure India’s whole-hearted support in the war, and the return offer to Indians was the promise of self-governance.
• But things did not go that way. Despite the promise of “the earliest possible realisation of self-government in India”, Cripps only offered dominion status, not freedom. Also, there was a provision for the partition of India, which was not acceptable to the Congress.
• The failure of the Cripps Mission made Gandhi realise that freedom would come only if Indians fought tooth and nail for it. The Congress was initially reluctant to launch a movement that could hamper Britain’s efforts to defeat the fascist forces. But it eventually decided on mass civil disobedience. At the Working Committee meeting in Wardha in July 1942, it was decided the time had come for the movement to move into an active phase.

The slogan ‘Quit India’

• While Gandhi gave the clarion call of Quit India, the slogan was coined by Yusuf Meherally, a socialist and trade unionist who also served as Mayor of Bombay. A few years ago, in 1928, it was Meherally who had coined the slogan “Simon Go Back”.

Brutal suppression of protests

• The Quit India movement was violently suppressed by the British — people were shot and lathicharged, villages were burnt, and backbreaking fines were imposed. In the five months up to December 1942, an estimated 60,000 people had been thrown into jail.