Failures of "Quit India" campaign 1942

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  • FAILURES
    • Foolish to suppose that the British would leave India at a time when it would mean, in effect, handing it over to the Japanese
    • Reflected Congress' weakness: Gandhi feared losing young radical supporters to Bose's "Free India" campaign
    • Congress were divided about the campaign (Nehru and most of the Working Committee against it) Nehru "disapproved strongly"
      • Start of the campaign in August 1942 followed 3 months of internal argument about whether it should go ahead
    • This gave the British a warning of it: they could prepare plans (unlike in 1857). Undercover British agents and informers had penetrated most of Congress' networks
      • As a result, Gandhi, Nehru and the other Congress leaders were arrested within a day of the campaign starting (within a fortnight thousands had followed)
      • Start of the campaign in August 1942 followed 3 months of internal argument about whether it should go ahead
    • Impossible to maintain non-violence due to the passion people felt and the strength of the British reaction: over 1,000 deaths and over 3,000 serious injuries
    • 35,000 troops available to support the police: the British had sufficient forces to keep control nationally
    • The Army, including Indian soldiers, had stayed almost entirely loyal to GB: only 216 Indian soldiers went AWOL - same with the police
    • Campaign largely confined to Hindus in the North: little activity in the South and almost no support from the Muslims

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Owono Ango

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a hundred thanks 

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