The Quit India Movement was a great event in the history of Indian freedom struggle. The failure of the Cripps Mission, the impending danger of the Japanese forces of their advance towards India, ill-treatment with the Indians in Burma and the rising prices of the daily needs forced the Congress leadership to launch a movement under Gandhi ji against the British.
On 29th April, 1942 the Congress Working Committee met in Allahabad and passed a resolution, "Not only the interests of India, but also Britain's safety and world peace and freedom demand that Britain must abandon her hold over India. It is on the basis of independence alone that India can deal with Britain or other nations."
The CWC met in Wardha on 14th July, 1942 and put forth the famous Quit India Resolution, which was passed by the Congress Executive on 8th August at its meeting in Bombay. After the resolution as adopted, Gandhi ji clarified, "Everyone of you should from this moment onwards consider yourself a free man or woman and act as if you are free. .... I am not going to be satisfied with anything short of complete freedom." He advised for the Hindu-Muslim unity, no place for fraud in the Satyagraha, to pay the share of the land-lords if they support the peasants but if they side with the government they should be given nothing, no need to leave the jobs but instead declare full loyalty for the Congress, the soldiers to refuse to fire on their countrymen, and the students to boycott their classes only if they were to remain adamant to it.
By the time, when the government was involved completely in the World War, it was a great setback to her. No govt. can at this time tolerate any movement, though it is non-violent, because no movement can remain non-violent for long. Consequently, all the congress leaders were arrested and put behind the bars. It provoked the Indians and the movement spread like the jungle-fire in most parts of the country. On 6th July, 1944 Gandhi ji was released by the Govt. due to his ill-health. On 27th July Gandhi ji met the Viceroy and put forth him his term that if the government declares in favour of India's independence, the congress was ready to call off the movement as well as to support the British government. However, the Viceroy refused to accept any such term. In fact, he was fully cautious of the fact that the zeal among the Indians regarding the movement had waned by that time. Consequently the movement was called off after some time. This may be a reason when Mr. K. Sudarshan, the RSS chief, declared that the movement was a failure and the Congress can't claim for herself for the freedom of the country.
Mr. Sudarshan may be right to some extent here.However, there may be certain reservations in his comment. It is right that the Congress had clarified before the commencement of the movement that "the peril of today necessitates the independence of India and the ending of British domination. No future promise or guarantees can affect the present situation or meet that peril." However, there were certain factors which attributed to the failure of its outcome. Some of it were that there was no co-ordination among the leaders, no support from other political parties, no proper planning and above all, the majority of the Congress leaders were put behind the bars before the movement.
Here we should keep in mind that though the movement failed to attain anything immediately, but it created such zeal and fervour in the country which forced the British rulers to quit the country soon. Woodrow Wiglut, the advisor to the Cabinet Mission, had also stated that if the British failed to decide anything positive there would be another revolt in the nation. It also failed that theory that the British were experienced in solving any sort of situation. Thus we should not believe the movement a total failure.
