The four reasons that led to India’s independence

Clement Attlee, British Prime Minister at the time of independence, rejects the idea that Gandhi’s movement played a central role in India’s independence.

Calcutta High Court Chief Justice PB Chakraborty, who was also the Acting Governor of Bengal, has written in the preface of Ramesh Chandra Mojamdar’s book ‘A History of Bengal’ that ‘It is wrong to say that the cause of Gandhi’s non-violence movement’ The British were forced to leave Britain. British Prime Minister Attlee, when I was the Acting Governor, stayed at the Governor’s House for two days during his visit to India. At that time we had a conversation on the subject of what were the reasons that compelled Britain to liberate India. I asked Attlee that Gandhi’s ‘Quit India movement’ had weakened, but then what was the reason why Britain had to decide to leave India in haste?

In his reply, Attlee cited several reasons, the most important of which was that the element of loyalty to the crown in the Indian army had been lost due to Subhash Chandrabosh’s rebellion. When I asked him how much influence did Gandhi’s ‘Quit India’ movement have in Britain’s decision to grant independence to India? So they replied, ‘Very little.’

Neutral observers also trace the origins of India’s independence to the Second World War. Below we examine four reasons that led to Britain’s early departure from India.

Second World War

Due to the Second World War, the economies of the neo-colonial powers were badly damaged, so it was not possible for them to maintain their grip on such large empires after the disastrous six-year war, because independence in each colony Movements were gaining momentum, especially in India whose population had reached 360 million at that time.

Similarly, the reason for leaving India was the economic bankruptcy of Great Britain. Because of this, Britain liberated not only India but also Japan in 1946, Palestine in 1947, Sri Lanka and Burma in 1948, Egypt in 1952 and Malaysia in 1957. For the same reasons, France and the Netherlands also liberated their colonies during the same period. The British Prime Minister Churchill sent the Cripps Mission to India to set a time frame for India’s independence and to clarify the independence movements. Thus the strongest factor in India’s independence was Hitler and not Gandhi.

Rising nationalism

India consisted of many small independent states and princely states, many of which were hostile to each other. Initially the British adopted a policy of ‘divide and rule’ but when the British became powerful, the states which were against each other united against the British.

The War of Independence of 1857 removed the power of the East India Company from India and now India came under the direct rule of the British Crown, which was followed by massacres, bombings and violence by freedom fighters. were In 1905, Viceroy Lord Curzon divided Bengal into East and West Bengal. The capital of East Bengal, which was Muslim-majority, was Dhaka, while the capital of West Bengal, comprising the Hindu-majority districts of Bihar and Orissa, was Calcutta.

There was a strong movement in India against this partition, there were bloody protests, on the basis of which the British were forced to withdraw their decision six years later. India had helped Britain a lot in the First World War, after which voices began to emerge in India demanding greater autonomy in return for this help, in response to which the Government of India Act of 1919 was passed, which Administrative involvement of Indians was increased.

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 with the aim of increasing opportunities for Indians in education and government and to establish a political platform where political dialogue between Britain and India could be promoted.

Although the Congress later split, it established its dominance over the British crown in the first 20 years. By the 1930s, under the leadership of leaders like Gandhi, the party had become a strong and energetic voice fighting for greater internal autonomy despite religious, sectarian and ethnic differences. In 1937, the first elections in India were held in which the Indian National Congress emerged as the majority party, after which there was increased pressure on Britain to grant more autonomy to India, but in 1939 the Second World War broke out and these efforts were temporarily halted. Gone.

Gandhi’s ‘Quit India’ movement

Gandhi was an English-educated jurist. His non-violent movement was widely accepted and he became the president of the Indian National Congress. Gandhi opposed Indian forces for fighting on behalf of Britain in the Second World War and said that these soldiers were fighting in the name of freedom and colonialism with opposing countries who were slaves in their own countries and were victims of colonialism. . On this basis he started the Quit India Movement in 1942 and demanded Britain to leave India as soon as possible.

On this basis there were demonstrations and in which there were incidents of violence, but due to the lack of a well-organized movement, this movement soon died down. Gandhi was jailed along with several other leaders. But after that the British were convinced that they might not be able to maintain their grip on India for long.