• Capt. Praveen Davar

Do or Die. This ‘war cry’ was given by Mahatma Gandhi 79 years ago, on August 8, 1942, at the meeting of All-India Congress in the then Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay, (now Mumbai). As World War II neared the eastern borders of India, the British government under American pressure, sent the Cripps Mission to offer proposals for creation of new Indian Union as a dominion at the end of the war. The proposals were rejected by Gandhiji resulting in Congress launching its last battle against imperialism.

A feeling of deep frustration, anger and resentment swept all over the country following the failure of the Cripps Mission. The Congress Working Committee in Allahabad met on April 27, 1942, to take stock of the new situation and devise means to face it. Gandhiji sent through Mirabehn a draft resolution in Hindustani which might form the basis of their resolution to be placed before the AICC. The resolution stated:

Whereas the British War Cabinet’s proposals, sponsored by Sir Stafford Cripps, have shown up British imperialism in its nakedness as never before, the AICC has come to the following conclusions: ‘The AICC is of the opinion that Britain is incapable of defending India. It is natural that whatever she does is for her own defence. There is an eternal conflict between Indian and British interests. It follows that their notions of defence would also differ. The British Government has no trust in India’s political parties. The Indian Army has been maintained up till now mainly to hold India in subjugation. It has been completely segregated from the general population who can in no sense regard it as their own. This policy of mistrust still continues and is the reason why national defence is not entrusted to India’s elected representatives.’ The AICC is, therefore, of opinion that the British should withdraw from India.

Further, it was decided to call a meeting of the AICC in Bombay on August 7 to consider the resolution. The Quit India resolution of August 8 was moved by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and seconded by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It was passed amidst scenes of great enthusiasm. In his concluding speech Gandhiji, among other things, said: ‘God had vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. If today I sit quiet in inaction in the midst of this conflagration which is enveloping the whole world, God will not forgive me. I want freedom immediately, the Mahatma said, ‘this very night, before dawn, if it can be had. Freedom cannot now wait for the achievement of communal unity. Fraud and untruth today are stalking the world. I cannot be a helpless witness to such a situation. I have travelled all over India as perhaps nobody in the present age has. The voiceless millions of the land saw in me their friend and representative, and I identified myself with them to an extent it was possible for a human being to do. I saw trust in their eyes, which I now want to turn to good account in fighting this empire upheld on untruth and violence. However gigantic the preparations that the empire has made, we must get out of its clutches. ‘You may take it from me that I am not going to strike a bargain with the Viceroy for ministries and the like. I am not going to be satisfied with anything short of complete freedom. Here is a mantra, a short one, that I give you. You may imprint it on your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. The mantra is: ‘Do or Die’. We shall either see free India or die in the attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery. Where shall I go and where shall I take the 40 crores of India? How is this vast mass of humanity to be aflame in the cause of world deliverance, unless and until it has touched and felt freedom? Today, they have no touch of life left. It has been crushed out of them. If lustre is to be put into their eyes, freedom has to come not tomorrow, but today. I have, therefore, pledged the Congress, and the Congress has pledged herself that she will Do or Die’. Gandhiji was arrested on the morning of August 9 and taken to Yervada prison in Pune. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Sarojini Naidu and many other Congress stalwarts were also arrested and taken to different destinations. Jawaharlal Nehru, for whom it was his ninth imprisonment, was incarcerated in the Ahmednagar Fort where he spent his last and longest spell in jail lasting two years and nine months.It was during this period that he wrote the Discovery of India. The wholesale arrest of Congress leaders sparked off a spontaneous peoples’ revolt throughout India, the like of which was never seen before.The authorities let loose cruel repression. According to official figures, 1,008 people were killed, 3,275 injured and over a lakh imprisoned. The popular estimate was at least 3/4 times higher. The Quit India Movement was the last nail in the coffin of the British Empire. It left the imperial government with no option but to give India freedom. But freedom came at a price: the Partition of India. According to Acharya Kriplani, the Congress President at the time of independence, ‘India could not have achieved its independence but for the accession of strength which the nation received by the successive struggles started by Gandhiji. A nation which could throw a challenge to the Empire at a time when the armies of all the Allies were on Indian soil could no more held in thraldom’. (The writer, an ex-Army Officer, is a former Secretary, AICC)