New Delhi: The Quit India Movement also known as the Bharat Chhodo Andolan was launched by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8, 1942. Also known as the August Kranti Din, the mass civil disobedience movement is considered to be one of the most significant events in the history of India’s freedom struggle.
On this day, a meeting of the All-India Congress Committee in Mumbai was followed by the launch of the movement by Mahatma Gandhi.
Attaching the clarion call, “Do or Die” to the movement, Mahatma Gandhi delivered a speech in Gowalia Tank Maidan, also referred to as the August Kranti Maidan.
The Quit Indian Movement was a direct consequence of Britain making India a part of World War II, contrary to the wishes of the sub-continent.
The mass protest that demanded freedom for India was followed by arrests of prominent members of the Indian National Congress. Many leaders were imprisoned after hours of Mahatma Gandhi’s speech and remained in prison, without trial, for a large part of the remainder of the war.
From the arrest of Abdul Kalam Azad, Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Jawaharlal Nehru to Congress being declared as an unlawful association, Lord Linlithgow, who was then the Viceroy of India, adopted the policy of violence to curb the movement.
