India - History Flashcards
Unit 4 - The road to independence 1942-28
Early Period of war background info
- WW2 drove congress and the Muslims league apart
- WW2 led to the end of the Raj and separated Muslim and Hindus
- Field Marshal Wavell was viceroy from 1943-47
- Wavell was then replaced by Lord Mountbatten of Burma
British political impact of WW2
- due to England fighting to economic exhaustion the Indian empire became increasingly worried about British politicians
- The British were desperate to compromise to satisfy all parties
Congress - reaction to war
- Reacted with shock and horror
- They believed that British considered itself to be the master in India
- Gandhi urged Britain to negotiate with Hitler using peaceful means but Members of Congress who were familiar with events in europe (e.g. Nehru) viewed gandhi’s suggestion as futile
- not prepared to commit However, congress stated that they were prepared to fight if granted immediate swaraj
- Congress then demanded its members to resign from provincial ministries in india
- This was not wise as it removed hundred of Indians from official positions where they could have eased the effects of the war for their people
Muslim league reaction to war
- The announcement strengthened the ML position
- Jinnah suggested that ML branches throughout India should hold public meetings and offer prayers of thanksgiving
- This only lead to grow Hindus and Muslims further apart
- ML was revived and privately Nehru was looking for a possibility of rapprochement when writing to Jinnah expressing the sadness that their political objectives and values didn’t align
- Jinnah replied by asking for congress to treat the ML as an authoritative representative organization in India
- The ML was left to work with the raj and brit gov to support the war effort to strengthen their own position in India
advances on india
Pearl harbour propelled the USA into the war
- Japanese ships cruised aroudn the indian ocean and challenged the royal navy
- The bay of bengal was attacked by Japanese ships
- The british were running out of armed forces to protect india
- Lingthow couldnt protect the Indians from the Japanese landing on the Cuttack coast and coulnt prevent the advance on Orissa
- There was also increasing fears of land invasions
Lahore resolution
- Jinnah called a meeting of the ML in March 1940, 100,000 Muslims attended.
- Resolution set out the ML’s basic principles of a new constitution for India. Two main proposals were…
What were the terms
the majority should be grouped to form separate independent states.
- Minorities had to be protected
- Jinnah could no longer see any possibility of a Hindu-Muslim rapprochement.
- Congress’s reaction: Nehru announced that the idea of separate Muslim state was a mad scheme and began to tour around India in an attempt to strengthen congress
Litlinthgows offer August 1940
- Linlithgow invited Jinnah to Simla with the aim of discussing a range of issues relating to India and the war.
- Jinnah submitted a list of proposals which were welcomed e.g. representative Indians to join the exec council + war advisory council was established to involve the princess
- Viceroy made it clear that the British gov could not contemplate a transfer of power to a system of gov where significant elements in India’s life were denied
- Wishes and needs of the Muslim community would have to be taken into account post-war settlement.
- The Secretary of state told the HOC it would be easier if Congress spoke for all main elements in India’s national life.
- Problem for Brit was who should power be transferred to not when
War - 1942
- India sent 2.5mil soldiers to fight for Britain in WW2
lent billions to Britain - Provided base for American operations in support of China
- Over 87,000 Indian soldiers died
Threat of Japan
- In Feb 1942, Japan was able to capture the British hold of Singapore
- Malayan campaign fought by Allied and Axis forces in Dec 1941 to Feb 1942 -> disaster for British, Indian, Australian and Malayan forces defending the colony
- First year of Burma campaign -> expulsion of British and Chinese forces from Burma
- Fall of Singapore and other defeats in 1942 -> monumental blow to Britain in Asia
- There was anxiety about ‘fifth columnists’, like Subhas Chandra Bose, working with Japan.
- There was a divide in the cabinet about what to do about invasion- the British War Cabinet was divided on the question of compromise with Congress.
the appointment of Wavell as viceroy
- Ex Army who had served in many conflicts of the British Empire.
- Lord Wavell played a crucial role while in command of the Middle Eastern theater during the Second World War.
- He was then promoted to field marshal and created a viscount prior to his appointment to the Viceroy of India.
- In June 1943, Churchill offered him the position of Viceroy of India in succession to Linlithgow. He was formally named Viceroy in September.
- He was appointed to India just as the Japanese struck in South East Asia.
Wavells success
Wavells success
- He made substantial efforts to persuade provincial government and princely rulers to implement economic and agricultural development projects;
- He traveled around India trying to boost morale. He traveled as far as 1,500 Km a week by plane, train, jeep and car focusing mainly on troubled areas such as the Punjab, Bengal and the United Provinces.
- He reinstated regular meetings of the 11 governors of the provinces of British India
- As viceroy he was best remembered for the measures he took to relive the terrible famine in Bengal in 1943
- He was also remembered for the Simla Conference of june 1945 were he tried to bring about a rapprochement between Congress and the Muslim League but failed. He hated the idea of Partition, but came to regard it as inevitable.
background to Cripps mission
- Winston Churchill, PM at the time, appointed lord privy seal, Sir Stafford Cripps, to lead a delegation to India in order to secure full Indian cooperation and support for the war effort. The British government recognised that an offer of some sort of self-determination would be necessary.
- Cripps and his delegation initially seemed to have everything going for them. He was Labour PM, friend of Nehru and Gandhi, and personally sympathetic to Indian aspirations.
- Viceroy Linlithgow was less impressed, aware of his own statues and feering that the British Government would impose some sort of settlement over his head and against his advice.
crispps mission
- The Cripps mission was doomed because what he had to offer was not what Congress wanted to hear. He came to offer what the British government believed was a bargain.
- In return, all Indian parties were invited to join in an interim government of national unity under the viceroy and his Council, which would operate until the end of the war
Gandhi was furious, suggesting that Cripps took the first plane home if this was all he had to offer. - They were willing to join the proposed interim government, provided it behaved like the Westminster one, with the viceroy acting as prime minister and with the defence ministry under the control of an Indian.
effects of Cripps mission
- Churchill and Linlithgow were having none of it
The Raj had to remain in control while the war against Germany continued. - Indian opinion was affronted, believing that this was yet another sign that Britain would cling on to India at all costs and would not accept Indians as equal partners.
- Jinnah, on the other hand, while ready to accept the Cripps bargain because of its implication that a separate state would not be a problem, had to reject it too if the Muslim League was to remain part of the constitution-making process.
- Cripps flew home to Britain on 12 April, empty-handed.
