The Road to Independence, 1942-48 Flashcards
When did Wavell serve as Viceroy of India?
1943-47
Why were the Allied powers in a poor position by the beginning of 1942?
Hitler controlled the Balkans and invaded Russia; Nazi’s were in striking distance of the Suez Canal and France had fallen to the Nazi onslaught
Where in Asia fell to the Japanese over the course of WWII?
Shanghai, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaya , Indonesia
Which Indian ports were attacked by Japanese ships and aircraft during WWII/in 1942?
Calcutta, Madras and other ports on the Bay of Bengal
What finally removed the sea-borne threat to India?
US Navy attack on the Japanese at the Battle of the Coral Sea
What was Sir Stafford Cripps’ title?
Lord privy seal
Who had been pressuring Churchill to make some concessions to the Indians?
Pressure from his war cabinet colleagues such as Clement Attlee and Leo Amery and from the Allies - USA, USSR, China
Why was Cripps arguably a good person to task with negotiating a deal with the Indians?
Labour party minister, friends with Nehru and Gandhi, and personally sympathetic to the Indian cause
What was included in the Cripps Offer of 1942?
the formation of an Indian Union with dominion status and the right to secede from the British Commonwealth
What were Indians asked to concede in exchange for what was offered in the Cripps Offer?
Invited to join an interim govt of national unity under the viceory and his Council until the war ended
How did Linlithgow respond to the failure of the Cripps Offer?
Stepped up censorship and intercepts of Congress comms
What flawed plan did Linlithgow propose to deal with the threat posed by Congress?
Deport Congress leaders to Uganda
When did Congress launch their Quit India campaign?
8th of August 1942
How did the British immediately respond to the start of the Quit India campaign?
The day after Quit India was launched, the British rounded up and imprisoned the Congress leaders and within a fortnight thousands of local activists were imprisoned. Offices were raided and funds were frozen
What are some examples of what Indians did during the Quit India campaign?
Attacked revenue offices, police stations along with signal boxes and railway tracks which impacted the war effort considerably.
What was the impact of a lack of strong leadership from above during the Quit India campaign?
horrific round of riots, killings, attacks on Europeans and on govt property
How many soldiers went absent without leave during the Quit India campaign?
Only 216
What did Wavell do upon being appointed Viceroy?
Toured the subcontinent
What areas did he Wavell focus on and why?
Troubled areas such as the Punjab, Bengal and the United Provinces. Did this in order to settle dispures, allay fears and boost morale
What did Wavell do - which in Linlithgow’s 7 years as viceroy - had never done?
Reinstated meetings of the 11 governors of the provinces of British India
When was the Bengal Famine?
1943-44
What was the annual death rate in 1943 in Bengal?
1.9 in 1943
How many died in Bengal during the famine?
1-3 million
What diseases became widespread in Bengal as a result of malnutrition?
smallpox, malaria , cholera and pneumonia
By what amount did the price of rice increase in 1943 in Bengal?
tenfold
What did Roosevelt refuse to do, which would have helped alleviate the famine in Bengal?
Refused to lend American ships to bring in wheat from Australia
Why did Jinnah reject the Cripps Offer?
He had to reject it for the ML to remain part of the constitution-making process
What should Churchill have done to avert such a serious famine in Bengal?
Should have diverted British merchant shipping to India
How many tons of grain did Wavell negotiate to be sent to India?
450,000 tonnes in 1944
When was the Simla Conference?
Spring of 1945
Why was the Simla Conference arranged by the British?
- Britain was millions of pounds in debt to India from the war effort
- There was increasing terrorist activity and unrest in India
What change to the Executive Council was proposed at Simla?
It would have balanced representation of the main communities incl equal proportions of Muslims and Hindus
How many Indian political leaders attended the Simla Conference?
21
Who was the Muslim president of Congress in 1945?
Azad
Over what issue did the Simla Conference of 1945 founder/fail?
Issues on how the Muslim members of the Exec council would be chosen - Jinnah wanted them to be of the ML only, Gandhi wanted it open to all
Indian imports of British goods fell from £83 million between 1928-29 to how much in the years 1935-6?
fallen to 39 mil
The imports of which British made product in particular collapsed?
Lancashire cotton
What changed with the creation of the Reserve Bank of India in 1931?
The Rupee was no longer tied to the Sterling
How much was paid each year by the British towards the running costs of the Indian army?
1.5 mil per year from 1933
What did the British government agree to pay for in 1939 for the Indian military?
Army modernisation programme
What was the Reserve Bank of India’s sterling balance by 1945?
1.3 Billion
What was Britain’s post-WWII debt owed mostly to America?
21 billion in national debt
How many Indian officers were there by 1945?
15,740
In what document did Roosevelt announce his support for self-determination?
Atlantic Charter in 1941
Who was the President of the All-Hindu Mahasabha?
Vinayak Savarkar
How many seats did Labour win in the July 1945 elections?
393
Who was glad at the election of a Labour government in 1945?
Nehru - he was ideologically close to Attlee
What had been loosely agreed between Congress and Labour in 1938?
They agreed to pass an independence bill as soon as they came to power
Who was the Labour Prime Minister between 1945-51?
Clement Attlee
Who was in Labour’s new India Committee?
Lord Pethwick-Lawrence (academic, not pragmatic) and Henderson a junior minister + Benn, former viceroy and education minister Wilkinson
When was a Cabinet Mission sent to India? Who was it made up of?
March 1946 - 3 Labour MPs
Where does the name ‘Pakistan’ come from?
Composed of letters taken from the names of all of the Muslim provinces
When were the first post-WWII Indian elections held?
Spring of 1946
How many Indians were being demobilised in 1945/6 after WWII?
7 million
Who mutinied in February 1946? How many?
20,000 sailors and their officers in Karachi, Bombay and Calcutta
1946 What percentage of Muslim votes did the Muslim League win in the elections?
75% of all Muslim votes
1946 What percentage of seats were won by Congress?
90%
1946 What percentage of seats reserved for Muslims were won by the Muslim League?
90% of all Muslim seats
How many seats did the Muslim League win in the central assembly in 1946?
30 (all of the reserved seats for Muslims)
1946 In what provinces did the Muslim League form its own government?
Bengal and Sind
1946 Where were results fairly ambiguous, with a non-Muslim coalition taking hold?
Punjab
What did the Cabinet Mission aim to achieve?
Resolve India’s constitutional problems
What did Attlee want the Cabinet Mission to do?
Do everything possible to maintain a united India
Who was notably ignored by the Cabinet Mission?
Sikhs and Princes
When was the second Simla Conference held?
May 1946
What had the Cabinet mission in 1946 proposed?
3 tiered federal structure
What was meant to be responsible for defence, foreign policy and internal communication, along with the powers to raise finances?
The All India Union
What were meant to be the Congress Hindu heartlands?
Madras,Bombay,Orissa and United and Central Provinces
What were meant to be Muslim / predominantly Muslim areas?
North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Punjab + the Bengal and Assam were slightly in favour of Muslims
Who refused to accept the Cabinet Proposal / May statement?
Congress
What was stated in the June Statement?
The viceroy would select members of the interim government
What did Jinnah announce in response to the failure of the June Statement?
Repudiated all agreements with Cabinet Mission and called for a universal hartal - he also told Muslims to prep for Direct Action
How many were killed in Calcutta within 72 hours?
more than 5,000 dead
How many were made homeless during Direct Action?
100,000
Jinnah said Pakistan was worth the sacrifice of how many Muslim lives?
10 million Muslims
Who did Congress try to remove?
Wavell
What post did Jinnah reluctantly accept?
Finance minister
Who was Prime Minister of the interim governments sworn in on 2nd September 1946?
Nehru
Who did Jinnah send to join the Executive Council on his behalf?
Liaqut Ali-Khan
What did Wavell propose, which was rejected by Attlee?
An evacuation plan
When was Wavell removed from his post as Viceroy? Who was the final Viceroy?
Wavell was removed on the 31st of Jan 1947 and Mountbatten replaced him
What was ‘Plan Balkan’?
Allowed the Indian states and provinces to decide their own future
When did Attelee announce the transfer of power to ‘responsible Indian hands’? What was the deadline given?
Announced on 20th February, 1947, that the final deadline was 30th of June 1948
Why did Attlee not want the partition of India?
Dividing a huge land mass on religious lines was a seriously retrograde step
Where did riots break out in 1947?
Punjab
What percentage of the population was Muslim in the Punjab in 1947?
56%
Where was there a civil disobedience campaign launched by the League against Congress 1947?
North West Province
Where did Hindus kill Muslims on a large scale?
Bihar
What did Gandhi do as sectarian violence swept across India?
Began long-distance walks and spoke to the illiterate masses
What was revealed to Nehru in a private meeting with Mountbatten?
Plan Balkan
what did the final Mountbatten plan call for?
Complete separation of India and Pakistan
Who designed the partition plan for India?
Sir Cyril Radcliffe
What illness was slowly killing Jinnah?
Tuberculosis
Why was Sir Cyril Radcliffe well suited for the job of partition?
Not biased - He had no previous experience in India whatsoever
What was the impact of leaks regarding the Boundary Commission?
Pressure from political parties was applied on the Boundary commission to change its collective mind
How many subjects of the Princes had volunteered for the Indian armed forces?
300,000
What town swapped from being in Pakistan to India on the basis of Nehru/Congress lobbying?
Firozpur
How much had the Princes bought in war bonds during WWII?
180 million rupees worth
Who was the head of India’s Political Department, eventually removed from office by Mountbatten?
Conrad Corfield
What had Corfield authorised before losing his position?
burning of 4 tons worth of documents listing the princes’ misdemeanours over the years
What did Mountbatten insist the Princes had to do?
accede either to India or Pakistan
What percentage of India’s assets were located to future India, post partition?
82.5%
How many became refugees during partition?
10 million people
How many lost their lives during partition?
around 1 million
How many British soldiers were dispatched to bring order along the new frontiers?
50,000
How did Jinnah describe the final Pakistan border?
moth eaten
What was the basis for India and Pakistan’s constitutions?
The govt of India Act 1935 - 250 identical clauses
Who killed Gandhi and when?
Nathuram Gose on 30th of Jan 1948 as he addressed a prayer meeting in Delhi
Who was Pakistan’s first prime minister and what happened to him in 1951?
Ali Khan - assassinated
How many Muslims remained in India?
30 million
When did East Pakistan become the independent state of Bangladesh?
1971
