WWII, August Offer, Cripps Mission & Quit India Movement

Why This Chapter Matters

The 1939–1943 phase is one of the highest-scoring stretches of Modern History for SSC and RRB. Almost every exam cycle carries at least one question from here: the year of the August Offer, who moved the Lahore Resolution, why the Cripps Mission failed, where the Quit India resolution was passed, and who ran the parallel governments. Expect 2–3 questions from this chapter in a typical SSC CGL/CHSL GA section, and 1–2 in RRB NTPC. Banking exams pick it up in August (Quit India anniversary questions are a fixed habit of question-setters).

The most repeated sub-topics are: "post-dated cheque" and who said it, Gowalia Tank Maidan, individual satyagraha's first three satyagrahis, Usha Mehta's Congress Radio, and the three parallel governments (Ballia, Tamluk, Satara). Learn the dates in this chapter to the exact day where given. Question-setters love the difference between 8 August (resolution) and 9 August (arrests and start of the movement).

1. India Enters the War Without Being Asked

Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. On the same day, Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declared India a party to the war. He consulted neither the Congress ministries running eight provinces nor the Central Legislative Assembly. This single act set the political tone for the next six years.

The Congress was not pro-Fascist. Its leaders had condemned Hitler, Mussolini and Japanese aggression in China through the 1930s. But the party asked a simple question: how can Britain claim to fight for democracy in Europe while denying it in India? The Congress Working Committee met at Wardha (10–14 September 1939) and demanded that Britain state its war aims regarding India and promise independence after the war. Linlithgow's reply (17 October 1939) offered only vague talk of Dominion Status "after the war" and consultations with minorities. It satisfied nobody.

In protest, the Congress ministries in the provinces resigned between 27 October and mid-November 1939. The Muslim League celebrated 22 December 1939 as "Deliverance Day", thanking God for the end of Congress rule (covered in Chapter 20, but remember the date here too).

Two more events of this period matter for exams:

• The Ramgarh Session of the Congress (March 1940), presided over by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. It resolved that Congress would accept nothing short of complete independence and authorised Gandhi to launch civil disobedience when he judged the time right. Azad remained Congress President till 1946, the longest single stretch for any president.
• Subhas Chandra Bose, who had already left the Congress presidency in 1939, held an Anti-Compromise Conference at Ramgarh (March 1940) jointly with his Forward Bloc and the Kisan Sabha, demanding immediate struggle.

2. The Lahore Resolution, March 1940

While Congress debated its war response, the Muslim League took a decisive step. At its Lahore Session (22–24 March 1940), presided over by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the League passed the resolution demanding that Muslim-majority areas in the north-west and east of India be grouped into "independent states" with autonomous and sovereign constituent units.

Exam pointers on this resolution:

• It was moved by A.K. Fazlul Haq, the Premier of Bengal (often called Sher-e-Bangla), and seconded by Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman.
• The word "Pakistan" does not appear in the resolution's text. The Hindu press called it the "Pakistan Resolution", and the name stuck.
• Jinnah articulated the Two-Nation Theory at this session: Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations by any definition.
• The term "Pakistan" itself had been coined earlier by Choudhary Rahmat Ali in his 1933 pamphlet Now or Never at Cambridge.

From 1940 onwards, the League's price for cooperation in any constitutional scheme was partition. Every British offer after this date had to reckon with it.

3. The August Offer, 1940

By mid-1940 the war had turned disastrous for Britain. France fell in June 1940, and Britain stood alone against Germany. Needing Indian cooperation, Linlithgow announced the August Offer on 8 August 1940.

Its main proposals:

Proposal	Detail
Dominion Status	Promised as the objective, but only after the war
Executive Council	To be expanded to include more Indians
War Advisory Council	To be set up with Indian members
Constitution	A representative Indian body to frame it after the war
Minority assurance	No future constitution without the consent of minorities

The minority-consent clause effectively gave the Muslim League a veto over constitutional advance. The Congress rejected the offer at its Wardha meeting (August 1940). Nehru said Dominion Status was "as dead as a doornail". The Muslim League also rejected it, since it fell short of an explicit acceptance of partition, though the League welcomed the veto assurance.

The August Offer's one lasting result: the British formally conceded that Indians themselves would frame India's constitution, a seed of the future Constituent Assembly. In July 1941 the Viceroy's Executive Council was enlarged to give Indians a majority (8 of 12 members) for the first time, and a National Defence Council was set up. Defence, finance and home, the portfolios that mattered, stayed in British hands.

4. Individual Satyagraha, 1940–41

After rejecting the August Offer, Congress had to act, but Gandhi did not want a mass movement yet. Britain was in genuine danger, and Gandhi did not wish to embarrass it with a full-scale uprising. He also wanted to demonstrate that Congress restraint came from principle, not weakness. His answer was a limited, symbolic protest: the Individual Satyagraha (Individual Civil Disobedience), launched in October 1940.

The plan: hand-picked individuals would publicly speak against the war, using the set anti-war declaration, and court arrest. The demand was only freedom of speech, the right to preach against participation in the war.

• First satyagrahi: Vinoba Bhave (offered satyagraha on 17 October 1940 at Paunar).
• Second satyagrahi: Jawaharlal Nehru (arrested and given four years).
• Third satyagrahi: Brahma Datt, an inmate of Gandhi's ashram.

If not arrested, the satyagrahi would march towards Delhi repeating the anti-war speech. This came to be called the "Delhi Chalo Movement". By May 1941 over 25,000 satyagrahis had been convicted. In December 1941, with Japan entering the war, the government released the satyagrahis, and the campaign wound down. SSC has asked the "first individual satyagrahi" question repeatedly; keep Vinoba Bhave and Nehru in order.

5. The War Reaches India's Doorstep: Background to Cripps

On 7 December 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the USA into the war. Japan then swept through South-East Asia at frightening speed: Singapore fell on 15 February 1942 and Rangoon on 8 March 1942. Japanese bombs later fell on Indian soil (Kakinada and Vizag on the east coast, April 1942; the Andaman Islands were occupied in March 1942). For the first time since 1857, a foreign invasion of India looked possible.

Pressure now converged on Churchill from three directions to settle with Indian nationalists:

1. President Roosevelt of the USA and Chiang Kai-shek of China urged Britain to win Indian cooperation.
2. The Labour Party members of Britain's war cabinet, especially Clement Attlee, pushed for a fresh offer.
3. Britain needed India's manpower and resources fully behind the war.

Churchill, no friend of Indian freedom, agreed to send a mission. He chose Sir Stafford Cripps, a left-leaning Labour member of the War Cabinet and a known sympathiser of the Congress.

6. The Cripps Mission, March–April 1942

Cripps arrived in Delhi on 22 March 1942 and published his proposals on 30 March. The Cripps proposals (Draft Declaration):

Feature	Provision
Status	India to get Dominion Status after the war, with the right to leave the Commonwealth
Constitution	A Constituent Assembly after the war, partly elected by provincial assemblies, partly nominated by princes
Provinces	Any province unwilling to accept the constitution could stay out and get its own separate arrangement
Princely states	To be represented by nominees of rulers, not elected members
Interim period	Britain would keep control of defence; the Viceroy's powers stayed intact
Treaty	A treaty would be signed to protect racial and religious minorities

Why everyone rejected it:

• Congress objected to: Dominion Status instead of full independence, the province opt-out clause (a blueprint for partition), nomination of princely-state representatives, and no real transfer of power now. The demand for an Indian defence member with genuine control broke the talks. Congress negotiators were Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad.
• Muslim League rejected it because Pakistan was not explicitly conceded; the opt-out route to partition was too indirect and uncertain.
• Gandhi reportedly called the offer "a post-dated cheque" (the phrase "on a crashing bank" was added in press reporting). He advised rejection.
• Other groups objected too: the Hindu Mahasabha opposed the partition possibility; the Sikhs feared being trapped in a seceding Punjab; the Depressed Classes feared their safeguards were unclear.

Cripps left India on 12 April 1942 with nothing. A frequent exam point: the Cripps Mission was the first time the British conceded the right of a province to secede and the first clear promise of an elected constitution-making body. Its failure convinced Congress that Britain would concede nothing without a fight, setting the stage directly for Quit India.

7. Quit India Movement: The Resolution

Through mid-1942 Gandhi's mood hardened. He wrote in Harijan that the British presence itself was the invitation to Japan, and that an "orderly British withdrawal" was the need of the hour. The idea took shape as the demand that Britain simply quit India. The phrase "Quit India" was suggested by Yusuf Meherally, the socialist leader and later Mayor of Bombay (he had also coined "Simon Go Back" in 1928).

Timeline of the resolution:

• 14 July 1942: The Congress Working Committee at Wardha accepted the idea of a mass struggle.
• 8 August 1942: The All India Congress Committee ratified the Quit India Resolution at its meeting at Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay (now called August Kranti Maidan). The resolution was moved by Jawaharlal Nehru and seconded by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
• That evening Gandhi delivered his famous speech giving the nation the mantra: "Do or Die" (Karo ya Maro), "We shall either free India or die in the attempt."

Gandhi told each group what to do: government servants to declare allegiance to Congress, soldiers to refuse to fire on their own people, peasants to pay rent only to non-supporting zamindars, students to leave studies if confident, princes to accept the sovereignty of their people.

8. Operation Zero Hour and the Three Phases of the Movement

The government did not wait. In the pre-dawn hours of 9 August 1942, under "Operation Zero Hour", it arrested the entire top leadership. Gandhi was detained in the Aga Khan Palace, Poona, along with Kasturba Gandhi, Mahadev Desai and Sarojini Naidu. The Working Committee members, including Nehru, Patel and Azad, were locked in Ahmednagar Fort. The Congress was banned.

With every known leader in jail, the movement became genuinely leaderless and spontaneous. On the morning of 9 August, Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the national flag at Gowalia Tank Maidan, an act that made her the iconic heroine of 1942. The movement then ran in roughly three phases:

Phase 1 (August 1942, urban revolt): hartals, strikes, processions in cities; brutally suppressed within weeks. Textile workers of Ahmedabad struck work for over three months.

Phase 2 (from late August, rural and violent): crowds in the countryside attacked the visible symbols of the Raj, police stations, post offices, railway stations, telegraph lines. Bihar, eastern UP, Midnapore (Bengal), Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha saw the fiercest action. The government responded with firing (including machine-gunning from the air in some areas), mass arrests (over 60,000 by the end of 1942, more than 90,000 overall by many counts) and collective fines. Around 1,000 people died in police and military firing by official admission; nationalist estimates were far higher.

Phase 3 (late 1942 onwards, underground and parallel governments): the most exam-relevant phase, covered in the next two sections.

Linlithgow himself privately called 1942 "by far the most serious rebellion since 1857".

9. The Underground Movement and Congress Radio

A network of younger, mostly socialist leaders evaded arrest and kept the movement alive from underground:

Underground leader	Known for
Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)	Escaped Hazaribagh Jail (November 1942) with five companions; organised guerrilla resistance from the Nepal border (Azad Dasta)
Ram Manohar Lohia	Underground organisation and broadcasting
Aruna Asaf Ali	Flag hoisting on 9 August; underground work through 1942–46; called the "Grand Old Lady" of the movement in later life
Achyut Patwardhan	Underground leadership, especially linked with Satara
Sucheta Kripalani	Underground women's network
Chhotubhai Puranik, Biju Patnaik, R.P. Goenka	Support network: shelter, funds, transport (Biju Patnaik flew secret missions as a pilot)
Usha Mehta	Ran the secret Congress Radio

Congress Radio deserves its own line in your notes. Usha Mehta, a 22-year-old Bombay student, with associates including Vithalbhai Jhaveri and Chandrakant Jhaveri, ran a clandestine transmitter from Bombay from 27 August 1942 ("This is the Congress Radio calling on 42.34 metres from somewhere in India"). Ram Manohar Lohia was closely associated with its broadcasts. The police traced and seized it in November 1942, and Usha Mehta went to jail till 1946. RRB has a fondness for the "42.34 metres" detail.

10. Parallel Governments (Prati Sarkars)

In several pockets, British administration collapsed and local national governments took over. Three are standard exam material, and a fourth is sometimes asked:

Place	Leader(s)	Duration	Notes
Ballia (eastern UP)	Chittu Pandey (the "Sher of Ballia")	About a week, August 1942	First parallel government; freed arrested Congressmen from jail; crushed quickly
Tamluk (Midnapore, Bengal)	Jatiya Sarkar; associated leaders included Satish Chandra Samanta	17 December 1942 to September 1944	Ran cyclone relief, gave grants to schools, organised Vidyut Vahini (an armed band); Matangini Hazra, a 73-year-old widow, was shot dead leading a procession on the Tamluk police station (29 September 1942), flag in hand
Satara (Maharashtra)	Nana Patil (with Y.B. Chavan among the associates)	Mid-1943 to 1945	The longest-lasting parallel government, called "Prati Sarkar"; ran people's courts (Nyayadan Mandals), village libraries, and prohibition campaigns
Talcher (Odisha)	Local movement in the princely state	1942	Sometimes listed as a fourth centre

Memory hook for the three: B-T-S in order of start, S the longest (Ballia first, Tamluk next, Satara longest).

11. Who Stayed Out of Quit India

Exams often ask this as a "which of the following did NOT participate" question. Groups that opposed or kept aloof:

• Muslim League: opposed the movement; Jinnah asked Muslims to stay away, framing it as a bid to force Congress rule.
• Communist Party of India (CPI): after Germany attacked the USSR (June 1941), the CPI declared the war a "People's War" and supported the British war effort. The government lifted its ban on the CPI in 1942.
• Hindu Mahasabha: opposed the movement.
• B.R. Ambedkar: opposed it; he was serving as Labour Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council.
• C. Rajagopalachari: had already resigned from the Congress in 1942 over his view that the League's demand should be accommodated; he did not join Quit India.
• The princely states, most zamindars and the bureaucracy stayed loyal to the government.
• Many students and younger leaders of the Congress Socialist Party, by contrast, were the backbone of the underground phase.

12. Gandhi's Fast, 1943, and the Aftermath

The government blamed Gandhi and the Congress for the 1942 violence. Gandhi rejected the charge: the violence, he said, flowed from the state's own "leonine violence" in arresting the leaders and crushing peaceful protest. To protest against the government's accusation, Gandhi undertook a 21-day fast in the Aga Khan Palace from 10 February to 3 March 1943, at the age of 73.

Points to remember:

• The government, under Linlithgow, refused to release him and even made preparations for his possible death.
• Three Indian members of the Viceroy's Executive Council resigned in protest against the government's unbending attitude: M.S. Aney, N.R. Sarkar and H.P. Mody.
• Gandhi survived the fast. Public sympathy surged, and the government's moral position weakened.

Personal tragedies marked Gandhi's Aga Khan Palace detention: his secretary Mahadev Desai died there on 15 August 1942 (within a week of arrest), and Kasturba Gandhi died there on 22 February 1944. Gandhi himself was released on 6 May 1944 on medical grounds, his last imprisonment. In all, Gandhi spent 2,089 days in Indian jails across his life, a figure sometimes asked in tougher papers.

Meanwhile, Lord Wavell replaced Linlithgow as Viceroy in October 1943, and the catastrophic Bengal Famine of 1943 (about 3 million deaths) unfolded through the same year, deepening popular anger. In 1944 came the C.R. Formula and Gandhi-Jinnah talks, which belong to the next phase of the story (Chapter 23).

Why Quit India matters: it did not win freedom in 1942, but it demonstrated that Indians would no longer wait, placed complete independence beyond negotiation, and produced a generation of leaders (JP, Lohia, Aruna Asaf Ali) who dominated post-independence politics. After 1942, the only question left for Britain was not whether to leave, but when and how.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• India was declared a party to WWII on 3 September 1939 by Viceroy Linlithgow, without consulting Indians.
• Congress provincial ministries resigned in October–November 1939.
• Muslim League observed Deliverance Day on 22 December 1939.
• Ramgarh Session, March 1940, president Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Congress President till 1946).
• Lahore Resolution passed 23 March 1940; moved by A.K. Fazlul Haq; the word "Pakistan" is absent from its text.
• The word "Pakistan" was coined by Choudhary Rahmat Ali (1933) in Now or Never.
• August Offer: 8 August 1940, by Linlithgow; promised post-war Dominion Status and a constitution-making body; gave minorities an effective veto.
• Both Congress and the League rejected the August Offer.
• Individual Satyagraha began October 1940; demand was freedom of speech against the war.
• Satyagrahi order: 1st Vinoba Bhave (17 October 1940), 2nd Jawaharlal Nehru, 3rd Brahma Datt.
• Individual satyagrahis' march towards Delhi was called the Delhi Chalo Movement; about 25,000 were jailed.
• Singapore fell 15 February 1942; Rangoon 8 March 1942; Japan occupied the Andamans in March 1942.
• Cripps Mission arrived 22 March 1942; Cripps was a Labour member of Churchill's War Cabinet.
• Cripps offered post-war Dominion Status, a Constituent Assembly, and a provincial opt-out clause.
• Gandhi called the Cripps offer a "post-dated cheque".
• Congress negotiators with Cripps: Nehru and Azad; talks broke down mainly on defence.
• The phrase "Quit India" was suggested by Yusuf Meherally, who had earlier coined "Simon Go Back".
• Quit India Resolution: Wardha CWC 14 July 1942; ratified by AICC at Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay, 8 August 1942.
• The resolution was moved by Nehru, seconded by Patel; Gandhi gave the mantra "Do or Die".
• Leaders were arrested on 9 August 1942 under Operation Zero Hour; Gandhi went to Aga Khan Palace, the CWC to Ahmednagar Fort.
• Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the tricolour at Gowalia Tank on 9 August 1942.
• Usha Mehta ran the secret Congress Radio (42.34 metres) from Bombay, August–November 1942.
• Jayaprakash Narayan escaped Hazaribagh Jail in November 1942.
• Parallel governments: Ballia (Chittu Pandey), Tamluk Jatiya Sarkar (Midnapore), Satara Prati Sarkar (Nana Patil, the longest, till 1945).
• Matangini Hazra, 73, was shot dead at Tamluk on 29 September 1942.
• Quit India was opposed or avoided by the Muslim League, CPI ("People's War" line), Hindu Mahasabha and B.R. Ambedkar.
• Gandhi's 21-day fast: 10 February to 3 March 1943, in Aga Khan Palace.
• M.S. Aney, N.R. Sarkar and H.P. Mody resigned from the Executive Council over the government's stand during the fast.
• Mahadev Desai died 15 August 1942; Kasturba Gandhi died 22 February 1944, both in Aga Khan Palace; Gandhi was released 6 May 1944.
• Wavell replaced Linlithgow as Viceroy in October 1943, the year of the Bengal Famine.

Memory Tables

Table 1: Year → Event chain (1939–1944)

Date	Event
3 Sept 1939	India declared at war by Linlithgow
Oct–Nov 1939	Congress ministries resign
22 Dec 1939	League's Deliverance Day
March 1940	Ramgarh Session (Azad); Bose's Anti-Compromise Conference
23 March 1940	Lahore (Pakistan) Resolution
8 Aug 1940	August Offer
17 Oct 1940	Individual Satyagraha begins (Vinoba Bhave)
Dec 1941	Japan enters war; satyagrahis released
22 March 1942	Cripps reaches Delhi
12 April 1942	Cripps Mission fails, Cripps leaves
14 July 1942	Wardha CWC accepts Quit India idea
8 Aug 1942	Quit India Resolution at Gowalia Tank, Bombay
9 Aug 1942	Operation Zero Hour: leaders arrested; Aruna Asaf Ali hoists flag
15 Aug 1942	Mahadev Desai dies in Aga Khan Palace
27 Aug 1942	Congress Radio starts broadcasting
29 Sept 1942	Matangini Hazra shot at Tamluk
17 Dec 1942	Tamluk Jatiya Sarkar formed
10 Feb–3 Mar 1943	Gandhi's 21-day fast
Oct 1943	Wavell becomes Viceroy
22 Feb 1944	Kasturba Gandhi dies
6 May 1944	Gandhi released (last imprisonment)

Table 2: Person → Role in this chapter

Person	Role / identification
Lord Linlithgow	Viceroy 1936–43; declared war, August Offer, crushed Quit India
Maulana Azad	Congress President, Ramgarh 1940; Cripps negotiator
A.K. Fazlul Haq	Moved the Lahore Resolution, 1940
Choudhary Rahmat Ali	Coined "Pakistan" (1933)
Vinoba Bhave	First individual satyagrahi (17 Oct 1940)
Brahma Datt	Third individual satyagrahi
Stafford Cripps	Led the 1942 mission; War Cabinet (Labour) member
Yusuf Meherally	Suggested the phrase "Quit India"; earlier "Simon Go Back"
Aruna Asaf Ali	Hoisted flag at Gowalia Tank, 9 Aug 1942
Usha Mehta	Secret Congress Radio, Bombay
Jayaprakash Narayan	Hazaribagh jail escape; underground guerrilla resistance
Chittu Pandey	Ballia parallel government
Nana Patil	Satara Prati Sarkar (longest-lasting)
Matangini Hazra	Martyr of Tamluk, 29 Sept 1942
Aney, Sarkar, Mody	Resigned from Executive Council during Gandhi's 1943 fast
Lord Wavell	Viceroy from October 1943

Table 3: Offer/Mission → Key clause → Fate

Scheme	Year	Key clause to remember	Fate
August Offer	1940	Minority consent needed for future constitution	Rejected by Congress and League
Cripps Proposals	1942	Provincial opt-out; post-war Dominion Status	Rejected by all; "post-dated cheque"
Quit India Resolution	1942	Immediate British withdrawal; "Do or Die"	Movement crushed by 1943, but decisive politically

Practice MCQs

Q1. Who was the Viceroy of India when India was declared a party to World War II in September 1939? (a) Lord Willingdon (b) Lord Linlithgow (c) Lord Wavell (d) Lord Irwin

Q2. The Lahore Resolution of March 1940 was moved by: (a) Muhammad Ali Jinnah (b) Liaquat Ali Khan (c) A.K. Fazlul Haq (d) Khaliquzzaman

Q3. The August Offer of 1940 was announced by: (a) Winston Churchill (b) Stafford Cripps (c) Lord Wavell (d) Lord Linlithgow

Q4. Who was chosen as the first satyagrahi of the Individual Satyagraha launched in October 1940? (a) Jawaharlal Nehru (b) Vinoba Bhave (c) Brahma Datt (d) Sardar Patel

Q5. Gandhi described the Cripps proposals as: (a) "A blank cheque" (b) "A post-dated cheque" (c) "Divide and quit" (d) "A Himalayan blunder"

Q6. The Quit India Resolution was ratified by the AICC on 8 August 1942 at: (a) Wardha (b) Ramgarh (c) Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay (d) Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad

Q7. Who hoisted the national flag at Gowalia Tank Maidan on 9 August 1942 after the arrest of the Congress leadership? (a) Sucheta Kripalani (b) Usha Mehta (c) Sarojini Naidu (d) Aruna Asaf Ali

Q8. The secret "Congress Radio" of 1942 is associated with: (a) Usha Mehta (b) Matangini Hazra (c) Kalpana Datta (d) Rajkumari Amrit Kaur

Q9. During the Quit India Movement, Mahatma Gandhi was detained at: (a) Ahmednagar Fort (b) Yerwada Jail (c) Aga Khan Palace, Poona (d) Naini Jail

Q10. Which of the following pairs of parallel government and leader is correctly matched? (a) Ballia — Nana Patil (b) Satara — Chittu Pandey (c) Tamluk — Y.B. Chavan (d) Satara — Nana Patil

Q11. The phrase "Quit India" was suggested by: (a) Jawaharlal Nehru (b) Yusuf Meherally (c) Ram Manohar Lohia (d) Jayaprakash Narayan

Q12. Which party supported the British war effort during the Quit India Movement, calling WWII a "People's War"? (a) Hindu Mahasabha (b) Muslim League (c) Communist Party of India (d) Forward Bloc

Q13. Arrange the following in correct chronological order:

1. Cripps Mission 2. August Offer 3. Lahore Resolution 4. Quit India Resolution (a) 3, 2, 1, 4 (b) 2, 3, 1, 4 (c) 3, 1, 2, 4 (d) 2, 1, 3, 4

Q14. Which three members of the Viceroy's Executive Council resigned during Gandhi's 21-day fast of February–March 1943? (a) Aney, Sarkar and Mody (b) Ambedkar, Aney and Mody (c) Sarkar, Ambedkar and Khare (d) Mody, Khare and Aney

Q15. Consider the following statements about the Cripps proposals of 1942:

1. They promised Dominion Status to India after the war.
2. They allowed any province to stay out of the proposed Indian Union.
3. Defence of India was to be handed over to Indians immediately. Which of the statements is/are correct? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
1	(b)	Linlithgow (Viceroy 1936–43) declared India at war on 3 Sept 1939
2	(c)	Bengal Premier A.K. Fazlul Haq moved the resolution on 23 March 1940
3	(d)	Viceroy Linlithgow announced it on 8 August 1940
4	(b)	Vinoba Bhave offered satyagraha first, on 17 October 1940
5	(b)	Gandhi's famous "post-dated cheque" remark on the Cripps offer
6	(c)	AICC met at Gowalia Tank (August Kranti Maidan), Bombay
7	(d)	Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the tricolour on the morning of 9 August 1942
8	(a)	Usha Mehta ran the underground transmitter on 42.34 metres
9	(c)	Gandhi was held in Aga Khan Palace; the CWC in Ahmednagar Fort
10	(d)	Nana Patil led the Satara Prati Sarkar, the longest parallel government
11	(b)	Socialist leader Yusuf Meherally coined the slogan
12	(c)	CPI adopted the "People's War" line after Germany attacked the USSR
13	(a)	Lahore (Mar 1940) → August Offer (Aug 1940) → Cripps (Mar 1942) → Quit India (Aug 1942)
14	(a)	M.S. Aney, N.R. Sarkar and H.P. Mody resigned in protest
15	(a)	Defence was to remain with the British; statements 1 and 2 are correct