By 1939 Congress and the Muslim League had very different views on the war. Britain declared India at war with Germany without consulting Indian leaders. Congress ministers resigned from their provincial posts in protest, while Jinnah's Muslim League actually supported Britain — widening the gap between the two movements.
Why the war mattered so much: The war forced Britain to make promises it could not fully keep. Each broken or half-kept promise pushed Indian opinion further towards demanding full independence, not just self-government.
The Cripps Mission (1942)
With Japan advancing through Burma towards India's border, Britain sent Sir Stafford Cripps to offer India dominion status after the war, in exchange for support now. Congress rejected the offer — Gandhi famously called it 'a post-dated cheque on a crashing bank' — because it offered nothing immediate and allowed provinces to opt out, which worried Congress about India's unity.
The Quit India campaign (1942)
When the Cripps talks failed, Congress launched Quit India in August 1942 — its most direct demand yet: Britain must leave India immediately. The British response was swift and harsh: Gandhi, Nehru and the entire Congress leadership were arrested within hours and jailed for most of the rest of the war.
- Mass arrests — Congress leadership imprisoned almost immediately, leaving the movement leaderless
- Widespread unrest — strikes, sabotage of railways and communications, especially in Bihar and eastern UP
- Brutal suppression — British forces used mass arrests, fines and in places lethal force to crush the revolt
- No lasting Congress organisation — with leaders jailed, the movement lost coordination, but it showed Britain how deep the desire for independence now ran
Effect, not success: Quit India did not force Britain out in 1942. Its importance is that it proved passive rule was no longer possible — Britain now knew that holding India after the war would require force it could not afford.
Free preview
This is the free notes preview
You're reading the free notes. Aimnova Pro unlocks the full study experience — and you can try it free for 7 days:
- FlashcardsLock in vocabulary and key terms with spaced repetition.
- Practice questionsAnswer exam-style questions and get instant AI marking.
- Mock exams & past-paper vaultSit full mocks and see exactly how examiners award marks.
- Personalised study planA daily plan built around your exam date and weak areas.
Not every nationalist believed in Gandhi's non-violence. Subhas Chandra Bose, a former Congress president, believed only armed force could remove the British. He escaped India in 1941, travelled to Germany and then Japan, and took command of the Indian National Army (INA) — made up largely of Indian prisoners of war captured by Japan.
Bose's aims
Fight alongside Japan to invade British India from the east and trigger a nationwide uprising against colonial rule.
The Imphal-Kohima campaign (1944)
The INA advanced into north-east India alongside Japanese forces but was defeated by the British Indian Army — one of the largest defeats Japan suffered in the war.
Bose's death and legacy
Bose died in a plane crash in August 1945. Although the INA failed militarily, the 1945–46 trials of captured INA officers at the Red Fort in Delhi triggered huge public sympathy and protests, embarrassing the British.
Use Bose to show 'weakening of British power' isn't just about London: Paper 3 essays reward you for showing MULTIPLE pressures at once. Bose and the INA trials show that even failed armed resistance could still damage British authority and morale — a different mechanism from Congress's civil disobedience.
Why Britain's grip was breaking by 1945
- Economic exhaustion — Britain emerged from the war financially devastated and increasingly unable to fund an army of occupation
- A new government in London — the Labour government elected in 1945 was less committed to holding the empire than Churchill's wartime coalition had been
- Loyalty of the Indian Army in doubt — the INA trials and naval mutinies (Royal Indian Navy, February 1946) showed British commanders they could no longer fully rely on Indian troops
- Rising communal violence — Hindu-Muslim tension was spiralling, making continued British rule look increasingly unworkable rather than a source of stability
Practice with real exam questions
Answer exam-style questions and get AI feedback that shows you exactly what examiners want to see in a full-marks response.
In March 1947 Lord Mountbatten arrived as the last Viceroy with a clear brief: transfer power quickly. He judged that delay would only cause more communal bloodshed, so he moved the date for British withdrawal forward — from a planned June 1948 to August 1947 — and accepted that India would have to be divided.
Why partition happened: By 1946–47 the Muslim League (Jinnah) would accept nothing less than a separate state, Congress (Nehru) wanted a strong unified centre, and violent Hindu-Muslim rioting (e.g. Calcutta, August 1946) made a shared federal solution look unworkable. Mountbatten chose speed over careful planning.
| Factor | How it pushed towards partition |
|---|---|
| Muslim League's Two-Nation demand | Jinnah rejected any settlement that left Muslims a permanent minority in a Hindu-majority India |
| Congress's refusal to share power equally | Nehru and Congress wanted a strong central government, which the League saw as Hindu domination |
| Communal violence 1946–47 | Riots convinced British and Indian leaders alike that delay meant more killing, not less |
| Mountbatten's speed | Compressing the timetable to weeks left almost no time to plan safe, orderly population transfers |
The Radcliffe Line split Punjab and Bengal between India and the new state of Pakistan, drawn by a British lawyer who had never been to India, in just five weeks. Borders were announced only after independence day, 15 August 1947 (Pakistan's independence was marked a day earlier).
The human cost: Partition triggered one of the largest forced migrations in history — an estimated 10–15 million people crossed the new borders, and around 1 million people died in the accompanying communal violence. Always mention the human cost, not just the political mechanics, when Paper 3 asks you to assess partition.
- Radcliffe Line — the hastily drawn border splitting Punjab and Bengal between India and Pakistan
- Two-Nation theory — Jinnah's idea that Hindus and Muslims were separate nations needing separate states
- Mountbatten Plan — the June 1947 plan accepting partition and bringing independence forward to August 1947