Editing Quit India Movement (section)

{{Short description|Indian freedom movement against the British}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2013}}
{{Infobox protest
| title = Quit India Movement
| image = Discussing the "Quit India" movement with Nehru.jpg
| caption = Gandhi discusses the movement with [[Jawaharlal Nehru|Nehru]]
| date = 1942–1945
| place = [[South Asia]]
| side1 = [[Indian nationalism|Indian nationalists]]
* {{flagicon image|1931_Flag_of_India.svg}} [[Indian National Congress]]
* {{flagicon image|Red flag.svg}} [[Khudai Khidmatgar]]
* {{flagicon image|Red flag.svg}} [[Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma]]
| side2 = {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg}} [[British Empire]]
* {{flagicon|British India}} [[British Raj|India]]
'''Supported by:'''
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Muslim_League.svg}} [[All-India Muslim League]]<br> {{flagicon image|Hindu Mahasabha.png}} [[Hindu Mahasabha]]<br>{{flagicon image|CPI-M-flag.svg}} [[Communist Party of India]]
| result = 
| coordinates = 
| casualties1 = '''British estimates''':<br> 1,028 killed<ref name="Kumar">{{cite book | last=Kumar | first=Raj | title=Essays on Indian Freedom Movement | publisher=Discovery Publishing House | series=History and culture series | year=2003 | isbn=978-81-7141-705-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3kP5AgYYV5AC | page=108}}</ref><br> 3125 wounded<ref name="Kumar"/><br>Over 100,000 arrested<ref>{{cite book|title=The Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi for the Twenty-First Century|page=228|publisher=Lexington Books|author=Douglas Allen}}</ref><br><br> '''Congress estimates''':<br>4,000–10,000 killed<ref name="Kumar"/><ref name="Green">{{cite book | last=Green | first=Jen | title=Gandhi and the Quit India Movement | publisher=Capstone Global Library | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-4062-6909-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yo6pDwAAQBAJ | page=38}}</ref>
| casualties2 = 63 officers killed<ref name="Arnold 2014"/><br> 2,000 officers wounded <ref name="Arnold 2014"/><br> 200 officers fled or defected<ref name="Arnold 2014">{{cite book | last=Arnold | first=David | title=Gandhi | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Profiles In Power | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-317-88234-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GWzXAwAAQBAJ | page=194}}</ref>
| leadfigures1 = {{flagicon image|1931_Flag_of_India.svg}} [[Mahatma Gandhi]]<br> {{flagicon image|1931_Flag_of_India.svg}} [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]<br>{{flagicon image|Red flag.svg}} [[Abdul Ghaffar Khan]]
| leadfigures2 = {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg}} [[Winston Churchill]]<br>{{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg}} [[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|Lord Linlithgow]]
----
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Muslim_League.svg}} [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]]<br>{{flagicon image|Hindu Mahasabha.png}} [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]]<br>{{flagicon image|CPI-M-flag.svg}} [[Puran Chand Joshi]]
}}
{{Indian people sidebar|history}}

The '''Quit India Movement''' was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the [[All India Congress Committee]] by [[Mahatma Gandhi]] on 8 August 1942, during [[World War II]], demanding an end to [[British Raj|British rule in India]].

After the British failed to secure Indian support for the British war effort with the [[Cripps Mission]], Gandhi made a call to ''Do or Die'' in his [[Quit India speech]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wayback Machine |url=https://wp.stu.ca/worldhistory/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/08/Quit-India-Speeches.pdf |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240803201845/https://wp.stu.ca/worldhistory/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/08/Quit-India-Speeches.pdf |archive-date=2024-08-03 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=wp.stu.ca}}</ref> delivered in Bombay on 8 August 1942 at the [[Gowalia Tank|Gowalia Tank Maidan]]. Viceroy [[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|Linlithgow]] described the movement as "by far the most serious rebellion since 1857".<ref name="Panigrahi">{{cite book | last=Panigrahi | first=Devendra | title=India's Partition: The Story of Imperialism in Retreat | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2004 | isbn=978-1-135-76812-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJGRAgAAQBAJ  | page=403}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1=Rose | first1=Patrick | last2=Jeffreys | first2=A. | title=The Indian Army, 1939–47: Experience and Development | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-317-02764-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QEGrCwAAQBAJ| page=232}}</ref>

The All India Congress Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called "An Orderly British Withdrawal" from India. Even though it was at war, Britain was prepared to act. Almost the entire leadership of the [[Indian National Congress]] was imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhi's speech. Most spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses. The British had the support of the [[Viceroy's Executive Council|Viceroy's Council]], of the [[All India Muslim League]], the [[Hindu Mahasabha]], the princely states, the [[Indian Imperial Police]], the [[British Indian Army]], and the [[Indian Civil Service]]. Many Indian businessmen profiting from heavy wartime spending did not support the Quit India Movement. The major outside support came from the Americans, as President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] pressured Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] to give in to some of the Indian demands.<ref name="Herman">{{cite book|author=Herman, Arthur |title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C&pg=PA359|year=2008|publisher=[[Random House]]|page=359|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101071616/https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C&pg=PA359|archive-date=1 January 2016|isbn=978-0-553-90504-5}}</ref>

The movement included boycotting the British government and rejection of transactions involving the government. Various violent incidents took place around the country against the British regime. The British arrested tens of thousands of leaders, keeping them imprisoned until 1945. Ultimately, the British government realised that India was ungovernable in the long run, and the issue for the postwar era became how to exit gracefully and peacefully.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zachariah |first=Benjamin |date=2011-03-01 |title=Zachariah, 'Gandhi, Non-Violence and Indian Independence' |url=https://www.academia.edu/7426304 |journal=History Review}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-08-19 |title=Do or Die: The Quit India Movement of 1942 |url=https://thenonviolenceproject.wisc.edu/2021/08/19/quit-india-movement/ |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=The Nonviolence Project |language=en-US}}</ref>

The movement ended in 1945 with the release of jailed freedom fighters. Martyrs of this freedom movement include [[Mukunda Kakati]], [[Matangini Hazra]], [[Kanaklata Barua]], [[Kushal Konwar]], [[Bhogeswari Phukanani]] and others.<ref>{{cite book|title=Women's Emancipation Movement in India|page=67|author=Kanaka Mukhārji|publisher=National Book Centre}}</ref> In 1992, the [[Reserve Bank of India]] issued a 1 rupee commemorative coin to mark the [[Golden jubilee|Golden Jubilee]] of the Quit India Movement.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2bWubXDYWU |title=1 Rupee Coin of 1992 – Quit India Movement Golden Jubilee |website=[[YouTube]] |date=March 2017 |access-date=12 March 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406094346/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2bWubXDYWU |archive-date=6 April 2017}}</ref>