THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT AND THE PARTITION OF INDIAcandidature of Pattabhi Sitaramayya from Andhra. Bose won the election
because he was supported by the organisational wing. Gandhi announced
that he regarded this as a personal defeat; thereupon the Working
Committee resigned, leaving Bose high and dry. Bose then resigned, too,
obviously hoping to get immediately re-elected. But in this he was
disappointed as Rajendra Prasad was elected in his place. Prasad belonged
to the Congress High Command, together with Maulana Azad and
Vallabhbhai Patel. This High Command was responsible for the control of
the work of the Congress ministries and was in general more ‘ministerial’
than ‘organisational’ in its outlook.
The Second World War, the Cripps mission and ‘Quit India’With the outbreak of the Second World War Congress participation in the
provincial governments came to an abrupt end. Viceroy Lord Linlithgow
had declared India to be at war by signing on the dotted line without even
going through the motions of consulting Indian politicians about it. But
even that had not yet precipitated the decision of the Congress to stop
cooperation. The Congress leaders had asked for a declaration of the
British war aims with regard to India and this was not forthcoming. Was
this an anti-fascist war or was it just an imperialist war aimed at
maintaining the status quo—including colonial rule in India? When no
reply was given to this question by October 1939 the High Command
ordered the Congress ministries to resign. Consequently, the British
governors took over in those provinces and only the Panjab and Bengal
remained under the government of regional Muslim parties or coalitions.
The two years of Congress government in the provinces had passed very
quickly and not much of the Congress programme had been implemented
in this short period. Some amendments of existing Tenancy Acts had been
introduced and in some provinces such legislation was prepared for the
first time. The Congress had satisfied some of the expectations of its rural
voters. The resignation of the ministries had also absolved it from the task
of tackling some crucial issues and it could later renew its mandate more
easily. On the other hand, the resignation also deprived the Congress of all
influence on the conduct of Indian politics during the war. A resumption of
national agitation was difficult under wartime conditions and Gandhi’s
campaign of ‘individual satyagraha’ was a rather weak substitute for a
fully-fledged civil disobedience campaign.
Viceroy Lord Linlithgow, a faithful standard-bearer for Winston
Churchill, was convinced that there was no necessity to make any
concession during the war. However, the rapid conquest of Southeast Asia
by the Japanese and the expectations of the American allies finally forced
the British cabinet to make a declaration of its war aims so as to obtain
India’s full support for the war effort. When Linlithgow saw the draft