. Towards Freedom (a) Royal Indian Navy Revolt The Royal Indian Navy ratings revolted at Bombay in February . It soon spread attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery.” A non-violent mass struggle under Gandhi was to be launched. But early next morning on August Gandhi and the entire Congress leadership were arrested.
(d) Role of Socialists With Gandhi and other prominent leaders of the Congress in jail, the Socialists provided the leadership for the movement. Jayaprakash Narayan and Ramanand Misra escaped from prison and organised an underground movement. Women activists like Aruna Asaf Ali played a heroic role. Usha Mehta established Congress Radio underground which successfully functioned till November .
(e) People’s Response As news spread to different parts of India, a spontaneous protest broke out everywhere. The people protested in whatever form that they could, such as hartals, strikes, picketing. The government suppressed it with brute force. People attacked government buildings, railway stations, telephone and telegraph lines and all that stood as symbols of British authority.
This was particularly widespread in Madras. Parallel governments were established in Satara, Orissa, Bihar, United Provinces and Bengal. (f) Subhas Chandra Bose and INA Subhas Chandra Bose who had left the Congress was now under house arrest. He wanted to strike British hard by joining its enemies.
In March , he made a dramatic escape from his house in disguise and reached Afghanistan. Initially he wanted to get the support of Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union joined the Allied Aruna Asaf Ali Nationalism: Gandhian Phase Allahabad Jallianwalabagh (Amritsar) Delhi Lahore Patna Chauri Chaura Gorakhpur Champaran Kheda Bardoli Nagpur E W N S Not to Scale