7.1  Cripps Mission · Part 2

and called the movement he launched from there as a ‘fight to the finish’. Quit India The colonial government did not wait. All the leaders of the Indian National Congress, including Gandhi, were arrested early in the morning on August , . The Indian people too did not wait. The immediate response to the pre-dawn arrests was hartals in almost all the towns where the people clashed, often violently, with the police. Industrial workers across India went on strike. The Tata Steel Plant in Jamshedpur closed down by the striking workers for days beginning August . The textile workers in Ahmedabad struck work for more than three months. Industrial towns witnessed strikes for varied periods across India. Brutal Repression The colonial government responded with brutal repression and police resorted to firing in many places. The army was called in to suppress the protest. The intensity of the movement and Mahatma Gandhi Rejection of Cripps’ Proposals The offer of Dominion Status was too little. The Congress also rejected the idea of nominated members to the constitution-making body and sought elections in the Princely States as in the Provinces. Above all these was the possibility of partition. The negotiations were bound to breakdown and it did. Options for Congress in the wake of Pearl Harbour Attack Churchill’s attitude towards the Indian National Movement for independence in general and Gandhi in particular was one of contempt even earlier. Churchill did not change even when Britain needed cooperation in the war efforts so desperately. But he came under pressure from the US and China. The Indian National Congress, meanwhile, was pushed against the wall. This happened in two ways: the colonial government’s adamant stand against any assurance of independence on the one hand and Subhas Chandra Bose’s campaign to join hands with the Axis powers in the fight for independence. Bose had addressed the people of India on the Azad Hind Radio broadcast from Germany in March . This was the context in which Gandhi thought of the Quit India movement.