On August 8, 1942, Mahatma Gandhi delivered the ‘Quit India’ speech, marking the beginning of the Quit India movement. The speech took place at the Gowalia Tank Maidan park in Bombay, now known as August Kranti Maidan.
Gandhi's
address aimed to rally support for Indian independence and the cessation of
British colonial rule. He advocated for resolute yet nonviolent resistance and
civil disobedience, drawing upon the principles of satyagraha, which emphasized
the power of truth. His famous call to "Do or Die" encapsulated the
unwavering determination he envisioned for the movement.
However,
the movement faced a setback shortly after Gandhi's speech. Within twenty-four
hours, he and the majority of the Indian National Congress leadership were
imprisoned by the British colonial government under the Defense of India Act.
Numerous Congress leaders remained incarcerated for the duration of the war.
Despite
this turn of events, the Quit India speech is widely regarded as a rallying cry
for Indian independence during the tumultuous period of World War II in India.
It symbolized the unified call to action and the collective pursuit of freedom.
Quit
India Speech
Before
you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two things, I want
you to understand two things very clearly and to consider them from the same
point of view from which I am placing them before you.
I ask you
to consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you will be
enjoined to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility. There are
people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or whether
there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question.
Let me,
however, hasten to assure that I am the same Gandhi as I was in 1920. I have
not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same importance to
non-violence that I did then. If at all, my emphasis on it has grown stronger.
There is no real contradiction between the present resolution and my previous
writings and utterances.
Occasions
like the present do not occur in everybody’s and but rarely in anybody’s life.
I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but purest Ahimsa1 in all
that I am saying and doing today. The draft resolution of the Working Committee
is based on Ahimsa, the contemplated struggle similarly has its roots in
Ahimsa. If, therefore, there is any among you who has lost faith in Ahimsa or
is wearied of it, let him not vote for this resolution.
Let me
explain my position clearly. God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the
weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the present
crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa2 and crying for
deliverance, I failed to make use of the God given talent, God will not forgive
me and I shall be judged un-wrongly of the great gift. I must act now. I may
not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened.
Ours is
not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for India’s independence.
In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to effect a
military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under the Congress scheme of
things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be no room for
dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself,
he fights only for the freedom of his country.
The
Congress is unconcerned as to who will rule, when freedom is attained. The
power, when it comes, will belong to the people of India, and it will be for
them to decide to whom it placed in the entrusted. May be that the reins will
be placed in the hands of the Parsis, for instance-as I would love to see
happen-or they may be handed to some others whose names are not heard in the
Congress today. It will not be for you then to object saying,
“This community is microscopic. That party did
not play its due part in the freedom’s struggle; why should it have all the
power?” Ever since its inception the Congress has kept itself meticulously free
of the communal taint. It has thought always in terms of the whole nation and
has acted accordingly. . .
I know
how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but
in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that
if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because
God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana1
for the last twenty-two years.
I believe
that in the history of the world, there has not been a more genuinely
democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle’s French Resolution
while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the
Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles
were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic
ideal.
In the democracy which I have envisaged, a
democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all.
Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy
that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences
between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only,
engaged in the common struggle for independence.
Then,
there is the question of your attitude towards the British. I have noticed that
there is hatred towards the British among the people. The people say they are
disgusted with their behaviour. The people make no distinction between British
imperialism and the British people. To them, the two are one This hatred would
even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most dangerous. It means that they
will exchange one slavery for another.
We must
get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight
their imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not
come out of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part at the present
critical juncture It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be
merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the
United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of
sacrifice and velour, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government
will not be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough
self-sacrifice.
We must,
therefore, purge ourselves of hatred. Speaking for myself, I can say that I
have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater
friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are today
in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to save
them from their mistakes.
As I view
the situation, they are on the brink of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my
duty to warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger
them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to
help them. People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I
may have to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbour hatred
against anybody.
Post a Comment