Unit 2.4 The Road to Independence (COMPLETE)

Question 1

Why did Japan act as a significant threat of invading India during WW2?

Answer 1

• Japan declared an aim of freeing Asians from European rule.
• Malays and Burmese welcomed the invading troops as liberators.

Question 2

What did Viceroy Linlithgow confess to not having enough of during the Japanese invasion of Asia and what did he suggest to try and help?

Answer 2

• The situation in Asia was so desperate that Linlithgow confessed that he did not have sufficient armed forces in India to hold out against a Japanese landing on the Cuttack coast and could not prevent an advance into Orissa.
• All he could suggest in response to a potential land-borne invasion through Bengal was a scorched earth policy.

Question 3

When was the sea-borne threat to India removed?

Answer 3

• Only removed when the US Navy defeated the Japanese at the Battle of the Coral Sea at the beginning of May 1942.
• However, the fear of land-borne invasion, and the Japanese and German forces linking up in the Middle East still remained.

Question 4

Who was Cripps and how did he come to be appointed?

Answer 4

• Churchill appointed Sir Stafford Cripps to lead a delegation to India in order to secure full Indian cooperation and support for the war effort.
• The British government recognised that in order to gain support some sort of offer of self-determination would be necessary.

Question 5

What worked in favour of Sir Stafford Cripps?

Answer 5

• He was a Labour Party Minister.
• A friend of Nehru and Gandhi.
• Personally sympathetic to Indian aspirations.
• Well known and liked in Congress circles.
• When he arrived in New Delhi on the 23rd March 1942 there was much optimism from Indians.

Question 6

Why was the Cripps Mission ‘doomed’?

Answer 6

• What Cripps had to offer was not what Congress wanted to hear.
• He came to offer what only the British government believed to be a bargain.

Question 7

What did Cripps offer on behalf of the British Government?

Answer 7

• Suggested that once the war was over there would definitely be a new constitution for India and the 11 provinces would get a say in their province.
• In the meantime, during the war, there would be a temporary interim government to which all parties were offered to join.

Question 8

What did the British offer in return for the Indians accepting their ‘bargain’?
(Cripps Mission)

Answer 8

• Indian parties were invited to join in an interim government of national unity under the viceroy and his Council, which would operate until the end of the war.

Question 9

What was Gandhi’s reaction to the 1942 Cripps Mission?

Answer 9

• Gandhi was furious and suggested that Cripps took the first plane home if this was all he had to offer.

Question 10

What was Congress’ reaction to the 1942 Cripps Mission?

Answer 10

• Congress rejected the first part of the bargain. They were not willing to agree to a situation where states were allowed to opt out of a united India.
• Congress were willing to join the proposed interim government provided it behaved like the Westminster one, with the Viceroy acting as Prime Minister and with the defence ministry under the control of an Indian.

Question 11

What was the Muslim League’s reaction to the 1942 Cripps Mission?

Answer 11

• Jinnah was ready to accept the Cripps bargain because of its implication that a separate state wouldn’t be a problem.
• However, he would also have to reject it if the Muslim League was to remain part of the constitution-making process.

Question 12

What were the successes of the Cripps Mission?

Answer 12

• Congress was willing to join the proposed interim government provided it behaved like Westminster.

Question 13

What were the failures of the Cripps Mission?

Answer 13

• Cripps mission was doomed because what he had to offer was not what Congress wanted.
• Cripps flew home to Britain on the 12th of April empty-handed.

Question 14

How did the British respond to the failure of 1942 Cripps Mission?

Answer 14

• Linlithgow stepped up press censorship and intercepts Congress communications.
• By the summer of 1942, the British government was aware that a new campaign of civil disobedience was being planned.
• Planned to arrest all of Congress and deport them to Uganda, with Gandhi being sent to Adan.

Question 15

Why did Linlithgow’s plan to deport Congress leaders to Africa collapse?

Answer 15

• The governor of Aden said if it was implemented he would object strongly to the presence of Gandhi in Aden.
• Linlithgow’s plan was indicative of the level of panic felt in Whitehall.

Question 16

What differences in opinion existed in Congress following the failed 1942 Cripps Mission?

Answer 16

• Gandhi wanted Congress to support a new satyagraha campaign. He argued that since Japan’s aggression was aimed at the British, if India became free they could make peace with Japan.
• Congress disagreed, particularly Nehru as he didn’t want Congress to be affiliated with fascism.

Question 17

How did Congress react to the failed 1942 Cripps Mission?

Answer 17

• On the 8th of August 1942, Congress officially sanctioned Gandhi’s satyagraha and his ‘Quit India’ campaign was launched.

Question 18

What were the successes of Gandhi’s ‘Quit India’ campaign?

Answer 18

• Gandhi encouraged local people to lead their own satyagrahas.
• Attacked Europeans (1000 deaths and 3000 injuries were directly linked to the Quit India Campaign).
• Attacked strategic locations.

Question 19

What were the failures of Gandhi’s ‘Quit India’ campaign?

Answer 19

• Took Congress 3 months to decide what they were going to do.
• Gandhi and Nehru were arrested and imprisoned.
• Thousands of local activists were rounded up and imprisoned.
• Failed to come up with any pressure on the British.
• Congress were not able to get the Army on their side as the Army remained entirely loyal to the Raj.
• The campaign had not attracted support throughout India and had instead brought detention, despair and death.

Question 20

When does Wavell become Viceroy of India?

Answer 20

• October 1943.

Question 21

What actions did Wavell take when he became Viceroy of India?

Answer 21

• Started his time in office by touring the subcontinent on a fact-finding mission. Travelling as far as 1500km a week.
• He focussed particularly on troubled areas trying to allay fears, settle disputes and boost morale.

Question 22

How did Wavell help the Indian cause?

Answer 22

• Reinstated regular meetings of the 11 governors of the provinces of British India.

Question 23

Why was Wavell reinstatement of regular meetings of the 11 governors of provinces so significant?

Answer 23

• Enabled the Government of India to present the British government with coherent advice and a unified point of view.
• Also made it more difficult for the British government to dismiss the views of provincial governors out of hand.

Question 24

What caused the 1943 Bengal Famine?

Answer 24

• Poor harvests.
• Distribution failures.
• Loss of imports.
• Wartime price inflation.
• Severe weather conditions.
• The crop yield in 1943 was the worst that century and the recorded annual death rate rose to 1.9 million.

Question 25

What happened during the 1943 Bengal Famine?

Answer 25

• Estimated that 1-3 million died.
• Price of rice increased ten fold.
• There was extreme begging and homelessness.
• Fears of a potential Japanese invasion encouraged hoarding on the part of those who could afford to buy.

Question 26

How did the British government respond to the Bengal Famine?

Answer 26

• Wavell took immediate action to coordinate rationing and to try to stop profiteering, diverting troops from the war effort to do so.
• Churchill originally refused to divert shipping supplies and said the famine was a ‘statistical invention’.

Question 27

How did the Muslim League respond to the famine?

Answer 27

• Jinnah accused the British government of incompetence and irresponsibility.
• He pointed out that Churchill’s government wouldn’t have lasted five minutes if the people had been dying of starvation on the streets of London as they were on the streets of Calcutta.

Question 28

How did Congress respond to the famine?

Answer 28

• Congress blamed the crisis on the diversion of foodstuffs to British troops.

Question 29

Why was it so difficult for Wavell to get grain to India?

Answer 29

• Churchill was so focussed on the war effort that he only listened to the advice he wanted to hear.
• Wavell’s request for a guaranteed million tons of grain throughout 1944 was met with an offer of 250,000 tons and a request for Indian rice.

Question 30

How many tons of grain had Wavell extracted by June 1944.

Answer 30

• By June 1944 Wavell had extracted 450,000 tons of grain from a reluctant government.

Question 31

Why were Britain now prepared to agree to a settlement?

Answer 31

• Britain was now indebted to India for the goods and services they borrowed to help with the war effort.
• Terrorist activity and unrest in India.

Question 32

What major change did Wavell propose?

Answer 32

• That a new executive council (as proposed within the Cripps Mission) would be nearly comprised fully of Indians (excluding the Viceroy and the Commander in Chief).

Question 33

Why did it seem unlikely that Congress would be happy with Wavell’s new proposal?

Answer 33

• Parity with Muslims would, in their view, inflate the importance of the Muslim constituency in India.

Question 34

When was the Simla Conference?

Answer 34

• 25th June 1945.

Question 35

Why did the 1945 Simla Conference take place?

Answer 35

• To discuss Wavell’s new proposals.

- Congress leaders were released from prison so that they could attend.

Question 36

Who attended the 1945 Simla Conference?

Answer 36

• Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru and Azad.

Question 37

Who was Azad and why did Jinnah dislike him?

Answer 37

• Muslim president of Congress.

- Jinnah saw him as a ‘token Muslim’.

Question 38

Why was the 1945 Simla Conference adjourned?

Answer 38

• The conference reached a deadlock about how new Muslim members would be chosen.
• Jinnah suggested that they should be nominated by the Muslim League.
• Congress could not accept such a restriction, maintaining that, as Congress was an inclusive party, Muslims should be able to represent Congress as well as the Muslim League.

Question 39

When was the 1945 Simla Conference adjourned?

Answer 39

• Wavell adjourned the Conference on the 14th of July, having been unable to break the deadlock.