Nationalist Movement in 1940.

This period is a bridge between the failure of the Cripps Mission (which was still two years away) and the Quit India Movement (1942).
It shows a phase of political introspection — where the Congress was divided on strategy, Gandhi was cautious, radicals were restless, and the British were maneuvering diplomatically.

🌤️ Background — A Time of Confusion and Conflict

By 1940, the world was deep in the Second World War. Britain was struggling in Europe, yet India was automatically dragged into the war without consultation.
Within the Indian National Congress, there was frustration and uncertainty. After the resignation of ministries (1939), the question was —

What next? Should India start another movement or wait for a better moment?

It was in this environment that two schools of thought emerged within the Congress.

🕊️ Gandhi’s Reservations on Launching Civil Disobedience

The Moderate View — Gandhi’s Caution

Mahatma Gandhi felt that the time was not ripe for a new mass civil disobedience movement.
He gave three clear reasons:

1. Lack of discipline and unity within the Congress itself.
2. Masses were not psychologically or organisationally ready.
3. Absence of Hindu–Muslim unity, which Gandhi saw as the moral precondition for any national struggle.

Gandhi’s approach was deeply strategic: he knew that a movement launched without readiness could collapse under repression, and that would hurt the moral authority of the freedom struggle.

The Radical View — Bose and the Left Wing

Leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose, the Socialists (Acharya Narendra Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan) and Communists argued the opposite.
They said:

“Once the movement starts, unity will follow. Mass action itself creates discipline.”

They felt that World War II was India’s opportunity — when Britain was weak and preoccupied — to strike for freedom.
However, Gandhi remained unconvinced. He believed freedom should not come by exploiting another’s weakness but through one’s own moral strength.

🏕️ The Ramgarh Session (March 1940)

The 53rd Session of the Indian National Congress met at Ramgarh (present-day Jharkhand) under the presidency of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
Here, the Congress reiterated its central demand —

“Nothing short of Complete Independence (Purna Swaraj) is acceptable.”

The key resolutions:

1. Resignation of ministries was reaffirmed as a moral protest against British war policy.
2. Once the organisation and people were prepared, mass civil disobedience would be launched — and the final decision was left to Gandhi.

Essentially, Congress entrusted Gandhi with full authority to decide when and how to start the next phase of the struggle.

🔥 The Anti-Compromise Conference (Ramgarh, 1940)

While the official Congress session was going on, Subhas Chandra Bose convened a parallel gathering nearby — the Anti-Compromise Conference, organised jointly by the Forward Bloc and the All India Kisan Sabha.

The message of this conference:

• There should be no compromise with imperialism.
• India must not help the British in the war under any pretext.
• The people must prepare for immediate direct action.

Participants included Socialists, Communists, and Left agrarian leaders, who rejected what they saw as Gandhi’s cautious, compromising attitude.

This conference represented the growing ideological split — between Gandhi’s moral politics and Bose’s militant nationalism.

📜 The August Offer (August 1940)

By mid-1940, the war situation had worsened for Britain — France had fallen, and London was under attack.
Needing India’s full cooperation, Viceroy Linlithgow made a new political proposal known as the August Offer, announced at Simla on 8 August 1940.

🔹 Main Provisions of the August Offer

1. Dominion status after the war — a future promise, not immediate freedom.
2. Expansion of the Executive Council, giving more seats to Indians (majority Indian members).
3. Constituent Assembly to be set up after the war to frame a constitution.
4. War Advisory Council to include Indian states’ representatives.
5. Full weight to minority opinions — no future constitution without their consent.

This was Britain’s attempt to appear liberal and conciliatory while retaining actual control.
To minorities (especially the Muslim League), it assured that no constitution would be forced upon them without their approval — subtly strengthening communal divisions.

⚖️ Significance of the August Offer

For the first time, the British verbally recognized:

• The right of Indians to frame their own constitution, and
• The concept of self-determination (though limited).

It also explicitly mentioned Dominion Status — a step up from earlier vague promises.

However, these were post-war assurances, not immediate reforms — and that was the deal-breaker.

🚫 Reactions of the Congress and the Muslim League

• Congress Rejected the Offer because:
  1. It had no provision for an immediate national government.
  2. It encouraged communal and sectional politics by giving minorities veto powers.
• Muslim League Rejected it too, because by now (after Lahore Resolution, March 1940), it had begun demanding a separate Muslim homeland (Pakistan) — not dominion status within a united India.

So, the August Offer pleased no one — it only widened political distances.

🙋 Individual Satyagraha (October 1940 – December 1941)

After the failure of the August Offer, Gandhi decided that a limited, symbolic struggle was needed — not a full-fledged mass movement like in 1930, but something that would:

• Reassert India’s right to dissent,
• And test the political temperature of the country.

🔹 The Immediate Issue

By 1940, the British government had imposed strict censorship and restricted public speech through wartime ordinances.
So Gandhi declared that the immediate issue was not just Swaraj, but “Freedom of Speech” — the right to speak against an unjust war.

🔹 Nature of the Movement

Thus began the Individual Satyagraha, inaugurated on 17 October 1940.

• Vinoba Bhave was chosen as the first Satyagrahi.
• Jawaharlal Nehru became the second Satyagrahi.
• The satyagrahis would:
  • Publicly declare their opposition to the war,
  • Court arrest, and
  • If not arrested, repeat the protest or march toward Delhi — giving rise to the slogan “Delhi Chalo”.

By May 1941, over 25,000 people were imprisoned for this peaceful defiance.

Gandhi deliberately kept it individual, not collective — to avoid embarrassing Britain during wartime, yet to assert that India did not consent to fight a war for its oppressor.

The campaign was suspended in December 1941, just before Japan’s entry into the war changed the global situation.

🌿 Significance of Individual Satyagraha

1. It was a moral protest, not a political gamble — asserting India’s right to truthful speech.
2. It provided a channel for disciplined dissent without large-scale violence or chaos.
3. It exposed the British lie that India was voluntarily supporting their war effort.
4. It kept the Congress organisationally alive and ready for the next big struggle (Quit India, 1942).

🕌 The Lahore (Pakistan) Resolution — March 23, 1940

While the Congress was debating strategy, the Muslim League, under Muhammad Ali Jinnah, took a historic step in its Lahore session.

🔹 Key Point:

• It demanded autonomy for Muslim-majority regions in the north-west and north-east of India.
• Though the resolution didn’t explicitly use the word “Pakistan”, it implicitly laid its foundation.
• The League argued that Muslims were a separate nation and needed a separate homeland.
• Pakistan later recognized 23 March 1940 as its National Day.

This resolution formally introduced the two-nation theory into mainstream politics — deepening the communal divide in India’s final phase of struggle.

🎯 Concluding Insight

The year 1940 was a year of waiting, debate, and divergence.
It marked:

• Gandhi’s strategic patience versus Bose’s revolutionary impatience,
• Britain’s false liberalism, and
• The League’s new separatist assertiveness.

Yet, these conflicting developments together set the stage for the final, explosive phase of India’s struggle — the Quit India Movement of 1942.