The Final Phase (1937-1947): Provincial Ministries, Quit India, Subhas Bose & the INA, and the Road to Independence & Partition

The Leftward Turn & the Forward Bloc

🎯 Exam priority: High-yield. Tier 1 — UPSC's bread-and-butter here; study this deepest and revise it most.

Why this topic matters for UPSC. The endgame of the freedom struggle carries the highest combined weight right now — Quit India (2024 Mains), the INA (2025 Prelims) and the transfer of power all sit here.

• 2025 tested the INA's founding; 2026 touched the Forward Bloc — Subhas Chandra Bose is a recurring figure.

• Cripps (1942), the Cabinet Mission (1946), the Mountbatten Plan and the 1947 Act are must-know for both papers.

• Mains: the events leading to Quit India and the road to Partition.

The decade after Civil Disobedience saw the Congress move sharply to the Left, fight elections under the 1935 Act, and then confront the Second World War. Out of that confrontation came the climactic struggle for Swaraj.

The Leftward Turn & the Forward Bloc

• The world Great Depression (1929-36) — with 3 million jobless in Britain, 6 million in Germany, 12 million in the USA — discredited capitalism and drew the young, the workers and the peasants towards socialism and Marxism. In India farm prices fell over 50% by 1932, and trade unions and kisan sabhas multiplied; the first All-India Kisan Sabha was formed in 1936.

• The left-wing tide showed inside the Congress: Jawaharlal Nehru was president for 1936 and 1937, and Subhas Chandra Bose for 1938 and 1939. At Lucknow (1936) Nehru urged the Congress to adopt socialism as its goal. Outside it grew the Communist Party (under P.C. Joshi) and the Congress Socialist Party (Acharya Narendra Dev, Jai Prakash Narayan).

• In 1939 Bose was re-elected president against Gandhi's candidate, but opposition from Gandhi and the Working Committee forced him to resign the presidentship; he and his followers then founded the Forward Bloc.

The 1937 Elections & Congress Ministries

The 1935 Act's provincial half came into force in 1937, and for the first time the Congress took office.

The 1937 Elections & Congress Ministries

• Under provincial autonomy (Government of India Act, 1935) elections were held in 1937; the Congress won majorities and formed ministries in most provinces, governing for about 28 months until they resigned in 1939 over the war.

• Congress and world affairs: from 1927 (Brussels Congress of Oppressed Nationalities) the Congress had built an anti-imperialist foreign policy. It condemned Fascist aggression and sympathised with the victims of Italy, Germany and Japan, even as it refused to let India's resources be used for British wars.

• States' People's Struggle: the movement now spread to the princely states, where land revenue was crushing and civil rights non-existent. The All-India States' Peoples' Conference (founded 1927) coordinated struggles in Rajkot, Jaipur, Kashmir, Hyderabad and Travancore; Nehru became its president in 1939, knitting the states' awakening into the national movement.

Communalism & the Lahore (Pakistan) Resolution, 1940

The same restricted franchise and separate electorates that produced the 1937 ministries also sharpened communal politics.

Growth of Communalism & the Lahore (Pakistan) Resolution, 1940

• The Muslim League under Jinnah, having won few of the reserved seats (the Congress itself won only 26 of 482 Muslim seats), turned to bitter opposition and spread the cry that the Muslim minority would be "engulfed" by the Hindu majority. It propagated the two-nation theory — that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations who could never live together.

• In March 1940 the League's Lahore Resolution demanded the partition of the country and the creation of a separate state — "Pakistan" — after independence. The Hindu Mahasabha mirror-imaged this, declaring India the land of the Hindus and also accepting the two-nation theory. One historian notes the League stayed strong precisely where Muslims were a minority, and weak in Muslim-majority Punjab, Sindh and Bengal.

WWII, the August Offer & Individual Satyagraha

War broke out in Europe in September 1939, and the Viceroy declared India a belligerent without consulting a single Indian.

WWII, the August Offer & Individual Satyagraha

• When the Government of India (under Viceroy Lord Linlithgow) joined the war in September 1939 without consulting the Congress or the central legislature, the Congress — though wholly anti-Fascist — asked how an enslaved nation could fight for others' freedom, and demanded that India be declared free, or real power transferred, before it would help. Britain refused, and the Congress ministries resigned.

• To break the deadlock the government made the August Offer (1940) — vague promises of dominion status and an expanded council after the war — which the Congress rejected.

• In October 1940 Gandhi launched a limited Individual Satyagraha by selected individuals, deliberately kept small so as not to embarrass Britain's war effort with a mass upheaval. Vinoba Bhave was the first satyagrahi and Jawaharlal Nehru the second, each courting arrest with an anti-war slogan.

The Cripps Mission (1942)

Two events of 1941 — Germany's attack on the USSR (22 June) and Japan's strike on Pearl Harbour (7 December) — brought the war to India's doorstep when Japan took Rangoon in March 1942.

The Cripps Mission (1942)

• Desperate for Indian cooperation, Britain sent the Cabinet minister Sir Stafford Cripps to India in March 1942. He offered Dominion status with a constituent assembly after the war, and let provinces opt out — but the Viceroy kept his autocratic powers in the present.

• Negotiations broke down: Britain refused the Congress demand for the immediate transfer of effective power, while the Congress would not accept "mere promises for the future." Gandhi famously dismissed the offer as a "post-dated cheque on a crashing bank." The failure of the Cripps Mission embittered India and set the stage for Quit India.

The Quit India Movement — the Revolt of 1942

With the Cripps Mission in ruins and a Japanese army on the Burma border, the Congress resolved on its final, all-out struggle.

The Quit India Movement — the Revolt of 1942

• The All-India Congress Committee met at Bombay (Gowalia Tank) on 8 August 1942 and passed the famous Quit India Resolution, calling for an immediate end to British rule and a non-violent mass struggle under Gandhi. Addressing the delegates, Gandhi gave the mantra "Do or Die" — "we shall either free India or die in the attempt."

• Before the movement could even begin, the government struck on the morning of 9 August 1942, arresting Gandhi and the entire Congress leadership and outlawing the Congress. Left leaderless, the people erupted in the most spontaneous mass upsurge of the freedom struggle — hartals, strikes, and attacks on the symbols of British authority: police stations, post offices and railway stations, with telegraph and rail lines cut. Madras and Bengal were the worst affected.

• In many areas British authority vanished and rebels set up "parallel governments" — at Ballia (Chittu Pandey), Tamluk/Midnapore (the Jatiya Sarkar) and Satara (Nana Patil's Prati Sarkar). Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the flag at Gowalia Tank and Usha Mehta ran a secret Congress Radio.

• Repression "knew no bounds" — the press was muzzled, crowds were machine-gunned and even bombed from the air, and over 10,000 people died in firings; India "had not witnessed such intense repression since the Revolt of 1857." The revolt was short-lived and crushed, but it proved that British rule now rested only on force. In 1943 the Bengal Famine killed over three million people, a man-made catastrophe the government could have prevented.

Subhas Chandra Bose & the INA

While the country lay silenced after 1942, the national movement found a new voice beyond India's frontiers.

Subhas Chandra Bose & the Indian National Army

• Subhas Bose escaped from India in 1941, going first to Germany and then, in 1943, to Japan to organise an armed struggle. At Singapore he took charge of the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army, INA) — first organised by General Mohan Singh and supported by the old revolutionary Rash Behari Bose — drawing on Indian residents of South-East Asia and captured soldiers of the British Indian army.

• Now hailed as "Netaji" with the battle-cry "Jai Hind", Bose set up a Provisional Government of Free India and marched with the Japanese army from Burma towards India. With Japan's collapse in 1944-45 the INA was defeated, and Bose was reportedly killed in an air crash on his way to Tokyo (1945). Though his alliance with the Fascist powers was criticised, his patriotism inspired the whole nation.

• Post-war upsurge: the British put INA officers — Shah Nawaz Khan, Gurdial Singh Dhillon and Prem Sahgal — on trial at the Red Fort (1945), igniting nationwide protest. In February 1946 the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) ratings mutinied at Bombay; the army was called in and over 250 people were shot dead in 48 hours. These revolts revealed that even the armed forces were no longer reliable.

Cabinet Mission, Partition & Independence

Faced with a country in ferment and a war-exhausted treasury, a new Labour government in Britain moved to transfer power.

The Road to Freedom — Cabinet Mission, Partition & Independence

• In March 1946 Britain sent the Cabinet Mission, which proposed a two-tiered federal plan — a weak centre controlling only defence, foreign affairs and communications, with provinces free to form regional groups. Both the Congress and the League accepted the plan but disagreed over the interim government and its interpretation.

• In September 1946 an Interim Cabinet headed by Nehru took office; the League joined in October but boycotted the Constituent Assembly. After the League's Direct Action Day (August 1946) the country was convulsed by communal riots; Gandhi toured Noakhali (East Bengal) and Bihar on foot to quench the flames.

• On 20 February 1947 British Premier Clement Attlee announced that Britain would quit India by June 1948. The new Viceroy Lord Mountbatten (March 1947) worked out a compromise: the country would be free but not united. The 3 June 1947 Plan provided for partition, with plebiscites in the NWFP and Sylhet. The Indian Independence Act 1947 gave it legal form.

• The princely states were left free to join either dominion; under Sardar Patel's masterful diplomacy almost all acceded to India — Junagadh (settled by plebiscite), Hyderabad (acceded 1948 after police action) and Kashmir (acceded October 1947 after the Pakistani tribal invasion) being the holdouts. On 15 August 1947 India celebrated its first day of freedom, as Nehru pledged in his "Tryst with Destiny" address — though the joy was scarred by the agony of Partition.

Why This Matters for UPSC

Why This Matters for UPSC

• Prelims: 1937 ministries & provincial autonomy; Lahore (Pakistan) Resolution 1940; August Offer 1940; Individual Satyagraha (Vinoba first, Nehru second); Cripps Mission 1942; Quit India (8 Aug 1942, "Do or Die", parallel governments at Ballia, Tamluk, Satara); Bose & the INA (Azad Hind, Mohan Singh, Red Fort trials); RIN Mutiny 1946; Cabinet Mission 1946; Direct Action Day; Mountbatten / 3 June Plan; Indian Independence Act 1947.

• Mains: why Quit India and the INA together broke the Raj's will to rule; why the Congress ministries resigned; the causes and consequences of Partition; the integration of the princely states.

Test Yourself: Practice Questions & PYQs

The final phase — provincial ministries, Quit India, the INA and the transfer of power — is a Prelims and Mains staple (the PYQs below are real, CSE 2013 and 2016), and recurs around independence anniversaries.

Practice Questions

Q1. The Congress ministries (1937-39) under the Government of India Act 1935 resigned because:

• (a) the Cripps Mission failed

• (b) the Viceroy declared India a belligerent in WWII without consulting them

• (c) the Muslim League defeated them in the legislatures

• (d) the Quit India Resolution was passed

Q2. The Quit India Resolution was passed on 8 August 1942 at:

• (a) Lucknow

• (b) Bombay (Gowalia Tank)

• (c) Calcutta

• (d) Lahore

Q3. A notable feature of the Quit India Movement (1942) was the rise of:

• (a) separate electorates

• (b) dyarchy

• (c) parallel governments at places like Ballia, Tamluk and Satara

• (d) the Swaraj Party

Q4. The first and second satyagrahis in the Individual Satyagraha of 1940 were, respectively:

• (a) Nehru and Patel

• (b) Gandhi and Nehru

• (c) Vinoba Bhave and Jawaharlal Nehru

• (d) C. Rajagopalachari and Bose

Q5. The INA (Azad Hind Fauj) under Subhas Chandra Bose was first organised by:

• (a) General Mohan Singh

• (b) Shah Nawaz Khan

• (c) Prem Sahgal

• (d) Rash Behari Bose

UPSC Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

These are genuine UPSC Civil Services Prelims questions (CSE 2013, 2016) on the Cripps Mission and Quit India.

Q1. The Quit India Movement was launched in response to: (UPSC CSE 2013)

• (a) Cabinet Mission Plan

• (b) Cripps Proposals

• (c) Simon Commission Report

• (d) Wavell Plan

Q2. The plan of Sir Stafford Cripps envisaged that after the Second World War: (UPSC CSE 2016)

• (a) India should be given Dominion status with a right to secede

• (b) India should be granted complete independence

• (c) India should be made a republic with the condition that it will join the Commonwealth

• (d) India should be partitioned into two before granting independence

Mains Practice Questions

Use these to frame full-length answers. You don't have to answer one exactly — they show the angles UPSC tests, so let them guide which points you cover.

• Why did the Congress ministries (1937-39) resign, and with what consequences?

• “Quit India was the most spontaneous of all the mass movements.” Discuss its character and significance.

• How did Subhas Bose and the INA, and the post-war trials and mutinies, hasten the British exit?

• Why did the nationalist leaders accept Partition even though they rejected the two-nation theory?