Quit India Movement
On August 8, 1942, Gandhi called for immediate British withdrawal with his "Do or Die" speech at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay. Within hours the entire Congress leadership was arrested, but leaderless underground resistance, strikes, and sabotage paralyzed parts of British India in the most serious challenge to colonial rule since 1857.
Preceding Causes
The failure of the Cripps Mission (March 1942) — which offered only post-war Dominion status with the right of provinces to secede — combined with the Japanese advance through Burma to India's border and Gandhi's belief that British presence made India a military target.
Salt March
On March 12, 1930, Gandhi led 78 followers on a 240-mile (385 km) march from Sabarmati Ashram to the coastal village of Dandi to make salt from seawater, defying the British salt tax. The march swelled to tens of thousands and ignited the wider Civil Disobedience Movement across India.
Formation of Indian National Congress
Allan Octavian Hume, a retired British civil servant, founded the Indian National Congress in Bombay in 1885 with 72 delegates, initially as a moderate platform for educated Indians to petition the British government. It evolved into the primary vehicle for India's independence movement.
Historical Consequences
Though suppressed within months through mass arrests and military force, Quit India demonstrated to the British that holding India indefinitely was untenable. Post-war elections (1945-46) confirmed Congress dominance. The INA trials, the Royal Indian Navy mutiny (1946), and post-war British exhaustion collectively made independence inevitable.