Editing Jawaharlal Nehru (section)

== Nationalist movement (1939–1947) ==
[[File:Jawaharlal Nehru with Mahatma Gandhi during a meeting of Working Committee of the Congress at Wardha.jpg|thumb|[[Mahatma Gandhi|Gandhi]], Nehru, and [[Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan]] at the Congress Working Committee meeting in Wardha in September 1939]]
When [[World War&nbsp;II]] began, [[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|Viceroy Linlithgow]] unilaterally declared India a [[belligerent]] on the side of Britain, without consulting the elected Indian representatives.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Saraf|first=Nandini|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A5YkBQAAQBAJ|date=2012|title=The Life and Times of Lokmanya Tilak|isbn=978-81-84301-52-6|publisher=Ocean Books|pages=119}}</ref> Nehru hurried back from a visit to China, announcing that, in a conflict between democracy and [[fascism]], "our sympathies must inevitably be on the side of democracy,&nbsp;... I should like India to play its full part and throw all her resources into the struggle for a new order".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gk3WCgAAQBAJ&q=In+a+conflict+between+democracy+and+fascism%2C+that+%22our+sympathies+must+inevitably+be+on+the+side+of+democracy.%E2%80%A6+i+should+like+india+to+play+its+full+part+and+throw+all+her+resources+into+the+struggle+for+a+new+order.+Jawaharlal+Nehru&pg=PA60|title=Transfer of Power in India|first=Vapal Pangunni|last=Menon|author-link=V. P. Menon|date=8 December 2015|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-1-4008-7937-3|pages=60}}</ref>

After much deliberation, the Congress under Nehru informed the government that it would co-operate with the British but on certain conditions. First, Britain must give an assurance of full independence for India after the war and allow the election of a [[Constituent Assembly of India|constituent assembly]] to frame a new constitution; second, although the Indian armed forces would remain under the [[British Commander-in-chief]], Indians must be included immediately in the central government and given a chance to share power and responsibility.<ref name="plassey-to-partition">{{Cite book|last=Bandyopadhyay|first=Sekhara|url={{Google books|-EpNz0U8VEQC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|title=From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India|date=2004|publisher=[[Orient Longman]]|isbn=978-81-250-2596-2|location=India|page=412}}</ref> When Nehru presented Lord Linlithgow with these demands, he chose to reject them. A [[Political deadlock|deadlock]] was reached: "The same old game is played again," Nehru wrote bitterly to Gandhi, "the background is the same, the various epithets are the same and the actors are the same and the results must be the same".<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Jawaharlal Nehru|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jawaharlal-Nehru|last=Moraes|first=Frank R.|access-date=2 October 2018|archive-date=28 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230628090335/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jawaharlal-Nehru|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=W. Sears|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen W. Sears|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ABQqAAAAYAAJ|title=The Horizon History of the British Empire Volume 2|date=1973|publisher=American Heritage Publishing Company|pages=465|isbn=978-0-07-030354-6|via=Google Books}}</ref>

On 23 October 1939, the Congress condemned the Viceroy's attitude and called upon the Congress ministries in the various provinces to resign in protest.<ref>{{cite book |title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi |last=Wolpert |first=Stanley  |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-515634-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gandhispassionli00wolp/page/192 192]–193|url=https://archive.org/details/gandhispassionli00wolp |url-access=registration |access-date=4 December 2007}}</ref> Before this crucial announcement, Nehru urged Jinnah and the Muslim League to join the protest, but Jinnah declined.<ref name="plassey-to-partition" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kenanderson/histempsequel/page5.html |title=Gandhi – The Great Soul |access-date=4 December 2007 |last=Anderson |first=Ken |work=The British Empire: Fall of the Empire |archive-date=23 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723053926/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kenanderson/histempsequel/page5.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Civil disobedience, Lahore Resolution, August Offer: 1940 ===
[[File:Seva Dal.jpg|right|260px|thumb|Nehru with the Seva Dal volunteer corps in Allahabad, 1940]]
In March 1940, Muhammad Ali Jinnah passed what came to be known as the [[Pakistan Resolution]], declaring that, "Muslims are a nation according to any definition of a nation, and they must have their [[homeland]]s, their territory and their State." This state was to be known as Pakistan, meaning 'Land of the Pure'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40961603|title=How Jinnah's ideology shapes Pakistan's identity|first=Secunder|last=Kermani|date=18 August 2017|website=BBC|access-date=21 November 2021|archive-date=21 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121151418/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40961603|url-status=live}}</ref> Nehru angrily declared that "all the old problems&nbsp;... pale into insignificance before the latest stand taken by the Muslim League leader in Lahore".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chand|first=Attar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgUJAQAAMAAJ|title=India and Asia-Pacific Security Volume 2|pages=223|date=2010|publisher=Amar Prakashan|isbn=978-81-8542-031-8|via=Google Books}}</ref> Linlithgow made Nehru an [[August Offer|offer]] on 8&nbsp;October 1940, which stated that [[Dominion of India|Dominion status for India]] was the objective of the British government.<ref>Radhey Shyam Chaurasia (2002). ''History of Modern India, 1707 A. D. to 2000 A.'' Atlantic Publishers. pp. 281–283</ref> However, it referred neither to a date nor a method to accomplish this. Only Jinnah received something more precise: "The British would not contemplate transferring power to a Congress-dominated national government, the authority of which was denied by various elements in India's national life".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sears|first=Stephen W.|author-link=Stephen W. Sears|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7xt6BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT616|title=The British Empire|date=2014|publisher=New Word City|isbn=978-1-61230-809-8|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In October 1940, Gandhi and Nehru, abandoning their original stand of supporting Britain, decided to launch a limited civil disobedience campaign in which leading advocates of Indian independence were selected to participate one by one. Nehru was arrested and sentenced to four years imprisonment.<ref name="Hindustan Times-2020"/> On 15&nbsp;January 1941, Gandhi stated:

<blockquote>Some say Jawaharlal and I were estranged. It will require much more than a difference of opinion to estrange us. We had differences from the time we became co-workers and yet I have said for some years and say so now that not Rajaji but Jawaharlal will be my successor.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Science & culture, Volume 30|publisher=Indian Science News Association|year=1964}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Aditit De|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AcQDAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT91|title=Jawaharlal Nehruh – The Jewel of India|date=8 September 2009|publisher=[[Puffin Books]]|isbn=978-81-8475-866-5|via=Google Books}}</ref></blockquote> After spending a little more than a year in jail, Nehru was released, along with other Congress prisoners, three days before the [[bombing of Pearl Harbor]] in Hawaii.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hoiberg|first=Dale|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISFBJarYX7YC&pg=PA109|title=Students' Britannica India|date=2018|publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-0-85229-760-5|via=Google Books|author-link=Dale Hoiberg}}</ref>

=== Japan attacks India, Cripps' mission, Quit India: 1942 ===
[[File:Gandhi and Nehru 1942.jpg|thumb|Gandhi and Nehru during the drafting of [[Quit India Resolution]] in [[Bombay]], August 1942, ]]
When the Japanese [[Burma campaign|carried their attack through Burma]] (now [[Myanmar]]) to the borders of India in the spring of 1942, the British government, faced with this new military threat, decided to make some overtures to India, as Nehru had originally desired.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Amy McKenna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3Lc8XRHz7kC&pg=PA223|title=The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time|date=2009|publisher=[[Rosen Publishing|The Rosen Publishing Group|pages=223]], Inc|isbn=978-1-61530-015-0|via=Google Books}}</ref> Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] dispatched Sir [[Stafford Cripps]], a member of the [[War Cabinet]] who was known to be politically close to Nehru and knew Jinnah, with proposals for a settlement of the constitutional problem.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hoiberg|first=Dale|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISFBJarYX7YC&pg=PA109|title=Students' Britannica India|date=2018|publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-0-85229-760-5|pages=108–109|volume=4|via=Google Books}}</ref> As soon as he arrived, he discovered that India was more deeply divided than he had imagined. Nehru, eager for a compromise, was hopeful; Gandhi was not. Jinnah had continued opposing the Congress: "Pakistan is our only demand, and by God, we will have it," he declared in the Muslim League newspaper [[Dawn (newspaper)|''Dawn'']].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mansergh|first=Nicholas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZiAAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA145|title=Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs: Problems of Wartime Cooperation and Post-War Change 1939–1952|date= 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-24289-2|pages=145|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Cripps' mission]] failed as Gandhi would accept nothing less than independence. Relations between Nehru and Gandhi cooled over the latter's refusal to co-operate with Cripps, but the two later reconciled.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The National Archives – Homepage|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/cripps-nehru-gandhi/|work=[[nationalarchives.gov.uk]]|access-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201235944/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/cripps-nehru-gandhi/|archive-date=1 December 2021|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1942, Gandhi called on the British to leave India; Nehru, though reluctant to embarrass the allied war effort, had no alternative but to join Gandhi. Following the [[Quit India Movement|Quit India resolution]] passed by the Congress party in Bombay on 8&nbsp;August 1942, the entire Congress working committee, including Gandhi and Nehru, was arrested and imprisoned.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/1942-quit-india-movement|title=1942 Quit India Movement|website=[[Open University|open.ac.uk]]|access-date=29 May 2021|archive-date=2 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602213225/https://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/1942-quit-india-movement|url-status=live}}</ref> Most of the Congress working committee including Nehru, Abdul Kalam Azad, and Sardar Patel were incarcerated at the [[Ahmednagar Fort]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aamir R. Mufti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5C1uRIotD4C&pg=PA129|title=Enlightenment in the Colony: The Jewish Question and the Crisis of Postcolonial Culture|date=2009|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-1-4008-2766-4|pages=129–131}}</ref> until 15 June 1945.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Amy McKenna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3Lc8XRHz7kC&pg=PA224|title=The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time|date=2009|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc|isbn=978-1-61530-015-0|pages=224|via=Google Books}}</ref>

=== In prison 1943–1945 ===
[[File:Jawaharlal Nehru's room at Ahmednagar fort - 20151226 031536.jpg|thumb|right|alt=See caption |Nehru's room at Ahmednagar fort where he was incarcerated from 1942 to 1945, and where he wrote ''[[The Discovery of India]]'']]
During the period when all the Congress leaders were in jail, the Muslim League under Jinnah grew in power.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lS1LuJbhl9YC&pg=PA228|title=Civics & History|publisher=Pitambar Publishing|isbn=978-81-209-1088-1|first=N.N|last=Kher|via=Google Books}}</ref> In April 1943, the League captured the governments of Bengal and, a month later, that of the [[North-West Frontier Province]]. In none of these provinces had the League previously had a majority—only the arrest of Congress members made it possible. With all the Muslim-dominated provinces except Punjab under Jinnah's control, the concept of a separate Muslim State was turning into a reality.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7xt6BAAAQBAJ&q=In+April+1943%2C+the+League+captured+the+government+of+Bengal+and%2C+a+month+later%2C+that+of+the+North+West+Frontier+Province.&pg=PT619|title=The British Empire|first=Stephen W.|last=Sears|date= 2014|publisher=New Word City|isbn=978-1-61230-809-8|via=Google Books}}</ref> However, by 1944, Jinnah's power and prestige were waning.<ref name="B. N-1969">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajxdDwAAQBAJ|title=Break Up of British India|first=Pandey|last=B. N|pages=169|date=1969|publisher=Macmillan Education UK|isbn=978-1-349-15307-7|via=Google Books}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

A general sympathy towards the jailed Congress leaders was developing among Muslims, and much of the blame for the disastrous [[Bengal famine of 1943]]–44 during which two million died had been laid on the shoulders of the province's Muslim League government. The numbers at Jinnah's meetings, once counted in thousands, soon numbered only a few hundred. In despair, Jinnah left the political scene for a stay in Kashmir. His prestige was restored unwittingly by Gandhi, who had been released from prison on medical grounds in May 1944 and had met Jinnah in Bombay in September.<ref name="B. N-1969" /> There, he offered the Muslim leader a plebiscite in the Muslim areas after the war to see whether they wanted to separate from the rest of India. Essentially, it was an acceptance of the principle of Pakistan—but not in so many words. Jinnah demanded that the exact words be used. Gandhi refused and the talks broke down. Jinnah, however, had greatly strengthened his own position and that of the League. The most influential member of the Congress had been seen to negotiate with him on equal terms.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sears|first=Stephen W.|url={{Google books|7xt6BAAAQBAJ|page=PT619|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|title=The British Empire|date=2014|isbn=978-1-61230-809-8|publisher=NewWord City}}</ref>

=== Cabinet mission, Interim government 1946–1947 ===
[[File:Nehru with members of Interim gov't faction leaving Viceroy's home after Swearing in.jpg|thumb|left|Nehru and the Congress party members of his interim government after being sworn in by the Viceroy, [[Lord Wavell]], 2 September 1946]]
Nehru and his colleagues were released prior to the arrival of the British [[1946 Cabinet Mission to India]] to propose plans for the transfer of power.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/features/nehru-s-belongings-still-intact-in-almora-jail-157835|title=Nehru's belongings still intact in Almora jail|first=B.D.|last=Kasniyal|website=Tribuneindia News Service|date=13 November 2015|access-date=6 December 2021|archive-date=6 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206134810/https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/features/nehru-s-belongings-still-intact-in-almora-jail-157835|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Mukhopadhyay-2018">{{Cite web|url=https://thewire.in/history/past-continuous-nehru-independence|title=Past Continuous: Those Who Think Nehru Was Power Hungry Should Review Events Leading to Independence|website=The Wire|first=Nilanjan|last=Mukhopadhyay|date=14 November 2018|access-date=9 November 2018|archive-date=9 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109070909/https://thewire.in/history/past-continuous-nehru-independence|url-status=live}}</ref> The agreed plan in 1946 led to elections to the provincial assemblies. In turn, the members of the assemblies elected members of the Constituent Assembly. Congress won the majority of seats in the assembly and headed the [[Interim Government of India|interim government]], with Nehru as the prime minister. The Muslim League joined the government later with [[Liaquat Ali Khan]] as the Finance member.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/september-2-when-indias-interim-govt-was-formed-in-1946-5959889/|title=Explained: When India's interim government was formed in 1946|date=3 September 2019|first=Om|last=Marathe|website=The Indian Express|access-date=29 May 2021|archive-date=2 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602212412/https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/september-2-when-indias-interim-govt-was-formed-in-1946-5959889/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>V. Krishna Ananth. [https://books.google.com/books?id=X62Sc3muOyQC ''India Since Independence: Making Sense of Indian Politics'']. Pearson Education India. 2010. pp 28–30.</ref>