Editing Mahatma Gandhi (section)

=== World War II and '' Quit India movement'' ===
{{main|Quit India Movement}}
[[File:Gandhi and Nehru 1942.jpg|thumb|Gandhi talking with [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], his designated political heir, during the drafting of the Quit India Resolution in Bombay, August 1942]]
Gandhi opposed providing any help to the British war effort and he campaigned against any Indian participation in [[World War II]].{{sfnp|Herman|2008|pp=467–470}} The British government responded with the arrests of Gandhi and many other Congress leaders and killed over 1,000 Indians who participated in this movement.<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last=Marques |first=J. |year=2020 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vCrXDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT403 |title=The Routledge Companion to Inclusive Leadership |series=Routledge Companions in Business, Management and Marketing |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-03965-8 |page=403 |access-date=8 December 2022 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307161050/https://books.google.com/books?id=vCrXDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT403 |url-status=live}}</ref> A number of violent attacks were also carried out by the nationalists against the British government.<ref name="Anderson" /> While Gandhi's campaign did not enjoy the support of a number of Indian leaders, and over 2.5&nbsp;million Indians volunteered and joined the British military to fight on various fronts of the [[Allies of World War II|Allied Forces]], the movement played a role in weakening the control over the South Asian region by the British regime and it ultimately paved the way for Indian independence.{{sfnp|Herman|2008|pp=467–470}}<ref name="Anderson">{{cite book |last1=Anderson|first1=D.|last2=Killingray|first2=D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rni7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA51 |title=Policing and Decolonisation: Politics, Nationalism, and the Police, 1917-65 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-7190-3033-8 |series=Studies in imperialism |page=51 |quote=Britain's hold over India weakened and an early resumption of Congress rule appeared inevitable |access-date=8 December 2022 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307161050/https://books.google.com/books?id=rni7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA51 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Gandhi's opposition to the Indian participation in World War II was motivated by his belief that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom while that freedom was denied to India itself.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bipan Chandra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0q7xH06NrFkC&pg=PT543 |title=India's Struggle for Independence |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-81-8475-183-3 |page=543}}</ref> Gandhi also condemned Nazism and Fascism, a view which won endorsement of other Indian leaders. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, calling for the British to ''Quit India'' in a 1942 speech in Mumbai.{{sfnp|Wolpert|2002a|pp=74–75}} This was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive revolt aimed at securing the British exit from India.{{sfnp|Gandhi|1990|p=309}} The British government responded quickly to the Quit India speech, and within hours after Gandhi's speech arrested Gandhi and all the members of the Congress Working Committee.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gurcharan Das |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IgbeMDKvkU0C&pg=PA49 |title=A Fine Family |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-14-012258-9 |pages=49–50}}</ref> His countrymen retaliated the arrests by damaging or burning down hundreds of government owned railway stations, police stations, and cutting down telegraph wires.{{sfnp|Wolpert|2002a|pp=205–211}}

In 1942, Gandhi now nearing age 73, urged his people to completely stop co-operating with the imperial government. In this effort, Gandhi urged that they neither kill nor injure British people but be willing to suffer and die if violence is initiated by the British officials.{{sfnp|Wolpert|2002a|pp=74–75}} He clarified that the movement would not be stopped because of any individual acts of violence, saying that the ''"ordered anarchy"'' of ''"the present system of administration"'' was ''"worse than real anarchy."''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brock |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRduAAAAMAAJ |title=The Mahatma and mother India: essays on Gandhiʼs nonviolence and nationalism |publisher=[[Navajivan Publishing House]] |year=1983 |page=34}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Limaye |first=Madhu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WVIwAQAAIAAJ |title=Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru: a historic partnership |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |year=1990 |isbn=81-7018-547-5 |page=11 |author-link=Madhu Limaye |access-date=29 March 2024 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329133300/https://books.google.com/books?id=WVIwAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Gandhi urged Indians to ''karo ya maro'' ("do or die") in the cause of their rights and freedoms.{{sfnp|Wolpert|2002a|pp=74–75}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=von Pochhammer, Wilhelm |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHLB4m75pisC&pg=PA469 |title=India's Road to Nationhood: A Political History of the Subcontinent |publisher=Allied Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=81-7764-715-6 |page=469 |access-date=29 March 2024 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329133128/https://books.google.com/books?id=mHLB4m75pisC&pg=PA469#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Gandhi writing 1942.jpg|thumb|left|Gandhi in 1942, the year he launched the [[Quit India Movement]]]]

Gandhi's arrest lasted two years, as he was held in the [[Aga Khan Palace]] in [[Pune]]. During this period, Gandhi's longtime secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack, his wife Kasturba died after 18 months' imprisonment on 22 February 1944, and Gandhi suffered a severe [[malaria]] attack.{{sfnp|Wolpert|2002a|pp=205–211}} While in jail, he agreed to an interview with Stuart Gelder, a British journalist. Gelder then composed and released an interview summary, cabled it to the mainstream press, that announced sudden concessions Gandhi was willing to make, comments that shocked his countrymen, the Congress workers and even Gandhi. The latter two claimed that it distorted what Gandhi actually said on a range of topics and falsely repudiated the Quit India movement.{{sfnp|Wolpert|2002a|pp=205–211}}

Gandhi was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. Gandhi came out of detention to an altered political scene – the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] for example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, "now occupied the centre of the political stage"<ref name="Lapping1989" /> and the topic of Jinnah's campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi and Jinnah had extensive correspondence and the two men met several times over a period of two weeks in September 1944 at [[Jinnah Mansion|Jinnah's house]] in Bombay, where Gandhi insisted on a united religiously plural and independent India which included Muslims and non-Muslims of the Indian subcontinent coexisting. Jinnah rejected this proposal and insisted instead for partitioning the subcontinent on religious lines to create a separate Muslim homeland (later Pakistan).<ref name="Khan2007-page1">{{Cite book |last=Khan |first=Yasmin |year=2007 |url=https://archive.org/details/greatpartitionma00khan/page/18 |title=The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-12078-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/greatpartitionma00khan/page/18 18] |access-date=1 September 2013 | quote=the Muslim League had only caught on among South Asian Muslims during the Second World War. ... By the late 1940s, the League and the Congress had impressed in the British their own visions of a free future for Indian people. ... one, articulated by the Congress, rested on the idea of a united, plural India as a home for all Indians and the other, spelt out by the League, rested on the foundation of Muslim nationalism and the carving out of a separate Muslim homeland. | quote-page=18}}</ref> These discussions continued through 1947.<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 May 1947 |title=Gandhi, Jinnah Meet First Time Since '44; Disagree on Pakistan, but Will Push Peace |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/05/07/archives/gandhi-jinnah-meet-first-time-since-44-disagree-on-pakistan-but.html |url-status=live |access-date=25 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430103734/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A1EFA3F58147B93C5A9178ED85F438485F9 |archive-date=30 April 2013 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

While the leaders of Congress languished in jail, the other parties supported the war and gained organisational strength. Underground publications flailed at the ruthless suppression of Congress, but it had little control over events.<ref name="BhattacharyaStudies2001">{{cite book |last=Bhattacharya |first=Sanjoy |year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2GI26jditsC&pg=PA33 |title=Propaganda and information in Eastern India, 1939–45: a necessary weapon of war |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-7007-1406-3 |page=33 |access-date=29 March 2024 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329133630/https://books.google.com/books?id=M2GI26jditsC&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point, Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released, including the Congress's leadership.{{sfnp|Shashi|1996|p=13}}