Remembering the legendary freedom fighters; India evokes 76th #QuitIndiaMovement with “Do or Die” crafting New India

NewsBharati    09-Aug-2018
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New Delhi, August 9: Turning pages of history, we ode to the speech that inspired India to give it’s all for Independence “Here is a mantra, a short one. You may imprint it on your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. The mantra is: ‘Do or Die’. We shall either free India or die in the attempt” by Mahatma Gandhi urging people to fight for their soil, their country.

 

This year, on August 8, we are celebrating the 76th anniversary of the Quit India movement launched by the Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 at the height of the Second World War. Mahatma Gandhi, the movement’s chief creator, saw it as an apt moment to weaken the existence of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent through a nation-wide civil disobedience struggle. It was in opposition to committing Indian soldiers to British war efforts, now, a mass non-cooperation movement began with Gandhi’s ‘do or die’ call that reverberated across the Indian subcontinent.

The mass upsurge shook the very foundations of British rule. Mahatma Gandhi called for determined, but passive resistance that signified the certitude that Gandhi foresaw for the movement, best described by his call to Do or Die.

Let’s have a flashback in the history of India’s struggle against British rule that shaped the future of Indian politics.

With the Indian National Congress and the Muslim league discovering that the proposal led by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had no provision for Indian politicians to make decisions in military strategy, the negotiations fell through. It was then on 8 August 1942, Mahatma Gandhi addressed the masses from the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay (now Mumbai) and exhorted them to participate in the Quit India Movement.

Turning pages from the past, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also made the Indians revisit the invaluable movement by displaying archives of 1942.

The Prime Minister also recalled the efforts taken by the women and men participating in the great Quit India Movement.

Although Gandhi was the torchbearer of non-violence, and strongly believed that the principle would be a perfect weapon against the tyranny of the British government, he wasn’t blind to its imperfections. Gandhi wanted the masses to question their fight. The fight, according to him, was not against the current ruling power but rather against the concept of imperialism. Without the clarity as to what they were battling, the Indian population might have won a battle but lost the war.

Within 24 hours of making this speech, the British government arrested Gandhi, along with several other Congress leaders.

Addressing the mass moment, this Quite India Movement led a milestone by giving it a final push highlighting India’s beliefs and morals working on non-violence, liberty, democracy.