Towards Independence (1935–46)

The Government of India Act of 1935 was the longest Act ever passed by the British Parliament and the constitutional backbone on which much of independent India's machinery was later built.

• It provided for an All-India Federation of British provinces and princely states (the federal part never came into being).
• It introduced provincial autonomy, abolishing the earlier system of dyarchy in the provinces.
• It established a bicameral federal legislature at the centre and bicameral legislatures in some provinces.
• It provided for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a Federal Court (set up 1937), and extended separate electorates.

• It served as the principal source of the Constitution of India — the Constituent Assembly borrowed heavily from its structure.
• It marked the shift from provincial dyarchy to provincial autonomy, giving Indians real charge of provincial governments.

The 1935 Act was put to the test in the 1937 provincial elections — India's first taste of large-scale self-rule.

• These elections are remembered as the start of the "India self-rule" movement at the provincial level.
• The Congress formed ministries in most provinces (about 8 of 11), with Indian premiers running provincial governments.
• All Congress ministries resigned in 1939 in protest after India was dragged into the Second World War without consulting Indian leaders.

Before he raised an army abroad, Subhas Chandra Bose was a rising Congress leader who broke with Gandhi over strategy.

• At the Tripuri session (1939), Bose was re-elected, defeating Gandhi's candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya.
• Differences with the Gandhian leadership forced Bose to resign and leave the Congress.
• In 1939 he founded the All India Forward Bloc at Calcutta.
• Earlier, Bose had been arrested and sent to jail (Mandalay, Myanmar) during the freedom struggle.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Britain needed Indian support, and made its first major wartime overture in 1940.

• It offered Dominion Status as a goal, expansion of the Viceroy's Executive Council, and a body to frame India's constitution after the war.
• It was the first time the British conceded that Indians should frame their own constitution.
• Both the Congress and the Muslim League rejected the August Offer.

With Japan advancing in the war, Britain sent Sir Stafford Cripps to India in March 1942 to secure cooperation.

• It promised Dominion Status and the framing of a new constitution after the war ended.
• It allowed provinces to opt out of the proposed Indian Union — sowing seeds for Partition.
• Gandhi famously dismissed its post-war promise as a "post-dated cheque" (on a crashing bank).
• The mission failed — the Congress rejected it, and its collapse led directly to the Quit India Movement.

The chain of British constitutional moves from 1935 to 1946 is a high-yield exam table.

The failure of the Cripps Mission unleashed the largest mass uprising of the freedom struggle.

• Gandhi gave the famous slogan "Do or Die" (Karo ya Maro).
• It is also called the August Kranti (August Revolution) and started from Bombay's Gowalia Maidan.
• The British arrested all top Congress leaders the very next morning, leaving the movement leaderless and underground.

• Underground leaders who kept the movement alive included Jayaprakash Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali, Ram Manohar Lohia and Usha Mehta.
• Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the flag at the Bombay session and is called the "Heroine of the 1942 movement".
• Usha Mehta ran the secret Congress Radio (underground radio).
• Parallel governments were set up at Ballia (UP), Tamluk (Bengal) and Satara (Maharashtra).

While India rose at home, Subhas Chandra Bose carried the fight abroad with an armed force.

• Bose escaped India, reached Southeast Asia, and took over leadership of the INA.
• He set up the Azad Hind Government (Provisional Government of Free India).
• His stirring slogans were "Give me blood, and I will give you freedom" and "Dilli Chalo" (March to Delhi).
• The INA had the world's first all-women combat regiment, the Rani Laxmi Bai Regiment (Women's Army).
• Bose is said to have died in an aircraft crash in 1945 (the official account, though widely debated).

As the war ended, Viceroy Lord Wavell tried to break the political deadlock through a fresh proposal.

• It proposed reconstituting the Viceroy's Executive Council with an equal number of caste Hindus and Muslims.
• It was discussed at the Simla Conference (1945).
• The plan failed, mainly because the Muslim League insisted that only it could nominate all Muslim members.

In 1946 Britain sent a high-powered mission to plan the transfer of power and frame a constitution.

• It rejected the demand for a separate Pakistan and proposed a three-tier plan with a grouping of provinces.
• It proposed a united India with a weak centre, autonomous provinces, and provinces grouped into sections.
• It provided for the election of a Constituent Assembly to frame India's constitution.
• The plan was initially accepted by both the Congress and the Muslim League, but the League later withdrew its acceptance — triggering Direct Action Day.

The collapse of the Cabinet Mission's acceptance led the Muslim League to a confrontational path.

• The League withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan on 29 July 1946.
• The "Direct Action" resolution condemned both the British Government and the Indian National Congress.
• It triggered heavy communal riots (the "Great Calcutta Killings") between Hindus and Muslims.
• Jinnah later celebrated "Pakistan Day" on 27 March 1947.

The end of the war brought two dramatic challenges to British authority — one in the courts, one at sea.

• The trial of officers Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon sparked huge public protests; the Congress set up a defence committee.
• The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Mutiny broke out in February 1946 at Bombay, when Indian naval ratings revolted against the British.
• The RIN Mutiny spread to other ports and signalled that even the armed forces were turning against British rule — a key reason Britain decided to quit India.