Boxed in from all sides

Sir Stafford Cripps' Mission lands in India, for the discussions on its Dominion status and participation in the Second World War, today in 1942. Ultimately, it is rejected by all sides - including the British, leading to the Quit India Movement.

Cripps with Gandhi; Source: Public Domain

It was the 22nd of March, 1942. Sir Stafford Cripps and his entourage had just arrived in India. His goal was to ensure a solution could be worked out between the Indian nationalists under the Congress and the Muslim League, and the government of the British Raj.

Britain at that point in time was involved in the second world war, a costly affair, and it needed India’s active support to be able to smoothly channel its supplies to Britain. The Congress and the Muslim League demanded increased Indian autonomy as a precondition to any Indian cooperation. This was totally unacceptable to Churchill’s all-party government in Britain, who were British nationalists, and did not want a colony swept away from their control during a world war.

Cripps thus faced a double blow - one which would cripple him from the start. Furthermore, the Japanese had advanced onto the borders of India by February 1942, and there were very real fears of a Japanese invasion supported by local Congress elements to occur. America was also pressuring Britain to tone down its colonial tirades, but Britain pressed on with its policies.

Cripps would offer Indians a full dominion status - a self-governing entity. Only that the Indian defence ministry be reserved for the British. However, the Congress refused to cooperate, seeing these attempts by the British as a means to further extend their rule in India, when movements against them were already in motion. The Muslim League also rejected it, citing similar reasons.

The British Parliament also rejected it, citing that Cripps had never been given this power - and had modified plans on its own. Furthermore, they worked with the Viceroy of India to undermine their own - plotting Cripps’ downfall.

As the dust settled on the mission, the Congress moved towards the massive Quit India Movement by mid-1942, while the Muslim League saw participation in the legislatures of colonial India as the way forward to be included in political demands.