79th Anniversary of Quit India Movement

On 8 August 1942 at the All-India Congress Committee session in Bombay, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi launched the 'Quit India' movement.
Gandhi delivered his speech at Mumbai’s Gowalia Tank Maidan, popularly known as August Kranti Maidan.
Slogan: Do or Die
Important date: On 14 July 1942, the Congress Working Committee met at Wardha and resolved that it would authorise Gandhi to take charge of the non-violent mass movement.

Background

By the middle of 1942, Japanese troops were approaching the borders of India.
Pressure was mounting from China, the United States and Britain to solve the issue of the future status of India before the end of the war.
In March 1942, the Prime Minister dispatched Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet, to India to discuss the British Government's Draft Declaration.
The draft granted India Dominion status after the war but otherwise conceded few changes to the British Government Act of 1935.
The draft was unacceptable to the Congress Working Committee who rejected it.
The failure of the Cripps Mission further estranged the Congress and the British Government.