Question

How did the failure of the Cripps Mission contribute to the launch of the Quit India Movement?

Answer 1

Concept:

• The Cripps Mission came to India in 1942 to win Indian support for the British war effort by offering a settlement for after the war.
• Its failure removed the last hope of reaching an agreement by talking, which is why a mass movement followed.

Step 1: Read what the source says.
The passage states that the failure of the Cripps Mission and the effects of World War II together created widespread discontentment in India.

Step 2: See what that discontentment produced.
This discontentment led Gandhiji to launch a movement calling for the complete withdrawal of the British from India.

Step 3: State the link in one sentence.
Once negotiation had clearly failed, the demand shifted from a share in power to an immediate end of British rule, and that demand needed a mass struggle behind it.

Final Answer: The failure of the Cripps Mission, along with the hardships caused by the Second World War, created widespread discontentment in India and convinced Gandhiji that talks would achieve nothing, so he launched a movement demanding the complete withdrawal of the British.

Answer 2

Concept:

• A call becomes historic when it changes the nature of a struggle rather than merely adding one more protest to it.
• The source describes both the scale of the demand and the scale of the response.

Step 1: The demand itself was unprecedented.
The resolution demanded the immediate transfer of power to Indians and asked the British to quit India. No earlier movement had asked for an end to colonial rule at once and without conditions.

Step 2: The response was equally unprecedented.
The call almost brought the state machinery to a standstill in large parts of the country, as people voluntarily threw themselves into the thick of the movement.

Step 3: It drew in every section of society.
It was truly a mass movement, bringing in thousands of ordinary people, namely students, workers and peasants, along with leaders such as Jayprakash Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali and Ram Manohar Lohia, and women such as Matangini Hazra, Kanaklata Barua and Rama Devi.

Final Answer: The call was historic because it demanded the immediate and complete end of British rule, it paralysed the administration in large parts of the country, and it drew ordinary students, workers, peasants and women into the struggle on a scale never seen before.

Answer 3

Concept:

• A movement becomes inclusive when people who were earlier left out of public life take part in it as equals.
• The source names women from three different regions, which itself shows how widely they were involved.

Step 1: Women took part actively, not merely in support.
The source records the active participation of many women in the movement, alongside leaders such as Jayprakash Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali and Ram Manohar Lohia.
They were among those who led, and not only among those who followed.

Step 2: They came from different parts of the country.
Matangini Hazra in Bengal, Kanaklata Barua in Assam and Rama Devi in Orissa are named in the source. Three names from three regions show that the participation of women was not limited to one city or one province.

Step 3: Their presence widened the social base of the movement.
Once women joined processions, hartals and demonstrations, the struggle reached into households that politics had not touched before. Families rather than individuals became part of the movement.

Step 4: Their courage inspired others to join.
Women faced police force and imprisonment along with the men, and their example drew in students, workers and peasants who had held back. This is how the movement became truly a mass movement.

Final Answer: Women such as Matangini Hazra in Bengal, Kanaklata Barua in Assam and Rama Devi in Orissa took an active and leading part across different regions, carried the movement into ordinary households, and by facing the same risks as the men encouraged people from every section of society to join.