Page 117 - SST Class 05

Second World War (1939-45)

Like in the First World War, the British declared India a party to the Second World
War. This terrible war erupted in 1939 and was fought between Allied forces (Britain,
France, Russia and America) and Axis forces (Germany, Japan and Italy). The British
recruited and sent a large number of Indian soldiers on different war fronts. The
Indian leaders refused to help in the war until India was given freedom.

This war created a terrible situation in India. Not only Indian young men were being
sent to fight, our resources were being used up for the war. While on the one hand, a
large number of Indian soldiers were being killed, there occurred an acute shortage of
food and other necessities. This war made India and Indians suffer very badly. When
the Indians raised their voice, the British suppressed them mercilessly. Now, the time

had come to take a tough stand against the British.

Quit India Movement

On 8 August, 1942, the Congress passed the Quit India Resolution . With this, Gandhiji
launched the Quit India Movement. He gave the slogan : Do or die . In no time, the
movement spread to all parts of the country. He announced that the British must quit
India immediately.

The British once again arrested all major leaders to suppress the movement. New
leaders emerged who took over the command of the movement at different places. The
movement spread far and wide. The British symbols were destroyed. The army had to
be called out at many places, but the agitation continued. Many leaders went

underground and led people from their hiding. The important ones of these leaders
,
,
,
were Jai Prakash Narayan Aruna Asaf Ali Ram Manohar Lohia Sucheta Kripalani etc.
The famine struck Bengal in 1943. The situation was very pitiable then as millions of
people perished for want of food. But the British were fully indifferent to this situation.
So, everybody opposed the British rule. Thus, the freedom movement grew from
strength to strength.

Despite all this, the British
government continued to
stand firm and strong. But
now it was the time for it to
face a new Indian challenge
coming in the form of Netaji . Jai Prakash Aruna Ram Manohar Sucheta
Narayan Asaf Ali Lohia Kripalani
Indian National Army

Subhash Chandra Bose , popularly called Netaji , has played a very important role in the
freedom struggle. He did not agree with Gandhiji on several points. When the British

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