The viceroy takes India to war
On 3 September 1939 Britain declared war on Germany. On the same day the viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, announced that India was at war too. The law allowed him to do this. But he did not consult a single Indian leader, the central assembly or the elected ministries in the provinces.
Congress ministries governed eight provinces. Being ignored on the biggest decision of all showed them where real power still lay.
Key terms:
- Day of Deliverance: 22 December 1939, when Jinnah asked Muslims to give thanks that Congress rule in the provinces had ended.
- August Offer: the viceroy's proposals of August 1940 to win Indian support for the war.
- Individual satyagraha: Gandhi's limited protest of 1940-41, in which chosen people, one at a time, spoke against the war and were arrested.
- Two-nation theory: the idea that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations, not two communities in one nation.
- Lahore Resolution: the Muslim League's demand of March 1940 for independent states in the Muslim-majority areas of India.
Attitudes towards the war
Indians did not react in one way.
❌ Congress: no support without freedom
Congress leaders hated Nazi Germany. But on 14 September 1939 the Working Committee asked how India could fight for freedom abroad while it was refused freedom at home. It asked Britain to state its war aims and say how they applied to India. On 17 October Linlithgow replied that dominion status was the goal, but that changes would only be discussed after the war. Congress called this a refusal. On 22 October it told its ministries to resign, and by mid-November 1939 all eight had gone. British governors took over, and in most of these provinces they ruled for the rest of the war.
✅ The Muslim League: support with conditions
The League did not oppose the war effort. Its resolution of 18 September 1939 offered sympathy to Britain but set conditions. Above all, no new constitution should be made for India without the League's agreement. The governments of Punjab and Bengal backed the war fully, and Punjab was the army's main recruiting ground. When the Congress ministries resigned, Jinnah declared a Day of Deliverance. The viceroy now needed the League, and treated Jinnah as the spokesman for India's Muslims.
Others backed the war more simply. The princes offered money and men. Many Indians volunteered for the army. Nobody was forced to join.
The resignations cost Congress dearly. It gave up power in eight provinces and its influence over the government. The League stepped into the gap.
Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah: policies and relations
🌾 Gandhi
Gandhi believed all war was wrong. He told the viceroy that his sympathies were with Britain and France, and he did not want to make trouble for Britain while it fought for its life. He believed Hindus and Muslims were one nation.
📖 Nehru
Nehru was a strong enemy of fascism (the kind of dictatorship led by Hitler and Mussolini) and wrote the Congress statement of 14 September. His policy was that India should fight Hitler, but only as a free nation with its own government. He wanted a united India with no place for religion in politics.
📜 Jinnah
Jinnah's policy was to make the League the equal of Congress and the only voice of India's Muslims. He used the war to get closer to the British. He stayed out of protest and never went to prison.
Gandhi and Nehru were close, but they did not always agree. In the summer of 1940 Congress offered to help defend India if Britain set up an Indian national government at once. Gandhi could not support any war, so he stood aside. Britain answered with the August Offer of 8 August 1940: more Indians on the viceroy's council and a body to write a constitution after the war. Congress rejected it. Gandhi then led individual satyagraha from October 1940. Nehru was one of the first to be arrested and was sentenced to four years. Over 20,000 people were jailed by the middle of 1941. The protest was kept small on purpose, so that it would not wreck the war effort.
Jinnah and the Congress leaders were now far apart. During the election campaign of 1936-37 Nehru had said that there were only two forces in India, the British and Congress. Jinnah answered that there was a third, the Muslims. Nehru saw the League as a party of landowners that used religion. Jinnah saw Gandhi as a Hindu leader, however much Gandhi denied it. Congress pointed out that it had many Muslim members, and its president from 1940 was a Muslim, Maulana Azad. Jinnah refused to deal with Azad.
The Lahore Resolution, 1940
In March 1940 the Muslim League met at Lahore in front of a huge crowd. On 22 March Jinnah set out the two-nation theory. Hindus and Muslims, he said, had different religions, customs and histories, and Muslims were 'a nation according to any definition of a nation'. The next day Fazlul Huq, the premier of Bengal, proposed the resolution. It was passed on 24 March.
The resolution said that the areas where Muslims were in a majority, in the north-west and the east of India, should be grouped to form 'Independent States'. It did not use the word Pakistan, a name invented in 1933 by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a student at Cambridge. But the newspapers soon called it the 'Pakistan Resolution'.
Why the Lahore Resolution was significant
- A new aim. Until 1940 the League had asked for safeguards for Muslims inside one India. Now it demanded separate states.
- A clear goal for Muslims. A simple, powerful idea helped the League win mass support in the years that followed.
- A deal with Congress became much harder. Gandhi and Nehru rejected the two-nation theory completely. The two sides no longer wanted the same India.
- Britain had to take it seriously. The August Offer promised that Britain would not hand power to any government rejected by large and powerful groups in India. In practice, the League could now block any settlement it disliked.
- It left big questions open. It drew no borders and spoke of 'states', not one state. Historians disagree about whether Jinnah already wanted full separation or was bargaining for a better deal.
Common mistakes
- Saying Congress supported Hitler or opposed the war because it liked Germany. Congress opposed fascism. It objected to fighting without being asked and without a promise of freedom.
- Saying the Lahore Resolution created Pakistan or used the name. It demanded independent Muslim states, with no borders and no name.
- Mixing up 1939 and 1942. The mass 'Quit India' campaign came later. In 1939-41 Congress resigned office and used small, limited protest.
Exam-style question
Explain two effects of the viceroy's declaration of war (September 1939) on Indian politics. [8 marks]
Model answer
One effect was that Congress gave up power in the provinces. Lord Linlithgow declared India at war on 3 September 1939 without consulting any Indian leader, although Congress ministries governed eight provinces. Congress asked Britain to state its war aims and promise India its freedom. When the viceroy offered only talks after the war, Congress told its ministries to resign, and all eight had gone by mid-November 1939. Because Congress was ignored and then refused, it chose protest over office, so British governors took over and Congress lost its influence over the government.
A second effect was that the Muslim League grew stronger. The League did not oppose the war effort, and Jinnah celebrated the Congress resignations with a Day of Deliverance on 22 December 1939. With Congress out of office, the British needed the League's goodwill, so the viceroy treated Jinnah as the spokesman for Muslims. This gave Jinnah the confidence to pass the Lahore Resolution in March 1940, demanding independent Muslim states. In the August Offer of 1940 Britain then promised not to hand power to a government rejected by large groups, which in practice let the League block a settlement.
What lifts it to the top level: each paragraph names one effect, backs it with precise dates and names, and uses linking words ('because', 'so', 'this gave') to show how the declaration of war led to that effect.
Exam tip
One effect alone cannot score more than 4 of the 8 marks, however well you explain it. Here, write one paragraph on what the declaration did to Congress and one on what it did to the Muslim League, and in each one show the chain from the declaration to the result.