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UPSC Mains 2024 · GS Paper I · Q3

UPSC Mains 2024 GS1 Q3: model answer

What were the events that led to the Quit India Movement? Point out its results.

10 marks150 wordsDirective: Point out

What the question wants

Causes leading to August 1942, and outcomes.

How to structure it

Intro: 8 August 1942 resolution. Body: (1) Events that led to it; (2) Results. Conclusion: Though crushed in months, Quit India made freedom the only item left on the agenda.

How to structure the answer
Introduction8 August 1942 resolution
Main body
  1. 1(1) Events that led to it
  2. 2(2) Results
ConclusionThough crushed in months, Quit India made freedom the only item left on the agenda

Model answer

On 8 August 1942, at Gowalia Tank in Bombay, the Congress passed the Quit India resolution and Gandhi gave the call 'Do or Die'.

Road to Quit India
  1. 11939: War declared for India; ministries resign
  2. 21940: August Offer; individual satyagraha
  3. 3Apr 1942: Cripps Mission fails
  4. 4Japanese reach Burma
  5. 58 Aug 1942: Quit India resolution, Do or Die

Events that led to it

  • India dragged into the Second World War in 1939 without consultation; Congress ministries resigned.
  • August Offer (1940) and individual satyagraha failed to break the deadlock.
  • Failure of the Cripps Mission (April 1942), which offered only post-war dominion status.
  • Japanese advance to Burma; fear of invasion and of British withdrawal as in Malaya.
  • Price rise, shortages and popular discontent.

Results

  • Leaders arrested on 9 August; a leaderless mass upsurge followed.
  • Parallel governments in Ballia, Tamluk (Midnapore) and Satara; Usha Mehta's underground Congress Radio; Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali led the underground.
  • Harsh repression: thousands killed or jailed.
  • It showed that independence could not be postponed after the war.
  • Muslim League and communists stayed away, widening divisions.

Though crushed in months, Quit India made freedom the only item left on the agenda.

Keywords, cases and data to drop in

Cripps Mission Do or Die parallel governments Congress Radio Aruna Asaf Ali

Where most answers lose marks

  • Wrong dates.
  • No results.

Learn the concept

ExplainerNon-Cooperation Movement (1920-22): Background, Programme, Spread, Chauri Chaura and Significance (UPSC Notes + PYQs)ExplainerCivil Disobedience Movement (1930-34): Purna Swaraj, Dandi March, Gandhi-Irwin Pact and Round Table Conferences (UPSC Notes + PYQs)ExplainerQuit India Movement (1942): Causes, Course, Parallel Governments, Significance and UPSC PYQs

Question text as printed in the official UPSC question paper: https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/QP_CSM_2024_GenStud_I_03102024.pdf The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.