Book Description

The Towards Freedom volumes, each edited by a distinguished scholar, bring together historical materials relating to the period 1937-47 from a wide variety of sources - official records, private and organizational papers, newspapers, and other contemporary publications available within the country. The series presents documents relating to the activities, attitudes, and ideas of diverse classes and sections of Indian society, all of which contributed to the attainment of independence with partition. In two parts, this volume covers 1942, the year of the largest and powerful mass protest - the Quit India movement. This first part of the volume brings together primary sources and archival documents for the period January 1942 to August 1942 and explores the emergence of the Quit India movement. The documents in Part I cover the entire period from the Bardoli Congress to Allahabad Congress and the beginning of the preparation for the Quit India movement. It includes all the significant milestones which require critical appraisal including the Cripps Mission, Student Politics, Communists, Kisan Sabha movements, Congress Socialist Party, Women and Dalit organizations and protests, the Forward Bloc and the Radical Democratic Party, and the communal problem. Bringing together documents on such a diverse range of dimensions of the mass protest movements, this volume tackles one of the most significant struggles against the colonial government which paved the way for independence. This volume on 1942 maps the events of the most crucial period of the independence of India.